February 10, 2014 (Monday)
Like to fish? How about fishing in a lake that is frozen, with three feet of ice on its surface? No problem, just drill a hole through the ice and help yourself. Trouble is, it’s very cold out there. So many fisherman throw up four walls and a roof and find shelter from the icy winds. Some of them put portable heaters inside and take the chill off. Others add little grills, etc. and, before they know it, they have a crude house with many amenities. With so many taking advantage of the situation, little shanty towns arise on the lakes every year.
If the fisherman is well-healed, and money is no object, he arranges for a mansion on the ice, with motor homes turned into “shacks” with several rooms, central heat, and big kitchens for preparing gourmet meals. Now, that’s “roughing it,” isn’t it? Of course, the owners must stay aware of weather changes, because if they wait a little too long, the “mansion on the ice” sinks through the weakening ice cover. If they are fortunate, they get to pull it out. If not, there’s always plenty more money for another one next year.
Many of the ice fishermen’s neighbors do their winter fishing in Rockport, instead of drilling through the ice up north. So far this winter, there’s been no ice. But the temperature has hovered in the thirties for weeks. I don’t recall such consistently cold, yet not freezing, weather during a Rockport winter. But we all tend to forget stuff, don’t we?
Anyway, all things considered, I think I’d rather be in Rockport in the winter.
