Congrats to those who have survived the year in the U.S. One in one-thousand didn’t due to COVID-19. That’s better odds than a hole-in-one (1:12,500), winning $1,000 in the Wisconsin Millionaire’s Club instant scratch game (1:2,134), or the odds of drowning sometime in your life (1:1,121).

Here’s a toast to an improved roll-out of the vaccine and greater use of masks, contact tracing and social distancing. Until then, smoke ’em if you have ’em.

What to do if you fall through the ice:

• keep calm!
• keep your head above water – you can tilt your head back a bit;
• do not move frantically, losing strength, instead move your legs evenly, as if turning bicycle pedals;
• breathe as slowly and deeply as possible;
• if possible, call out;
• if a bag or heavy coat pulls you down, try to remove them.
• the ice is thin where you broke in, but it should be more durable where you stood before you fell.
• turn your face to the place where you came from and put your hands on the ice, stretch your arms as far as possible. Try to lie on the edge of the ice with your chest and try to push yourself out of the water.
• do not need to get up immediately, it is better to roll away from the dangerous place. Climb to the shore on the same path you came.
• when going ashore do not stop, but run to the nearest warm place.

Ice tips Courtesy of my Latvian brothers at LSM.LV