We checked the clock and the flag early this morning and there's little change from last night except it may be a little slushier. Hard to tell from a distance. The top two photos were taken last night around 7 o'clock, the bottom ones this morning.
The ice is still solidly attached to the Barre Avenue shore, but right by Homer's you can see in this picture how the ice is cracked and melting.

Our ticket logger, Ros, told me this morning there are about 3, 455 tickets still in the running. All others have had earlier dates or were ineligible due to errors or omissions. We try to check the tickets as they come in to be sure everything is filled out properly, but during those last frantic days before the closing date, we simply cannot check every single one, and by then it's pretty much too late to contact anyone to get any problem straightened out. Diane and I made lots of phone calls this year to let people know they'd goofed up their tickets somehow, and most we were able to resolve. We were unable to contact some, or we left messages and had no response.

Back to the weather and other stuff we can't control. We are getting a steady drizzly rain today with lots of fog. The thermometer is reading pretty close to 50 degrees. I didn't hear heavy rain last night, and I measured .60 in. of precipitation this morning, but we had an e-mail from David Covell a few minutes ago saying there's a heap of water going over the dam. The level didn't seem to be awfully high when we were at Homer's this morning, but it is higher than normal. I guess it's about time to check out the water level at Walter Ruf's - that's a better guide since we have the top of his cement wall to go by. We'll try to do that soon, if there's a break in the rain. We would walk down - not a good idea to take the car out unless you have to these days. I timed it this morning and it took me about 18 minutes to drive from Homer's home. We met a couple of vehicles as we were coming back and they were not slowing for those bumps at all. I don't see how they can stay on the road, and wonder that they have a car left after a few trips. I sure don't want to pound my car like that.

We also spotted a pair of ducks visiting at Bill and Diane Rossi's. Aren't they nice? They were right beside the road when we first spotted them, but then headed down the driveway to where there was a little puddle in back of the tool shed. We didn't bother them further, so perhaps they will spend the day there. There isn't much open water along the west shore, but perhaps they were looking for food - like in Diane's flower beds, maybe?

I tried to get a picture of a partridge on our front lawn this morning, but by the time I got the camera, it was gone. They like to forage under the apple trees for whatever the squirrels and deer leave behind. I haven't seen the usual flock of turkeys going through. They usually stop under the apple trees, too, but not for long. They seem to always be on the move.