Winter Revisits On Leap Day

7:44

8:15

8:19

It's a cold, 21º morning, a bit of a change from yesterday morning's 58º. We received an inch or two of snow on a windy evening, blizzard-like snow really because of the winds, a constant 25mph with gusts in the 40s. This morning we have a partly cloudy sky, some blue, some gray and it looks like the sun may pop out in a bit. It's 9:15 and I just returned from breakfast on a cold but partly sunny morning.

Yesterday was amazing weather-wise, with the temperature dropping 40º and just as the weatherman predicted, at 10:00 in the evening, it was 21º. Surprisingly, I was able to get in a brief paddle before the wind picked up and the temperature dropped so I was happy. After paddling, I wrote the blog and drove off to yoga for a final class with Tara, my yoga teacher. She will be on a six-month hiatus as she hopes to walk the 2002-mile Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine. Her 26-pound backpack carries all she needs and she will be reporting her hike on various media sites so we can follow her adventure. 

Packed And Ready To Go

After class, I did a quick run through Aldis, to pick up some goodies and deals. I like Aldis because it's rarely crowded and groceries are cheaper, especially essentials like milk, eggs, and veggies. I was home by 1:00 and Evie had already put together our dinner, Salisbury steak with mushrooms. For lunch, I had a couple of goose liver sandwiches on brioches sliders and the rest of my white bean stew. And I am still working my way through the PBS series on Vietnam. As the afternoon progressed, the weather worsened, and the wind picked up so we hunkered down, turning up the heat and making sure our devices were charged. I had a call with Charles Schwab, at 2:30, after a brief nap. After the call we waited until 5:00, then poured ourselves a glass of wine and listened to the 'bad news' that the Supreme Court will take the Trump immunity claim, making it more difficult to try him before the election. Teflon Don. 

Dinner was great, the Salisbury steak, asparagus, and mashed potatoes, yum, and we watched a John Carney film called Flora And Son. This is the fourth film we have enjoyed by him, all similar in that they follow musicians attempting to make a name for themselves. Our favorite was his first, Once, and Sing Street and Begin Again would be next. Flora And Son was not our favorite but we still enjoyed it despite some of the vulgarity. We ended the night with another great John Stewart Monday, on the Daily Show and then a Colbert. 

Wednesday Night Blizzard

Waking To Thunder, Lighting And Rain

8:18

A Colorful Guy

It's 9:00 and I just returned from paddling for a half hour, running into fog as I kayaked down to Sandy Bottom so I turned around and came back, the fog following me and now, at 9:00, it has completely disappeared. We are in for some bizarre weather over the next 24 hours. At the moment, it's 56º but why this evening, he should drop to 20º, close to a 40º difference, accompanied by heavy winds.

Into The Fog

Northern Sky

Kayak Morning

Yesterday was a busy morning and evening, a relaxing afternoon as usual. No kayaking because the lake was still partially frozen. So after breakfast and the blog, I drove to Lakewood to a class with Courtney, six of us, five gals, and Moi. After class, Evie had a shopping list ready for me on the Wegmans app so off I went on 5% Tuesday, always crowded with old farts like me. And shopping is made worse by Wegmans changing products in all the aisles. 

Late Afternoon Sun

I didn't get home until 12:30 and immediately made lunch, heating up the white bean stew and toasting a couple of brioche sliders for lunch. I am now into the Nixon years and just found out that he tried to sabotage the peace talks to win the election, promising the Viet Cong a special deal if they refused to go to the peace talks. We may have another Nixon in the making. The afternoon went as usual, quickly and I was showered and ready to be picked up by Ron at 5:30. We were driving to Jamestown Community College to watch the Class C boys basketball semifinals. 

Packed Gym

We watched two exciting games, the first starting at 6:00, and the second at 7:45. All four teams had one outstanding player, but the rest of the team was rough and inexperienced. I was shocked by how young the players seemed, skinny and small but quick and hustling. The gym was packed with fans and we were both struck by the lack of diversity in the crowd. The second game went down to the final seconds which was fun. We were home by 9:45, time to watch some NBA before bed. 

Mostly Old Guys

Haze, Windy, And 46º

7:01

7:09

8:37

It's just after 8:00 and I have been up for over an hour. The sun rose just around 7:00 and is now still bright behind light clouds. The lake is frozen near our shoreline, open out towards Long Point. We saw a couple of fishing boats trolling off of Long Point yesterday afternoon so the water around  Long Point Marina must be open. 

Morning Fishing

Sea Gulls On Thin Ice

A Bevy Of Prancing Mallards

Yesterday was unseasonably warm, with highs in the 50s, perhaps 60s. I was up at 6:30 with nothing planned for the morning. By the time I had breakfast and wrote the blog, I decided to drive to Dobbins Woods, about ten minutes away. I have walked it many times over the years and although I like it, the various paths are strewn with tree roots, making it difficult to look anywhere but down on the path so you don't trip. It takes forty-five minutes if you take your time and fortunately, it was not too wet and in many areas, boardwalks were placed to avoid the wetlands. 

Dobbins Woods Trail

Board Walks

Nasty Tree Roots

Welcome

I stopped at Hogans for a paper, to figure out the times for tonight's sectional finals at JCC. Ron and I are going to attend. I was home by 11:45 and Evie was getting ready to drive to Westfield for her annual mammogram. I heated up the leftover Sechuwan eggplant with rice and it was tasty, just like the night before. I watched the Vietnam War and Tricky Dick just announced he was running for President, to save America and end the war. After lunch, I returned to my book The Drifter by Nick Petrie and I am pretty sure I have read it before but so what. I don't remember much of it. 

Evie was home by 2:00, having done some shopping at Tops in Mayville. After my nap, it was so inviting outside, warm and sunny, that I decided to do some yard work and picked up over a hundred pine cones that for some reason, had fallen from our pine tree. They covered our backyard. We hope it was just heavy winds, not something to do with the health of the trees. I spent a good half hour, raking and bending over picking up the sticky cones. 

The rest of the afternoon we both relaxed, then enjoyed a happy hour until 6:00 when Evie made our dinner. She already had potatoes in the oven so all she needed to do was fry up some mushrooms and a T-bone steak for us to share, an easy and tasty Monday night dinner. We watched a couple of episodes of Marcella on Netflix, then some news, and an HGTV show before bed. 

9:55 pm

Sunny And Warming, Alas

7:46

7:31

8:34

It's another bright, sunny winter morning here on the lake, a toasty 34º with a high of 55º this afternoon, making me wonder where went winter. The lake is still mostly frozen although there's an open area two houses down, filled with mallards feeding. 

We had our usual or normal Sunday, with the weather cooperating. I was up early, opening to kayak but the lake had frozen up overnight. So I had a long coffee, wrote the blog then drove to Tractor Supply and mistakenly picked up a battery charger, not a jump starter which I wanted. So I will have to return it and I ordered a jump starter once again on Amazon but with my luck, I will be returning that as well. Anyway, it was a wasted morning excursion.

Thunder Bridge

I was home by 11:30 and Evie was ready to go for our Sunday morning walk at the Chautauqua Institution. It was a bit nippy when we walked into the wind but otherwise, it was a pleasant forty-five minute walk. The CI is still relatively quiet as we ran into only two dog walkers. It felt good to be out in the chill of a February morning. 

We didn't get home until 12:30 and by 1:00, I was enjoying a Turkish omelet with feta cheese, tomatoes, and Turkish spices and watching Caitlin Clark play on TV. I rarely get a chance to watch her play because her games are usually carried on Peacock TV. She's fun to watch but after a quarter, I had enough and decided to read and see if I could nap, I could. 

We spent the afternoon relaxing, waiting for happy hour and dinner time. We listened to the 'bad news' as I call it until 6:00, enjoying a glass of wine. Then, we got busy prepping our dinner, Sechuwan eggplant with Yu-Xiang sauce. It's one of my favorites and I splurged on Asian eggplant when shopping on Friday. Evie did much of the prepping but I did the cooking in our new wok, first braising eggplant, then ground pork, before adding hot bean sauce, ginger, and garlic, then finishing it off with a sauce. Served over rice, it was the best Asian meal I have made in a long time. For once, I got the seasoning right so that it tasted like restaurant food. We ended the night finishing a series on Max called Five Days, then Hometown before bed. 

Cold, Cold, Cold, And Sunny

7:26

8:49

It's 8:23, sunny, and the lake is frozen again, to my delight. I spent too much time last night worrying about whether I should kayak when the temperature was in the teens. Well, I can't because the lake is frozen. It was 17º when I woke and now it's a toasty 22º. 

Saturday was a real winter day without snow! It was cold and windy, with some sun on and off during the day. It was too windy and cold to paddle although the lake was open. We dawdled much of the morning, enjoying our coffee, reading, listening to CNN, and finishing up the blog. Around 10:30, we started to gather the trash for my trip to the Transfer Station. When I went out to the garage, my Outback's battery was dead once again, the third or fourth time it happened even though I have a new battery. So I gathered the trash, stuck it in the back of the Kia, and drove off to the Transfer Station. 

I was home by 11:30 and because of the blue skies, I decided to get in a walk around the Woodlawn/Victoria woods. It was a good idea except when I walked north in an open area because the northern wind was brutal. It felt like a walk in the fall, with the barren trees, brown leaves on the paths, and blue skies. Although I wish there had been snow, there was still beauty to the day. When I returned, it was lunch time and I warmed up the kuru fasulye and rice and watched another episode of The Vietnam War, as two assassinations led to riots over much of the US and Johnson's announcement he would not run for President. And more American soldiers died. 

Winter Morning Walk

Mostly Blue

Our afternoons do not change much on the weekends. We watched some TV, read, and napped briefly, waiting for that magic hour when we would shower and get ready to go out for dinner. We picked up Linda and Ron at 5:30 because we were going to an Indian restaurant in Dunkirk, NY, about a forty-minute ride through back roads and #5 which follows Lake Erie. The restaurant is called Steelbound and it is situated in the Clarion Hotel, on Lake Erie. We walked in and realized not only was there a restaurant but a really neat bar, overlooking the harbor. 

Enjoying Indian Food And Craft Beers

We decided on the bar, a good choice. Steelbound besides a restaurant is a brewery, so they offered 15 to 20 choices of brews. We enjoyed tasting various brews along with a pretzel and cheese appetizer. All four of us ordered Indian food and the butter chicken was the clear winner, along with rice and garlic naan. We left around 7:45 and took our time driving home along #5 to Westfield and home. We will certainly go again, maybe in the summer when the doors and windows are open to the lake. Once we were home, we quickly changed and moved to our TV room and watched a few shows before bed. 

A Happy Man

Windy, Cold, And Sunny

7:26

7:31

8:30

I woke at 6:45 to an overcast sky but at the moment, 7:50, the sun had popped out from behind the gray, filling the living room once again with its light. It's still chilly, 18º, and too windy to kayak, alas. I even see a few flurries although it's not sticking. 

Cardinal In Our Front Window

A Bevy Of Mallards This Morning

Friday was a day of relaxation after our road trip to Erie, looking at furniture (which we don't need I might add but want). I was excited early morning, however, to be able to kayak for a half hour on a rapidly thawing lake. After my paddle, I wrote the blog, added photos, and Evie edited and published it before I left for yoga. The class was at 10:00 and Tara started the class with the announcement it would be a class of fire, meaning it would be rigorous. I survived, however, and left feeling pretty righteous. Evie needed some prescriptions picked up so I shopped at Wegmans, then stopped at the bank to cash another check because I overpaid as usual a medical bill. I don't get it. 

Lunch was the last of the mushroom soup and cheesy brioche buns. I watched my show, The Vietnam War as things get worse with the battle for Hue, an ancient city that was turned to ashes. It was the turning point for Americans or so it seems. After that, the morale of the country turned against the war. I remember reading Mark Bowden's Hue 1968, a great book, back in 2017 with dismay and sadness. After lunch, I napped and finished my book, Poison, and then struggled to find something else to read. After my nap, however, I got busy in the kitchen and made Turkish kuru fasulye, basically white bean stew, with cannellini beans,  tomato paste, garlic, Turkish spices, cayenne, chicken stock, and tomatoes. It's a Turkish staple, one we both love, usually served over rice. Once it was simmering on the stove, I went for a walk around the neighborhood because it was so inviting to walk outside, the blue skies and lake, the sunshine. 

Long Point

Northern Sky At 4:30 PM

Windy Afternoon

1:38 PM

By 5:30, we were enjoying a glass of wine and listening to the news, always depressing, as some Republicans continued to bring religion into making laws and policies although the nation's founders were clear to separate the Church from the State. The Constitution makes no mention of religion by the way. It's scary, just look at the religious oppression of the Mullahs in the theocracy of Iran. 

We had roast beef sandwiches on kimmelwick buns, salad, and kuru fasulye and tried to watch a series on Netflix but it cut out each time we started and it is been happening almost every night. So we went to AppleTV+ and watched a series called Five Days and to our surprise, we are into it. And for the first time, I started a book, a group read from my library,  something called TOGETHER WE READ. The book is titled One Summer In Savannah and included on the library website are discussion questions, a letter from the author, and a joint discussion on social media. 

Back On The Lake

Back To Paddling

7:31

9:03

I woke to gray skies, what else, 36º and a mostly thawed lake. Lots of mallards were feeding in front of our house and I can see some ice floes off to the south, near the reeds but other than that, the lake seems open. I did get out on the lake for 25 minutes and had to turn back by the reeds because of an ice floe. Also, the lake is as low as I can remember and I had to get out and walk my kayak out to deeper water because I was grounded. Still, it was great to be back out on the lake.

Kayak Morning

Into The Ice Floe

Northern Sky

Into The Sun

Yesterday began as usual with a long coffee since I did not have breakfast in Bemus. By 9:30, I was driving to Lakewood for a Yin Yoga class, the most crowded class of the week because we never stand, all the poses are either sitting, on our backs or stomachs. After class, I came straight home because we were going to Erie for the afternoon.

Bufflehead

Mallards

We got off #90 at Peach Street, where all the traffic and action is, a strip of stores that rivals Breezewood or so it felt. Every fast food outlet, and you name it retailer is along the mile or two strip. We stopped at Cutco to switch knives since we didn't like one of the ones we bought last week. They were happy to exchange. We then had lunch at a ramen restaurant literally next door to Cutco and loved it. We will go back. We then hit Furniture Row to look at swivel chairs but they only had two so we did not linger but stopped at a mega Wegman's store which puts our Wegman's to shame. Evie could have browsed for an hour but I was there so we were out in 20 minutes. We then stopped at another furniture store John B Schult and we liked the two salespeople. They were helpful and had lots of ideas for the area in front of our fireplace although we did not buy anything. 

On the way home traffic was backed up heading east for hours (a semi had turned over) so we got off at Wesleyville, drove to Findlay Lake got back on #86 and were home by 4:00. We were happy to be back in our home, comfortable and no longer shopping or on the road. We relaxed during wine time with some sushi, habit forming, alas, then had an easy dinner of sliced roast beef on Kimmelwick buns with a horseradish sauce, all from Wegmans. We watched the end of Crime Record, then some news and finally another episode of Marcella on Netflix. It was a different sort of day for us.