Maine weather forecast: always icy

If you live in Maine, ice can be a fact of everyday life from October through May.

from the February 28, 2007 edition

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But worst of all is when ice creeps up under the shingles, and there seems to be no way to stop it.

The thing is this: When ice gets under the shingles, it is, ironically, waiting for warmth. When that sunny day comes, it melts, but it doesn't retreat to where it came from. Instead, it heads straight down through the ceiling and into the house.

Two winters ago, the problem was so severe that I had to commandeer every pot, pan, and mixing bowl we owned to contain the weird interior rainfall. No fun at all.

Warmth, of course, does eventually come, but ice can be fiercely resistant to the interloper. I remember one winter when the thermometer shot up to 50 degrees F. I took my son to a nearby lake for some skating. A neighbor warned us, "It's 50 degrees! You'll fall through."

This was, of course, nonsense. When a lake puts down 18 inches of ice, nothing short of a lava flow is going to compromise it in so short a time. Eighteen inches! Enough to hold a dump truck, never mind a tall, skinny man and his little boy.

But no matter how cold it is and for how long, the steadily lengthening days slowly take their toll. With increased exposure to the sun, the ice to a large extent forgoes its transition to water and simply sublimes, or evaporates, from solid to gas, as if it were giving up its spirit.

Like an entity that has lived among us and doesn't wish to be forgotten, ice leaves its footprint where it can.

Last year, well into May – when the fields were green, the rivers were rolling, and the trees had leafed out – I went for a hike up a nearby mountain to gain a view of the whole lovely scene.

The path was wet but sure, and I was making good time. And then, as I came around a bend, I stepped onto a sheet of ice as slick as oil, and tumbled back down the path, landing, in the words of Robert Frost, "on the seat of my sense."

If the ice could have spoken, I'm sure it would have said, "I'm still here."

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