"Santa" Hydrant...

I went for a walk with my camera this morning, and didn't dress nearly warm enough! My fingers were totally frozen and hurting by the time I got back home--that'll teach me to check the temperature BEFORE I leave the house! I picked this blip because red and white are such Christmas colors, but also because the snow formed a perfect Santa hat, right down to the narrow, pointy part ending right where the bolt on the fire hydrant sticks out, making it look like the little ball that's always on the end of the hats! (I have a great imagination!)  I also put a couple of other pictures that I liked in the extras--figured I might as well use them up since it's almost the end of the year--the lights are for asburydan!
After I thawed out I drove over to spend some time with my friend Patti-- you may recall it was her S/O who just recently passed away. She's feeling very depressed & very lost, & I wanted to take her out to lunch and get her mind on something else for just a little while. I think that  it's natural to want to stay to yourself after such a major loss, but it helps your mood to get out, & we had some laughs reminiscing about our nursing school days! And in a bit of creepiness, on the way home I stopped along Lake Drive to take some pictures, where I walked about a block out to a little bridge that spans a short bit of the harbor that overlooks the Discovery Museum. There, just below the bridge on a little bit of land that juts out, I saw a camera and tripod all set up. I could see footprints in the snow where someone had walked down, and footprints around the tripod, but no person! There was no way they could be under the bridge, as it's all water. I finally called out, but no one answered, and then I went down, following the footprints, but could clearly see that there was no one there. I even looked around in the water, in case the person had slipped, hit their head & fallen in, but thank goodness I didn't see any bodies! I was stumped. The only thing I could think of was maybe they'd gotten cold and went to the car or into a building to warm up, but who would have walked off and left their camera and tripod? In the end, I stopped in the Museum and talked to a person at the desk, who said they'd send a maintenance man to check it out. Spooky!! :((