I went walking on the lake today. Astounding experience. Surreal. Dazzling sun. I had to squint even with sun glasses on. Crystal black ice, warm breeze, 625 acres of dead flat surface and 500 yards to shore in every direction, not a soul in sight. Fantastic and eerie shapes in places where wind and wave had frozen water in unlikely positions. In several places I saw fox or coyote foot prints crossing the lake in mostly strait lines. Groaning, cracking, creaking, squeaking, pinging, zinging noises moved toward and away from me as the sun warmed the ice and as I added my weight to different places on the lake. Not once did I think about work or other worries.

Solitude, desolation, tranquility. Mother nature's unforgiving fury of the previous night frozen in time and yet also a busy 4 lane highway touching one shore that reminded me how close the madness is.

I noticed that after a couple hours of warming by the sun, that the previously crystal clear black ice started to get clouded by tiny air bubbles in the ice.