I wanted the final ramble of 2012 to be something notable. Maybe see a great horned owl, a coyote, the town red foxes or a muskrat on the ice.

But sometimes a ramble is just a ramble.

Another gray winter morning with patches of disappearing and graying snow.

The only sign of any wildlife was the cackling of the Canada geese swimming open the lake to the west.

Even the songbirds were kept down by the strong southwest winds.

Ice on the town pond is nearly universally walkable. There are two exceptions.

Under the bridge over the neckdown between the two old clay pits there's a gray slush. And at the old gravel boat launch on the south pit, there's brownish slush over the shallow mud bottom that must hold heat really well.

The other two areas the meathead and I tested were more than firm.

Back in town, I realized the Christmas decorations were still up downtown. Time for them for them to go bye-bye.

Oh, of course I looked up the line, sometimes a kiss is just a kiss, in the ``As Time Goes By'' scene in Casablanca.

There's all kinds of stuff going on this YouTube clip.

That's the richness of art, of life, I aspire to reach.