For years I kept journals -- in composition, spiral bound, and French graph paper books. This blog is an attempt to get back to writing and documenting the world around me using photos, newspaper headlines, and other articles.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

On thick ice

We have spent the past two afternoons on the ice.  Yesterday it was mostly cloudy and without wind.  The temperature must have been hovering around the freezing mark.  When we left at 1:15, we didn't anticipate being outdoors for too long.  Surely, we would be back around 3:00 in plenty of time to cook the Indian dinner that Heather had planned.

Earlier in the week, Amy and Jero had shoveled a patch of the lake outside their house so that it was free of snow and great for skating.  When we were out there, Heather and Amy enlarged the space.  Selim and Jacob played ice hockey with a tennis ball since nobody could find a puck.





That worked for a while until some random dog showed up and thought that the ball was his.  Frozen with dog slobber, we had to put the ball away for a bit.



When Robert arrived, he was able to keep the dog at bay and the game resumed.






At 3:00 we did a time check.  Realizing that we were having too much fun to leave, Heather mentally shifted the menu and decided to stick around for a bit more.  At 3:30 she left and Jero arrived.  Joshua got a little sad after his mom left, but he recovered.





The multiple cars gave us options for coming and going.  It meant that the bigger boys could stay out for more hockey.






The cold started to seep in through the jackets, wet gloves and snow pants by 4:00.  It was time to get off the ice.  We had spent way more time that we had planned on and nobody was sorry about it.



We piled back in the cars and made it back to Mom and Robert's before Todd and Jen arrived for dinner.  Heather made a delicious Indian meal of dal, a potato, paneer and pea curry to go with brown rice.  While that was delicious, the mango lassis were the hit of the night for the boys.  Clearly, I need to find canned mango pulp so that we can make them at home.



Today we went back to the frozen lake.  The sun was shining and it was about 35 degrees.  But the wind was whipping over the ice.  It felt so much colder.  Selim had enough of my picture taking, so I turned my attention to my nephew.  Heather, Robert and Joshua got there 1/2 hour or so after Amy, Jero, the boys and I.  Joshua fell asleep in the car.  He didn't wake up when Heather got him out of his car seat, nor when we put him in the sled, nor when she pushed him across the ice.




He didn't wake up to watch the drilling on the ice to test the thickness.  The ice was thicker than the 8 1/2 inch drill bit because they drilled as far as the bit could go and still they didn't get down to water.








He was still asleep when they started playing hockey.






When he did stir, he wasn't ready to get on the ice.  He needed a bit more snuggle time.



Meanwhile, I was curled up on a sled, keeping my tush dry, one scarf inside my jacket and another wrapped around my chin.



Eventually he did join the game and I got up as well.








We didn't last as long today.  By 3:45 we were pulling the sleds with our gear back to the cars.  Another successful afternoon on the ice.


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