Lately, I've been fascinated by ice.
Der B and I have been here in Delaware for five years now, but this is the first winter that I've really had time to discover ice. As in iced-over puddles.
This has a lot to do with my job. When I'm at the cash register, and on a break (or lunch) the first thing I've got on my mind is to get off of my feet, sit down, take a load off.
But this is my first winter where I'm working at a desk job. All of a sudden, the reverse is true, where what I want to do is stretch my legs during a break, take a walk around the building, and inspect what is happening to those large puddles in the dirt next to the store.
Puddles that freeze over when it's really cold.
This is the kind of stuff kids discover when they are little, normally. Assuming they are little where freezing is common during the winter.
But I, like BK, grew up in sunny, balmy (and very rarely wet, and never freezing) Los Angeles.
So the idea of puddles freezing over when it is cold is a very new thing to me.
So, I walk over to this very large puddle to the side of the store, formed by the delivery trucks that park there sometimes, and it's freezing over.
And I test how thick the ice is that has formed on the puddle.
And sometimes it is very thin.
And sometimes it takes a bit of my weight before it starts to c-r-a-c-k.
And sometimes I can stand on the ice, and it doesn't crack.
NEATO!!!
What's even wilder is when some of the smaller puddles have iced over, but not completely, and the water under the ice has perculated down into the dirt and what is left is this layer of ice with nothing under it, and if you step on it it goes s-h-a-t-t-e-r like glass.
I feel like a kid again!