The First Day We Just "Chilled".

After driving across the country in two days, we were plum tuckered out, so our first full day in Rochester, we were glad to just have nothing to do but rest. We sat around in Dan and Jennifer's backyard snacking, then Dan took a nap because he's a manager of a night club and doesn't get home from work until around 4 a.m. Cappy and I were content to cook some Rochester "white hots" and "red hots" on the grill while we watched the kids play badmitton with the largest birdie I've ever seen. Gosh, I think if I wasn't so lazy, even I could have hit that target. To be honest, it wasn't just that I was being lazy (well, I was that) but just look how everyone was dressed in these pictures. It was in the (what I like to call) "late" 50's or "early" 60's.Jennifer and I were frozen. Jennifer had on a big sweater and I was swaddled in an old Army blanket that I carry along to keep warm while in the hotels along the way. (For some reason, out on the tugboats the guys keep the A/C cranked full blast, especially while they are sleeping, so that's how Cappy likes sleeping all the time. It's not enough that he's got the air conditioner on, circulating the icy-cold air across the room, but then has the ceiling fan whirring at high speed, to catch any errant snowflakes and blow them back across the blankets, I guess. The man is pretty clever that way; he says it forces me to snuggle with him to get warm. Gotta love a man like dat.) I was so cold that I went shopping for a coat at J.C. Penney's. I had forgotten what it was like in stores upstate NY this time of year. There were huge rooms chocked full of heavy winter coats, parkas, hats, scarves and mittens. It took me awhile to find what 'Yankees' refer to as a jacket. (I was not in the market for a parka to bring back to South Louisiana.) This duckcloth 'jacket' with corderoy lining is reversible and has a hood. And I wore it too, at times with the hood up over my head, hands jammed in the pockets, wishing I'd bought some of those scarves and mittens, too.