Shortest Day, Longest Night: Winter Solstice

7:33

7:39

It's 8:20 as I start this and a miracle occurred: I slept in until 7:20.  It's a dreary morning, gray on gray, with snow or rain showers predicted.  The lake's edge is still frozen, but it's open beyond ten yards, populated by a scattering of Canadian geese, enjoying the shallows, some even standing on the ice's edge.

Yesterday was a dreary Sunday morning and afternoon, dark, gray, with a hint of drizzle in the air most of the day.  I was up early, at 6:30, and enjoyed my coffee and quiet time although I would have liked to kayak if the lake were not frozen.  The duck hunters were out for sure and later in the day, a couple of boats were out in the middle of the lake fishing, hearty guys.

Thunder Bridge

We did not do much until 11:00, just cleaning up the kitchen, things like that until we left for our walk at the Chautauqua  Institution.  It was not a very pleasant day for a walk yet we ran into two or three couples walking as well as a couple of runners. Fortunately,  the snow-covered roads were not icy so we were able to navigate the circumference of the grounds, a little less than three miles. We stopped at the Lighthouse and picked up a half-pound of breakfast sausage for breakfast and a fresh chicken for dinner.

Evie, then, fried up the sausages, eggs, and toasted the bread so that by 1:00, we were watching CBS Sunday Morning in entirety for once.  I cleaned up the breakfast dishes,  and Evie worked on getting the chicken ready with lots of garlic and a unique Korean hot sauce called Gochujang.  After the dishes, I read some but easily slept for an hour before waking and checking on some of the football games. Bored with the games, I returned to my book until the Kansas City Chiefs game was on and watched the first quarter, saving the rest, for later and joined Evie in the living room for a glass of wine.  It was a quiet evening, just the two of us, of course. 

Around 6:30, Evie pulled the blackened chicken out of the oven, a result of the coating of the Korean hot sauce.  The recipe also called for smashing the potatoes which roasted in the pan with the chicken. We both felt this was the best-roasted chicken we have had after numerous tries.   The heat was moderate, the chicken moist, especially the white meat and we loved the potatoes.  We will make it again for sure.  I had been wanting to watch the HBO series Deadwood for years so we gave it a try last night and liked it enough to view three episodes.  What a contrast between Deadwood's disgusting, violent, and filthy lives of the townspeople (the drifters, crooks, whores, and merchants) and the sterile Westerns I grew up on, the likes of Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Maverick, and The Lone Ranger. We ended the night with some of the highlights of the Browns game.