Almost every day I drive my wife to work in the Third Ward, and almost every day the route takes us along Lake Michigan, from the ravine trail on the north to the end of the road at Discovery World.

When the sun shines it is an uplifting drive, full of promise and hope. On days like Monday, with the clouds and wind, it's a foreboding site with a grim kind of reality that the world is about to start all over again and it doesn't seem like much fun.

But one thing that it always does, is offer surprises.

Monday, the day after the polar bear plunge, one lonely figure was out in waist deep water, wearing a wetsuit and using one of those machines that people use to search for coins and metal in the sand.

The machine was draped over his shoulder and the wand was well under water.

What in the world could this guy have been thinking? People who jumped into the water on New Year's Day had cash in their pockets that came out when they were shivering?

Maybe, just maybe this guy knows something the rest of us don't. But I kind of doubt it.