The Quietness Of Morning

6:40

6:52

7:43

7:51

As I sit here at 7:15, looking at the refections of the morning sky on the shimmering lake, I contemplate the quietness of mornings, broken only at this time of year, by the sound of wild life, from ducks and geese, to song birds, to yesterday's peepers.  Only winter remains the big quiet, the only sound, the often howling wind.

A Photographer, Early Morning

A Nesting Couple Of Canadian Geese

For us, St Patrick's Day did not alter our routines much, if at all.  The only exception, perhaps, was a heavy wind on and off during the day, strong enough to knock out the electricity for a time. Fortunately, it was in the late afternoon and only for 15 minutes.  So, the morning went as usual, with yoga 10:00, a quick ride home to a wife who had been busy, as always,  and had my lunch of eggplant sandwiches ready to eat.  So she said aloha and took off for the gym, leaving me to an afternoon filled with March Madness, as the games began at noon, didn't really stop until midnight, with the West Coast games.  I channel surfed, mostly, moving from one game to another, stopping if the game looked interesting.  Soon, however, I tired of the glut of games and moved to the couch to read and take a nap, not caring what team won or lost.  I am not invested in the Bracketology.

I finished my South African book, COBRA,  and started a new one from Robert Harris, called ARCHANGEL, set in Moscow in the 1990's. with a focus on Joseph Stalin, his death and notebooks. So far, so good.  Evie returned around 3:30 and we both did little the rest of the afternoon until 5:00, when we showered (separately) and got ready to go to the McClure's for a St. Patty's Day dinner.

On the way over, we passed a couple of tree service trucks, as the wind had obviously knocked down some branches and electrical wires, fortunately, not at the Mc Clure's.  Linda had a great Irish dinner ready, corn beef, mashed potatoes, and a bit of a change, sauerkraut rather than cabbage.  All was great and we even started our evening with Black and Tans, carefully poured by Ron.  We watched some basketball on and off, at least Ron and I did, as Linda and Evie seemed uninterested, often going off to the kitchen to talk without the guys and basketball to get in the way.  We stayed later than usual, getting home just after 10:00, another fun night with Linda and Ron.  The drive home was easy, with hardly a car on the road.  Interestingly, as we drove down our road at 10:00, a First Energy Truck was blocking our road, responding to our call from six hours earlier.  It's a good thing our electricity was out for only 15 minutes.