White Again And A Wild Saturday

A Delight In Pink

7:34

It's white again here at the lake, as we got maybe a couple of inches of snow overnight, enough to cover the lawn, turn roofs white, and cover the lake.  It's 29º, will stay in the 30's but typically for the fickle Chautauqua winters, Monday will be in the 50's, Tuesday in the 60'.s.

Yesterday was surprisingly cold out, mostly because of the wind which has more bite to it then in the summer because the winter wind is denser, more weighty than in the summer.  It did not deter us from actually 'doing something.'  First, we enjoyed the morning, listening to NPR, cleaning up the kitchen and getting the trash ready to take to the Transfer Station.  Evie was back in her organizing mood and cleaned out the pantry, fighting our culture of accumulation, getting rid of whatever expired or was no longer necessary.  I was off by 10:30 to the Transfer Station, once again busy when I arrived, empty when I left, poor timing I guess.

Mayville's Ice Castle Next To Beached Chautauqua Belle

We decided to take in the Mayville Ice Fest which was taking place for the first time in a couple of years because we actually have had winter weather, cold temperatures and lots of snow.  It was nice to see a busy Mayville, lots of parking lots filled with cars (five bucks but we got a 5 buck voucher for nearby restaurants).

Chain Saw Carving

People were enjoying the winter afternoon, walking along the Mayville Park Lakefront, visiting the ice castle and taking pictures, browsing the tables with various knick-knacks, or buying something to eat from the food trucks.  Many were also out on the lake, probably walking on its ice for the first time.  We stayed for about forty-five minutes, missed the polar swim at 2:00, the fireworks in the evening.  We were glad, however, to have been part of it.  And we stopped at Tops afterwards and picked up a few items on sale, always looking for a bargain.

Ready For A Bon Fire

I had the leftover chicken tikka masala for lunch and watched some TV but fell asleep during a good part of Bloodline.  I woke in time to watch some basketball and get back to my book, RED SPARROW, which I am beginning to enjoy more and more.  Most of the afternoon the lake was filled with fishing huts and around 2:30, we saw two rescue boats cruise by Long Point to the Marina, out practicing for an emergency, making sure they were prepared.

5:49

Around 5:00, the sky began to turn pink, as if it were wearing too much rouge.

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5:51

We left for Jamestown around 6:15 in snow flurries; it seems every time we decide to drive anywhere at night it begins to snow.  I took #86 and hit a pothole in the first half mile but it did not seem to do any damage.  Typical.  We were going to see the movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri so we had dinner across the street at Taco Hut.  We both ordered the same thing, Evie's go to appetizer, a portabello and veggie pizza, on a crispy tortilla.  We also had beers and we were early enough this time to take our time and enjoy our meal.

Yea, Another Selfie At Taco Hut

The theater was crowded like the last time we were there.  We really liked the movie, quirky, funny and sad.  Frances Mc Dermott was the protagonist, an angry Mom, whose daughter was raped and murdered.  Woody Harrelson was the sheriff, the focus of her anger because the perpetrator had yet to be found.  It was not your typical who done it with more emphasis on character, that of Mc Dermott, Harrelson, and a deputy who undergoes a life-changing epiphany. And like a great Greek tragedy, the violence, the murder and rape, occur off-screen.  It's well worth seeing.  We drove home on backroads in more snow but we took our time so we had no problems and home by 10:30.

Sun, Blue Skies And Chilling On an 18º Morning

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7:08

7:13

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7:15

 I was up around 6:30, heard the sound of a motor, opened the bedroom blinds in time to see the red lights of a four-wheeler tooling across the lake to fish.  Since then I have been listening to Only A Game on NPR and taking photographs of the sunrise.  When I walked outside to the lake's edge to take a photograph, I could hear the echo of the lake cracking and groaning. 

Tulips, Harbingers Of Spring

Neither of us could believe that yesterday was already a Friday, as the days, weeks, months, and seasons seem to fly by.  Where did January, New Year's, Christmas and Thanksgiving go? Did they happen?  I made it to yoga, as usual, a nice variety of yoga positions and took the long cut home, avoiding the potholes before and after the bridge.  After class, I decided to wash my car, at the self-wash place, just before Wegmans.  Since I was that far, I stopped in Wegman's and picked up a few things we probably didn't need but maybe wanted, like French Vanilla ice cream and six teriyaki shrimp sushi rolls for lunch. 

When I got home, Evie had made some cauliflower soup with the leftovers from a potato and cauliflower Indian dish we had the night before.  Nothing like sushi for lunch with soup.  The rest of the afternoon was a blur, as I never did make it outside for a walk nor did Evie.  We both felt like sloths but that was not enough to get us up off the couch.

Late Friday Afternoon Fishing

Around 5:00, however, Evie got busy, putting together what has become my favorite dinner, scallops in a lemon and butter sauce over linguini.  It involves searing the scallops, taking them out of the pan and making a dry vermouth/butter/lemon sauce with shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes and topped off with some cream.  Meanwhile, I did my part, washing up a few dishes and timing the linguini noodles.  Evie then combines the noodles, the sauce and finishes it with the scallops and we have a great dinner, with a salad.  And to top off the great dinner, we watched a movie from 2007 we really liked called HALF NELSON, perhaps Ryan Gosling's first starring role.  He's a charismatic and independent history teacher in an inner city school.  He's also addicted to drugs and forms a touching relationship with one of his female students.  He helps her with her single mother, drug dealing friend and she acts as a friend to his addicted self.  Both Gosling and the young girl, Shareeka Epps, are superb, believable and honest.  We ended the evening with another hour of chatter from the skating experts before we were able to watch a couple of the men in the figure skating finals.  Nathan Chen finally lived up to his hype, with a superhuman effort, moving him from 17th to a 5th place finish.  We also watched a thrilling cross-country race and one-speed skating race before hanging it up.

JOHNNY CASH: ROBERT HILBURN

This is one of the many Johnny Cash biographies but also the most recent. It begins with Johnny's growing up in Dyess, Arkansas,  literally picking cotton to survive.  He turns to music early in his life, much to his father's dismay who always thought Johnnie would be a failure,  His career is waylaid for three years when he joins the service and is posted to Europe.  It's an important part in his growth as a musician, helping him to see the world.  He returns to marry his high school girlfriend and begins his career in music, hoping to get someone to listen to his music, to record his songs.  His first few years are hardscrabble.  He quickly has children, eventually four daughters before divorcing and marrying singer June Carter.  We quickly realize Johnniy's genius is his ability to write songs and sing them with feeling, with a sense of truth.  His career begins with his Folson Prison album
and his career continues to build through the 1950's and 1960's.  In the 1970's, he moves into movies, then has his own TV show, becoming probably the most famous country singer ever.  Despite his TV and movies, he seems to always be on tour, in the US and even Europe where he also becomes wildly popular.

 His life, despite its success, is one fall after another, either to booze, drugs or women, not an unusual story for a musician who is always on the road, needs the adulation of an audience, and cannot control his temptations.  Through it all, he remains a devout Christian, a good friend of Billy Graham, albeit a guilt-ridden on. He and June travel to the Holy Land many times and make a film about the life of Jesus Christ. He finally has a son with June Carter, John Cash, which seems to restart his life.  His life is not only one of musical greatness but also personal grief, loneliness, faith, and redemption.  And as I mentioned, he pays a heavy price for his success with his drugs and alcohol. Although he loses his audience in much of the 1980's,  it was encouraging to see Cash's resurgence as an artist in the 1990's as if he was rediscovered.  His 'American Recordings' allbum of songs by Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and London Wainwright would win a Grammy and a new, young rock audience.

The book bogs down in the last third, as we get tired of his drugs, trashing of hotel rooms, and broken relationships with agents,  band members, and family.  Still, it's worth reading if you are a Cash fan.

Fog And Rain And Another Month Of Winter

Fog At  6:57

7:52

7:56

It's 7:00 and the fog is so heavy I cannot see beyond the shoreline, Long Point has completely disappeared.  I assume there will be no fishermen today.  It's already in the 40's and will warm up even more next week.  Let's hope the warming trend does not ruin the Winter Fest in Mayville with its ice castle.  I just looked up and the fog has dissipated, Long Point is visible, the lake a large skating pond.  And, I noticed a fishing shanty just off of Long Point, a gathering off of Bootey Bay.

A Melting Snow Castle

Yesterday was another wet one, drizzle off and on, cloudy skies, potholes in the road, just another winter day in February.  I went to another crowded yoga class at 10:00 and Danielle is back, having recovered from a 36-hour flu.  She was very grateful to be back, healthy again.  I was tempted to get a coffee but resisted the temptation like a good boy.  When I got home, Evie put together the marinade for our Indian butter chicken, then headed to Mayville for a doctor's appointment.  I had a half of a leftover sub from Wednesday, so that was lunch along with some TV, still Bloodline. 

Chugging Out To Fish At 2:30 In The Afternoon

Not much happened the rest of the afternoon as I was not interested in trying to ski or even hike, just stayed inside, listening to the outrage, a result of the terrible shooting in Florida.  When Evie got home, I helped bring in the groceries, as she stopped at Tops to pick up a few things for dinner.  We relaxed, watched TV, and read the rest of the afternoon.  And though I was bored, I just sat on my couch, too lazy to go for a walk.  Evie put together our dinner around 5:30, searing the chicken, making the tomato gravy, putting everything together and letting it bake.  We had our late afternoon ritual of wine, as the fog rolled in the sky began to darken.

Fog Arrives At Dusk

The chicken tikka masala, with warmed naan, along with the Indian spiced cauliflower/potato dish was great, and a salad, of course.  We watched a couple of episodes of a 'hot Netflix series' called The End of the F****** World.  Great title.  After two episodes, we both decided that it might not be our cup of tea, however, the background music great.  Evie already googled the musical score and is making an Apple music playlist.  So we switched to the Olympics and were bored to death as we waited and waited for the action but mostly received commentary. One would think that after a day of activities, they would have lots of events stacked up, ready to view.  But no, it was a  tedious night of waiting, enough to make me forget about watching it tonight. 

Warming And Melting

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7:29

7:30

It's a gray morning, the lake no longer a white vastness, rather more like a slick, gray skating rink as the warm temperatures begin to melt the snow on the roofs, yards, lake, parking lots, etc.  It's already 45º at 7:00.  No fishing huts in view at the moment but I heard, then saw a snowmobile cruise down the middle of the lake around 6:30.  On his way to work or home from a rendezvous?

Valentine's Day was not much different for us.  I began the day with another small yoga class, just four of us but it was good.  Afterwards, I went to Aldi's because Evie had read the ads and there were a number of items that looked worth the trip, like scallops, pineapples, and staples like bananas and onions.  First,  I stopped at Wegmans's with a bag filled with coins, dropped them in the machine that counts them for you and I went home with eighty bucks.  I felt rich so I ordered a Danny sub at the deli for lunch, then headed across the street to Aldi's, newly renovated but it looks pretty much the same, just a bit larger.  Since its renovation, the parking lot seems much more busy as people are catching on to its lower prices and with the closing of Sam's Club, it will only get more crowded and busy.

Dogs Follow 4x4

Lunch, then was easy, a half of a sub, the other half for today.  We had our typical afternoon of hanging inside for the most part and were glued to the TV from 2:30 on because of another school shooting in Florida (the deadliest since Sandy Hook), the 8th school shooting since January 1st, the 30th mass shooting in 2018.  Just another day in the US, with lots of prayers but no action from our cowardly legislatures.  I wonder about the hype, the wall to wall news coverage, as to whether that contributes to these crazies out there seeking fame.  I know, guns don't kill people, people do with semi-automatic rifles!

A Melting Lake At 4:30

Around 4:30, I needed to get outside, so I walked out to the slushy lake, decided it would be better in the woods, so I tromped around the Woodlawn Victoria woods for forty-five minutes.  I should have skied because there was enough snow to ski.  Still, it was nice to get outside in the 40º weather, the sun lighting the woods.

February In The Woods

Late Afternoon Of Long Shadows

For Valentines Day,  I took Evie to her favorite Wednesday evening spot, the Viking Club.  It was crowded and busy, so much so we couldn't get a seat at the bar but Evie noticed a couple who live in Maple Springs and they asked us to join them at a table.  We have talked with them a couple of previous visits and Henry aka Rocky, we found out later, is an avid fisherman and gave Evie advice on how to catch fish this past summer.  In fact, he had been out fishing Wednesday morning, off of Long Point and with a friend, went home with over ninety perch and bluegill.  They gave them to an Amish friend who was working next door to their house.  They are in the process of selling their Pittsburgh house and moving to Maple Springs full time.  We encouraged it.  Wednesday at 7:00 they have a drawing for the Queen Of Hearts. The jackpot was up to five grand so everyone was excited and went crazy when a regular, John, the dock maker from Mayville, won the drawing.  We talked to him later and he's going to use the money to take his daughter and her family to Austria, to see where his ancestors came from.

We were home by 8:30, in time to see the Olympics but it was frustrating as a number of events were cancelled so much of the coverage was listening to the anchors talk as we waited for one ice skating team after another, a boring night of TV.  I went up to bed early, as I am into my next book, RED SPARROW.  And I read this morning that somehow we missed Mikaela Shiffrin's Gold in the Giant Slalom, the only event we wanted to see.  Rats.

Six O'Clock Rising

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7:41

I have not been up this early for quite awhile and forgot how dark it can be until we get near summer. It's already a toasty 36º, 30º warmer than yesterday at this time, and I have yet to see a fisherman or four-wheeler on the lake.  They will come. And they did, a four-wheeler at 6:45 and now, at 7:00, I count ten shanties or bucket boys out on the lake.

Yesterday began with frigid temperatures but by the time I got out on the lake to cross-country ski mid-afternoon, it had warmed up into the 30's.  I had to scrape the frost off both the inside and outside of my windshield before driving to a yoga class at 9:00, a pain.  Class went quickly, a good sign and Julie, our teacher, told me about how she takes a route to the studio which avoids the potholes by the bridge.  I had never thought of going that way but did on the way home, via Ramsey Road and Carpenter Pringle, which takes longer but does avoid the potholes.  Cool beans.

When I got home, Evie was at rest, as her sciatica has returned.  Thus, most of the day, she took it easy, avoiding anything that might strain her hip/back.  It's frustrating because she is unable to either workout or cross-country ski.  Lunch was a couple of fried eggs on grits and sausage, with some leftover homefries. Yum.  The rest of the afternoon was taken up with watching some Bloodline, finishing my book, napping, and waiting for Huckabee Sander's press conference.  Hilarious.

Late Afternoon Skiing

Around 4:00, I went out to ski, wondering again what the conditions would be like because it had warmed up.  It was surprisingly good, so I skied down to Whitney Bay and back, enjoying just being on the lake.  The only rough spot was where the snowmobiles had made ice tracks on the lake, and it was rough skiing over the ice.  I keep saying this may be my last day to ski on the lake but yesterday may have been that day as today it's supposed to get up in the high 40's if not 50.

Fishing In The Middle Of The Lake, Off Of Prendergast Point

Both of us had been craving a pizza and a salad, so Evie ordered a pizza from Coppola's in Bemus and I drove over to pick it up at 5:30, checking to see if any renovation was being done on the Hare N Hound but it still sits there, ravaged by a fire.  At least it's been sold.  When I got home, we relaxed as the afternoon waned, with a glass of wine, listening to more of the same, breaking news which is not breaking.

The pizza and salad were perfect, with a Pepsi, of course, and we watched a silly episode of Black Harbor, once again DVRing the Olympics so we could race throuh the commercials.  Around 7:30, I heard a strange noise on the lake, went out on the front porch, and saw the blue blinking light of the Police boat on the lake.  It enables the emergency crew to move on ice as well as water.  They beached the boat at the entrance to Victoria Road, about a couple hundred yards from our house.  We could not see what was going on but could hear laughing so we assumed it was not something serious, probably a call about a fisherman who was missing but turned up.  At least that's what we hoped had happned.

Emergency Ice Boat Parked At Victoria

We then turned to the Olympics and had to wait till after 10:00 to see Sean White's exciting final run on the Halfpipe, as he won an unprecedented third Gold Medal.  It was exciting to see someone hit the final run, knowing that he had to pull off a perfect run to win the Gold Medal.  I was not too enthused about watching the Winter Olympics but the last two nights have been exciting, certainly worth watching.  Afterwards, I started a new book, also a recent film, RED SPARROW.  It's set in Russia, a CIA thriller.  So far, so good.

DEAD IRISH: JOHN LESCROART

The first in Lescroart's Dismas Hardy series.  Dismas has been at a loss for a number of years, putting in time as a bartender despite having been a cop and a lawyer.  The suicide of Eddie Cochran, the son in law of Moses, the bar's owner, leads Dismas to investigate the suicide, whether it might something else like murder, which would allow Fanny, Eddie's wife, insurance money.  The trail leads towards Eddie's work, to a Boss involved in a drug deal gone wrong, to an owner of a Latino newspaper.  Both are dead ends eventually and Dismas must look to those close to Eddie's family.  With the counsel of the local Catholic priest Father Cavanaugh, Dismas figures out the killer.