It Finally Feels Like Spring (for a day)

5:56

6:16

Up before 6:00, to a great sky off to the north, as the sun has yet to rise.  I can hear the martins down the lake, other song birds, a single loon call, much like yesterday morning.  As my title suggests, it feels like spring at last.  It's 64º at the moment, the high may get into the 80's, then return to normal over the weekend, with rain forecast.

Yesterday began like most Thursdays, with a rushed morning coffee and blog post before heading over to the Bemus Point Inn.  For the first time since probably fall, five of us were in attendance, all the snow birds back, everyone fat and happy that spring was around the corner.  Most of breakfast was spent talking about the personnel changes at the Chautauqua Institution, as it sounds like they are embracing the business model of efficiency and cost cutting, much like most institutions over the past twenty years.  We are all glad to be retired from these places where loyalty rarely seems to matter. An older women always comes in every Thursday, for breakfast with a book in hand.  She laughingly said the waitresses called to say they need a woman since there were only men at breakfast.  I looked around, thought about it, and realized how true.  Most Thursdays, the breakfast spot is filled only with men, rarely with a woman or a group of women (I can remember it happening once).  I am not sure what this says but its probably true that men tend to gather as a group more often than women (probably because men had more friends from work, perhaps sports while women were stuck at home) though that also seems to be changing as more women work, participate in sports.

I was home by 9:15, changed and went off to Yoga at 10:00.  Class always ends with a reading from some Indian tomb, quite often The Sutras of Pantanjali.  Most are worth thinking about, a good way to end class.  Many revolve around the idea of attachment, how it often gets in the way of our happiness. As Buddha says: "The root of suffering is attachment." After class, I stopped at the bank because I received a strange telephone call early morning saying my ATM card was cancelled.  I thought it was probably a fraud and had no trouble getting my money from Key Bank.

In Flight

When I got home, Evie had made a pot of Madhur Jaffrey's Cauliflower soup, heavy with Indian spices and creamy, from the milk and blended cauliflower.  Yum.  I made toasted cheese sandwiches (with jam on it) and soup for lunch.  The  rest of early afternoon was spent enjoying the warm afternoon.  Evie got out a chaise lounge, and went out to lay on the dock for a couple of hours as it was a perfect afternoon, temperatures in the high 60's but most importantly no wind, the lake like a pane of glass.  I read for awhile but then was drawn by the warmth and calm lake, and took my kayak for a paddle up to Whitney Bay and back.  It was warm enough so I wore sun tan lotion and a hat, the first time this spring.

Fishing and Kayaking

Around 4:30, we both decided to get some work done in the yard, which meant for Evie cutting the lawn for the first time this spring.  While she cut the lawn, I did some raking and seeding of the lawn where our dock had been during the winter.  Our working in the yard discouraged the finches and orioles, as every time we walked by the feeders, they would fly away into the tree limbs, return when we were gone. By the time we were done, the lawn looked like a putting green, very green I might add, and the long day was beginning to wane.  Before cutting the lawn, Evie had put together our dinner, Greek lemon chicken, and it was baking while we worked outside.

The Quiet Shadows of Dusk: 8:35

So we had the chicken for dinner, with rice and a salad, watched a couple more episodes of Friday Night Lights, and American Idol before bed.