Rain, Ice, And Gray Skies

New Year's Day, 2021

8:45

It's just after 8:00, a few duck hunter blasts echo down the lake, as the drizzle or frozen rain continues on a 34º morning, not a propitious start to 2021. I have been listening to the New Yorker David Remnick's interview with the Boss, Bruce Springsteen, from 2016. It took place just after the publication of his autobiography, Born To Run, which I read and enjoyed.  It's 9:40 as we finish this up because I went kayaking for a half hour, leaving around 8:45 as the rain abated for a bit.  I tried to get close to the ducks and swans but they are skittish and I got no closer than a couple of hundred yards before they took off.

Kayak Morning

Into The Gray

Trumpter Swans Glide By Our House

New Year's Day was forgettable mostly because of the weather, the continuing rain, the icy roads, and trails, making it too dangerous to get outside unless necessary.  Even walking out to the car was precarious  It was a lazy day for me after coffee and the blog, a busy one for Evie who was into home decorating, meaning moving things, like paintings, around and giving various bedrooms a deep cleaning.  I have to admit that our home looks better as we resurrected some of the kilims, framed photos, and prints that have been hibernating either in the attic or under beds, forgotten.  We do have a lot of stuff from our lives in Hawaii and Istanbul which we have stored because there's nowhere to put them without making our home look like a showroom.  Still, it's fun to change things around which is what we did mostly. The biggest change was to move the Tonka, a painting I bought in Katmandu in1975 of the Buddha, downstairs from a bedroom so we could see it. 

I took time out for lunch, mushroom barley soup, and mac n cheese and watched another episode of Undercover, my seemingly neverending series.  I then read my book, Homeland Elegies, and took a nap before watching some football and getting ready to go to Linda and Ron's for a New Years Day dinner. And while I napped, Evie continued with her rearranging, energized and inspired by a good night's sleep.  

Better Together

We drove to Mayville, fortunate to have the roads wet but not icy because of the constant upkeep by the salt trucks, It was good to get into Linda and Ron's cozy house, the kitchen filled with good smells, the table set, the house still decorated for Christmas. 

Christmas In Mayville

We usually went out for a New Year's Eve dinner but this year, we were having dinner on New Year's Day, a good choice.  Dinner was a gourmet delight, with artichoke heart bottoms topped with crab meat for an appetizer, filets in a mushroom cream sauce, mashed potatoes and roasted carrots for dinner, and a chocolate torte with ice wine for dessert.  Who needs a restaurant with a meal like that!? We stayed until 9:45 and once again, the roads were fine and we were only one of maybe three cars on the road.  

Dinner With Linda And Ron

When we got home, we watched some TV for a bit, some of the Ohio State game, before going to bed happy with the end of a fun day.