Morning Fog

7:01

Fog At 8:04

It's 7:36, 39º, the fog having moved in and obscured the fishermen on the lake. I woke at 5:59 on the dot, lingered in bed for fifteen minutes, and was up making coffee by 6:15.

Monday turned out to be a decent day, temperatures climbing into the 40s as the snow began to melt. After my bad night and early rising, I had the blog written and the newspapers read by 8:00 — and found myself at a loss for what to do next. Before the snow and the frozen lake put an end to it, I'd have been out kayaking, but that wasn't an option. 

So I read and had breakfast, passing the time until 10:15, when I drove to the Chautauqua Institution for a walk. The roads were mostly clear with some icy patches, so I wore my crampons. I was out for 45 minutes, and the grounds were bustling — trucks parked along the streets, workers everywhere, renovation well underway. It was like an early sign of spring, except that instead of flowers, it was construction workers who had suddenly appeared in the warmer weather.

Thunder Bridge

Construction Workers Trucks

Bestor Plaza And Library

After my walk, I drove to Mayville to catch the demolition of the ice castle, likely taken down for safety reasons. Being Presidents' Day, families were out in force — watching the demolition or venturing out onto the still-frozen lake. It was a fine day for an outing: low 40s, blue skies, and sunshine.

Demolishing The Ice Castle

Not Much Left

A Busy Lake

I was home by noon for lunch — the leftover burrito from Saturday night and a bowl of navy bean and ham soup. Evie left for a pulmonologist appointment at 1:00, and I headed upstairs to read, settling in for a potential nap around 1:30. I woke at 3:00 — a full hour and a half later. Not surprising, given that I'd had less than five hours of sleep the night before. I woke disoriented, half-wondering if it was morning. When I came downstairs, Evie returned from her appointment and a stop at Wegmans.

We put away the groceries, and then Kia called. They still can't determine what's wrong with my Sportage and have requested a specially qualified technician be dispatched to fix the problem, which will take a week or two to arrange. In the meantime, they wanted the loaner back. So I drove to the dealer, swapped cars, and was heading home by 4:30. I asked about one of the familiar faces who usually worked the desk and learned he'd been let go. In fact, nearly all the salespeople I'd dealt with over the past couple of years are gone. It's no surprise because it was one of the least professional dealerships I've ever worked with.

I was home by 4:50 and spent a good half hour on the phone with my daughter Beth, who lives in Dallas. There's exciting news — her son Mitchell is getting married in March, right there in Dallas. After the call, Evie and I shared a glass of wine as the sky darkened. By 6:45, we were settled in the TV room with breaded pork chops and baked potatoes, watching a couple more episodes of DOC. After Evie went to bed, I caught some of the Iowa State/Houston basketball game, then an episode of Unfamiliar, before heading up around 10:00.

In Rubio's speech to the Munich Security Conference, he focused on “mass migration,” which he claimed “threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people.” He called for Europe to join with the U.S. in rejecting the tenets of the post–World War II vision, claiming that “[w]e are part of one civilization—Western civilization. We are bound to one another by the deepest bonds that nations could share, forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir.”

Some have argued that Officials in the Trump administration and their media allies have embraced the Great Replacement theory that says Brown and Black migration to Europe and the U.S. is destroying “Western civilization.” Such migration must be stopped, they argue, and Brown and Black people purged from the U.S. and Europe. The end of equal rights for migrants will enable white Christian men to dominate society and pass laws that reinforce traditional religious and patriarchal hierarchies.