A Rainy Day In February

7:04

8:14

I’ve been sitting here for the past hour, listening to the rain. The snow is melting, and our green lawn is beginning to reemerge on this almost-toasty 39º morning. In other words, it’s an ugly winter day. I am wondering where to go for a walk today because of the rain, melting snow, and ice. 

Tuesday felt a little different because Evie’s kindergarten was on break for the week. No children for her, but I still had yoga at 9:30. Fortunately, I’d had a decent night’s sleep, so I woke at 6:00 with some energy. Three quiet hours gave me time to read the newspapers, write the blog, and eat breakfast before Evie got up at 9:00. Ten of us showed up for a rigorous class, and Courtney congratulated us on our hard work. On the way home, I stopped at Wegmans to pick up a prescription—something we seem to do a couple of times a week. 

I was home by 11:30 to find Evie busy in the kitchen, making lentil soup, my granola, and dinner. The counters were covered, and the kitchen was a mess. I jumped in to help tidy up before heating my lunch—leftover Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes. I finished my series, Unfamiliar, and began searching for something new to watch. The rest of the afternoon slipped by as it usually does: a brief nap, some reading, and a little television.  We were lucky because of the blue skies most of the day, perhaps the last we will have in a week.

Wow

A Long Point Afternoon

Amish Husband And Wife

At 5:00, Evie had a Zoom call with her sisters while dinner—my mom’s Shenandoah chicken with apples and tomato sauce—baked in the oven. After the call, we relaxed with a glass of wine, admiring the deepening blue of the evening sky. I even took a photo, though it didn’t quite capture the moment.

6:13

The Shenandoah chicken and spaghetti were delicious, and we have enough left for tonight. We’re struggling to find a new show and sampled Tehran on Apple TV+, though I’m not sure we’ll stick with it. We watched a bit of the Olympics before Evie went to bed. I then started a new series—somewhat juvenile-sounding—Alex Rider, based on the young adult novels by Anthony Horowitz. It follows a fourteen-year-old who is recruited by MI6 after his uncle, also a spy, is murdered. I’ve watched a couple of episodes, and it’s not bad, so I’ll continue. By 10:00, I was back in bed with my spy novel, The Seventh Floor.

Last night, in a deep expose of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her advisor Corey Lewandowski, Wall Street Journal reporters Michelle Hackman, Josh Dawsey, and Tarini Parti described a department in chaos. Noem and Lewandowski—who the authors say are having an affair and essentially run the department together—are using DHS for their own aggrandizement with an eye to elevating Noem to the presidency. The reporters detailed the focus on image, the decimation of ICE by firing or demoting 80% of the career field leadership that was in place when they arrived, the apparent steering of contracts to allies, and Noem and Lewandowski's excessive demands, including “a luxury 737 MAX jet, with a private cabin in back, for their travel around the country.” DHS is currently leasing the $70 million plane but is in the process of buying it. When Trump was asked about this relationship, he responded: 'I don't know about that. I mean, I haven't heard that,' Trump answered. 'I'll find out about it. But I have not heard that.'