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In retrospect, I should not have listened to Bill Husby.

I went skiing at lunch Thursday on Smith Lake at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with Husby, Dan Johnson and Susan Sugai.

“Go on,” Husby said to me for the fifth time as we stood near a spot on the lakeshore where the ice was almost a memory.

The idea had been to extend the Fairbanks ski season to the first day of May.

The snow from earlier in the week had compressed nicely and the conditions were great at 12:30 p.m. on most of the lake, but there were portions on the edges where the snow was gone and the ice was thinner than a cheap burger.

Husby was of the mind that every time we encountered one of these spots we should see if we could cross it without getting wet. He wasn’t content to be the only one doing this.

The water was only six inches deep near the edge of the lake, so we were not exactly playing Evel Knievel on skis. It was more like puddle jumping.

“Go on,” he said for the sixth time, encouraging me with unmatched sincerity. (This was moments after I compared Bill favorably to Eddie Haskell on “Leave it to Beaver.”)

I pushed off from the snow and slid over the shallow spot before I felt a sinking sensation. The ice slowly descended, my skis hit bottom and I pitched face forward into cold liquid. My ski boots and gloves filled with water. All of this led me to think the lake was trying to send me a message. April is gone. Is winter just about over?

Spring weather would be nice because the “Don’t Be Fuelish” campaign started Thursday and skiing is not on the list of preferred alternatives for those who seek to shun fuelishness.

It’s a friendly competition, now in its second year, in which businesses and organizations sign up to see who can save the most fuel by carpooling, walking, running, biking or riding the bus. The prestigious Fuel Can Award is at stake.

So far, the competing groups are:

Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, employees at the federal building, Interior Region Emergency Medical Services, Department of Fish and Game, Cold Climate Housing Research Center, UAF Cooperative Extension Service, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska Bird Observatory, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, UAF SNAP office, ABR.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Environmental Conservation, City of Fairbanks, City of North Pole, Wal-Mart, Jammin’ Salmon’s & Win for Alaska and the Daily News-Miner.

Somehow I became the coordinator for the News-Miner effort, which doesn’t bode well for our chances to claim the coveted fuel can. But I am encouraging fellow scribes and other News-Miner employees to participate as a way of reducing the consumption of money and fuel. These are two things almost everyone is interested in right now.

It could pay greater dividends than the federal “stimulus package” and all that’s required is to keep track of the miles you save until the end of September.

Any organization can sign up for free by sending an e-mail to Lori Hanemann at lori@northern.org and requesting more information.

As for me, going though the ice was not fuelish, just foolish.