"Ice-out" pending

This past week, Paul Douglas' On Weather blog posted this photo showing the lake ice status in Minnesota.  Leech Lake (my favorite) is the one at the end of the upper pink line.  When the ice is out up there, my blogging will be subject to more frequent interruptions.

When I was little, communities used to park cars on the lakes and have residents enter contests to guess when the car would plummet through the ice.  Such contests are still held, but I don't think any cities use cars for that purpose anymore (?).