Lake Opens...Get Out The Kayaks

6:52

7:58

8:08

It's 7:50 and I have been up for an hour, awakened by the honking of geese, watching the dark cloud filled sky slowly turn to gunmetal blue.  Thousands of waterfowl (geese, ducks, seagulls, and swans) filled the lake the past few days, mostly to the north of our home but today, they have returned as the lake ice has melted.  It's 32º out it's once again a noisy lake.

They Are Back

Yesterday it got up into the 40's, as the melt continued, the roads cleared, the pines losing their frosting.  We are trying to get organized for our trip and because Evie is bringing a few dishes for Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner she wants to get as many things done beforehand as possible. It's always nice to be organized.  After breakfast, I drove off to Lakewood, to the can man,  then to Sears to return a pair of jeans I had ordered from Lands End.  It makes it easy.  And I ended up doing some shopping, get some sweatpants cheap. I  felt like the only shopper in the store.  On the way home, I stopped at Key Bank to pick up some cash for our trip to Virginia on Friday.

When I got home, Evie was ready to drive off to Jamestown, to the dentist for a teeth cleaning, then a stop at Sam's, Wegman's and Skillman's in Bemus Point.  I made myself lunch, a toasted cheese sandwich with ramen, watched some Sports Center, read and took a nap.  Around 3:30, I went for a short walk up the hill and back, 20 minutes if I take my time. 

Woodlawn Creek

I ran into Jeff, our neighbor, who was cross-country skiing.  He keeps track of the snowfall and last week, we got 47 inches.  The year before, the same week in December, we got 59 inches.  I had forgotten that we got that much snow last December.

Evie put away things from her mega shopping afternoon and she even picked up a pair of slippers for the both of us from Sam's Club, again a deal.  Around 5:30, we had wine time, with some appetizers and started making lists of what we needed to bring to Virginia.  It was fun to finally get back to our routine of a late afternoon glass of wine or two with appetizers.  And dinner was easy, the leftover dinner of Slovenian beans and potato soup and pork chops with sauerkraut.  It was even better than when we had it on Sunday night.  We watched the usual TV, Vice News, and Stephen Colbert, as well as some news before going to bed.