Helios Rises, High and Majestic, Above An Ominous Cloud Bank

Sunrise, Yesterday Morning at 8:00

7:49

8:15

It's now 8:20, very cold out, 2º, the sun reflecting off the lake's surface, though a line of a broad swatch of gray hovers over the eastern coast of the lake.  A wisp of wind, and a single fisherman has been out for the past hour.  A wind chill advisory ends today at noon as a winter storm advisory begins.  I cannot help thinking about our wonderful time in Scottsdale last April, hiking the sun drenched mountains in the morning, coming home to a comfy casita, enjoying the rest of the day with Evie's sister Claire and husband Henry.  We always want what we don't have...the trick to enjoy what we have.

It's obvious I am getting antsy, at sixes and sevens, tired of sitting inside, going out briefly for a hike or cross country skiing.  It's just too cold to be out for long and there's not much snow, three or four inches, but nothing like what we had last year or that's the way it seems.  Yoga becomes the high point of the day, giving me a reason to get out of Evie's hair in the morning for a couple of hours.  And I think lots of people feel the same way as me as yoga is packed, any reason to get out of the house on bitterly cold days. After yoga, I drove to Wegman's, picked out some pink tulips, to cheer up Evie's day, influenced for sure by the book I am reading The Language of Flowers.  During Victorian times, I did not realize that flowers were a form of communication, even courting and each flower had a meaning and in this case, pink tulips means 'caring and affection.' Perfect.

Pink Tulips, "Caring and Affection'

Yesterday started, however, with breakfast at the Bemus Point Inn, with Charlie Heinz.  Most of the rest of our  morning crew are in Florida, enjoying no doubt our plight up here in the arctic North.  Even the Bemus Point Inn seemed quieter than usual, perhaps because of the cold.  It did not deter Charlie Klingingsmith, however, always ready with a quip for one of our group.  Finally, as I crossed the bridge, I noticed a lakefront owner had taken his snow blower out onto the lake, created a perfect circular skating pond (75 feet in diameter), and pulled out a picnic table on to the ice.  Cool.

For lunch, I heated up soup for both Evie and me, and made an egg salad wrap, with siracha to give it a kick. And I spent the rest of the afternoon, immersed in the mountains of Afghanistan, with Seal Marcus Luttrell, as his team is ultimately destroyed by a army of hundreds of Taliban, with only Marcus surviving, miraculously, because a group of Pashtun villagers, Taliban sympathizers, have a strong code of hospitality, like the Greeks.

I did get outside to ski around 5:00, braving the wind, skiing down to Chautauqua Escapes, through the campground, back along the lake.  When there was no wind, it was actually pleasant to be outside but let the wind pick up, I just wanted to get home.  For dinner, we had soup and chicken sandwiches, with avocados, easy and good.  No movies last night, more Colbert, Tribeck, then American Idol.  I had also read about a new show called Rake, with Greg Kinnear.  So we stayed with this silly attempt at entertainment till 10:00 but never again.  It's hard to believe someone invested in this silly, predictable comedy but we say that about a lot of very successful series.  Anyways, I wanted to get back to my book, The Language of Flowers, which I also am really enjoying, so different from my afternoon reading, Lone Survivor.