Of An MLK Day Past

Three years ago, I had an outstanding Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off. I have looked back on this day ever since, hoping something magical would happen when I get out on this holiday again. Nothing close to this has happened in the years since, and I won't be getting out this year except for chores. The wind chills today are expected to be -25 to -35 degrees. Not sure I want to live the rest of my life without a nose.

Jan 18, 2010 : I got to watch a mink go fishing for awhile, and the fishing wasn't too bad for me, either. Fat, healthy rainbows that have had to survive in the streams on their own from at least October. They put up much better fights after having rid their systems of the dog food the DNR feeds them.

The camera I had at the time is the one I'm using now, just a Kodak Easy Share point and shoot. The mink didn't get close enough for great pictures with it, but we can get the gist of it. From the photo above, it swam across the water and underneath the ice shelf on the right hand side. As it swam past me I could hear it breathing, like there wasn't a lot of head space under there, and it had to blow water out of it's nose. Below I've tried to crop and blow up a photo of it getting ready to cross.

As it made it downstream from me, it crawled out on a rock to eat a minnow or fingerling trout it had caught. Again too far away for my measly camera, but close enough for me to see the fish's sides reflect sunlight as it writhed in the minks mouth and front paws. A good photo of the fish in it's mouth was never got.

And like I said, the fishing was good for me, too -