Less Than Zero

7:52

8:05

A miracle! I woke up to sunlight in the bedroom, got up, walked downstairs and looked to see it was 7:45, the latest I have slept in since college, an exaggeration perhaps but what the heck.  It's two below, the sun at the moment, 8:17, is bright in the southeastern sky, the blue of the sky, the white of the lake, all combine to create an amazing Saturday morning here at the lake.  The birds, at least six, are at the feeder, mostly finches, getting at those sunflower seeds, and two guys are out on the lake, just off of Long Point, eager to get that early morning fish.  And NPR announced that Interstate #90 from Buffalo to the Pennsylvania line was closed Friday as well as this morning.

Fishing Couple?

Yesterday really felt like a snow day, as the gray skies dropped close to a foot of snow on us during the day.  It seemed as though every time I looked out side, it was snowing, our parking space and walk building up another layer of snow for me to shovel.  So, I went out at least three times during the day, cleared the driveway, with Evie's help, so that we always keep up with the snow. The crazy thing, however, is I don't park my car in the cleared parking space, instead keeping it on the other side of the road, near our garage.  I guess it makes it easier to clear the parking space because there's no car to shovel around.  Does that make sense?  I don't think so.  Perhaps we do this to keep the space clear for visitors but we don't have visitors in the winter.

Anyways, the morning saw Evie make a mercimek corba (lentil soup), one of our comfort soups from Turkey.  Red lentils are key as well as Marash or Alleppo pepper and some mint to create the authentic Turkish lokanta (diner) flavor. For lunch, I had soup and chicken sandwiches, and we watched Jon Stewart though we certainly miss Stephen Colbert.  Life does not seem the same without his show following The Daily Show.

Mid afternoon, I really wanted to go outside but it was still bone chillingly cold, not the kind of weather that helps heal a cough so I stayed in, only venturing to shovel some.  So I did what I usually do in the afternoon, read, took a nap, then a shower before dinner.  We enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine at dusk, noticing some color for once in the southern sky, such a contrast to the usual gray that we were excited, pulled out the new camera, and took some photos.

Dusk

For dinner, we had salmon and spinach, just like my sister,  Ellen, who emailed an aloha around dinner time, to say they were having a glass of wine before their dinner of spinach and salmon. Funny?  The salmon is always a trial to cook, at least for us, so Evie almost gave up, threw it back in the oven because it was not done for five minutes under the broiler and viola, it was done to perfection, and with garlic and spinach and rice, a great Friday night dinner.  Patsi, how long do you cook your salmon and how do you know it's done!  We watched a new episode of Parenthood, a series we have really enjoyed.  This is its last season and there are only three episodes left, alas.  We will miss it.