2/21/12 MORE ABOUT ICE, A MUDDY DOG, AND "CONTACT YOUR DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY IF..."

Tuesday, 8:00 AM.  32 degrees, wind WSW, light. It is a densely foggy morning.  Everything is covered with a frosty snow, and the roads are slippery.  The barometer predicts snow.  The pilleated woodpeckers were calling raucously, seemingly carrying on a heated discussion with the crows.
      A few days ago I discussed the phenomenon of ice melting and/or migrating so quickly in the  channel between Bayfield and Madeline Island that it was difficult to perceive or understand what was actually happening.  Blog reader Pat Weeden of Weedengraphics,com has been good enough to contact me regarding time-lapse photography that he has been recording of Bayfield ice conditions using the Seagull Bay Motel live web cam.  From what he has seen studying the resulting videos, the ice does indeed melt very quickly and also often blows away quickly as an ice sheet.  To quote him exactly:
      "In Friday's [video] there is definitely ice drifting in the afternoon, so we now have evidence of both melting and drifting in the same week.  [It] is pretty neat to watch"
      The the link to videos he sent me are presented here with his permission, and they were very interesting. I was not able to  upload them to the blog directly.

"WHO, ME?"

ICE WATCH

SNOW ON ROSE HIPS

FROZEN FOUNTAINGRASS

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oslQgnPervw
            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToMAZwEgZ6U
            http:///www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFJvirUK-/WE
            See Comments, below, for more info from Pat.

Buddy was a bad dog again yesterday, disappearing for an hour or so when we were practicing "stay" and "come" off leash.  He returned covered with mud and unabashedly happy and proud of himself.  I needed a shower anyway so we took one together. He eventually got clean but pretty much everything else got wet and dirty.  Daughter Greta the dog trainer says I am expecting way too much of him, too soon.  No more off the leash, and save up for a shock collar.  Anyway, he sure knows how to have a good time at my expense.
         I used to be somewhat embarrassed by the Viagra adds on TV but have come to the conclusion they are mostly just insipid.  Like the one with the guy driving his Sixties muscle car across the dessert and it overheats and he stops and gets a bottle of designer drinking water, opens the hood and pours the water in the radiator, solving his "problem."  These adds always have a cautionary comment, " Contact your doctor immediately if...(you know the rest)".
    This add should caution the viewer, "Contact your doctor immediately if you have third degree scald burns due to being stupid enough to open the cap on a  steaming radiator."