Thin Ice

Last evening, I ran for the first time in several weeks. It took me a long time to decide whether I was going to be "responsible" with my running time by studying Italian vocabulary on a treadmill, or if I was going to to break free from that type of academic discipline and enjoy the almost 50-degree weather by running outside. In the end, the lack of shoe quality at home (my home "running" shoes are worn out, and keep losing foam from the inside of the heel because the cloth covering the foam is worn through) directed me to running inside on a treadmill. I think I learned a lot of vocabulary...! And I still enjoyed my run.

However, the weather these days keeps getting more and more beautiful. The birds are singing, I can often leave the house without five minutes of preparation (coats, hats, gloves, scarf wrapped just right,...), and the world sounds refreshed and newly alive to itself.

Yet as it warms up, the ice fishers who persist in venturing out onto Lake Mendota - where the ice is visibly thin! - boggle my mind in their audacity. Perhaps they know more about the behavior of ice than I do, but they seem to be challenging nature's course by continuing to go out there. And seriously - what is the pull of ice fishing, that people want to sit on the ice with a string through a hole in it?! Someone please explain that to me.

Speaking of fish - as Brandon and I walked in a park on Sunday, we crossed a bridge that was over a rather shallow creek. I've never seen so many dead fish suspended in ice (or on top of it, in some cases) in my life. That will probably be a very smelly area once the ice melts all the way.

Anyway - I hope everyone is enjoying the weather in their area, and that it's at least as beautiful as it is here! How are you experiencing spring?