A Chautauqua Gray Morning

7:30

It's 8:00 and I have been up for an hour, the sky and lake gray, of course, with some fog off to the eastern shoreline. Yesterday's 50º has dropped to a mellow 36º, as the lake continues to melt, open in some areas, still frozen in others. 

Enjoying A Sunflower Seed

Friday was Friday, not much different from any other day, the only difference being it was a Friday. I was up early, read, had coffee, and breakfast, and finished the blog before pulling the Outback out of the garage and putting air in a couple of tires. If it sits too long, the tires tend to need air. At least it started. I drove to a good yoga class, four of us, although one new woman's Ujjayi breath( a whispering, audible vibration) became annoying. After class, I did a quick run to Wegman's and picked up some sushi for dinner as well as a few other necessities. 

Lunch

When I returned home, Evie had been busy and taken some food over to our neighbor who had been struggling because her pipes had frozen. For lunch, I had Evie's soup and she made me a toasted cheese sandwich and I spread jam on it of course. And I watched the last episode of Season Five of The Wire. What a great series, a look at the scourge of the illegal drug problem as well as the politics endemic in any city's police department, government, businesses, and schools. It's not very uplifting or encouraging. Also discouring was an NPR program that discussed the rise of right-wing governments all over the world, in Germany, Hungary, and even India to name a few, with their emphasis on racial purity and anti-democratic governments. It's not just in the States and Trump's rise is not an anomaly but a reaction to immigration, globalization, and the changing world we live in fueled, I think, by the access to all kinds of media. And it's only going to get worse with AI.

After lunch, I tried to nap to no avail, read some, and then decided to work in the yard which was strewn with deadfall from the wind storms we have had over the past month. It took me a good hour and I filled three garbage pails with the deadfall before taking them up the hill to the woodpile. It felt good to be doing something outside although my back ached once I was done. 

I was rewarded with a great happy hour, two kinds of sushi, a Manhattan, and veggies with hummus, as we watched the day wane. We had planned on an easy dinner, hot dogs and leftover mac n cheese, with apple pie and ice cream for dessert. It was a good plan. We then watched a couple of boring episodes of Jack Reacher and basketball before going up to bed.