Last night’s warm 50 F rain melted about an inch off the top leaving vast expanses of glassy wet ice, a few puddles maybe 1/4 inch deep, and small drain holes, fist size. The varied crystalline structure of the black ice, crystals often a couple of feet across, was accentuated by a haze of fine bubbles. These seem to be caused by sun light as they were much diminished under a marking buoy. The open swimming hole is larger than yesterday, threatening to eat a couple of the marking buoys, which don’t float. It was on a day like this that I took the cover photo on “Think Ice”, a perfect DN reflection. The public beach access is buckling down into a deep puddle for some reason. I felt a bit uneasy on the now only 4 inches of slightly punky but very slippery ice. Coolth is needed.