There is a lake behind where I live, and I have taken the opportunity to skate after work just about every afternoon just before dusk. To so many people this seems like a scary, crazy thing to do, but I've been doing it since I was a kid so it's just what you do when it gets really cold.

Most of New Jersey has a very short window of opportunity to get out and enjoy a nice frozen pond or lake.

This weekend we're expecting some snow. It's the dry kind that you can shovel off the ice surface. Yes, we do that in order to make enough room to play hockey. If there's not too much the wind will blow it off in a day or two.

With temperatures reaching the 50s by the middle of next week, our window for pond skating might be closing soon. We usually get our cold blast late December through January and then we have to wait another year.

It's one of the few joys that gets many of us through the cold winter. Last year I don't think we had more than one day of decent ice. The lake we skate on is still water and only about 3 feet deep throughout most of the lake.

Everyone should try this at least once, especially if you can go for a good distance on the lake. I thought I'd share a little of it with you.

Would you be willing to give this a shot?

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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