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The Dark and the Gray

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January 27th through February 2nd

Until the weekend, all of last week was made of pitch black nights and gloomy gray days, but it wasn't all dimly lit doom. The sub-zero temperatures that have come to define this time of year never arrived. Huzzah. The accumulations of snow since the Sunday before could be described as negligible. HUZZAH! The lake did not get snowed upon last week, but the storms from weeks past continue to cover the area like a quilt of deep cold. The stuff on the roads has been compressed, becoming more like a sheet of ice. It'll take a few sunny, above freezing days to get down to the traction-y pavement. Until then, yeach. It will take a few more days to pull back the quilt of deep cold covering the cottages and lawns. It should go without saying, but we'll say it anyway. Nobody mowed. Both forts from the events of 2 weeks ago are holding up well. Melting and re-freezing has made the walls a little shorter and a lot harder. It's unlikely that there will be a sequel to this year's past event, but it's comforting to know that, if there is, the forts are ready. With the sunny, warmer weekend came the sound of running water under those lobes of snow. The inflow put a 2.5 inch layer of slush water under the 9 inches of snow on the lake. It made an ice thickness check a bit more interesting. If you take out the 2.5 inches of top water, the ice on the North end is currently 12.5 inches thick. That was plenty of ice to continue to allow safe-ish weekend racing of ATVs on Lake Lucerne's newest track. Sun! And with the late week sun came the death of Deep Winter and the birth of Thaw. Streams are running, snow is shrinking (albeit slowly), and there's talk among the men of the coming sapping season. As if to underscore the area's new found optimism, reports of various covers of the Irving Berlin classic "Blue Skies" were heard all over the state. Either that's a clear sign of an early Spring or an ominous setup for a soul crushing visit from ZOMBIE DEEP WINTER **shudder**.<br><br>-Nemo's dancing on the grave of Deep Winter.

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