A Few Inches Of Snow Overnight

7:55

8:34

8:39

It’s 8:30, and the sky is a threatening gray, the lake a bright white. A couple of tents sit out on the ice on this 29º morning. We have no real plans for the day, though I’ll try to fit in a hike somewhere—perhaps through our woods. The sun briefly pushed through the clouds, and when I stepped onto the porch to take a photo, I heard a bird chirping for the first time this year.

This Morning

Tuesday turned out to be a good day, despite my waking at 6:30 and immediately worrying about shoveling the snow and clearing off both cars so Evie could get to school. As it happened, there was no need to worry—she had a "shaky" stomach, so she decided to stay home.  I had the blog written and the driveway cleared in plenty of time to make it to yoga at 9:10. The class was surprisingly rigorous and ran 70 minutes; Courtney always cheers us at the end for sticking it out. I’ll admit, there were moments when I wondered how much longer it would last.

On my way home, I stopped at Ryder's Cup for a coffee.  Just then, Evie texted to ask if I was there and, if so, could I pick up a few things. So off I went, navigating a busy Tuesday store, gathering what she needed.

12:30

I was home before lunch, and Evie was curled up on the couch reading. Around 12:30, I heated up Wegman's chicken soup and toasted a bagel with peanut butter. I watched an episode of The Golden Hour, then spent the afternoon reading and napping. When I woke, I didn’t quite have the mojo for a proper walk, so I read instead, moving back and forth between my two books until 4:30. By then, the afternoon felt refreshingly mild, and I went out to shovel the driveway once more and take a brief stroll down our street.

Evie had her Zoom call at 5:00 with her sisters. We put off having our wine until 5:45 and planned on having a rack of lamb with roasted potatoes for dinner. We followed the directions for the lamb carefully, but had to return it to the oven twice—it simply wasn’t done. A bit of a fiasco. We eventually ate, though much of the lamb was still underdone.

Still undecided about what to watch, we put on a couple of early episodes of ER before Evie headed upstairs to bed. I then watched the spectacle of lawmakers greeting Trump as he entered Congress—hugs, handshakes, broad smiles. Once he began speaking, I finished my series, The Golden Hour, and started a new one, Land of Sin, a Dutch thriller. 

"Ever since taking office a year ago, the President has shown no respect for the principles upon which this country is based—the Constitutional separation of powers, the rule of law, and the rights guaranteed to every person under the Constitution. His actions have done tremendous harm to the American people, to our standing among nations, and to our institutions of government,” Senator Angus King (I-ME) said in a statement. “For this reason, I cannot in good conscience participate in a function with this President at its center. To do so would require me to ignore all that has gone before and to pay him a measure of respect which he has not earned. I will not be attending the State of the Union address.”