Another cold day with hardly any variation in temperature - mostly in the teens and now 10 above. Tomorrow we're due for a big change, according to the forecast.

I just received some "cool" ice pictures from son, Jamie. He took these from West Shore. He said he was in the vicinity of Drown's and Decker's, and also at Keene's. Further up the pond, near the Wells cottage, he said the ice was white - it apparently hadn't thawed, so it was "old" ice. Isn't nature beautiful? We don't often see the pond with ice that's this clear of snow, and of course this won't last long. If the weather turns warmer, it will get slushy and then we'll probably have snow fall on it and freeze, and that will ruin the glassy surface we see in these pictures. I have no way of knowing how thick the ice is, but I doubt it would hold up much more than a confused duck or goose coming in for a landing.

In the early 1980's when Fred and I were living year around at camp, we had a mostly open winter - lots of cold weather and very little snow. We were able to skate the whole length of the pond with very few rough patches and no snow. We used to sling our hiking boots over our shoulders and skate to what is not Island Drive, then park our skates at the edge of the ice and hike up to the Walden store to get the Sunday papers. We had a wonderful black lab named "Clint" who went with us, but what we hadn't realized was how difficult it would be for him on the ice. He made it up ok, but when we started to come back, he sprinted down the east shore, looking for a better way to cross. Fred had to go after him and carried him home - no easy feat on skates as Clint was a big dog. After that, we left him at home when we went skating. He liked it that way - he stayed clear of ice after that first trip.

I remember skating on the pond with my parents one winter (and only one winter) when I was a kid. There was a strong wind and we took a blanket and used it for a sail. Trouble was, it was a really hard trip skating back against the wind. As I remember, there were a number of skaters out on the pond that time.

I've had more than the usual number of e-greetings this year from people saying they are "going green." I hadn't thought about e-mail greetings as being "green", but I guess that's true. It's a hard choice, though, whether to
send a card, which might help a company struggling to stay in business and also help the postal service, but that costs trees and energy to make and will no doubt end up in a landfill. Kinda takes the fun out of getting a pretty greeting card, doesn't it?

I have often complained when I get a card, no matter how pretty, without any personal message, not even a howdy-do, just a signature. Hardly seems worthwhile. But I know people are busy and don't have time to write much - that's my biggest problem with sending cards, I always tend to write way too much and end up only getting only a few done before Christmas and have to send the rest after the holidays are over. That makes the decision to send e-cards easier, I guess.

This would be a good year to donate the price of sending out cards to a food shelf or use the money to buy a toy to donate to a homeless family. I'm saddened when I hear of kids going hungry and families losing their homes because they can't find work. This isn't the way things should be in our country, but the people in Washington who are supposed to be watching out for the folks who sent them there just don't seem to "get" it. They don't understand the hardships so many people are enduring. It makes me sad and angry and ashamed.