Back To Gray

8:15

Not much interesting about this morning, foggy, gray, a drizzle, perhaps turning to snow later in the day.  It's now 7:50 and I have been up since 7:00.  The snow in our front yard has completely melted, though some drifts remain where we shoveled our parking area and walks.  The only action, the flitting about of the birds at our feeder, mostly ravenous sparrows, but a few tufted titmice, nuthatches, black capped chickadees, and an occasional downy woodpecker, hogging the feeder.

It was nice to have a few moments of color yesterday morning but  it disappeared as quickly as it appeared, replaced by Chautauqua winter gray, the color of choice for winters around here.  Yoga was fine, just two of us, so we got the personal treatment.  Afterwards, I dropped my car off at the garage, for a oil change and check up, for the car, not me, then walked over over to Schuyler's, a fairly new restaurant that opened a year of so ago.  It's open for breakfast and lunch, always seems crowded.  It's really tiny inside, a counter and six or seven tables. I sat at the counter, had coffee and a bowl of chili, and read my book.  Nice vibes, the waitresses always calling me 'honey.'  "Honey, are you sure you don't want a bread pudding?"  I picked up my car after an hour, no problems, fluids topped, belts and brakes checked, so we are ready for our trip East.

When I got home, Evie was ready for a trip to Lakewood, to do some last minute shopping, get some chores done at various stores.  I did not envy her.  Since I had chili, I finished up the burro russo pasta from the night before, then watched another Wallander episode, the Swedish version, an excellent series.

A Lake To Myself

Around 3:30, I was tired of sitting in the empty house, the snow had melted some, so I went out and raked twigs, picked up dead wood for about forty five minutes. As I finished, I noticed how the lake had calmed down, the fog was settling in somewhat, so I got my paddle, life jacket, jumped in my kayak, and cruised, sort of, down the lake to Sandy Bottom.  Wouldn't you know that just as I started out it started to drizzle, the kind of rain that Turks call 'the rain that wets only fools,' seemingly light but you are soaked by the time you return home.  Still, it was great to be out on the lake, probably the only one, paddling around ice chunks, banks of crusty snow along the shoreline. And even though it started to pour the when I returned to Victoria, I did not mind.  When I got home, Evie was back, so I took the twigs up to the wood pile, put on warm dry clothes, and Evie and I settled down to listen to NPR with a glass of white wine.

Ice Crusted Shore Line

We did not feel like doing much for dinner, so we ransacked the refrigerator and came up with leftover lemon chicken and rice for me, veggie soup and sloppy joes for Evie, so that was our dinner along with a salad.  After dinner, we watched the movie The Hundred-Foot Journey, about a family from India who settles in France and tries to open an Indian restaurant.  After it is torched by the locals, the son, a burgeoning chef, is hired by their competition, a one star restaurant and because of his talent, the restaurant gets two stars. He then moves on to Paris to make a name for himself, getting a third star.  All's well that ends well as he returns to the French village, gets the girl, and, we assume, lives happily ever after.  I was not taken with the film, but it was worth spending a couple of hours on a rainy night.  The book was much more enjoyable.

At the moment, it's 34º out and sleeting! Ah Chautauqua!