Wet And Warm

6:54

7:48

It's 7:45 and 50º out, the lake has thawed, the snow has melted and spring has sprung once again.  I am getting used to it.

Monday was a day of transition, from the 8º morning of Sunday, to today's 50º morning.  We got intermittent rain, not exactly the kind of weather that makes you want to get outside and do something.  So, I went to a crowded yoga class, with a couple of other guys who seem to come once or twice a week, as class seems to be more popular to the guys.  I stopped at Ryder's, then had a brief talk with one of the salespersons at Home Depot about washer/dryer combos.  I think I found a couple that are compact enough to fit into our utility room.  Meanwhile, Evie was on the phone with a local appliance store, Acme, and they are willing to come out, look at old washer for sixty bucks, and if they cannot fix it at a reasonable price,  the sixty bucks will go towards a new combo.  So, later today, we are going to drive to Falconer, check in with Acme, then have dinner at a restaurant we really like in Falconer, the Belle Vista, and end the night as our local high school, Chautauqua Lake plays in a regional basketball final at Jamestown Community College's gym.  So things seem to be working out.

Anyways, back to yesterday, as I was home for lunch around 12:30, with leftover Tas kebab, potatoes and brussel sprouts and I finished a Wallander.  My afternoons are predictable I know.  Around 1:30, Evie left for the Y and do some shopping at Sam's Club while I was engrossed in my new book, ONCE WE WERE BROTHERS, recommended by my sisters.  Around 3:30, Evie drove in and I helped bring a boatload of groceries, mostly staples into the house.  At 4:30, we drove to Mayville for a walk through Linda and Ron's new/old house which is coming along nicely.  The walls and roof are up except for their second floor bedroom.  It's amazing how quickly things happen as the old upstairs bedroom was still standing Sunday morning, gone Monday afternoon.

We came home, Evie put the leftover Santa Fe chicken in the oven, and we then sat down and listened to Julie Mason, then CNN, discuss, guess what, Trump's latest tweets.  Is this going to go on for the next four years?  I am afraid so.  For a laugh, we occasionally watch Fox News as well.  And what is 'breaking news' for CNN is rarely mentioned by Fox.

Dinner was great, always better the second night as a leftover.  And we caught up on a couple of series, BILLIONS and BIG LITTLE LIES, neither of which grab us but we will continue to watch them.  BILLIONS seem like a rerun of the previous season and BIG LITTLE LIES has a great cast of female characters but it's overdone, especially the stereotypes.  We ended the night with Vice News, which interviewed a specialist on nuclear weapons who predicted there was a 50% chance a nuclear weapon would be used, most likely by  terrorists on the US in the next 10 years.  This was only one of their depressing news stories.  By the end, we were ready to put guns to our heads!  It was time to get back to my book, set in Poland during the  Holocaust.

A Monday Warm Over

7:04

7:05

7:38

It's another Monday at the frozen (so far) lake.  It's 36º, may get up to the high 40's, melting the remaining snow, thawing the lake again.  The sky is cloudy with a streak of orange just above the Ellery farm, the only light this morning.

Progress Of The Chautauqua Amp

A frigid Sunday did not stop us from enjoying our morning at the Chautauqua Institution.  We did wait until 11:00, so that by the time we left, it was in the 20's.  Fortunately, it was a sunny morning, making our perambulating much more enjoyable.  We first dropped some books off at the Smith Library, then took our usual loop, warm enough with our layers and even mittens for me.  We were the only ones walking and we had to stay off the lake road because the wind was so strong and bitter. After our walk, we did a quick stop at the Lighthouse Grocery to pick up some of their homemade breakfast sausage and a quart of milk.  We then hurried home because we were hungry and Evie could not wait to start frying up the sausage which she formed into patties.  With organic eggs from Ryder's Cup, moka espresso from our Bialetti coffee pot and a bagel, we were happy with our morning, a rigorous walk and a good breakfast.  CBS Sunday morning was our breakfast accompaniment, always worth watching, a respite usually from the absurdity of the Trump Daze.

A Sunny Afternoon

We were house bound the rest of the day, with nothing really different from other Sundays.  We hung out, watching some of the depressing news programs, took sanity breaks, to read or get something done.  And eventually Evie put together our dinner, a Turkish specialty called Tas Kebab, basically a simple stew of meat, tomato paste, Turkish dried pepper (Urfa and Aleppo) and grated allspice.  It sounds too simple but it's one of our favorites, especially in my case, when it's served over mashed potatoes, with a salad and broiled brussel sprouts.  Before dinner, we had our wine time, a glass of two of  La Vieille Ferme, an inexpensive French wine which my buddy, Trout, introduced us to four or five years ago.  Since then, when we visit them in Maine, we always pick up a case or two on our way home, at the New Hampshire Duty Free Shop.  We then hoard it all winter, doling it out in small doses, or saving it for company.

Tulips For Evie

We watched Real Time with Bill Maher, one of his better brazen, egregious but hilarious episodes.  He was thrown off TV after 9/11 and I fear for him again with our present Gang.  We then watched Homeland and I am getting fed up with its side stories, like Carrie's problems with her daughter, or Quinn's recovery.  Get to the story, the espionage, the action and forget about the rest.  I don't watch this thriller to see Carrie agonize over being a good mother.

Sunshine, Blue Skies,Thin Ice, And 7º

Photo By Evie

6:42

A brilliant morning of clear, blue skies, bright sun, frozen lake and frigid (finally) weather...for a DAY.  Tomorrow, the thermometer may hit 50º, the ice and snow will disappear and we will be back where we started a week ago, with spring like weather.  I am getting tired of writing about this.

7:14

Long Point, 7:16

Saturday, like Friday, started out windy and cold, with threatening skies, and snow flurries.  So my trip to the Transfer Station was not much fun, snow hitting my face, temperatures in the teens, biting wind.  And I wanted winter?  We were not sure of what to do as it was so miserable outside.  So we decided to become more miserable and go look at washer/dryer combos at Home Depot and Sears. Both stores, both salespersons were helpful, wanting to help us find the perfect combo.  We found, however, that most if not all machines are taller and deeper than our present machines.  And because we have to put the combos in a closet with our boiler, we don't have enough room for these large machines.  Or they will just fit but make access to our boiler and hot water heater almost impossible. Why is nothing easy, always more expensive then you think?

We finally gave up, gathered our senses, and focused on a quick shopping at Wegman's. It was as crowded as we have ever seen it and it was not even Tuesday when seniors get 5% off.  We did manage to spend over a hundred bucks on a few pantry items.  I wanted to get home to watch a basketball game, Ohio State/Indiana, so I was able to catch part of the second half while I ate my lunch, leftover spaghetti and meatballs.  I soon tired of basketball, so Evie and I switched places, and I finished my Vince Flynn novel, THE LAST MAN, then took a nice nap.

4:12

When I woke, Evie was putting together our dinner of Santa Fe chicken, searing the chicken thighs, adding hominy, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, taco sauce, and green chiles, another one of our go to favorites. Once the chicken was browned, all was put into pot and placed in the oven until it was time to eat. We then enjoyed a glass of wine, as the morning gloom had cleared and the sky was blue with puffy clouds,  the colors reminding both of us of a summer day.  Dinner was fine, enough left for another night.  We watched the newest Jack Reacher movie with Tom Cruise as Jack.  I am more like a Jack Reacher than Tom Cruise, right Patsi.   Jack needs to be someone like Tommy Lee Jones, not a pretty boy.  It was entertaining enough to keep us watching, just.  We then watched the end of the Duke/North Carolina, to end the night.

Why We Believe Obvious Untruths: Fernbach and Sloman

"Knowledge isn’t in my head or in your head. It’s shared."

"We suspect that most of those people expressing outrage (at Trump's rolling back the regulations about dumping mining waste in to our water ways) lacked the detailed knowledge necessary to assess the policy. We also suspect that many in Congress who voted for the rollback were equally in the dark. But people seemed pretty confident."

"Such collective delusions illustrate both the power and the deep flaw of human thinking. It is remarkable that large groups of people can coalesce around a common belief when few of them individually possess the requisite knowledge to support it." 

"It also can prompt us to demand expertise and nuanced analysis from our leaders, which is the only tried and true way to make effective policy. A better understanding of how little is actually inside our own heads would serve us well."

A Winter Morning Light

8:14

Winter seems to have returned to our area for a few days. It's 16º, a rough, wild winter lake, a yard with a couple inches of snow.  It does not make me want to get outside and do something.  Rather, stay warm and comfortable inside, with Evie, also up, with our coffees and NPR.  Not a bad way to start the weekend.

Yesterday was a miserable day weather wise.  It snowed on and off, was face biting cold, and the roads were sloppy.  I made it to yoga, however, braving the weather, like anyone who lives around this area and works.  Yoga was of six but good.  I missed class only once this week.  I then got a cup of coffee, then drove off to Sears, to get a four wheel alignment from Sears.  Since our flat, the car tended to pull, so I took advantage of my life time alignment contract with Sears.  While they worked on my car, I checked out washing machines at Sears.  Our washer seems to be dead and getting someone to check it over, then fix it, may equal the cost of a new one.  The news, of course is not good.  We cannot just buy a washer and set our old but still working dryer on top.  They have changed the sizes, the way they sit, so we have to buy both.  Typical.  I expressed my pique, then headed back to pick up my car.  We may just get our washer/dryer somewhere else.

4:15

When I got home, Evie had gotten out some soup from the freezer and was heating it up.  And I had half of a sub sandwich leftover from the day before.  So I was happy with a hot, nourishing bowl of black bean soup and a sub.  And I watched he first half of another Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh.  The rest of the afternoon was our typical, reading some, trying to nap, watching TV, waiting for more 'Breaking News' on CNN.  Sessions lying has now been eclipsed by Pence's use of a private email.  Wowser.  I don't think I can take four more years of this.  Mid afternoon, the sun came out, the sky turned blue, and our moods changed as the day waned.

Ellery Farm at 4:26

Fortunately, we were being taken away from the 'fake news', as we were meeting Linda and Ron for a fish fry at Seezurh House in Bemus Point.  It was good to be back at our old standby restaurant for the past 36 years.  The four of us ordered the fish fry and both Ron and my fish were hanging over the side of our plates.  We got an update on the progress of their new house, which took us back to the days when we were rebuilding and having to make one decision after another.  We are glad it's them and not us having to do it.  We were home by 8:00, an early night out I  guess, and we watched some news, Colbert and Corden before going up to read before falling asleep.

Ditch The Kayaks, Get Out The Snow Shovels

6:17

7:17

7:37

It's 7:20 and I have been up for an hour, on a chilly 16º morning, the lake partially frozen, the front yard snow covered, a few snowflakes falling.  The weather goods obviously cannot make up their minds whether it's winter or spring.  I vote to continue winter, please.

Yesterday, we woke up in Buffalo, enjoyed the breakfast coffee at our Hampton, then went to Evie's doctor's appointment.  They then sent her to another doctor, a TMJ specialist and ordered a few more tests.  Once we finished with the doctors, we did some shopping before heading home.  We have been wanting new lampshades, so we stopped atTarget and Pier One with no luck, so we decided to browse Pattons,  a lamp store in Fredonia. We ended up at Walmart first, as Evie was looking for some picture frames to match those in our house.  We just happened to walk by the lamp shade aisle and found just what we wanted, no doubt at a quarter of the price of what we might have found at Pattons.  We cannot drive through Fredonia with out stopping at Tuscany, a great Italian deli with all kinds of kitchenware.  I ordered a sub while Evie browsed all the cool stuff.  We drove home the long way, along #20, passing miles and miles of vineyards before arriving home around 2:30.

5:58 pm

It was so nice to be back in our home, with our lake view, the gray sky opening to touches of buff and blue.  We did not feel much like accomplishing anything other than putting together a dinner.  So Evie got out some frozen meatballs, added a sauce and we had an easy dinner.  She baked them in the oven while we had our wine time, listening to the pundits go crazy over the 'dazed and recused' Jeff Sessions, his lying or or truth telling, a white wash or witch hunt depending on your politics.

We had a salad with our spaghetti and meatballs and watched the first two episodes of HBO's BIG LITTLE LIES.   Set in upscale Monterrey, CA, we get glimpses of the back biting, gossipy smallness of the wealthy, cappuccino drinking, yoga attending moms.  It's decent not great.  We ended with a boring Stephen Colbert, as we are tiring of the political jokes or it was just an off day.

Not Much Of A View

6:45 Dawn

Well, I am sitting in the lounge of a Hampton Inn, Buffalo, enjoying the breakfast.  It's cold and windy outside, as I look at the parking lot, Mc Donald's, gas stations, and other business,  not quite a sunrise on Chautauqua Lake.  It's 23º, a 30º drop from yesterday, windy, with the possibility of light snow as winter returns to the area for a few days.

Yesterday's morning was typical, as I was up and out of the house by 9:30, for yoga class at 10:00, always fun but more difficult then usual.  I stopped for coffee at Ryders Cup, picked up some eggs and came home.  I moved the cars around because of the strong winds, then had my lunch, a potato/tomato fritata and watched the end of of a Wallander.  That was it for a our typical day.

Chautauqua Lake, Wednesday Afternoon

Since Evie had an early doctor's appointment in Buffalo on Thursday morning, and it was supposed to snow during the night and morning, we decided to make it a fun afternoon and morning, stay in the Hampton, next to the Galleria Mall, get in some shopping and go out to dinner.  So we left around 3:00, thinking we could enjoy some shopping then eat.  That was until Evie started not feeling well, and I lost my mojo, so we just hung out in our room, depressing, watching TV 'with commercials' and had a lovely dinner from Mickey D's, quarter pounders, fries, Sprite and Cherry cream pies. I will say one thing; our brief stay made us appreciate our house and we cannot wait to get back to the lake.

Dusk From Our Hampton Inn

The good news is Evie feels better this morning.  We had plans to do some things this morning in Buffalo after Evie's appointment, but I think we will just  head home, stop in Fredonia, and do a little lampshade shopping, then go home.  Sounds good.

Clouds, Rain, And Snow Cometh

6:34

7:08

7:20

Lots of  gray clouds this morning, a bank of them moving above Long Point, from south to north.  A few drops of rain on a 56º morning.  And I am listening to Morning Joe interview Mike Pence go gaga over Trump's speech, constantly referring to his 'broad shoulders, big heart.'  Interesting.   It's now 7:20 and instead of a sunrise, we got a pouring rain, pounding on our roof, as the fog rolled in.  And, finally, in today's Writer's Almanac, the poet Marge Piercy, in her poem "My time in better dresses, " described how her first boss, hated by the staff,  'sucked on his power like a piece of candy.'  What a great line.

Yesterday was another unexceptional day, regular and normal, the way we like them I suppose.  I did make it to yoga, surprise, a decent class of six, then a coffee at Ryder's and home.  Evie, meanwhile, was going through our washing machine guide, trying to figure out what was wrong with our machine.  She obviously has her father's DNA, who could fix anything.  She may have isolated the problem, a belt and will order it from Sears, view the video on how to replace it, and see if it works. If not, she can send it back and we will have to call a repairman or buy a new machine, alas.  It's nice to have a 'handy woman' for a wife.  Less you think I don't do anything...I do pay the bills.

I had a lunch of chicken and rice, put together by Evie from leftovers and watched some TV and read and napped.  Evie made herself go to the gym though it was the last thing she wanted to do, stopped at the grocery store and was home by 3:30.  We both relaxed, watched some TV before dinner and wine time.

5:58 PM

After we watched the last fishing boat disappear behind Long Point, it was time to fix dinner.  Evie fried up some haddock fillets, some home fries, and made coleslaw.  And I made some tartar sauce, to accompany the fish.  We then watched a movie, based on the great book, BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALF TIME WALK.  It's difficult to make a good movie and rarely does the movie stand up to the book.  And it was true of this film.  It was a decent remake, but the cliches, the attempts to tug on the strings of our heart, were obvious and unnecessary.  I would give it a C+, mostly because I loved the book.  Neither the book nor the film paints a very nice picture of us, Americans, who have no idea what it's like to be at war.  "Thank you for your service" becomes not only a cliche but an insult.   Read the book.