Bright winter's day. High 11. Almost pleasant walking around—out of the moderate wind that was blowing. But Pax seemed to be in a hurry, and it might have been to get home.
Lots of color at the bird feeder today: black, grey, brown, plus red, white, and blue—if you count the snow. And, of course, the squirrels, who are now resigned to scavenging what the avians spill.
This is reminiscent of last year.
Apart from stocking up on groceries, and 10 gallons of flowing-well water (perfect water being necessry to a serious coffee snob), we basiclly hunkered down. Both Pax and I found walking painful, so we didn't do that much of it.
But, somehow, the day flew by, and most of the things on the to-do list remained undone.
I did say a lot of prayers.
Irene brought us a prayer wheel from Tibet, and I have found it quite addictive. The most minute movement keeps the drum (and its enclosed scrolls) spinning, and once it is spinning, a medatative state of mind quickly follows.
Om mani padme hum.
Along with a fierce wind and deepening cold. The birds are chewing through seed at a prodigious rate.
A neighborhood confab this morning as everyone was out clearing drives and walks. I managed to get the blower going just as work was finishing up—this machine requires patience first try after lying idle most of a year.
Over to Nik's this evening for dinner with Nik, Der, Ru, and Jeremy. Good converstation and good food.
Continuing the clarinet practice, although it is turning out to be slower and more painful than anticipated. The bars below gave me a lot of trouble at first, but I think I've finally mastered them, so progress is being made.
Enough to ruin the ice, and require shoveling. When shoveling, I often wonder if there is an optimum pattern that, with the least amount of effort or distance, would result in a clear driveway. In spite of much experimentation, the objective, while close, has not yet been achieved.
Walking the prairie today we observed a flock of what looked like sparrows leapfrogging through the tallgrass. When a hawk flew over they went to ground among the bluestem. But once the coast was clear, they continued on their merry way, twittering softly. Then, at some other perceived threat (perhaps Pax) , the whole group exploded out of the grass and vanished into the aspens.
They seemed to be having such a great time I wanted to join them. Maybe next time around.
What do you do when you have a sheet of glass ice but not enough wind to lift a feather? Go skating and sliding, lie on the ice and look at bubbles and bottom weeds, and then have lunch in the lakeside bar, with video games and some cueball pool.
Here is some of yesterday's ride, courtesy of Eric Compas:
And here are 3 short videos of Kids On Ice, courtesy of Mimi:
On Pewaukee Lake. And great wind. Brian and Tony each got in 2 races (we won't mention the results at this time.) I got to take James and Eric, (the bicyclists who rode from Wisconsin to New York via Kagawong) for two very fast rides each. And we all came in to the lakeside bar for lunch just in time to see Wisconsin win its bowl game against Auburn.
More photos and video may be forthcoming. Thanks to Tony for the above shot.
...Christmas in Canada. (It's actually a lot colder here than on Manitoulin.) This morning, wave after wave of sparrows came undulating in to the bird feeders, and at one time there may have been 50 birds on the feeders and on the ground. But these sparows are flightly, the whole flock exploding at once, for no apparent reason, and disppearing into the shrubbery, only to come swooping back moments later.
So unpleasant outide today that even Pax was anxious to cut the walking crap and get back into something more hospitable.
We spent the morning in Tibet, on an Irene guided tour, where it was also cold. Facsinating place, but not really where I'd choose to live, if I had a choice. Irene spent a number of nights sleeping on a pallet with well-below-freezing wind whistling into the 'dorm', then sharing a thermos of warm water with her three other dorm mates for her morning ablutions.
Funerals are interesting, if the one Irene showed us is representative; place the body on a canoe-like float, light it on fire, and send it down the river. (Perhaps they don't realize that we can't all live up-stream.)
Just as Irene was leaving, James picked me up for lunch, at Paddy's Pub in Fort Atkinson, where we shared a pulled-pork taco (talk about ethnic) , and continued discussing ways to turn Whitewater into a good place to live. On our way home we stopped at the Bridge to Nowhere and walked it about half a mile into deadly windchill. By the time we made it back to the car we had designed the world's greatest linear park. (Obviously an archetypical example of brain-freeze.)
You communicate with two entities in a room separate from you, asking questions and evaluating the responses, trying to identify which entity is a computer and which is human. If you can't tell, the machine wins.
Proposed by Alan Turing, the math genius who crcked the German Enigma code, and was, after the war, convicted of homosexuality and given sterilizing drugs which lead to his eventual suicide.
And this is the story of the film Imitation Game which we saw this afternoon with Irene, who, along with Emee and Wasaka are here having a sleepover.
Excellent film.
File photo
Bitter cold again, with a wind-chilling breeze. Which bodes well for iceboating.
Playing with my new Olloclip for iPhone Xmas present. Obviously, not yet mastered, but lots of fun possibilities.
Katy and Will spent the day with us here in Whitewater, and we built, made, and destructed many a thing. After naps (mine with Buddy curled up on my chest), we went to the park, and that was fun in spite of the cold. Twenty degrees is not extreme, but after a while it is noticable, especially when swinging and climbing on steel monkey bars.
Flipping the calendar back a page, here is last night's campout in the Victoria Lane lower level. I told these kids that I had a tough time sleeping when snoring was in the vicinity, but even so, this siesta was loud, like a herd of locusts.
Family get together at Bri and Renee's, replete with 5 grandkids, two dogs, mounds of presents, and lots of delicous food.
Sunny, chilly, windless day, with ice once again on the make.