A Toasty 34º Morning

7:27

7:51

8:57

It's 7:40, the sky is gray, some morning light is off to the south and the wind is from the south, 7 or 8 mph, ruffling the lake's surface. Later today, it's supposed to get up to 49º, melting all the snow. ruining the sense of winter. Our winter's lately come and go, alas, the snow never lasts long. Well, I paddled into the sun this morning, past the duck hunters blasting into the sky. I was out for 35 minutes but saw no waterfowl, no eagles, just me a solitary figure on the lake. 

Kayak Morning

Victoria/Woodawn

North

South

Thursday was another typical winter day, with mostly gray skies. I got in a good paddle, shot an eagle which made my morning and was off to yoga by 9:30. Class is always crowded on Thursday so I got there a bit earlier to find my spot. I enjoyed class, and my back never bothered me through the entire class, a good sign. 

I came straight home because I wanted to help Evie put our fake Christmas tree up on the porch. She was busy in the kitchen, making soup and freezing dinners for the following weeks. We did manage to put the dang thing together on the porch, a tree we bought a few years ago so the lights no longer work. That was enough effort before lunch, which was soup and leftover chicken wings, just as tasty as last night at the Viking (and just as unhealthy).

I then read and napped briefly before we tackled the Christmas tree again. We had some lights given to us years ago that still seem to work so we spread them out on the living room floor, making sure they worked, then I wrapped them around the tree, making sure they looked right. Once I was done, Evie plugged them in and viola, we had a Christmas tree with lights. 

Homely Charlie Brown Tree

We decided to celebrate with libations and loaded nachos and listened to Christmas carols, and songs by various singers, from the oldies like Bing Crosy and Nat King Cole to newbies like various rock groups which were pretty bad like The Killers "Don't Shoot Me Santa." We were going to have spaghetti and Evie's meatballs for dinner but since we overdid the nachos, we decided to save it for Friday and had veggie soup and toast for dinner, ice cream, and cookies for dessert, just right. We watched the regional finals of Women's volleyball on ESPN, as Wisconsin beat Penn State 3-1, a great match. We then watched some of the Texas/Tennessee regional semifinal before going up to bed, a  night of women's volleyball.