Winter walks

The cat wasn't very excited about venturing outside.  She stood at the door, assessed the temperature and came back inside.  The dog barked the whole time.  A second time yielded the same results so I took the dog outside.  The polar plunge (-16 C this morning) didn't seem to bother him but then he has two layers of fur and well padded paws.  When I brought him back inside, the cat was now ready to go out, although she was soon back up at the window sill meowing to come in.

It's another weird winter.  It got quite cold the first half of December.  We had an inordinate amount of snow but then as Christmas approached the temperature warmed up and a big thaw was underway.  By New Year's Day the snow was almost all gone and the temperature a balmy +12 C.  Another false Spring.  We were warned it would get cold again but judging by the two-week forecast it will be short lived.  By next Wednesday temps will be back on the plus side again.

This is all part of the climate change taking place.  Climatologists wisely dropped the term global warming but deniers point to any polar plunge as proof positive there is no change taking place. It's a tiresome "debate" that occurs every year. 

However, the cold snaps are increasingly short lived as one can see from the receding glaciers around the world.  The US warmed up immediately after its Christmas polar plunge with Denver seeing a 70 degree Fahrenheit temperature swing in a matter of days.   This has opened up the Arctic Circle not just to oil drilling but to beaver infestation.  Scientists believe all their pond making is accelerating climate change, as the busy beavers reshape the landscape into a more hospitable environment for other animals.  All this added marshy surface increases heat levels apparently.

Personally, I could do with warmer winters.  I never have liked the cold, although the snow shoveling is good exercise given I'm pretty lazy in winter.  I keep meaning to get back into my exercise routine but have yet to do so.  I was happy to see that Netflix is offering several options, so might give that a try.  I had been collecting some new exercises on Pinterest as I was bored with my old ones.

Mostly I walk.  I don't gain much weight over winter, maybe 5 kilograms, but I do start to feel sluggish so need some activity.  The other day my wife wanted some new Jonas Mekas stamps.  I trudged over the to the post office to buy two sheets.  One for us and one for our Lithuanian friends in Los Angeles.  She was on the phone with Saulė the night before and Balys said he was collecting Lithuanian stamps, so Daina figured he would like the Mekas stamps.

I've been collecting stamps from all over the world for years.  I was really happy when we visited Lviv some years back. The Ukrainian post office had a wonderful selection of commemorative stamps at inexpensive prices.  I bought a whole bunch of stamps.  I still want the Russian warship stamp but prices have gone through the roof on this one.  I saw that our local post office had a Lithuanian warship stamp but not the same thing.  I settled for a Russian warship magnet.

I also go to the book store a lot.  There is a really nice one, Eureka!, on University St. that has a wide selection of books in English.  The owner is a fun lady whom I have gotten to know over the years.  She also produces t-shirts of literary figures, like Charles Bukowski and Allen Ginsburg, which I have bought.  I picked out another paperback of David Sedaris.  A colleague had given me Calypso for Christmas, which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

No idea how many steps I get in as I haven't connected the health app on my new I-phone.  I was getting around 8,000 steps before so figure that hasn't changed much.  Sedaris had a funny story of how he became obsessed with his fitbit, although I believe he stretched his story into fantasy when he claimed he reached 65,000 steps in a day.  That would be close to 50 kilometers at my pace.  I'm happy with 5 or 6 km. per day.

Daina wants to walk more herself so the other day we decided to walk through Kalnų park after having lunch at the reopened kiosk at the base of Castle Hill.  The Vilnia River trickling over the rocky bed.  The kiosk had laid dormant for many years.  It used to serve ice cream and coffee (pretty bad coffee my wife said) but it has been made into a fancy little restaurant with a simple menu.  I had the eggplant parmigiana while she had the Swedish meatballs.  We splurged and had a glass of Pinot Noir with the meals.   

The wine made it difficult to get through the rest of the day at the office.  Around three we were both craving a nap.  It was a pretty slow week for us.  We didn't have anything pressing.  We could have just as easily gone home but Daina wanted to wrap up a contract for a potential client so we gutted it through the workday.  I was working on a little tea house for a client.  He had called me over the holidays from Austria with the specifications.

Hard to say how 2023 will turn but so far it seems promising.  The sun is out.  The cat is curled up on my lap.  The dog also seems to have taken a nap as I don't hear any noise downstairs.  We do need to concentrate on work.  Get off to a good start.  Mostly I want to write little stories like David Sedaris writes.  Ones that capture a mood or a feeling, not get bogged down in politics and entertainment, which I'm prone to do.  I told Daina this would be a great way to capture our family history.  We'll see how it goes.