What to do when it's cold and snowless... Ice skate! (Doh!)

I was out of town this past weekend, so I guess I have a good excuse.

I was also preoccupied: I traveled to attend the NAHBS---the North
American Handmade Bicycle Show.

I was both covering the show for my media company, volunteering for
their media company, and selling my bike luggage. And seeing all those
sweet bikes for the first time...and meeting the friendly bike freak
people! It was my first "big show" in decades. It was great to get out
of the house!

But our recent loss of snow was accompanied by a cold snap over the
weekend.

That might mean misery for some.

I confess that I was wondering what the heck to do now that we had
such weather.

The day I got home I went for a jog (with the kids) and did some
outdoor weights, for lack of anything else to do.

Then it struck me.

ICE SKATING OUTDOORS!

I had simply forgotten due to the weekend's distractions.

I realized that at 15 deg F that our big local lake would be skatable.

I called a friend and we met out at the lake this morning before the
reported warm-up of the day occurred.

I also kept my 8-yr-old daughter out of school!

She just started to skate this year and loves it best of all winter
activities. And she hadn't had a chance to skate on a big lake yet.
What a nice "first" for a kid to experience!

So she got to miss the first hour or two of class. The lake was
gorgeous. Bumpy, but full of pretty cracks and patterns and rumbling
and booming with expansion cracks. It was sunny and cold. We had great
fun. I suppose my friend would've preferred that I speed-skate around
the 3-mile perimeter with him---and that would've been fun. But I had
an important person to assist!

Nordic skates would've been nice---to smooth out the lumps with their
rocker.

Tomorrow morning might be the LAST possible morning to skate. My pal
reports that a flooded woodsy swamp behind his house has nice smooth
ice among the trees. It should be cold enough again tomorrow morning.
My daughter just might get to miss early class TWO days in a
row! : )

After that it's 40's by day, 30's at night...bye-bye, ice!

--JP