Still Chilly, Winter Like, A Light Snow

Happy Easter From Chautauqua Lake - 9:00 a.m.

7:17

It's a cold 28º out, and it's hailing at times but nothing is sticking on the ground.  A black and white photograph out our window, no color except for our American flag.  A few snow flakes forecast for the day, as we head into Euclid for Easter dinner with my sisters.

Yesterday began with a fun yoga class because on of my friend, Julia Lescynski, who spent her summers here on Woodlawn, taught class for the first time.  She has just finished her 200 hours of yoga with Dariel in Westfield and will be teaching a beginning yoga class starting in April.  Class went quickly, a good sign and she will be good at teaching yoga.  I forgot to mention that in Friday's class we had a heavy breather, a guy who obviously takes his breathing seriously.  There is a breath where you make a sound like you are fogging a window, but it can also be done quietly.  Obviously, he likes it loud but it was annoying.

A Hungry Finch

After yoga, my ritual remained the same, as I bought a coffee, then went to Wegman's to pick up chips and dip for last night's March Madness extravaganza.  Evie loves Lay's so I got her the 'party size.'  When I got home , it was time for the Transfer Station. Unfortunately, since we have been purging our house of 'things that no longer bring me joy' (see my blog on THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP!), I had three older TV's that we wanted to get rid of and the local Station will not take electronics.  So, I had to drive to the Transfer Station in Sherman, about fifteen minutes away, and had to pay 30 bucks for trashing three TV's.  Surprise.  I think air conditioners are 20 bucks a piece unless you drain it of freon.  I just hope they are then environmentally trashed, not just thrown in a dump.

A Rare View Of Homes On The Hill

When I got home, Evie was almost finished with doing all the trim upstairs.  Happy day.  And then my painting began, as the swatches that Evie had painted on two of the rooms, the various shades of orange, had to be painted over, my job, because it took little if any skill.  Just slap the paint on, no worry about texture, just cover the orange.  It turned out to be a fairly nice day, some sun but still cold, so that you did not want to stay outside for long, not that we did.

I starting watching the build up to the NCAA around 4:30, and they had some pretty good programs on past teams.  At 6:15, we broke out the chips, onion dip, frozen glasses and a beer, and enjoyed the first game, Duke's easy defeat of Michigan State.  At the end of the game, we had dinner, leftover chicken, asparagus, a salad, an quinoa, a grain we are going to start using more, especially instead of rice because it actually has nutritional value, or so I have read.  And we like it.  When I spent three weeks in Peru in the early 2000's, I ate it all the time, especially the quinoa soup.  Who would have thought it would become the new food.  We then watched the satisfying Wisconsin win over Kentucky though Evie did not make it to the end.  I love that a team actually has players who have stayed in the program for four years, Wisconsin, not a 'one and done' group like both Kentucky and Duke.  I guess I am old fashioned, a conservative,  in that I think basketball players should got to college to get an education, not just to 'show case their skills' for the NBA.

I know you are going to say 'Here he goes again,' but when I played at Ohio University in the early 1960's, players on athletic scholarships had board jobs. I, for example, worked a couple of hours a day in the cafeteria, serving food or washing pots and pans. Board jobs were required in the Mid American Conference until my senior year when it stopped. And all the guys from our 1964 team, which made it to the Elite Eight beating Kentucky by the way before losing to Michigan, graduated.   That's why we went to Ohio University, to get a degree.

Ohio University Bobcats