Two Below But Sunny and Blue Skies

7:47

7:48

Up at 7:15 to a very cold morning, hard to breathe when I walked out to pick up the Post Journal. Some colors off towards Tom's Point, as the sun rises somewhere to the east, not here yet.  The fishermen are smart enough to stay off the lake early though I witnessed a couple of guys trotting out on the lake late afternoon.  It' now 8:37, bright sun fills our living room, light snow, barely perceptible, like shards of broken glass, fall from the skies.

Yesterday was the beginning of more arctic days here at the lake, making it difficult to enjoy doing anything outside.  In other words, it was a good day to stay inside, enjoy the warmth and comfort of our home, do a couple of chores, but mainly relax, read, watch some TV and, yes, wait for the plumber, who finally appeared around 4:30.  Our upstairs faucet, in the tub, had no hot water.  After much wrangling with the faucet, he found that a gasket was broken, not allowing the hot water to enter the faucet.  He put the handle back on, but it was backward, had to redo it and finally, around 5:00, we had hot water again for that bathtub.

Downy Woodpecker

A Sparrow, Huddling to Keep Warm in Arctic Temperatures

We did try to ski in the morning, wanting to get in some exercise, so  out we went around 10:00, to a brutally cold morning, especially when we headed into the wind.  I stuck it out for about 15 minutes but my skis were still frozen on the bottoms from my previous day's skiing, so I hung it up.  Evie stayed out for another 15 minutes, skiing in circles, and in the yards, to get some exercise.  But that was about it for our morning cross country ski.

I had leftover Cincinnati chili for lunch, watched another sex and violence filled episode of Banshee (guiltily I might add), then spent a good part of the afternoon reading Lone Survivor, the book on which the current movie, with Mark Wahlberg, is based and it is getting fairly good reviews, at least from the viewers.  Coincidentally, two conservative columnists' in today's Post Journal talked about how the liberal press are panning it because it's not politically correct, calling it "Racist, Simplistic, Propaganda" The book, so far, has put me off a bit by the writer's jingoism and hatred for liberals, love for Junior, but he is also to be admired, as he describes the training it takes to become a Navy Seal.  I could not have lasted an hour in their training, let alone the seven months it takes.

I know what the liberal press means, why they might have trouble with it.  But then, they are not in the Hindu Kush, facing death at any moment, knowing that these guys want to kill you.  Perhaps they, the liberal press, might also hate these guys, who just happen to be Muslim and Brown.  My sympathies are with the Seals despite my discomfort with some of their attitude's and beliefs at home.  But these beliefs are also the things that allow them to survive and protect the US on the battlefield, seeing things in black and white, good and bad, us and them.  They are to be admired.

Late afternoon, I decided I needed some exercise, so I cross country skied in the Victoria woods, the loop, and it was not as cold, as the wind was broken by the trees, as well as being off the lake.  Only when I returned home along the lake front was I hit by the bitterly cold wind, burning my face.  It did feel good to be outside, after most of the day in the house.

Dusk

We had the leftover chicken and biscuits for dinner, so quite good, along with a salad with avocado, which turns any salad into something special.  We watched Colbert and Stewart, Sajak and Tribeck, tried to watch the new series on HBO called Looking, about gays in San Francisco, but switched channels after about twenty minutes, as the show seemed single minded in its emphasis on guys only interested in hooking up.  I assume there's more to life for gays than that, so this series does them a real disservice in stereotyping them.  Anyways, we watched some random TV after that, went to bed, started a new book,  The Language of Flowers, thinking that reading two books at at once, both quite different is a good idea and nothing can be more different than these two.!