I bet you all miss seeing a picture of the pallet and flag - actually, the darned thing may still be cruising around out on that ice floe for all I know. We've been too busy today to go down and look, but Diane told me around noon that it was still there although she said she didn't find it right away because it had moved from where she had been seeing it.

The winner is Judy Lavely, of Danville. Judy has ties to Joe's Pond - her brother is Terry Powers (Island Drive). She wasn't really surprised when I called her at work at the Wells River Savings Bank; she said she knew she was close, but of course also knew someone might have been as close or closer. Turns out, there were two picks that were also close, one at 5:17 p.m. and another at 5:37 p.m. Judy will split $9,441.46 with the Joe's Pond Association. Ticket sales were down just a bit from last year ($9,716). Our top year was 2008 when we took in $10,581.70.

This is not the first time the ice has gone out on Easter. As last week progressed and I was making plans for Easter Sunday, I had a nagging feeling the clock would stop just when I had a houseful of company - I was getting that "deja vous" feeling - so I was not at all surprised when, just as we were ready to sit down to ham, parsnips with horseradish and baked potatoes, the phone rang. Fred answered as I was busy getting dishes hot out of the oven. I didn't wait for him to finish the conversation - I just put everything back in the oven because I knew he would have to go and check the situation and take pictures. Same thing happened in 2006 - Easter Sunday with a houseful of dinner guests.

The call had come from Jack LaGue who had happened to stop by Homer's deck and checked the clock. He thought something was wrong with the clock because the pallet was still sitting on the ice. We have been through this many times by now, and know the block doesn't always sink right away. We decided to delay announcing the contest was over until at least after dinner. Once it was posted on the website and blog, apparently the media picked it up, so this morning it was already on WSTJ and WCAX when I called to report it.

I'm glad the clock stopped yesterday, though. Today has been cold with rain and snow showers all day. Tonight we're expecting 2-3 inches of snow which is sort of like getting into winter again, so everything might have frozen up again and the ice watch would have continued. We're ready for spring and lots of blue open water here at Joe's Pond.