Thursday, March 10, 2011

Spring break in Very Northern Florida!

It's spring break here in Very Northern Florida. So I've been been busy breaking springs, and couldn't come up with anything useful to blog about.

Although we call it "skiing holiday". The weather has been around freezing, I think that is a bit warmer than normally. The ice on the roads and bikeways has melted fast on sunny spots. But, winter strikes back. Today it snowed about 5 cm, though it's not very cold. -10C expected for the weekend. No girls in bikinis in our beaches, yet.

The radio reports that the ice on the sea outside Oulu is about half a meter thick. Only big ships can move, and only with the help of icebreakers. But, as the spring moves on, the ice becomes more porous and fragile. That does not stop the ice fishers, as the weather is at it's best right now for them. The ice is still rather strong, and the sun is shining warmly. Later in the spring, the ice in the lakes starts melting from the shores, and in the middle of the lake it is still strong to hold. That makes some interesting fishing trips, I can tell you.


The Finnish Association for Swimming Instruction and Life Saving published a report that for the first time since 1997, nobody drowned in February. In January there were three fatalities, all people who were on the ice with motor vehicles (an excavator and a snowmobile, for example). I think there may be a few ice fishers who will 'take the hook and sink'. But most drowning fatalities happen in the summer, and many involve exessive amounts of alcohol and a swimming trip. The authorities always hope for a rainy and cold weather for the Midsummer Day Holiday, as people are less likely to go swimming when the weather is nasty.


And to tie up this useless post with cycling, I'll finish by saying that last year, five times more people drowned than were killed on bicycle. Where are the mandatory life vests for swimmers?


Edit: all text was in bold.

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