The lakes are starting to freeze over

It's December and also December weather. The "mercury" dropped into the freezing range last night at about six p.m. and has been there for the last 27 hours. I guess it's staying there the rest of the week. To test my cold weather resilience I went for a brisk walk around Lake Como - and I mean brisk. The lake surface was still mostly water, but the photo - taken on the northwest side of the lake - clearly shows the freezing line. The ice comes out from the shore towards the center. By tomorrow the whole surface may be captured. Or, at least, by the weekend.



I took the photos in a hurry, because the wind was blowing and there was a definite wind chill. The mallards are still swimming around - often in pairs - but their swimming surface will be turning hard sometime soon. They won't be happy about that. These two were much closer to shore when I started to get my camera out, but they swam away from me. I must have looked hungry.



I did see a biker pedaling around the lake, possibly a pleasure rider, but one with a parka on. I should have taken a picture.

Tennis continued at Wooddale. One of the players was ailing and absent, so we played a three person game that I learned at the Dude Ranch in Tucson. It's a better game than the typical "cut throat" game that usually erupts when you have three players. It's more of a singles game with the side with two players trading off on every point. It works pretty well and is pretty close to a real singles competition.

Then I went to Yang's for Singapore Rice Noodles. Very tasty and somehow satisfying to end the day.

A Pair of Mallards

Another September day in November, although it is tending towards October. It was a tad too windy for an excursion to the tennis courts. It was mainly in the 50's and I went to find out if the ducks were still in town. Normally, this time of year most self respecting water birds have taken their act south. These mallards were still feeding at Como Lake this afternoon as I circumnavigated the lake yet again. They had plenty of company, Canada geese and a variety of other duck breeds populated the pond.



I checked out the butterfly garden near the Conservatory, too. Nearly all the color has gone from the site. The fragile flowers are long gone, but there are some plants with a cabbage like appearance that are still thriving. They must be an import from Siberia or the North Slope of Alaska to have come through October in a green frame of mind. There were no butterflies to be seen. But there were people out and about, enjoying Veteran's Day with a walk in the park.

The sports section has been reporting on Andre Agassi's new book where he admits to quite a bit of recreational drug (crystal meth?) use back before he hooked up with Steffi. Apparently he has never liked tennis that much, having been forced into the sport by a pushy, ambitious dad. He had a pretty good career and won a lot of money in the sport, so I suspect he enjoyed himself a little bit. Marat Safin thinks that Andre should give back the money and the titles. Martina also came down pretty hard on the guy. I guess his actions kind of stink, but at least he wasn't using performance enhancing drugs, in fact quite the opposite. He's older now and seems to be doing good things with his money. And he can't be too bad a guy if Steffi still loves him. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt for now.