Winter's Back?

8:03

9:10

It's later than usual as I start this — 8:40 — and the lake is still frozen, the ice fishermen are still out, it's 29°, and we got a dusting of snow overnight. I didn't get up until 7:50, though I was awake earlier and simply stayed in bed because it felt so good.

Saturday Morning

Huddled Off Long Point

Friday was a downer after the excitement of Thursday's visit to Euclid to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. He loves to cook, and one of the reasons we love visiting is his breakfasts. After writing the blog and getting packed, we sat down to a "big, beautiful breakfast" of scrambled eggs, home fries, bacon, sausage, toast, English muffins, fruit salad, and jam. Yum. We could hardly get up from the table to say our goodbyes and get in the car. It was a great 18-hour visit.

We left around 10:30 and, as usual, stopped at Trader Joe's on Chagrin Blvd., where we spent a couple of hundred dollars on goodies — a case of wine and other things we can't get in Chautauqua. We left with four bags and that case of wine, then drove to the Ohio border, stopping at Luv's for cheap gas and a root beer. We were lucky to have blue skies most of the way, and the rain stopped before we crossed into New York. We were surprised by how much snow had melted — our front yard was bare and green. After about 15 minutes unpacking and putting things away, we both collapsed: me upstairs on the bed, Evie in the TV room.

Neither of us did much for the rest of the afternoon. I finished my spy thriller, then started a much-talked-about book called Paper Girl, set in Urbana, Ohio. So far, so good. The writer returns to her hometown after forty years, and it's a portrait of what has happened to rural America as jobs flowed overseas, raising fortunes elsewhere while leaving communities here behind.

Get Out The Lawnmower

At 5:00, we had our wine as flurries started falling and melting on contact. Dinner was easy: I got out the wok and made Kung Pao Chicken and Veggies, a frozen Trader Joe's package, served over rice. It was so tasty we'd definitely buy it again. We watched another episode of The Pitt and then a Colbert before Evie headed up to bed. I looked for something else to watch, but ended up back on Alex Rider on Prime.