An 8º And Mostly White Saturday Morning

7:31

9:15

It's hard to tell the sky from the frozen lake this morning as all seems to be white. Light snow is falling and the ice fishermen have been out since 7:00, perhaps earlier. The birds, mostly finches, are literally attacking each other as they fight for the black sunflower seeds in our front window feeder. 

Ice Fishing This Morning

Hungry Birds

These days all seem the same, usually, but yesterday was different because Evie had a doctor's appointment in Jamestown. Much of the morning was the same, however, getting up early, having my coffee, reading, writing the blog, and having breakfast. Once Evie was up, we went through a list of groceries we would need for a couple of upcoming dinners and appetizers for a party tonight at our neighbor's home. Once we had that settled, I went outside and cleaned the snow off the car and shoveled the parking area of three or four inches of light snow.

7:30 This Morning

We left for Jamestown at 11:00 and I dropped Evie off for her appointment and then drove to the UPS store on Foote Avenue and dropped off a couple of returns to Amazon. By the time I was finished and drove back to the doctor's office, Evie was done. We then drove to Wegman's and spent a good amount of time and money on groceries. There's no doubt that it's more expensive to grocery shop, that inflation has affected the price of food yet according to experts, other things are cheaper like TVs and large appliances, things like that but because we shop for groceries at least once a week, we think inflation is hurting our wallets.

We were home later than usual, by 1:00, and I carried all the groceries in while Evie put them away, finding room in the refrigerator for all the items that needed to be kept cold. Lunch was a throwback to the 1950s, fried baloney sandwiches, with pickles and mayo along with soup. Yum It was after lunch that I could not find my keys to the car so we spent the next hour or two, trying to figure out where I put them in the house to no avail. Finally, when I went outside, to get something out of our car, I found them sitting on the passenger seat. How they got there and why they were there, we could not figure out. But I spent the next 15 minutes looking at Apple's air tags which when attached to your keys, keep track of them via an iPhone app if you have lost them. And if you have an Apple Watch like me, I press a button on it, and my iPhone pings so I can always find it. 

Hiking Out Yesterday Afternoon

Pulling His Gear

The rest of the afternoon I was either drowsing or reading or on my computer, waiting for happy hour at 5:30. We had a glass of wine but unfortunately, forgot we had sushi. By 6:30, we were hungry and Evie had the pasta and meatballs heating up in the oven. So with a salad, we had dinner and decided to watch a film based on a P. D. James novel called Children Of Men. It's an apocalyptic novel, set in the future, where women are barren, governments are either fascist or have been overthrown, immigrants are rounded up and deported, and 'patriot groups' rule the suburbs with violence. Sounds familiar, uplifting? Neither one of us liked it much but we stuck with it. On a sad note, we watched the last two episodes of ER, so we watched 15 seasons (331 episodes) over the past couple of months and Evie wondered if we should go back and start again at the beginning because we probably won't remember any of the episodes. That's sort of a joke but both of us will miss it. The series began in 1994 and ended in 2009. Over the years, we watched the series on and off, mostly when George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, and Julianne Marguiles played the main characters,  but never all 15 seasons until recently. Maybe Gray's Anatomy or St. Elsewhere is next but I think we have had enough of life and death in emergency rooms. 

A Few Inches Of Snow Overnight

7:35

8:10

It's another cold, snow-covered morning and 18º. A few ice fishermen were out on the lake by 7:00 when I got up. I will be out in an hour or so and clean off the car, then shovel our parking space again, keeping up with the snow. Fortunately, because it's so cold, the snow is light and fluffy.

Sitting On A Bucket This Morning At 7:30

Thursday was typical for this time of the year. I was up early, by 6:30, had my coffee, wrote most of the blog, and was off to Bemus for breakfast by 7:50. By 9:30, I was home, finished the blog, and was on my way to Yin Yoga. Class, as usual, was crowded but good and I left feeling groovy. While I was gone, Evie noticed that the birds that usually hang out in our rhododendrons, next to the bird feeder had disappeared. She found out why when she looked out the window, into the rhodos and a hawk flew out. The birds are back this morning. 

Ice Fisherman With An Auger

Evie made me tuna sandwiches for lunch, to go along with her veggie soup and I watched The Wire.  Since I was up so early, I napped for almost an hour and then spent most of the afternoon reading my Micheal Connelly novel. It's the first of 37 that he has written, a police procedural with Harry Bosch, taking crime scene photos with Polaroid, writing up his notes on a typewriter. and there's no cell phone! The good old days. I should have taken a hike or cross-country skied but I was too lazy. Mid-afternoon Evie gave me a much-needed shearing so I look presentable, a difficult task. 

Ice Fishing Tent

The afternoon ended on a high note, however, with sushi, appetizers, and a Mannie or two, to celebrate winter late afternoons and early evenings. Dinner was mostly made, spaghetti and meatballs, so all Evie had to do was boil the noodles and make a salad and we had a great dinner. We watched the usual, an ER, the news, and a couple of HGTV shows.

Flurries and 18º

7:35

9:10

It's 7:20 and just becoming light, the sky and lake a fluorescent blue/gray. A few snowflakes are falling although we have gotten little snow compared to the couple of feet, north and east of us in Buffalo, some 75 miles away. It's 9:15 as I finish this and I just returned from breakfast in Bemus Point, driving in flurries. 

Yesterday was a long day because I had some YAG LASER surgery done in the afternoon. The morning was as usual, with cold weather, a frozen lake, the blog, and breakfast. Despite the single digits, I drove to yoga in Lakewood with Tara, joining four others. I was a bit lazy to start but left feeling much more energetic, one of the values of yoga. When I got home, Evie had been busy with bedrooms and needed my help to hang blackout curtains later today. They look neat and tidy although little has changed other than changing sheets and vacuuming. Lunch was the leftover chicken and spinach rice and I watched my show.

I was supposed to be in Warren, PA, my eye doctor's office, a forty-minute drive from here. So we left at 1:30, got there at 2:10 and the waiting room was overflowing with people. The last time I was there I waited over two hours for my procedure and worried the same thing would happen yesterday. As Ralph Waldo Emerson asked, "How much of human life is lost in waiting." I knew it would be at least an hour or more for a two-minute procedure so Evie left and went to Walmart, about five minutes away. I waited to be called until 3:30, got my eye drops, waited another 15 minutes, then was taken into the eye doctor's room, sat in a chair, got a jelly put in my eye, was zapped, and viola, one minute later, my eye was no longer cloudy, the miracle of modern medicine. I guess it was worth the wait. The best part, however, was the ride home, through the beautiful hills and farms of Pennsylvania and New York.

Winterscape

Evie returned literally just as I was done, happy with her shopping at Walmart, the best she's ever been in, clean, with lots of help, and stocked with everything. Oh, yeah, she also stopped at Burger King for a junior whopper, both of our new temptations. We were home by 4;15, ready to relax on the couch with a glass of vino and listen to the news about Trump. What else is there to talk about. And for the first time, fishing tents were out on the lake, just off of Long Point, braving the cold and wind.

First Ice Fishermen Of The Year

Dinner was a pizza from Walmart, not bad, and a salad and we were excited to watch the last episode of Fargo on Hulu and were not disappointed. It's worth watching. And we also watched another episode of ER and have maybe two or three left after 15 seasons. 

3º

6:55

7:56

8:16

It's  7:30 and I have been up for over an hour, watching the sky change. It's cold out there when I walk out on the porch for a photo of the morning sky. I just noticed the birds are finally up at the feeder, seemingly waiting for morning light. And we finally are getting woodpeckers and junco at the feeder along with many other species. I am surprised that I have yet to see an ice fisherman out on the lake. Usually, they are out there despite the thin ice and cold.

Breakfasting

Yesterday was not quite as cold as today but we had snow showers on and off in the morning. I was up later than usual which was nice, getting seven hours as opposed to this morning's six. I felt pretty good after coffee and breakfast so I decided to brave the cold weather and snowy roads and go to yoga class in Lakewood.  It was a good choice as the four regulars also made it to class with Courtney. It was a good class and I am glad I went and needed to get out of the house and do something rather than sit around and read. On the way home, I put gas in the car and stopped at Sav A Lot to pick up a few things. I don't know how the store survives because there are never more than five or six people shopping. 

When I returned, I decided to shovel the parking area and have to admit it felt good to be outside, especially when there was no wind. Once that was done, Evie had my lunch ready, a couple of BLTs, and the leftover mac n cheese. I am now on the fifth season of The Wire which unlike the fourth season emphasized the failing Baltimore school system, it emphasizes the troubled, changing newspaper world. 

Afternoon White Out

After lunch, I returned to my Lincoln Lawyer book, Resurrection Walk, and finished it after I napped. I started a new novel, much acclaimed, The Bee Sting, and am not sure about it. So I started Michael Connelly's first Bosch novel, The Black Echo. I will probably stick with both. At 5:00, Evie had her Zoom call with her sisters until 5:45, then relaxed for a bit before finishing up our dinner, chicken thighs with a lemon yogurt sauce and spinach rice.  With a salad, we were content and decided to watch the Emmy's fast-forwarding through many of the boring speeches, the only way to watch them. We ended the night with a really moving ER, as four of the original cast returned briefly. And that was it for the night. 

Lot Of White Stuff

7:16

7:52

The lake, the yard, the trees, and the bird feeder, all are covered with snow. It's warming up some from yesterday's 6º to this morning's 14º. There is a light wind and snow and a winter storm advisory for today.

Yesterday was another day like Sunday, as we basically waited for the Buffalo Bills game to be televised at 4:30, along with the rest of Western New York and Bills fans all over the US. I was up later than usual, had my coffee and breakfast, and wrote the blog and wondered, 'Now what.' Well, I did venture out for a few minutes, started the car and cleared off the snow then came in, realizing it was too cold for a walk.

We then spent much of the morning watching the finches, tufted titmouse, male cardinal, chickadees, nuthatches, and of course, sparrows.  I stayed on the couch reading (still feeling "off") and even fell asleep briefly before lunch. For lunch, I had soup and toasted cheese, finished Season Four of The Wire, and watched the first episode of Season Five, the final season. I must have been tired because I then napped for the second time, read, and by 4:30, we were both ready to watch the Bills play the Steelers in the frigid, northern western New York weather. Evie made us some popcorn and brought me a Pepsi so I was happy. 

The first half was great as the Bills seemed to dominate but then the Steelers got some momentum in the second half and we could not relax until the last few minutes of the game when the Bills scored, giving them a 31-17 lead. Dinner was the leftover Salisbury steak and a salad and we watched a bit of the Emmys. It's kind of funny that the three most awarded shows, Succession, Beef, and The Bear were series we ended up not liking and stopped watching. And so it goes. We ended the night with some ER and football after Evie went up to bed. 

Frozen Lake And 6º

7:40

7:59

It's 8:50 as I start this and I was up at 7:20, sleeping in, sort of. It's a spectacular lake morning, with lots of sun, blue skies, and a white, frozen lake, at least in front of our house.  Off to the north, it's still open.  It looks like I will not be kayaking for a while, but if it warms up a bit, we might be out cross-country skiing once the lake is safe.

Cardinal Feeding

Windblown

Yesterday was a lazy, leisurely, whatever you want to call it kind of Sunday. I was feeling blah, with no energy so my only activity was to clean the snow off the car and quickly shovel the parking area because the temperature was in single digits. So our morning was typical, with a long coffee hour, the blog and breakfast. I am a bit at a loss when I don't have something to do in the morning, like yoga or a hike. So mostly, I read or was on my computer, catching up on various articles in both the NYTimes and Washington Post. Evie, however, was a busy beaver, giving our downstairs bathroom a deep cleaning while I sat around doing nothing. She did take time out to make me breakfast, french toast and it was yummy, with cinnamon and lots of syrup. I am a lucky guy.

Sunday Afternoon Sky

Because the Bills game was moved to today at 4:30, our afternoon was football-free until 4:30 when the Cowboys/Packers playoff game was on. So I got in a good nap and Evie finished with her work and watched some TV. I watched the first half of the Packers game, as they demolished the Cowboys, right from the start. Evie got busy in the kitchen around 5:00 and put together our dinner, a throwback to the 1950s, Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes. We loved it and I even had seconds. We watched two episodes of a series on Hulu called A Murder At The End Of The World. It was pretty intense so two episodes were enough. We then watched some of the Rams/Lions games and ended the night with Hometown, a favorite. Evie then went up to bed but I stayed up and watched the third quarter of the Lions game before having enough football for the day and went up to bed. 

Brief Sun, Blue Skies, And White Out

7:45

7:59

8:14

It's 9:15 as I start this and Evie just came downstairs. I have been sitting here since 7:45, skipped kayaking because of heavy winds, snow, and a lake that's beginning to ice up. So far, it's been cloudy, then sunny with blue skies, then windy, with a snow-blown white out and at the moment, it's cleared up some, with mostly gray skies.

8:19

8:24

Yesterday was not much of a day until the evening when we had dinner at Linda and Ron's. It started out well with a great paddle, as the wind gods took pity on me and calmed down while I was on the lake. I paddled home in sleet but loved it. After the blog and breakfast, we gathered the trash and I was off to the Transfer Station and then Ryders Cup, as I mentioned yesterday, because we had no wifi at home but Ryder's Cup had it. So I sat there for an hour, published the blog, enjoyed some coffee, talked with a few locals, and then headed home around 11:15. 

Hungry Finches

Cardinal

When I returned home, Evie had a pot of her veggie soup simmering on the stove. I was hungry, of course, and fortunately, we still had some tuna and macaroni salad left so that was my lunch, with hard-boiled eggs and tomatoes. It was strange, eating my lunch without the TV on because we still didn't have wifi. It was a long afternoon after lunch but fortunately, I had a good book, a new Michael Connelly, so I was happy, on my couch, occasionally nodding off. I talked with my son, Tom, an avid Kansas City fan and he told me I ought to be able to watch both the Browns and Chiefs game on my phone, using 5G and a Spectrum App. I was able to download it and watched part of it on my phone while Evie listened to it in the living room, the game was narrated by Jimmy Donovan, a Cleveland legend. Around 5:00, we discovered the wifi was back but by then, the Browns were losing badly so we did not watch much of the game. 

By 5:50, we were both showered and ready to drive to Linda and Ron's, through wind and snow and idiots on the road. Fortunately, their house was nice and toasty, with drinks and appetizers. We spent the first hour mourning the loss of our good friend Joe, and two of Linda's good friends' husbands. It's been a bad week. Dinner was shrimp, spinach, and cream pasta with a salad and focaccia. For dessert, Linda made a delicious cake, topped with strawberries and cream, a good way to end the evening.  Because of the weather, we left by 9:15 and the roads were decent despite the heavy winds and blowing snow. We did not linger but went up to bed to read and sleep.