One Below Zero, Some Blue Skies

8:00

7:40

It was nice to see this poem, one of my favorites, which I taught many times, appear on today's The Writer's Almanac, the ignorance of youth, the regret of age.

Those Winter Sundays

by Robert Hayden

Sundays too
my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blue black cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I'd wake and hear the
cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently
to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?

Both Evie and I slept in, if getting up at 7:30 is sleeping in.  It's obviously very cold out, yet there were at least three fishermen out when I got up and now, at 8:15, I can count seven more off of Long Point. It's supposed to get up to 21º today but tomorrow night, it goes down to 8 below zero, scary and unprecedented for us over the past five years.

Yesterday was a typical Saturday, up early for yoga at 9:00 with Chris, only three of us in class because of the bad weather.  Not only was it cold, but it was snowing fairly hard, making the roads slippery, so the roads were slow.  Class was fine, a sameness to Saturdays, but we all felt good after class, energized.  There was even a 5 K race in Lakewood at the same time as yoga, something that goes on at least once or twice a month in Lakewood, which is neat.  I stopped for a cup of coffee, picked up half a pound of their coffee, a Vienna roast which I really like, then went to Wegman's to pick up some groceries for dinner for the next couple of days.  Driving as I mentioned was slow going, fortunately, most everyone took their time, so it was not bad.  When I got home, Evie had shoveled the parking area and Shane had cleared the road.  I quickly put the trash in our car, and drove to the Transfer Station, to finish my duties for the day.

Turkish Tea and Home Made Chocolate Chip Cookie

By 1:00, besides shoveling the driveway, Evie had made a batch of chocolate chip cookies because we both have been craving a sweet, something with chocolate.  After a lunch of a chicken salad sandwich and Evie's vegetable soup, I settled into my chair, with my  book, and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon as did Evie.  Around 3:00, I had to make myself a  cup of Turkish tea, to go with the chocolate chip cookies.  At 4:00, I went out to cross country ski, despite the blowing snow and cold and found, to my dismay, the lake slushy, freezing my skis.  I quickly skied off on to our yard and skied down our road, into the campground where I was able to ski.  I was out for only a half hour, and my skis did freeze on the way home as I must have hit a wet spot on the road or in the woods.

Our Neighbors, Barb and Jim Fox, with Zaily (sp?)

At 5:00, we went over to our neighbors, Jim and Barb Fox' home, for a beer and some appetizers.  We had not seen them since before Christmas.  It was nice and cosy in their house, fireplace blazing, as we sat warm and happy inside, with food and drink.  They spent New Year's in Costa Rica, celebrating their thirtieth anniversary, so we found out all about their stay, making both of us interested in travelling there. Costa Rica sounds like an amazing place.   We stayed till about 6:45, then went home to an easy dinner, at my request, Sahleen hot dogs, with some Indian spiced garbanzos from Wegmans (not very good).  We watched a 2013 movie, Prisoners, not the kind we usually get from Netflix but we stuck with it, violence and all.  The plot, two girls are kidnapped and one of the father's takes the law into his own hands, by torturing a 'supposed' suspect, unknown to the police and lead detective. Not worth watching but there was little else on TV on a Saturday night.  We didn't get to bed till about 11:30, and I finished The Language of Flowers,  which I really liked, a perfect book club book, especially for women because it's mostly about women and flowers.

Two days ago, I received a comment on my blog from a guy we had met this past fall while kayaking with a group from Long Point to Maple Springs. We hit it off, exchanged phone numbers, and Evie told them about my blog.  He works at the Evangola State Park and in his comment, he mentioned that he along with  friends was coming to Long Point today, Sunday, at 10:00 and asked if Evie and I wanted to cross country ski with them.  How cool, so we will head over there for a short ski because of the cold.