Sunrise — 7:23.

Talk about whatever you like in the comments. 

Bonus picture from yesterday, captured by Meade:

  

At the Black Ice Café... you can talk about whatever you want.

It finally warmed up enough that I could take an afternoon walk. I hadn't seen the lake in 7 days, and those very cold days had transformed the lake:

There's some beautiful glassy-clear ice on the lake. Look out there:

2 ice skaters with 2 dogs:

Higher up, the prairie and the sunset:

"Or take a young couple who are able to have children but who, for whatever reason — lack of affordable housing, usually — have decided to delay doing so and to get a rescue dog instead."

"How is that selfish, rather than prudent and responsible? You can’t go dropping babies everywhere just because you’re fertile, and, besides, women aren’t brood mares. Cat first, baby if and when the time is right is a perfectly reasonable approach."

From "Pets deserve worship, whatever the Pope says/Having dogs or cats instead of children isn’t selfish: it enriches our existence" by India Knight (London Times).

I think Pope Francis meant to reject exactly that "perfectly reasonable approach." That's not the meaning of life, to be prudently responsible and to wait until all your material conditions will make children comfortably manageable.