Going batty in Lewiston

This cold weather is not fun.

Kurt Vonnegut promised us 6 seasons. The 4 you expect, Locking and Unlocking being the others.

I fell flat for it, walking Gord on Thursday and cursing about the micro spikes still resting in storage. A week of cold weather tripped my internal clock.

I’m nearly done with Christmas shopping and we bought a tree in Lewiston from Troop 855 in Lewiston Saturday, a full week earlier than usual.

We got a nice 6-foot Fraser fir for $60. Cheaper than most lots or cut your own places and a chance to have a young man demonstrate a tautline hitch as he helped his dad tie it to our Forester.

We also solved a mystery: On the south of Whirlpool State Park a pair of magnificent bat houses have been erected 15-feet in the air atop sturdy, pressure treated.

A plaque high in the air shows it to be an Eagle Scout project. I could also read “Bats over Niagara.”

At Academy Park, we got the answer. Chris Pappal of Sanborn Troop 824 was the Eagle who coordinated the project. His dad Andy was helping with the tree sale Saturday.

Materials were donated by the Niagara Falls Boulevard Home Depot.

After getting our tree, we visited the Niagara Falls Firefighters’ Christmas Toy Telethon. We donated to the basket raffle and came away with a basket. You gotta be in it to win it.

We also hit Niagara Sausage on Lockport Road because Norm the butcher had prepared two pieces of the pork “copa” muscle for me so I can make Cappicola in our attic this winter. This will be my 3rd season of that endeavor.

In the afternoon, we visited North Tonawanda’s 25th annual Winter Walk which was a disappointment.

I love seeing the Riviera thrive, and I like restaurants, but we missed seeing the art galleries. No more Partners in Art or River Gallery. Even though we loved hearing live music, it was a let down when we had been hearing about how NT was hopping. Since we last visited it has definitely taken a step back with too many places to eat and not enough things to see.

We met some friends in front of Figmor after we had cycled through the event, planning to listen to music and wander in the gaiety of the place but we saved them the let down and headed to https://dulcehogarbakeryny.com/ for dinner on Oliver Street.

The Columbian restaurant is definitely worth a visit.