A Spectacular Thursday Morning Dawn

7:28

7:32

It's 7:00 and I have been up for a half hour.  It's still dark outside but I can see a slash of rose just above the skyline but it's hard to make out. It's twenty eight degrees warmer than yesterday, lots of clouds instead of a clear sky.  It may get up into the 30's before dipping down to single digits over the next few days.

7:34

7:31

Yesterday it  felt like we were living at the North Pole, with clear blue skies, sparkling white lake of snow, and below zero temperatures.  Not the kind of weather to leave early morning for yoga, but I was a trooper, left around 9:00, after spending a good ten minutes trying to get the ice off the inside of my car.  Any thoughts on how to keep the ice off the inside windshield?  Anyways, I got to yoga by 9:30 only to realize that it did not start until 10:00.  Not the brightest bulb.  But I was able to have a half hour on my own before class, relaxing and stretching.  After class, I went to Ryders, as I hadn't been there in a week.  When I got home, Evie was ready to drive to Jamestown, a visit to the dentist for teeth cleaning, then shopping at Wegmans.  For lunch, I made a Western, with the leftover meatloaf and watched another violent episode of Banshee.  Lots of shooting but the good guys rarely get touched.

A Clear, Cold Wednesday Afternoon,

I then read some, relaxed, took a brief nap before gathering my cross country ski equipment and venturing outside in the cold.  Fortunately, there was not much wind though I kept off the lake for the first half, skiing through Woodlawn and the campground to Magnolia, then out on the vast whiteness of the lake, and skiing home.  The west edge of the lake was in shadows, so I stayed out in the sun when I could.  It was definitely colder when I was in the shade.  I was out for about forty five minutes, working up a good sweat.  Evie was still shopping when I got home, so I took a shower because we were going out to the Viking Club for wings.  She got home around 5:00, with lots of stuff, and we put things away, relaxed for a half hour.

 The Shadows On Victoria, Late Afternoon

A Selfiie

We left for the Viking about 6:15, in the dark, missing what would have been a lovely sunset.  We were lucky to find a seat at the bar.  We recognized a couple of people from the previous week, a couple who rode their snowmobiles to the club, and a regular, Bob Pickett.

Our New Friends, Bob Pickett, Mary Taylor, and Mrs. Foley

So we ordered our beers and two ladies, probably in their 80's were sitting next to us so we struck up a conversation with them.  Both were delightful, one a widow for 18 years, the other having gone through three husbands. Both grew up in Jamestown and knew the area well.  One, Mary Taylor, we discovered, loves Manhattans, the other, Mrs. Foley, seems to be a teetotaler.  We had fun talking with them, found we like the same restaurants in Jamestown, and that their all time favorite was also ours, Bud's Carriage House, though they knew it much earlier than us. They had gotten to the club earlier, to watch the sunset, and left earlier than us.  We hope to see them again, perhaps next Wednesday.  After they left, another other couple we knew came in, Dawn and Doug from Ashville, so it was fun to see them.  They have been there like us the past two Wednesdays, so we are getting to know each other.

Doug and Dawn, A Winning Ticket 

A little later, another couple walked in, who looked familiar and we realized they live on the lake, just beyond the campground in Magnolia.  We had talked to them a couple of times when kayaking while they were in the process of building their house.  Their last name is Fish, forgot their first, and we struck up a conversation with them and found we also had a lot in common.  A bar seems to be a small world.  And, eventually there were around twelve of us sitting around, laughing, talking with each other, kidding Dawn about lotto tickets, and a few of the patrons ended up buying her tickets, and she eventually won ten bucks. Anyways, it ended up being a fun evening, as we all sort of bonded at the bar, something that rarely happens, and by the end the evening, we knew everyone.  A fun night.  O, yea, besides beers I had some great wings and Evie loved her Viking burger.  We all vowed to be back next Wednesday, so we will have to wait and see.  The Viking Club is so different from the Rod and Gun where it's so crowded you never really get a chance to talk to anyone.