Windy And Gray Leap Day Morning

8:22

Up at 6:30, to the wind howling, the tree branches swaying, a frozen lake and a lawn green, devoid of winter's snow.  No one is out fishing, so the lake must be treacherous although we did see some guys out late Sunday afternoon.  Fortunately, it is supposed to clear up later in the day, so we should have some afternoon sunshine, a high in the low 40's.

Sunday Afternoon at 1:41

Yesterday was unseasonably warm around here, in the 50's during the afternoon, car washing weather I suppose but I was too lazy to get out the hose.  Instead, I got out a bucket, a squeegee, and some towels and washed our front windows for the first time in 2016, much to my wife's delight. Nothing like squeaky clean windows for keeping a house happy.  Because of the sunshine, we wanted to take a walk but decided against the Chautauqua Institution because some of the roads still might be icy. So we walked Lakeside Drive, from Bemus down to Long State Park and back, close to four miles.  It felt good to be outside again, despite the heady winds at times.  We stopped to talk with a resident who we have seen walking other days.  His name is Craig Butler and he's's an avid rower; he takes his shell out most mornings when the lake's calm although we have never noticed him.  In the village, Ellicottville Brewery has started to renovate the outside of the Surf Club, most likely covering up the brick with some kind of siding.  It should be ready for business in May, no doubt cutting into the Seezurh House's business alas.

Surf Club Renovation 

We had our usual great Sunday breakfast of fresh eggs, bacon and a bagel and watched CBS Sunday Mornings focus on last night's  Academy Awards, interviewing some of the actors.  The rest of the afternoon we took it easy as the Eagles might sing and though Evie felt guilty, she took another day off from the gym, the guilt a result of that good catholic school primary education.  I read and watched some basketball during the afternoon, and we both were looking forward to wine time and dinner before the Academy Awards although we did fit in a walk around the neighborhood.  We managed to stretch wine time out until 7:30 when Evie warmed up the pizza and made a salad and we adjourned to the TV room.

We then watched the Red Carpet interviews, DVRing the Awards so we could fast forward through the commercials.  Strangely, once we starting watching, we were quickly bored with it all and though we stuck with it for an hour, we were not unhappy to turn it off and watch something else.  Thus, we missed Leonardo winning the Best Actor and SPOTLIGHT, the best film.  I felt good this morning when I read that SPOTLIGHT won because it was the underdog and it was my favorite film of the year. And I was also happy to read that Mark Rylance, who Evie and I thought was just amazing in BRIDGE OF SPIES, won Best Supporting Actor over favored and sentimental favorite, Sylvester Stallone.  Sometimes the Academy does get things right.

Finally, Chris Rock's monologue made most of the white audience uncomfortable, his goal I suppose. His humor was funny and spot on as he welcomed the crowd to " The White People's Choice Awards." By 11:00, we were both tired and it sounded wonderful to go up to bed.  I read briefly before turning off the light to 'cop some z's.'