Eira, I am here in sunny, warm Florida, not feeling well, forced to remain housebound during a day that called for me to come out and play, and I was thoroughly delighted with your story. Not that I do fishing or ice-fishing or really, anything that you mentioned, but you took me away from feeling poorly and brought back memories of the couple of years I spent in Maine.

My family in Maine ice-fished and did all those other wintery activities that I never embraced. But, my only real knowledge of ice-fishing came from a friend who grew up in Minnesota. Her family had an ice-fishing cabin on a lake. She said that little fishing was done there. Mostly, everyone gathered to complain about the cold and drink vodka!