Sunday, after Brian had very cautiously checked the ice with the ice auger in numerous locations and determined that there were 19 inches of solid ice, he and Mark ventured out onto the lake with vehicles.
Now, down at Lake Simcoe, when the ice huts are out, it often resembles a parking lot out there on the lake, and if you're watching Ice Road Truckers on TV, you'll have seen truly big rigs crossing the frozen surfaces, but let us hasten to point out that it IS a venture with some risks, and the first and inviolable rule is CHECK THE ICE FIRST. The second rule, also inviolable, is CHECK THE ICE AGAIN.
But, having done that, Brian went back to his roots -- back in the late 1950's, when he was merely a tadpole, Bondi used to host a funky little event called DICE ON ICE. Car races, around the island, in essence. We were just one of several locations where this afernoon's sport took place.
I remember my Mom telling us about one of the events, when everyone was finished, and they lined the cars up in the middle of the bay and came up to the house for lunch. Looking out the window, someone noticed that the ice was dipping beneath the collective weight of the parked cars, and everyone abandoned their sandwiches to rush back and move the cars farther apart. This is stuff that gives insurance companies nightmares, I'm sure, but at the time it was deemed great good fun.
Brian did his best to emulate those Dice on Ice participants, complete with spinning the truck at intervals... and Mark, he simply cruised around near the Island, checking out the quality of the reception he was getting on his radio -- which was naturally tuned to his own station, WMRK.
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