When I got back from taking those shots out in the living room, the Weather Channel thing on my computer read 1° ... of course, I could tell it was cold by all the white steam coming out of the buildings. That's not smoke (and there's no new Pope), but just warm moist air going out the vents and freezing when it hits the outside. It's one of those "quick call" things down here for gauging the temperature ... if there's white vapor coming off the buildings, it's cold, and probably in the teens or below. You likely can't tell from these (although if you click on the image you'll get a bigger version), but the lake is icing up as well ... it never gets solid down by here, because it's shallow and the wave action breaks it up, but a bit beyond the breakwaters and it's looking frozen. Right now we don't have much wind, but when it's cold like this and there's a brisk wind, the lake starts churning up the sand, which gets carried up in the "surf" and spray, and starts forming these amazing sculpture-like piles along the shore as the sand and water freeze in the sub-zero air. Of course, a strong wind at these temperatures is locally known as "The Hawk", and it will freeze your cheeks solid and ice your eyeballs shut!
