Folks,

C51:

Ice? I have fallen upon my ice many a time...phonettically speaking that is. Ice? Hmmmm. Do you refer to that cubed stuff packed into a bin in my freezer, good for putting into my glass to chill my favorite beverage? Yup I know ice. I do not however remember the recipe for making it. I know that it has a large proportion of water in it. I was invited by company executives to go ice fishing up in Michigan once. When I asked what they used for bait and how many fish they caught they looked at me as if stunned. Apparently ice fishing in the US at least by these chaps is just an excuse to huddle together in an ice shack and play cards while doing some serious drinking.

I have a decent pair of 7x35s and a middling pair of 10 x 50s myself but they can't find birds worth a damn. I think the bird RADAR in them is broken. Although I point them at the sky, trees, bushes and stumps nary a bird seems to pop into view. I saw some common sparrows lined up on telephone wires once just before a winter storm. When I ran to the house and returned with the field glasses the wires came in clear as a bell but the birdies were gone.

My dad had a wonderful pair of pre-war Zeiss 10 x 50s aboard his ship. When he came home he always brought them with him. We were once traveling together out in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay on the ferry. He let me use the big, heavy glasses. They also came in a fine hand tooled leather case with a long strap as I recall. I swear that with the naked eye I could not see anything in any direction but water. With those glasses I could count the freckles on the bottoms of the lady sunbathers basking on the beaches. I was a young boy at the time but it seems to me that I could make out individual bricks on the buildings. Amazing optics.

Dad traded them for American cigarettes and several bottles of whiskey while his ship was once berthed beside a Russian vessel or so he told me. Perhaps that was true. More likely he won them in a poker game. Sadly when he had his first heart attack and was medivaced from the ship some bastid broke into his things and stole both his .32 colt automatic pistol and those glasses. Pity. Had he not retired and never returned to his ship I think they might well have caught the culprit and brought back the practice of keel hauling.

Lucky you. No HWH story tonight. Too cold down there in the bowels of HWH Hall. I'll try to go to the archives sometime tomorrow. It will drop below freezing tonight so I may even see some of that 'ice' you were talking about.