So I was first on as the Ice Palace opened its skating season this morning.

I wasn't actually the first to lace up. But my fellow lunchtime skaters seem to realize that being first on the ice is sort of a thing with me. So I was waved ahead.

People can be pretty nice. Perhaps you have noticed.

There have been a few ice-making setbacks in the days leading to this morning's opening. Something to do with the refrigeration compressors. I don't know the whole story.

But the surface was a thing of beauty this morning. Shiny and new. "Come aboard...."

Skating was a pleasure.

I didn't stay long. TV news reportedly was on its way.

Before I left, one of my fellow regulars handed me a business card with an email address, RiverfrontMasterPlan@SpokaneCity.org

She said rumors are flying about the future of the Ice Palace.

I told I her I hoped people realized that an open-air ice rink in our downtown park is truly something special. Who would want to mess with that? Who would want to make Spokane more ordinary?

As I was heading back to the paper, I overheard an excited woman on a cell phone near the front of the library. She told someone, "She's contradicking herself."

Let's hope the good people working on the Riverfront Park master plan don't do that to the Ice Palace.

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