Dec 23 - the plot thickens

... or is that the ice that's thickening ?

We have about 3" of ice out front, as of my last check which was mid-day on the 23rd. The temperature is showing 0F outside again this morning on the internet, however my trusty indoor-outdoor thermometer is showing a balmy 6F. I expect that the ice will be creeping towards 4" thick as of this morning, perhaps not. With no snow, there's nothing to insulate and the ice accumulates quickly.

3" of ice is enough for walking. 4" is enough for the ATC's. Several years ago, in fact it was more than several, Sandy and I walked to the Lodge with 3-4" of ice on the lake. That was Sandy's first trip to the cottage, before Jeffrey was born. David and Stef were in Montreal and we came up for a couple of days.

The ice thickness out front is only part of the story, however. From the ice out front you can see open water in both directions -- towards Smiths Bay and towards the ESS Narrows. I've never seen it frozen over at the Narrows, too much current. There's been enough wind, however, that both areas have stayed open. No matter, we'll do our playing out front.

I got out the ice auger and drilled a couple of holes, putting out the ice fishing rigs. I knew that it was probably a waste of time but oh well. With all that open water, are the fish going to be cruising here under the ice ? Do fish eat worms at this time of year ? I had worms so it was worth trying. I'll get them out there again this a.m.

I've got a satellite signal strength of 44 right now. Sandy helped me do some tweaking, sitting here at the computer reading off the signal using the walkie-talkie while I was up there making minor adjustments. We got the then-38 up to 47 but of course the signal strength at any given point of time is hugely dependent on the weather and the quality of the air. Yesterday at this time I had a 45 but it's a waste of time comparing two different days or even two different hours.

Did I do anything else significant yesterday ? No, not that I can think of. Oh, one minor thing -- Sandy's been using the elliptical trainer (yay!) and I tried it myself the other day. I increased the resistance and used the arm pieces too and it started squeaking. I did some dismantling, found the source of the squeak, tightened those bolts.

As in other days, I got on the bike trainer for a while -- 20 minutes; the elliptical for 10 minutes; lifted weights on the bench and did some chin-ups in the workroom from the bar that I suspended in there. I've never had much upper body strength but I'm working on it ! I didn't like the elliptical at first but I've developed a run-on-the-spot approach to using it so it's not too bad.

The only thing that I find is that it's like running with my legs spread. I measured the distance from center-to-pedal on the bicycle and the distance from center to extreme inside of the elliptical foot pad and it's about the same. Of course I cannot keep my foot jammed against the side of the foot pad so I'm probably jogging with my legs spread an extra inch apart on each side. It's low impact though and good cross training.

Sandy was busy wrapping up the wrapping. I've still got one present to wrap -- hers. She also started food prep, making pastry for pie.

Mariadela called yesterday as well as Angelika.

Angelika had news -- she won a Mediterranean cruise leaving from Lisbon ! She's going in the spring, bringing a friend of hers. They have to pay their own airfare but apparently the cruise has a retail value of 13k -- she even has her own butler !

I think that's about it ... oh, since today is Christmas Eve, I've got Mass in town at 2pm.

Jeffrey, Sara and Emma leave this morning for Chesapeake Beach MD to celebrate with Sara's Mom and Sister. They leave there on the 26th, heading here via an overnight at Stef's, I believe. David, Kim and Megan will be coming here late on the 28th -- based on my last conversation with David -- or on the 29th -- based on Sandy's conversation with Kim :). We haven't heard from Stef but assume that they are getting together with Aaron's Dad etc. on Christmas Day.

We are having a very quiet Christmas by ourselves. At this point, with Jim and Bonnie down south, we're the last cottage with people, on the road. I think that the Ysseldyk's are also in southern Ontario at this point, so the nearest people would be Bain's, assuming that they're in. The Stillars, cottage #1, would be the only other possibility for people on the road.

Heck, when we used to come up for weekends when David and Stef were small (and once when Sandy was 7 months pregnant !), we were the only ones on the road because it wasn't plowed. No one lived here permanently then. I think when Sandy was pregnant we were able to drive to the top of our driveway. Before that, we had to park at 522 and walk in, 2 miles in the dark, following a Skidoo track pulling our food on a toboggan. What's worse ... the cottage was COLD. I had to cut a hole in the ice to get water ! No telephone, no internet ... how did we ever survive ?

Dinner, yes, we had dinner. Sandy made a chicken recipe with and Indian sauce and rice. I didn't even have to warm up the grill.

Onward ...