Hunkering Down On A Gray, Misty Morning

7:51

It's 8:15 as I write this on an overcast morning, a light mist outdoors, the lake, placid, on a 40º morning. It looks like a couple of gray days but the weekend should be sunny and much warmer. I was tempted to go for a paddle but it's just wet enough outside to discourage me.

Well, everything is shut down in New York State, with only grocery stores and drugstores, places like that still open. Yesterday was normal if Wegman's was packed by 7:00 in the morning is normal.  I decided to go to yoga, thinking there were not be many people there and it might be the last class for a while.  I was correct as only six of us were in a good class, with lots of breathing exercises supposedly good for your health.  After class, I stopped for coffee and as Evie suggested, I bought a hundred dollar gift certificate from our local bookstore, hoping to help him out in these difficult times for small businesses.

I then drove downtown to pick up my taxes, paid a hundred bucks and walked out with a nice return thanks to the US government and State of New York.  I then stopped at Brigiotti's grocery store, thinking Wegman's shelves would be empty and picked up some vegetables Evie needed for our dinners. It was not very crowded.  I was home by noon and was welcomed by the aroma of a Guinness Stout stew simmering on the stove as Evie had been busy.  I helped clean up the kitchen and then heated up my spicy Indian Dal.  It was better than expected and it's something I will not hesitate to make again as a healthy lunch, like the Turkish white bean dish I make called kuru fasulye.

I read some then tried to take a nap but it was so pleasant out, sunny and cool, and I wanted to get outside and clean up the yard.  So I put on a fleece, got out my rake and worked in the front and side yards, gathering a couple of barrels of deadfall.  It felt good to be doing something productive outside.  I drove the deadfall up the road and left it at the woodpile, much diminished by the winter snow. When I came in, Evie was busy again, making a shortcake because we had lots of strawberries from Tops.

We relaxed after a busy afternoon with some wine, listened to the news, and watched another  Trump Comedy Hour in the late afternoon.  It's becoming our go-to show, rivaling Colbert for ridiculousness.  Around 6:30, Evie made a salad, sauteed some Brussel sprouts, and boiled up some noodles for the stew.  Dinner was good, not great, maybe not worth the effort as the meat and vegetables were tender but the gravy was bland despite Evie's attempts to flavor it with beer, leeks, garlic, veggies and lots of salt, and pepper.  We have enough left for another dinner and maybe letting it refrigerate for a couple of nights will make a difference.  We were sick of the news so we binged on the third season of The Americans, watching three episodes until 9:15 when we then watched a new episode of Home Town before going up to bed.

We planned on making a corned beef and cabbage dinner tonight but because our local Irish pub, Steeners, had hundreds of pounds of corned beef on hand and will be serving it take out style, we decided to help them out, get our corn beef dinner from them and have our dinner later.

Enjoying Steeners On A Happier Day With Barb and Dana