Winter Returns, Slowly, For A Few Days

7:44

7:45

8:32

I was up at 6:40 but because of DST, it was 7:40, the latest I have slept in since October.  It looks like a black and white photo type of morning, all is shades of gray, from light to dark.  A few snowflakes at times, as seagulls circle the soupy lake in front of our house.  What they are looking for is a mystery.  It's 18º, a winter like temperature, for sure and we have a Winter Storm Watch for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Saturday was typical, yet different in that I was in no hurry to get to the Transfer Station, to Evie's delight.  It allowed her a more leisurely morning, one in which she could go through our fridge and pantries, both of them, and throw out items that seemed to have expired.  Nothing like tidying up a pantry to make you happy.  Around 11:00, I pulled on my mittens, slogged out to the frozen car, cleaned it, gathered the trash and drove off to the Transfer Station, not so busy this late in the morning.  The guys were cheerful despite the weather, helped with my trash and I was soon on my way, happy to back in a warm, cozy house.  When I got home, for some reason, I felt energized and decided to walk the woods, despite the cold.  It took me around 40 minutes, battling the wind as I went, less so as I returned.  The woods were desolate this time of the year, a couple inches of snow, and lots of dead fall from the winds, most of the under growth beaten back to the ground.  I was more than glad to get back to the warm house.

The Woods Of Victoria/Woodlawn

And that's the way both of us stayed the rest of the day, comfortably lazy on a Saturday afternoon, with nothing we had to do except decide whether to eat in or out.  I had read  an article about the five healthiest foods to eat.  And as Evie was organizing the pantry, she pulled out four cans of sardines, hidden in the back.  And they, of course, were one of the five healthy foods.  So for lunch, I had sardines, on crackers, along with the last of the lentil soup.  Evie joined me with a cup of soup and we broke a rule and watched one of our evening shows, another episode of THE HONORABLE WOMAN.  And we didn't feel guilty which  is an improvement for us.  The rest of the afternoon could have been a week day, as I watched some basketball, napped, read, and Evie watched TV, played Words With Friends, and did some laundry in her new combo.

Enjoying French Fries And Beer

Around 5:00, we finally made a decision, to go to Steeners Pub in Greenhurst, mostly because Evie wanted a basket of their hand cut french fries.  So we got there around 6:15, hoping to find a seat at the bar, a joke, as we were the only ones at the bar the whole time we were there.  We struck up a conversation with the bartender, a gal we had talked with before.  She was anxious because Steener, the owner, was supposed to relieve her at 6:00.  He finally got there to her relief and she gave us a hug, and went on her way, a friendly bartender.  We ordered beers,  a basket of fries for Evie, a catfish dinner for me, and we had more than enough fried food for the week.  We ended up talking with Bill Steener about his background.  He grew up in the neighborhood, remembers coming to this bar with his Dad when he was five.  The bar was at first a gas station, then a bar, with four or five different owners over the years until he bought it at a sale for six thousand dollars back in 2010, a bargain. Previously, he worked as a bartender at the Surf Club for 10 years, left when it closed and bought the Pub.  That was our entertainment for the night.  We left around 7:45, hit some snow when we got to Bemus but it disappeared as we got close to home.

We then quickly got comfortable and watched two more episodes of THE HONORABLE WOMAN and some basketball before bed.  It ended up being a good day.