No skating

Winter has arrived to stay for a little while. Yesterday I decided with some friends to come along for a longish ice-skating trip, stretching about 20 km. The starting point was north of the landing point because the wind was coming from the north so we expected good help from the wind all the way. 20 km on good ice is not very much under those conditions. But the weather forecast predicted a wind change that could cause a lot of snow hitting the coast we were skating along, and I couldn't help thinking about this in the night and thus sleeping poorly.

In the morning when I looked out I saw a steady snowfall and decided to cancel my membership for todays trip. It felt awful to say no, because you never know when you said no one time too many and won't be asked again. At least that is my fantasy. 

The group decided to do the trip anyway, hoping for good conditions but ended up having to cancel because two of them went through the ice. Fortunately It wasn't very deep and they had extra clothes but that means you have used up your supply of dry clothes and can't risk going through again. They'd only gone half way yet but the ice was now covered in snow so they couldn't see if it looked safe. Of course they decided to stop the trip and managed to get a lift back to their cars and made for home. 

This time my gut feeling was right and I'm happy I made the decision to stay home. An old student rang and wanted a guitar lesson so I had a wonderful time in the absence of ice.