A Quiet New Year's Eve

7:33

7:57

It's 7:20 on New Year's Day and Evie is already up, as we stare out our window at a dark, foggy 48º morning. It does not feel like winter, nor did yesterday, more like a Spring day.  I was hoping to kayak but because of the fog, I can hardly see beyond our lake wall.

Kayak Morning

The Reeds

Into The Deep

Victoria/Woodlawn

It's 9:45 as I finish this and I paddled for a half hour in the fog.  I could hear voices, barks of dogs, obviously fishermen but could not see them, a bizarre kayaking.

Testing Positive

Yesterday was a sad and depressing day because Evie learned after a nice 2 1/2 mile walk that she tested positive for Covid, putting the kibosh on our plans for the New Year's Eve with friends. She has the typical symptoms, a sore throat, cough, runny nose but does not feel terrible, more like a mild case of the flu, inshallah. 

The day, however, began well and for late December, it could not have been more pleasant.  I kayaked for over an hour to begin the day, down to Magnolia and back, loving being on the lake when it's smooth and not too cold.  I didn't get back till 10:00, having started later than usual. After breakfast and the blog, we decided to go for a walk around the Chautauqua Institution because the sun had come out, the skies were blue.  We were shocked to see so many people out walking but then we realized that many residents of the Institution returned for the holidays.  

Thunder Bridge

Still, it was strange to see gangs of people walking the grounds when we usually are the only ones out. We ran into our friends Linda and Ron and joked about what a fun night we were going to have.  Little did we know that Evie would return home, take a test just to make sure her cough was not Covied only to find out the test was positive and she had to call Linda and tell her the news, upsetting because we know that Linda shopped and prepped for what was going to be a delicious dinner.  We enjoyed the walk anyways.

Chautauaqua's Bell Tower

Once Evie took the test, our moods deflated like a balloon and we just hung out the rest of the afternoon, feeling sorry for ourselves while the lake seemed like a playground.  Because of the blue skies, calm lake, people were out fishing, kayaking and canoeing for the first time since early fall. I don't blame them because it was a amazingly pleasant afternoon to be on the lake.  I started another Richard Osman thriller set in a retirement home, The Man Who Died Twice, always fun.  We decided to watch a film to pass the time and watched Bill Murray in the comedy Rushmore. Unfortunately, we did not find it very funny, not our kind of humor I guess.

4:00 In The Afternoon

For dinner, Evie pulled the chili out of the freezer and we had it Cincinatti style, over noodles, with cheese, lettuce and sour cream.  We were looking forward to a much recommended new film on Netflix called The Lost Daughter. If you want a dreary, depressing and sad couple of hours, we recommend this film. Maybe it fit our mood, having to stay home on New Year's Eve. We both went to bed early, awakened around midnight by thunder, heavy rain, some fireworks.