October 14, 2009 -- On Leech Lake

At 8:30 a.m. it was overcast and gray, the temperature was 30 degrees and the wind was light at 5-8 mph SSW.

Kathleen arrives tomorrow so I've got to do a little cleaning in the house in preparation. However, that will not take all day so I'm planning to some fishing later this afternoon.

John Newman arrived at his cabin earlier this morning. He has some work to attend to himself, but will most likely join me this afternoon on the water. John took his boat out of the water a couple of weeks ago so he's asked if he can join me. I'm more than happy to have some company on the lake while I fish.

At 3:30 p.m. John came over the house and together we walked over to the boat lift. The temperature had warmed to 40 degrees, the wind was light, but swirling -- coming first from the NNE, then the east, then SSE -- and there was a light drizzle that fell on and off. The water temperature was 43.2 degrees.

We decided to fish The Birches. Both John and I used jigs tipped with fatheads. John used a Northland jig, while I used a Bass Pro Shops XPS Walleye Angler jig. We fished until 6:00 p.m.

During the 2 1/2 hours we were on the water, I caught numerous perch, of which John asked if he could keep three. I said sure, and the perch went into the live well. John caught a northern, a very nice 19 1/2 walleye and a 16-inch eater walleye that also went into the live well. John will have a nice mess of fish fillets to take home with him.

Once on shore I was doing a little more cleaning in preparation for Kathleen's arrival tomorrow when the phone rang. It was Kathleen saying she'd received a message from Northwest Airlines saying they had cancelled her flight due to weather.

I did a quick check online and found out that NWA has three flights from Minneapolis to Bemidji throughout the day. One at 10:30 a.m., another at 2:40 p.m. and the last at 10:10 p.m. The airline cancelled the 2:40 p.m. flight, on which Kathleen was scheduled to arrive, but that the other two flights were still on schedule.

Cancelled due to weather my foot. If weather was the concern, why was the later flight still scheduled? Obviously the afternoon flight wasn't full enough and to save money NWA simply cancelled it. I just wish companies, such as Northwest Airlines wouldn't lie. I'd understand if they cancelled the flight to save money. Just say so.

I spent the next hour and a half trying to rearrange Kathleen's flight schedule so she could still arrive on Thursday as planned, even if on the later flight. After two different discussions with call-center representatives from India, Kathleen was once again booked on the same exact flights as originally planned!

I checked, double-checked and triple-checked with woman on the phone and she assured me that the 2:40 p.m. flight from Minneapolis to Bemidji was not cancelled. I took down the confirmation number, the flight info and then called Kathleen.

When Kathleen tried to check in online, she wasn't able to do so because, guess why?, the 2:40 p.m. flight to Bemidji was "cancelled due to weather." Argghhhh!!!

At this point I could no longer handle talking to the idiots at the airlines and Kathleen took over. Within an hour she called me back with a boarding pass in hand. She is now getting into Minneapolis from San Francisco at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, and taking the 10:10 p.m. flight to Bemidji which gets her into town at 11:30 p.m. Much later than we had originally hoped for, but at least she'll be here tomorrow as planned.

If Kathleen would have arrived as scheduled, then we could have gone grocery shopping together. As it is now, all of the stores close at 11:00 p.m., so I'll have to go in early to get some food for us for the weekend. Then next week, when I take the boat into town to store it for the winter, we can do a more extensive shopping run.

At least things are set for Kathleen's travel, and John and I caught numerous fish this late afternoon. Things turned out OK after all here at Leech Lake.