Seven Below Zero

Good Morning Cardinal

7:39

7:42

It's almost 8:00 and I have been up for an hour.  Evie's stirring upstairs, most likely having smelled the coffee.  It's ridiculously cold although I am nice and toasty in our house since we turned the thermostat up to 65º.

Fishing On A -7º Morning

The first ice fisherman appeared at 7:30, just off the tip of Long Point and a few more tents appeared shortly after.  We have lots of clouds but also had an interesting sunrise for a few minutes before the clouds took over.

7:42

8:04

Yesterday the temperature hovered around zero, a few degrees above at times, six or seven degrees below late afternoon and early evening. I was not sure if the yoga studio would be open but only one early class was canceled so after coffee, breakfast, and the blog, I fired up the Outback and drove to class, the car nice an warm just about the time I arrived in Lakewood. There were two other hearty souls there and we had an interesting class.  Jen, our teacher, is working towards her 500-hour yoga certification on weekends.  This past weekend, she was taught how to teach yoga to paraplegics, an important part of her class.  So she taught us how she taught them how to meditate, by sitting in a chair, putting a block between your thighs, then tightening a strap around your thighs, giving the paraplegics the support so they could straighten their backs.  It was a neat way to meditate or just sit comfortably.  We then continued with traditional yoga, finishing up the class.

I was tempted to get a coffee but decided to just head home to a warm house.  I was ready for lunch so Evie sliced up the leftover turkey, got out the cheese and tomatoes and I made myself a sandwich and heated up a packaged Ramen, a new, spicy brand.  I watched FNL's, enjoyed my sandwiches and carefully ate my hot soup.  We spent the rest of the afternoon hunkered down in our house, either reading, Evie taking photos of a pair of cardinals or watching TV, the always 'breaking news.'  I am enjoying my book on the Great Lakes, learning about all the kill-offs of various species of fish, the problems with introducing fish that are not natural to the lakes.

We had planned a week ago to drive to either Rocco's or Ribs and Bones, two restaurants a good 20 miles away.  Well, the weather put the kibosh on that so at Linda and Ron's suggestion, we went to Bellini's Lounge, in the Chautauqua Suites, a popular place for local residents because of its daily specials.  It was 7 below both coming and going and the roads were practically empty.  We joined perhaps 15-20 other people.  We both ordered pizzas, Evie and I a Margarita, Ron and Linda a pepperoni, mushroom, and onion.  Ours was a faux version of a Margarita, basically tasteless and we left half of it.  Linda and Ron's was the much better choice.  Our server noticed we had eaten only half of our pizza and despite my protests, she took the pizza off of our bill.  Pretty nice.  We were home around 9:00, in time to watch a Colbert before heading up to read more about the Great Lakes and Gabriel Allon.  I have two books going at the moment.