May 20, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

2009 Minnesota Walleye Stamp

Tom Malay and Ron Neustrand stopped by this morning to help me put my boat in the water. Ron, a former mechanic on the railroad before he retired, took a look at the coupling on my trailer. I figured who better to look at a coupling and hitch than a former railroad mechanic.

Ron took apart the coupling and found a key component was cracked. After putting the assembly back together, Ron said that the coupling still didn't "ride right" on the 2" ball of the receiver hitch. He suggested I take it into Corner Sports for repairs, or better yet, a replacement coupling.

After we got the boat in the water and onto the boat lift, Tom and Ron helped me get the canopy onto the boat lift. We then shared a noon time beer and the two friends and neighbors departed. I then went back to the house to turn on the computer and begin blogging my experiences of the past day.

Unfortunately, a flaw in the Symantec Norton Antivirus software caused my PC to be stuck in a Windows XP reboot mode. Essentially, my PC was continually rebooting. I turned off the PC, unhooked every cable running to it, and got it ready to take into town on Monday for repairs (along with my boat trailer).

Since I couldn't use the PC, I went back outside and got the water pump primed and running so we can pump water from the lake to water our flowers, garden and trees. I then got in the truck and drove to Birch Ridge Resort where I purchased a 2009 fishing license and the first ever walleye stamp (photo above).

I got home and checked the lake to see if going fishing was an option. The temperature was a very warm 81 degrees, but the winds were strong at 10-15 mph out of the SSE which created quite some big chop on the water by mid-afternoon. I decided to stay on shore and work around the properties instead.

In the evening I went to turn on the furnace, because the temperature had dropped to a cool 44 degrees, only to discover that the furnace was on the blink too. Boat trailer. PC. And now the furnace. I put a call into the Hill's Heating and Plumbing and hopefully they'll call me back in the morning.

A variety of "things" may have gone awry, but one gigantic thing is working in my favor -- I'm at Leech Lake!