Eleven Below, Clear Skies, Little Snow Overnight

7:15

8:00

Up at 6:00 to a record low outside, nice and cozy inside however, as we have turned up the heat to a toasty 63ª, thinking we want to keep the crawl space warmer than usual because of the cold.  We still are on a lake effect snow alert but most of heavy snow seems to be in Erie County, the Buffalo area, or east of that city.

Because of yesterday's cold and snow, we hoped to stay in most of the day.  Evie's cough, however, has not improved much so we decided to see the doctor in Mayville, just in case there's a problem.  Of course, it was snowing quite hard when we went, typical, so I dropped her off to the avoid the always unhealthy doctor's office, I went to the reopened diner in Mayville, Bonar's, for a coffee and bagel. Evie called about an hour later to come and get her, after breathing therapy.  The doctor suggested the antibiotics had not worked, gave her another prescription and wanted a chest X ray.  So, off we went to Westfield, in blinding snow around 11:00.  Fortunately, the hospital was practically empty and we were in and out in about 15 minutes.  The ride home was not bad, as the snow had abated and if you took your time, it was not a problem.  I was passed only once!

We had soup for lunch, what else, watched the previous night's The Good Wife, and relaxed the rest of the afternoon, afraid to go outside as the temperatures were dropping to zero.  About 4:30, the doctor's office called to say 'there were no broken bones.'  Evie tried to tell the nurse that's not what the Xray's were for, but got no where.  So she emailed the doctor, got a reply about a half hour later to say she her lungs were clear (good news), it was not pneumonia as he thought, but a bad case of bronchitis, and to stay on the same drugs.  Some relief, I suppose, that it's not pneumonia but the experience does not give us a lot of confidence in the Health Center.

Around 4:30, I took the garbage out to the garage, to see what it was like to be outside, and stayed out long enough to shovel the parking area.  The cold was not bad unless the wind gusted, then it was bitterly cold, sending me inside. This cold wind did not deter the intrepid ice fishermen, as we watched some hike out to mid lake around 4:30, not returning until it was dark, around 6:30.

Chautauqua Ice Fishing Fanatics at Dusk

For dinner, Evie put together one of my father's favorite dinners because it had hominy in it, Santa Fe chicken, a stew like dish with chicken thighs, green chilies, bottled green chile sauce, and hominy.  On rice with a salad, we had a dinner to keeps us warm on a very cold night.  We watched a fairly new movie recommended by critics as one of the year's forgotten 'best movies,' called Drinking Buddies.  A fairly low budget film, it took place in an original setting, a brewery, much like our local Southern Tier Brewery.  Luke, one of the guys who works in the  brewery becomes good friends with the PR gal, Kate.  Both have significant others though neither is married, but that does not stop them from being friends, going off as couples for a weekend together.  For the entire film, we can sense the attraction the two have for each other and they drink together, go out for dinner, and Luke even helps Kate move into a new apartment when his girl is off in Puerto Rico. Finally, things come to a head when, after moving, Kate wants to go out for a beer with fellow workers, not Luke, angering him because they were supposed to have dinner together. We think that's the end but the film concludes where it began,  with them sitting in the brewery's lunch room, sharing food, joking,  just good friends, both happy with their lives.  Simple yet worth watching.

We went to bed around 11:00 and when I looked outside, I could see the moon, casting its spell though light clouds.