This is What I've Been Waiting For (Part 2)

Dying a Slow Death (or Undesirable State Change)

For the last three years I have built a hockey rink in my back yard.  This season I managed to build a pretty good base of ice in the first week of December but needless to say the sheet was threatened by the onslaught of thermodynamic energy that consumed the bulk of the month.

Every day the thermometer ventured above the melting point my once beautifully bound water molecules absorbed the ambient energy and their once indiscernible frozen vibrational motion transitioned to the all too perceptible flow characteristic of a liquid.  The water found its way out of the rink, marched onto the sidewalk and onward toward the requiem of a rink.

My youngest son’s birthday is at the end of December and when asked what he wanted he didn’t list toys or video games but said he wanted to skate with his friends. Leading up to the party daytime temperatures were consistently above freezing. My worry grew as the moderate temperatures threatened the realization of my son’s modest request.  I nursed the ice through its winter fever with late night infusions of water but it lost more than it gained and by the day of the party the corrosive heat had carved a pair of full depth holes in the deck of ice.

On the bright (literally very bright) side of things the kids had a blast spending hours and hours playing boot hockey in shirts and hoodies under a sunny sky and 40 degree temperatures. After a great day the rinks holes had grown, I sprayed off the coating of dirt that was transferred from the snowless yard and I considered the possibility that the first and last ice event of the season had come and gone.