A Few Snowflakes Welcome A Spring Morning

8:15

It's 7:00 and I expected to wake up to a white lawn, but it's not quiet cold enough, so all we have are flurries though none are sticking to the ground.  It's 34º with a sunny forecast for later in the day, but at the moment, it looks miserable out, gray, foggy, and wet.

Yesterday was a different sort of day, as we spent a large part of it in Erie.  Evie had a doctor's appointment in Erie, at a modern, efficient third floor office, overlooking Erie's Harbor, right next to Hamot Hospital.  It was a forty five minute drive from Woodlawn, a foggy drive most of the way coming and going.  The office was huge, airy and efficient, packed with mostly pregnant Mom's, the speaker calling one every five minutes.  As I sat there, I thought about the first time I sat in a waiting room, tiny and institutional,  unlike this one, probably 48 years ago.  Evie was pregnant with our first child, Beth, the patients all white and married.  Yesterday, however, at least half to two thirds of the Mom's were either African American or Hispanic,  many of the women in head scarves, most likely from Northern Africa, many without wedding bands.  I suppose this diversity is typical in most urban medical centers, but it was a revelation to me, having lived in predominately white Hudson, Ohio, for thirty three years,  and now Chautauqua, NY, for five, though if I were to drive to Jamestown 12 miles away, it would also be quite diverse.  The waiting room was a revealing snapshot of America twenty nine years from now, according to the Census Bureau, when whites will comprise less than 50% of the population, whether they like it or not.  Living in pockets of white American like we have for the past forty years, we forget how diverse America has become, just leave any suburb and drive into a city or urban  area.  As Bob Dylan sings, 'The Times, They Are A Changing.'

After Evie's appointment, we shopped at the Peach Street Mall, at both T.J. Maxx's, and Dick's Sporting Goods, taking advantage of our trip to Erie.  No deals at Dick's though Evie found some at TJ's, not surprising.  We then spent close to an hour at the Erie Wegman's, sightseeing the amazing grocery store, much larger than our Wegman's in Jamestown. We were home by 1:30, for lunch, some Stewart and Colbert on TV, then relaxing during the afternoon.  It did clear up later, so I returned to the Tri James quarry a couple of times to pick up more stones, to finish the road, then start on our parking area.  I am becoming obsessed with transferring stones back and forth.

Tuesday Afternoon at 5:40

Long Point - Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

It was a particularly beautiful sunset, lots of clouds and sun, shadows and light, a perfect dusk for a glass of wine.  Around 6:30, Evie put together tacos, with lots of lettuce, cheese, and of course, sour cream, a perfect, easy dinner for last night.  We watched the Academy Award Nominated Film PHILOMENA.  It was our kind of movie, an interesting story, great acting, with some humor.  Unlike most films, it avoided the gratuitous sex and violence, yet it was about sex and violence, the Catholic churches discomfort with sex, the violence of the church, the nuns, perpetrated on Irish unwed mothers, for having committed the mortal sin of having had sex and giving birth to a child out of wedlock.  The movie is another uncomfortable  look at the darker side of any institution, this time religious, where righteous, unquestioning power remains unchecked, with little oversight.  The film is based on a true story and is well worth watching.  

We have also started viewing an older series, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, which we started the first season back in 2006 but then stopped for some reason.  I had read the book the series was based on, by Buzz Bittinger, loved it.  I can see why this series has been mentioned right up there with The Sopranos and The Wire, as the best of television.  FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS depicts not only our obsession with high school sports, especially football, but also describes the town, the parents and their sons and daughters,  us, how we live through our children, their lives on the playing field. It's riveting, scary at times, America at its best and worst, with its emphasis on winning, being number one but at any cost.  I think we have 72 episodes to go.