The yellow cable

 Walking along the lake four blocks from my place, I saw this chain holding a yellow cable that disappeared into the frozen lake.

I'd never noticed before, but I think this holds the floating deck (for summertime swimmers) you can barely see––it blends with the tree line, upper left.

Lake ice is crazy beautiful--we're lucky if the lake freezes before the snow obscures it. 

I asked a couple guys who'd returned from skating way out on the lake how they knew it was safe.

"The kids out there have an augur," one said, pointing at three young people setting up to ice fish in the center of the lake, "and they've drilled through six inches."

"But never trust the ice," he said. "If you're going to skate out there--and it's the best feeling in the world!--take an ice pick. You can get them at a sporting store."

One guy pulled his from his pocket---a foldable ice pick, in case you fall through the ice, you can get a grip to pull yourself out.

I don't even own ice skates, but it looks tempting.