Icicles

Barrett Place is a covered alley in downtown Rochester between Java Joe's and Eastman School of Music that provides semi-protection against the elements when walking from the parking garage to Gibbs Street, location of not only the school and Eastman Theatre, but also Sibley Music Library, one of the premier music libraries in the nation.

Today I accompanied Roberts Wesleyan College's music theory classes on a field trip to Sibley to delve into the amazing treasure trove of music collections. Their first floor alone contains over 300,000 scores and doesn't even count the collected sets or rare books and special collections on the top floor where I used to work.

It was wonderful to catch up with former colleagues as I assisted students with their assignments. It's one thing to tell them what they will find at Sibley, and another to watch their eyes bug out as they discover an overwhelming amount of material about their music selection.

The two hours flew by, and all too soon I was walking back through Barrett Place towards the car, my head aswim with things I want to track down for my own research for PrayerSong. Maybe I can carve another few hours out this weekend to do more searching.

I glanced up and was surprised to see ice swords every foot or so, sticking straight out from the metal gutters on each side of the roof over the alley. It looked ridicolous, all those spikes hanging over the edge of the roof right where the seams of the metal met in a rigid track, looking for all the world like clear antennaes.

Crystal decorations. Party favors glistening in the sun, just starting to soften and melt, releasing a drop of water now and again. I wondered how they formed horizontal to the ground instead of pointing straight down like any sensible icicle would have done. Then I realized that the water had frozen in the track, and the sun had warmed the metal just enough for the frozen contents to slide halfway out. How unique!

Just at that moment, the sun hit all the ice sticks at the right angle to make them sparkle and dance and begin to drip all at the same time. It was like watching fireworks. Roof sparklers! What a glorious sight.