The Frozen Reflecting Pond

It felt good to be able to dress to go outside for our morning walk without it taking fifteen minutes. We didn’t need two layers of socks, long underwear, insulated pants, mittens, lumberjack hat, scarves, and a carrying case for my phone because it froze up and lost battery power in the frigid temps. Regular clothes, coat, Slouch hat and gloves would do - thank goodness! It was busier than usual outside. A lot more people were roaming about - probably because everything might close down by tomorrow with the government shutdown. I had two weeks off from the Library of Congress during the last one. I was afterall a nonessential worker. Though the temps were in the forties today, the reflecting pond in front of the Capitol is still covered in ice. The seagulls were standing on it - waiting for a handout. All the ducks were over at the American Indian museum’s pond, which is really a pond now. The ducks were having a blast swimming about, splashing, pairing up and getting ready for spring. It’s been a brutal January, reminding us a lot of our thirty years in the Midwest. Neither one of us likes it. Let’s hope it stays this way a bit longer. I’ve had enough of frozen Reflecting ponds.