no boats yet

This is the pier at Beaver Island State Park, still clogged with ice. It was near this pier that I met a man who had ice fishing gear in his vehicle. He was ready to go on the ice. He took a large, pointed stick and poked at the ice to determine how solid it was. Some of it was solid, but, at places not far from the solid spots, the ice was already starting to turn to mush in the warm air.
When I left the pier and got on the boardwalk at the beach, I saw a man who was dressed from head to toe in waterproof gear walking on the beach. He pushed a metal detector device in one hand and he held some sort of collector in his other hand. Apparently, he was searching for coins or some other sort of treasure. He seemed very intent on his task. A dog was frolicking not too far away. His human had to call several time before the dog returned to join the human and another dog.

ice picture

Here is a bush that was covered by ice... almost as if the raindrops were frozen in space and time... instead of running off of the branches, as they would during warmer times.

Ice Storms

On Sunday night, the freezing rain came and the trees looked as if they had been encased in ice. The branches glittered and glowed, almost as if they were glass.
When I saw the apple tree in front of the house for the first time, it was early in the morning and the sun had not yet risen. In the dark, the branches glittered even more. The recently fallen snow sparkled beneath the partial moon with colors... the spectrum breaking apart beneath the faint light.
Beneath the thin layer of snow was ice...
... This ice had fallen everywhere...
... causing branches to fall in streets and yards... electrical wires came down... many people stayed at home while others went out onto the treacherous roadway... and there were more car accidents than usual.
It was a holiday, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day.
It was cold, very cold... a good day to stay indoors and to reflect on civil rights and human rights. ... on Iraq and Afghanistan and Colombia and Guantanamo...
and on things closer to home, too...