Fog And Ice

6:40

7:00

7:00

7:10

I was up around 6:30 to a heavy fog on the lake, so heavy I could hardly see past our lake wall.  And the sunrise appeared only after the sun rose high above the shoreline  Even now at 7:42, the fog remains heavy, obscuring any activity on the lake.  It remains cold, 19º, but today looks fine, blue skies, some sun, a high around 30º.

Fishing Huts Off Of Long Point

Yesterday remained cold most of the day, with occasional sleet or light snow flakes filling the air, hardly sticking to the ground.  Our morning routine always stays the same on Saturdays, clean the refrigerator, go around the house looking for trash, occasionally, like yesterday morning, cleaning out a closet and organizing it before I head off to the Transfer Station with a car full of trash and garbage, a kind tidying up I suppose.  Afterwards, I wanted to get some exercise, so we drove to Mayville, hoping to have a great walk through the woods of Webb's Trail.  It was, alas, rough and uneven, with frozen areas where we would sink through the ice.  We made it to Morris Road and back though it was not the fun hike we had hoped for and just a couple of miles.  We stopped at the Lighthouse Grocery for a sub sandwich, did some browsing, then headed home to enjoy lunch, an assorted sub sandwich, with chips and a Pepsi.

Neither one of us did much the rest of the afternoon, Evie having lost her mojo, deciding not to go to the gym,  And I was happy to listen to music, watch the Kansas/Iowa State basketball game later afternoon, after some reading and a great nap...nothing like a good nap, one in which we wake up energized.  Evie had no need to do any prepping because I was taking her out for a good dinner.  We were not sure which one of our favorite restaurants to the north to go to.  So we decided on the just opened, after a couple of month vacation, Brazil's in Westfield.  We wanted to sit at the bar but we were not sure if any seats would be available.  When we got there, not only was the bar packed (and they now take reservations for seats at the bar), but the restaurant was booked for another hour.

Happy At Rocco's In Fredonia, NY

Reluctantly, we left and headed east on a cold, light snow filled night, driving another 17 miles to Fredonia, to our other favorite, Rocco's.  And, happily, there were lots of empty seats at the bar and Rocco, the owner was more than happy to hear we wanted to stay at the bar because there were lots of people waiting for tables.  After almost an hour of driving, we were finally happy and Rocco's was the better choice.  I ordered the Steak Diane with mashed potatoes and snow peas and Evie had her usual, a leaning tower of eggplant with tomato sauce.  Both dishes were extraordinarily good and we wonder why we go any place else when we want a meal other than a burger or wings with fries.  That's how good Rocco's is.  And Rocco was surprisingly talkative, telling us all about his life, having lived in California for 13 years before deciding to come up to Fredonia and buy Rocco's in 2000.  And, like many small business owners, he complained how the Cuomo government has made it difficult for his business to survive because of required wage hikes.  He's an interesting, self assured guy, doing well enough in a dying area.  We also met the owners of The Brick Room, the other highly recommended restaurant in Fredonia.  He was very talkative, a good friend of Rocco's and told us we ought to try his place.  We may but it will be  hard to pass up Rocco's.  Our ride home, through the darkness and back roads of Chautauqua County, was no problem, just a few snowflakes, and no icy roads or black ice.

We were home by 9:45, in time to watch the third episode of HOUSE CARDS and we discover that Lady Macbeth has nothing over the snakelike Claire Underwood.   I am now reading Colm Toibin's BROOKLYN, highly recommended but I am a bit bored by it and I am at least 100 pages into it.  I will stay the course!

Remembering Pat Conroy With Our Copy Of His Southern Cookbook

A Chilly Saturday Morning

6:41

6:42

7:54

It's 8:00 and I have been up since 6:30, to a gray sky, a white lake, and 18º.  Evie is up as well, as we are listening to NPR as Only A Game, my other Saturday favorite, has just ended.  We both were saddened to read that one of our favorite novelists, Pat Conroy, author of THE GREAT SANTINI and THE PRINCE OF TIDES, died yesterday.  We both read a couple of his obituaries, not realizing the extent of his troubled family (four of his siblings have tried to commit suicide) and early life (a violent, cruel, and abusive father).  It, however, led to his success as a novelist as he suggests below:

“One of the greatest gifts you can get as a writer is to be born into an unhappy family.  “I could not have been born into a better one. I don’t have to look very far for melodrama. It’s all right there.”

Hunkering Down To Stay Warm

Yesterday was as expected, a day of blue skies and sun, guaranteed to give pause to the winter blues most of us are beginning to feel.  It's a sign of spring, however evanescent, of the warming weather to come.  After a leisurely morning of listening to the radio, drinking a couple of cups of coffee, eating breakfast and doing some reading, I drove off, stopping first at Ryder's Cup for coffee, then in Celeron, near the Chadakoin outlet, where the lake is open and the Canadian geese gather.  

Open Lake In Celeron

Celeron's Lighthouse

I then dropped off my tax information to my tax guy on Main Street in Jamestown.  Downtown was busy, the snow melting along the sidewalks, water dripping off the roofs.  I then stopped at Wegman's to pick up a few things for a pizza we are making on Sunday, then the bank to cash a check, then home.   Lunch was leftover spaghetti and the last episode of NARCOS.  Not a happy ending as Pablo Escobar ends up escaping the DEA and Colombian military police. 

Walking In Victoria

Evie left at 1:00 for the Y and to return some things to Sam's Club, getting home around 3:30 with a rotisserie chicken from Sam's, just in case we wanted to stay home Friday night, rather than go out to eat as we had planned.   I decided to see how my knee held up so I walked the Woodlawn/Victoria Woods on a sunny late afternoon (it was fine).  Well, we both were happy to stay home, to enjoy the sunset, along with some appetizers and a Manhattan before having a chicken dinner with asparagus and mashed potatoes.   We then watched a couple of episodes of HOUSE OF CARDS on Netflix, the real reason for our staying home.  Francis is up to his usual tricks and though Claire, the First Lady, left him at the end of Season Three, he has coerced her into returning, with threats and promises, none of which he will keep.

One of Pat Conroy's least known novel but our favorite is THE WATER IS WIDE, where Conroy sets down his experiences teaching a group of impoverished black students on Daufuskie Island, off the South Carolina coast near Hilton Head.  It was made into a film called Conrack, starring Jon Voight in 1974.

Another Inch Of Snow

7:02

Icy Trees at Long Point 

Surprised to see the white outside after yesterday, when the snow from the two previous days began to disappear.  It was not much more than a dusting but it painted everything white again.  It 21º at the moment, overcast but fairly bright, the lake luminescent, a few fishing shacks out early on the lake. And when I walked out to get the paper in the snow, I could hear sounds of spring, the chirping of various birds, the ratatat of a wood pecker.

I am taking the next few days off from yoga, like yesterday, to get my knee back to normal.  So I had a boring morning, starting with Evie and me doing up the dishes from the previous night's dinner, lots of glasses which I take great care to dry so they don't mark.  It was the first day in a long, long time where I did not leave the house, did not drive somewhere, except for breakfast in Bemus with the guys.  I forgot about that.  But after that, after the dishes, I stayed inside the house for the day, no walking, no yoga, no shopping, just housebound, with my book, the TV, and myself.  Boring.  I found myself waiting for lunchtime, so I had something to do, NARCOS, to watch.  Then it was time to read, nap, wake up and then I had to wait until 5:00, when it was wine time,  From then on, things went more quickly, a dinner of leftover chicken marabella, with a delicious side of garlic spinach.  And then, after dinner,  we watched Real Time with Bill Maher, but I also have a  confession to make:  after the first two questions to the Republican candidates in the Great Debate, I switched the channel to American Idol, and we watched that for the next hour.  I guess I am becoming Joey Bimbo, with a beer and the boob tube, enjoying junk TV, ignoring the politics of day. It was great.

For Evie, yesterday was her usual, getting things cleaned and organized in the morning, then a drive to the Lakewood Y, then some shopping at Sam's Club, browsing through the just arrived summer clothes, filling her cart with possibilities, most of which she will return.  But there's always a gold nugget among the dirt.

Today, Friday, is a big day as the third season of Netflix's HOUSE OF CARDS is now available, all twelve episodes.  Time to either binge watch or parcel out the episodes, perhaps two a night over the next week of so.  And we also have two DVD's ready to watch, ROOM  and STEVE JOBS.  What would we do in the evenings without Netflix?  Maybe read, talk with each other?  We will never know because we have Netflix.

Today I will be dropping my taxes off at my accountant's office in Jamestown (my accountant sounds important), as I am too lazy to do it myself.  And I will probably have a stop at Wegman's on the way home,  then pick up a book on hold at at the Ashville Library, and giving Libby, the library's cat, some attention.  Something to look forward to.

Sunny and 10º

6:20

6:42

7:14

7:20

Up at 6:30 to a surprise, a blue sky, a strip of orange along the horizon and now, a great sunrise just over Tom's Point.  It's cold outside, a 10º, when I got my paper.  And it's not been the best of mornings so far.  As I was getting a gallon milk out of the refrigerator for my coffee, another jar started to fall. I grabbed it and dropped the milk, spilling it all over the kitchen floor.  Evie was still sleeping so I was able to clean it up before she got up.  What an idiot!

Sea Gulls Over Lake Erie

Barcelona Beach On Lake Erie

Yesterday was a different sort of day as I have decided to take a couple of days off from yoga because one of my knees is bothering me.  I either strained something at yoga or when I went hiking or skiing.  Rest, Advil, and China-Gel, a new version of the analgesic Tiger Balm helps it.  It was a snowy morning, quite beautiful to be honest but I felt like doing something different.  And I have been known to drive a long way for something special, in this case, a potato pancake at the just reopened Jack's Barcelona Drive In.  So I drove off  to Barcelona, on the coast of Lake Erie, in a snowfall, taking my time, knowing the snow would stop in a half hour.  It didn't.  I was excited to see Lake Erie but it was so windy, with a wet snow, that I could hardly stand on the beach, as the wind whipped the snow on my face.  The ice is gone, the beaches are bare, except for rocks and driftwood, the lake brown, with white caps.

Jack's Now Open

I then walked into Jack's, one table of four, a table of one, and ordered the potato pancake. Unfortunately, they did not have applesauce which was disappointing but I ordered it anyways, with sour cream.  It was not as good as I remembered, when I had it with my daughter Beth last summer, when we went rock hunting.  Probably because of the lack of applesauce, the pancake seemed dry and not as tasty.  I then drove down to the Barcelona pier, watched the swooping sea gulls, then drove to Westfield, and browsed the neat Patterson Library, picking up a DVD, the newest film about Steve Jobs.

Au Revoir, Lake Erie

I was home at noon, and the kitchen looked as though Evie had been busy, which she was because she wanted to get dinner for last evenings guests prepped and ready before they arrived.  So the bread had risen, the chicken with olives and prunes was cooked, ready to be heated for dinner.  And she was ready to drive off to Lakewood for her workout, Wonder Woman.  I, of course, was a feeble helper, cleaning up the kitchen and vacuuming the downstairs, both tasks I can handle with some degree of sophistication.  I then had lunch, watched another episode of NARCOS, did some readng and took a catnap before Evie came home. The rest of the afternoon, we relaxed or got things ready for dinner.  I went outside and shoveled what little snow had fallen on our parking area which felt good.  Fresh air.

Winter Dinner With Friends

The Heinz's and Volker's, both buddies from the breakfast club arrived at 6:00 on the dot.  We have had the Heinz's over before but not the Volkers.  We settled in the living room for an hour, with our various libations, enjoyed appetizers, and a soup Evie made, kind of a rich garlic and mushroom soup, tasty and warming.  We then had a great dinner, Chicken Marbella, from 1980's Silver Palate cookbook, along with a salad, with homemade onion straws, rice, and homemade bread.  After dinner, we enjoyed coffee, tea and ice box pudding for dessert.  And then the fun began, as Evie got out her iPad and started playing music from Apple Music Library.  Someone would mention their favorite tune and Evie would find it, then play it.  The favorite of the night was Amanda Marshall's "Sunday Morning After," about a women who wakes up from a wild night out with a snake tattoo and a pierced tongue.  It's not only a good song, but hilarious, country music at its best.  Other favorites were Frank Sinatra's "I've Got You Under My Skin,"  Jackson's Browne's'" The Load-Out,' and Bob Dylan and Johnie Cash's "Girl From North Country."  They stayed until just after 10:00.  We were too tired to get the dishes done but did some minor cleaning up.  Bed felt awfully good after a busy day, a  fun evening.

Woodpeckers In The Morning

A Light Touch Of Morning White

7:09

9:10

I was up at 7:00, to a dusting of snow, white returned to the yard and roofs at least for today.  Heavy winds last night and today, lots of branches and twigs down, and it's cold again, 18º.  Yesterday, I heard geese, and Dave, one of the regulars at Ryder's Cup in Lakewood, saw a flock of snow geese flying north.  Either they know what's going on or they are going to be surprised by no open waters. He also mentioned something I did not realize, that some Canadian geese spend the winter in the Chadakoin River's outlet because it never freezes over.

Not much change yesterday, just more of the same, typical for winters here at the lake.  The snow, for the most part, had disappeared, the temperatures were in the 40's, and I went to a good yoga class at 9:30, then stopped at Ryder's for a coffee and on to Wegmans to pick up a few things.

Lunch was easy, making a couple delicious pork schnitzel sandwiches, with mayo and tomatoes,  on sourdough bread and heating up soup.  I am in to NARCOS, so it's nice to have a series to look forward to each afternoon, even if the violence, the result of the drug cartels, is amoral; they will kill anyone, any age, at any time to make a point.  Scary. I am really enjoying a new crime writer, C. J. Box's BADLANDS, set in North Dakota, in a small town overrun by a fracking boom in their state.
I can think of worst things then spending an afternoon reading it.

Smoke, Not Fog, Over Wells Bay

Evie returned around 3:30 feeling good from her workout.  We both then did little the rest of the afternoon until dinner time.  I did notice smoke off towards Wells Bay, even smelled it when I went outside, a result of someone burning brush.  Around 6:30, Evie got out some of her homemade meatballs from the freezer, added some pasta sauce, heated noodles, made a salad, and we had a substantial and easy dinner.  We watched the second week of BETTER CALL SAUL, a bit disappointing but better than listening to the burgeoning success of the Drumpf campaign, as he's one step closer to the nomination although Cruz's winning three states is scarier.

We are so out of touch with a good part of the American voters and their preference for a zealot like Cruz, a demagogue like Drumpf that we wonder what kind of country we are living in.  These are good people, mostly white, unhappy with their lives, their jobs, the changes they have seen in the US over the past fifty years.

"Homecoming"

It's always nice to come home, be home, as we constantly remind ourselves."

"Homecoming"  From SUNDIAL OF THE SEASONS: BY HAL BORLAND

"More than half the pleasure of going is in the return, as any traveler knows.  To go, to see the far place, the place beyond the horizon, is exciting; but to return is satisfying as few other things can ever be.  To know after absence the familiar street and road and village and house is to know again the satisfaction of home.

Few of us are that kind of traveler who can be at home forever away from home.  The new, the strange and the different have their lure, but one needs a place to call his own.  One needs to belong somewhere, to feel the roots, however tenuous, of identity with place.  Home, we call it, whether it be a room or a house or an apartment, a farm or a plot of grass or a well-known street or park.  Home, where one can feel and touch and see and find comfort in familiar things.  The place where one belongs.

Man, being man and an ambulatory creature with a degree of restlessness in his blood, must be up and gone from time to time.  He must go, if only to assure himself that the horizon has no boundary.  He must move from here to yonder, if only to know that he is neither slave nor prisoner.  What are hills for, if not to have a farther side?  And what is the purpose of that distant rim of sky if not to lure a man beyond his own small orbit?  But once one has gone, one must come back.


And that is the final satisfaction of a trip, whether it is a vacation or just a journey -- the return itself.  The homecoming.  The trip back, and the home at the end.  To go is good, but to come back is best."

And finally, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in."  Robert Frost

A Crisp Morning Of 23º

7:50

Still Out There Fishing

I was not awake until 7:00 and was surprised to see so much light in our bedroom.  The days are getting longer, as we move towards the spring equinox (March 20th).  It looks like a rainy day, high of 50º but tomorrow, snow is predicted and a high of 20º, as the weather gods cannot make up their minds.  And for the first time in weeks, I heard the honking of geese off in the distance.  Spring has sprung for them.

Yesterday was our typical Monday, a good yoga class with Danielle, who had just returned the night before from traveling through Italy and Croatia.  She looked surprisingly chipper for having just gotten off a long flight.  Class was small, unusual for a Monday but good.  I skipped a coffee, wanting to get home.  Evie was busy, as always, straightening and organizing, making lists, planning dinners, and prepping for our dinner for last night, pork schnitzel.

Since we are having two couples over for dinner on Wednesday, Evie decided to combine a big shopping day, a brief stop at the hairdresser for a trim, with a workout, so she was gone by 12:30, just as I was sitting down to a lunch of leftover pizza and cauliflower soup, an interesting combination of Italian and Indian flavors.  The rest of the afternoon was my usual, watching an episode of NARCOS, reading, taking a nap, and trying to decide whether to take a walk or not.  I vetoed the idea and just stayed home alone, until Evie arrived with mega groceries, which I helped bring in and put away.  We decided to eat earlier than usual, around 6:15, so Evie fried the schnitzel, made a salad, and baked some red potatoes for our dinner.  We were both really hungry so we devoured the pork schnitzel, leaving just enough for a sandwich for me for lunch.

We watched what we think is one of the best series on regular TV, American Crime.  It's about a school, teenagers, parents, intolerance, and ultimately violence in the school.  And each part of last night's episodes was prefaced by an interview with survivor's of Columbine or other types of violence.  It was amazing, something that should be watched by teachers, students, and parents.  Then, as a change of pace, we watched John Oliver skewer Donald Trump unlike anything we have seen before.  Everyone is posting it on Facebook.  Oliver's writers have alleged that Trump's ancestors changed their name from Drumpf to Trump, so Oliver has started a crusade to change Trump's name back to Drumpf, arguing it's more appropriate for the Donald.  You can, for example, send in for a hat that says, "Make America Drumpf Again." Hilarious.  Of course, nothing is going to stop Drumpf's nomination because the people who should be watching this show are at Drumpf rallies, ready to vote for him.  We finished the night with some DVR-ed American Idol, a full night of TV.