Sad Pond Heater

I thought I was so clever, making my own floating pond heater. Two 25-watt lightbulbs, and a fish-tank bubbler, in an upside-down RubberMaid tub, the idea being to keep a hole in the ice for the fish to get oxygen. I used red lightbulbs because the "night-time creatures" exhibits at the zoo use red bulbs. See how clever I am?

It worked last year. But after a week of cold weather, my general-fault-protection circuit popped, and I traced it to the heater. So I melted the ice around the heater, and got it flipped over.

This is what I saw:

There's frikken' ice on the light bulbs! What's with that? I'll let you know in the spring if any fish are alive.

May 2003 - here's the aftermath, in which our hero goes from bad to worse.