Winter...Where Have You Been, Where Have You Gone?

7:08

7:14

7:20

7:40

It's already eight hours into spring, some snow still sits in our yard, the lake's partially frozen and it's 32º, as the weather for the next week looks more spring like than winter.  Sad making.  I feel as if we missed winter, that we had it briefly, in chunks, and then it disappeared.  

Yesterday was a different Sunday for us because our good friends from Hudson, Mike and Barb, were stopping by at noon and we were having lunch together.  So, we did not take our usual walk around the Chautauqua Institution, not that either of us missed it.  We wanted to have a tasty lunch, so Evie made a plate of snickerdoodles for dessert and an Indian flavored cauliflower soup, one of our favorites.  And she decided to have her own version of what once was called a Chautauqua sandwich.  It's basically a fried eggplant sandwich, with lettuce, tomato, bacon, and Evie added an avocado mayonnaise.  Needless to say, it was a great sandwich and none were left at the end of lunch.   It was good catching up with them, especially the month they spent in a cabin, forty miles out of Jackson Hole, near Moose, Wyoming.  The cabin was actually near Grand Teton National Park and they had to cross country ski a half mile to get to it from their parking area.   It had all the necessities to make it comfortable, heat, water, fireplace, stove, frig, and wifi (sometimes). It had a spectacular view of the Tetons, about a half mile from the Snake River.

View From Their Cabin

They spent their days cross country skiing from their cabin, driving to various trails in the area, snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park.  And even though they drove the 3500 miles out and back, they hope to return next winter for an even longer. stay It made both Evie and me envious. Who wouldn't be if you enjoy the winter like us?  Interestingly, the owner/neighbor of their cabin, a eighty five year old woman, cross country skis a half mile each morning to her car and then drives twenty miles to attend 7:30 Mass. A blog of their month stay can be found at the following: https://winterinacabin.blogspot.com/

Old Friends

They left around 2:30 and like a couple deflated balloons, we both ran out of mojo, no thoughts of a walk or drive to the Viking Club for a beer.  We just wanted to settle down on couches, Evie watched some of the news programs, and me, to watch the various March Madness games on and off during the afternoon.  I finally settled on the Kansas/Michigan State game which was a thriller, fun to watch.  Dinner was just enough, leftover chicken and mushrooms on brown rice which I attempted to make in our pressure cooker.  It was not very successful but I ate it anyways.  After the Kansas game, we watched our usual morning show, CBS Sunday, then the return of Showtime's The Circus, a political show with Mark Halperin, John Heilemann, and Mark McKinnon.  It's really quite good, an honest, insider's look at the reality of the Trump Presidency.