An appointment I had for this morning took me to Clear Lake to show a home. Before I left the office, I decided to take my camera. After my appointment was finished, I decided to take a few photos of the lake. When I walked out to the shoreline, I began hearing strange deep echoing noises coming from what sounded like it was coming from a far distance. I at that moment realized it was that strange occurrence when lakes a rivers enter their hard freeze. The more I listened to it, the more creepy it sounded. It was almost like someone or something was making the noises under water. The sun was out but not clear due to the very high clouds. It wasn’t so windy as the previous days but still very cold. There was someone picking up chunks of ice from the shoreline and placing them in some sort of cart. Perhaps he was going to use them for the celebration Clear Lake was having this evening with their “Christmas on the Lake”. I did take about a half hour stroll down Main Street and peeked in a few shop windows. I was comparing their street scape with Mason City’s and I find similarities as well as marked differences. I have decided that I really don’t like diagonal parking due to the difficulties of watching for cars coming as well as the quirky way of having to pull out of the parking place. I know we loose parking spaces when diagonal is not in use, but there seems to be more of an open street for traffic movement. I can see in the not so near future, Mason City having a centralized parking ramp for people who work in the offices and stores. From baby steps we can sometimes create world class runners with the tools, foresight and non-stop encouragement. My day was capped off with a belly laugh of one of my dear clients telling me about a family who always had a big cast iron frying pan half full of lard on the stove. I envisioned again that bubbling, boiling, spitting and spattering grease all over the kitchen walls, cabinets and counter-tops. People from the temperate zones always ask what we do in these months of Winter. Well, we have ourselves a change of not only a physical and mental, but also spiritual change from within. That is how it works when you have finally understood the essence of Winter.
P.S. If you want to see a bigger view of my photo of Clear Lake, click on the image.
