A Rare Sunny, Winter Morning

9:09

The lake is a village this morning of ice fishermen, the sun's glare off the ice so bright that I have had to move two or three times in the living room to avoid it.  Such problems.  It's still cold out, 23º but the temperatures will start to rise, of course, into the high 30's today, the high 40's tomorrow. Winter comes and goes.

Yesterday was a strange day, a typical morning, a disaster of an afternoon.  I had my coffee, wrote the blog and drove to yoga by 9:00.  I stopped for coffee but there was a line so I ended up talking with Bob, the bookstore owner for 15 minutes and never did get a coffee.  I was home by noon and Evie made me a couple of chicken sandwiches, with tomatoes and mayo and I heated up a ramen soup from Trader Joe.  We watched another episode of the 4th season of Breaking Bad before I read some and took a brief nap because we were driving to Erie for Evie's doctor's appointment at 3:45.

When we arrived, we noticed the parking lot was not very full.  Evie walked up to the desk and was told her appointment had been canceled, that they had called earlier in the day to let her know.  They hadn't because there was no phone call on her phone.  And they were not very apologetic nor helpful making another appointment.  I felt like screaming at the receptionist but Evie kept me calm.  So we drove an hour for nothing but to schedule another appointment in three weeks.  We had planned on stopping in a restaurant in Northeast, PA, the Skunk and Goat but it was too early so we went to a great Wegman's, to assuage somewhat our anger.  It's a great store and we took our time but ended up with three canvas bags full of groceries.  We then took the long way to Northeast, along Rt. 20, through Erie and Wesleyville, to the restaurant.  When we walked in, we knew we would not find a spot at the bar.  Not only as it packed, but so was the restaurant at 5:30, a result of a father/daughter's dance.  So we lingered for five minutes, hoping something would open up but left, knowing it wouldn't happen.

So we decided to drive to Westfield, another half hour away, hoping to find a seat at Brazil's bar.  We were lucky, finally, as two couples slid over a couple of seats so we could sit at the bar, finally, a place to relax and enjoy.  We were not staying for dinner, so we ordered two appetizers calamari and an onion cheese flatbread, to go along with a couple of beers.  We struck up a conversation with a couple who live in Bemus Point and used to own the clothing store, Skillman And Wright.  They are the Wright's, now retired and sold their interest in the store.

A Couple Of Incorrigibles At Larry's

After our appetizers and beers, we made the mistake of stopping in at Larry's Bar, a certifiable dive around the corner from Brazils, our third bar Friday night.  We had never been there although friends have said they have the best wings around.  We decided to see what it was like, found a couple of seats at the bar and felt right at home with the locals.  We talked with a guy whose kids went to college in Ohio, at Kent State and John Carroll.  We ordered beers but neither of us could finish them as we were still full from Brazils.  It was enough of a dive for us to want to come back and we liked the bartender, the beat-up run-down ambiance, our style.  Nothing had been done to fix it up in years.

We were shocked that it was only 8:00 when we got home but then we realized we left at 2:45.  We settled down in our TV room for a couple more Breaking Bads before going up to read and sleep, the end of a discouraging day,