TWO BELOW

7:10

7:25

It's COLD outside, the sun's reflection on the lake blinding as ice fishing shacks dot the lake despite the arctic temperatures. I guess winter is finally here if for only a day or two. I listened to the Bulwark Podcast on the Disinformation Wars, a scary scenario where we believe everything and believe nothing.  One of its findings was that a large portion of Trump electorate trust what Trump says as opposed to the mainstream media.  Scary stuff because this may be part of campaigns in the future, muddying the waters, putting out disinformation to further your candidate's success. What you believe becomes the truth for too many of us. Are we about to live in a post-truth era, the kind Orwell painted in his novel 1984 where "War is Peace/Ignorance is Strength/Freedom is Slavery."

Homeward Bound At 8:30 AM

Yesterday was not as cold as today but still, it was cold, too cold to be outside for long.  I had to start my car up and let it idle for ten minutes before the ice melted, the car was warm enough to drive off to yoga.  We had a small class, probably because of the cold weather.  I stopped for a coffee and ended up talking with Steve and the regular, Dave, for twenty minutes, mostly about life in Jamestown over the years.  All three of us are retired so we have lots of stories.  I then went to Wegman's and did a major shopping jaunt, following Evie's list on my Wegman's app which is annoying because it's not very friendly.  And, the worst, I got in a check out line where one customer never weighed the produce, the next was picky about which bags to put things in.  I must have waited a good ten minutes for both to get the heck out of there.  I don't know why I was in such a hurry because all I have is time. 

It took us a while to unpack and then I had lunch, the last of the soup and a couple of toasted cheese sandwiches, topped with jam, my specialty.  We watched the last episode of Season Two of Breaking Bad, the one where Walt lets Jessie's girlfriend choke to death which leads coincidentally to the collision of two airplanes, the death of 167 people. I then dove back into my book, The Muse, which alternates stories between 1967 Great Britain and Spain in 1936.  I am finally beginning to see the connection between the two.  I fell asleep of course and woke wanting to do something with my life.  So I put on my ski boots, skis and went out in 9º weather on a beautiful sunny afternoon to ski on the lake, a big mistake.  I didn't get more than 50 yards before my skis were dragging, frozen solid with snow and ice.  I turned around and the wind hit me in the face, dropping the temperature no doubt below zero so I just headed home and figured it was not my day to cross country ski.

Shadows While Cross Country Skiing

We were going out for dinner at the Rod and Gun for a fish fry so we were showered and ready by 6:00, arriving at a crowded parking lot.  Fortunately, we found seats at the bar but had a two beer wait for our table.  Ironically, we spent more time at the bar waiting then we did at the table enjoying our fish fry.  We ran into our old friends, Sam and Donna, before being seated.  We drove home in a cold car and were more than happy to be home, warm and cozy in our TV room, watching two more episodes of Breaking Bad, enjoying a bowl of Wegman's Coconut, Almond, Chocolate fudge ice cream.  Yum