As the temperature drops, the ice thickens. And as the ice gets thicker and thicker, I am put closer and closer to my promise. It seemed at the time a safe enough statement to make, but in the long run you cannot postpone the inevitable forever. Eventually nature will catch up, and now it nearly has. Just nearly. Should I have made the promise at all? The weather man says that tomorrow the ice will be thick enough in most places to be able to go ice-skating pretty safely. I had bragged one evening last week to the kids while at the dinner table that when and if there would be enough ice, I would take up skating for the first time in my life. "Not much different from inline skating," I had bragged to the kids at the dinner table, "there's nothing to it!" I hate it when my toes, fingers and tip of my nose freeze, but a promise is a promise. Despite the warnings from the weatherman to wait until tomorrow, there are already many neighbors skating outside. Parents and kids and old folks etc. I can see them from my spot here in the new room, and it looks like they are having alot of fun. They can skate pretty well, and so far no one seems to be falling that much. I wonder how well I will fare when that fateful first step is made. Tomorrow is the big day. I hope I survive with only a few scratches and bruises.