The ice fishermen who set up the ice shanty on the town pond either have cojones or are reckless idiots. I suppose a combination of the two is possible.

True ice fishermen--I am not one, only a casual one--trend toward the wacky end of the sanity spectrum.

Incredibly absurd morning. It was 55 degrees when the meathead and I set out. I was grossly overdressed in a couple layers. I quickly shed my stocking cap and gloves.

I figured the ice fishermen would somehow pull the shanty off the ice yesterday. Instead, they simply moved it to the cap on the south end of the south old clay pit.

The ice cap on the south end of the south pit holds longer than any other spot on the town pond for several reasons.

One, the tree line along the shore and the tree line higher up along the old rail bed converted to a trail shade a good bit of the south end.

And that south end is relatively well protected from winds.

The ice on the town pond is holding better than I expected. Oh, there's a significant pool of water on top of the ice, but the shorelines were only beginning to give way this morning.

Fishable ice could reform very quickly. If I owned the shanty, my concern, other than the possibility of it sinking through in the record heat, wind and heavy rains forecast over the next 24 hours, would be that it would lock in too hard to move later this week.

But that isn't my concern, only a point of interest for me each morning.

Canada geese have been opening up a bigger hole on the lake to the west. There was quite a ruckus when Storm and I drew closer on an extended ramble.

A pair of Canada geese actually flew over this morning. Haven't seen them flying in the morning in weeks.

I figured with this record-setting warmth I better get in an extended ramble while I can.

About half way through the extended ramble, I wondered if I had made my own idiot move. A thundershower moved in. Close to a mile from home, I was not going to outrun a thunderstorm.

So we just kept plugging along. I counted 15 from one lightening strike to thunder. That meant it was three miles away.

The next one was done to nine (less than two miles).By then we were at the town pond, so I figured we would make it home OK.

The women were working out again in the storefront gym. The morning was dark enough with the thundershower at dawn that yellow light spilled out on the sidewalk.

A downpour and heavy lightening came as the kids readied for school. So I drove them. Seems like that kind of day. By then, the temperature had already reached 60.

An absurd stretch of weather keeps going.