At Leech Lake -- Halloween, 2010 (Last full day at Leech Lake this year)

Happy Halloween from Leech Lake.

This morning at 8:30 a.m. the temperature was 24 degrees, the wind was calm (not even a ripple on the lake), the sky was mostly sunny with just a few clouds gathered in the west on the horizon. The ground, the roofs of the buildings and the truck were covered in frost. It felt and looked like a winter day, albeit with no snow.

Today is my last full day at Leech Lake until, well, I don't know when. Next year Kathleen and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary and we hope to spend some time here at the lake, as well as visiting Lake Itasca and maybe Bayfield, Wisconsin (and the Apostle Islands). So maybe my next visit might not be until late June, 2011; which would be my latest visit to the lake in any given year since we bought the place in 2001.

My cleaning has already begun. The sheets have been stripped from the bed and are in the wash. After a cup of coffee I'll clean out the fireplace, then clean and vacuum the living room. From there, I'll go room by room cleaning leaving the kitchen and master bathroom for last.

With the calm waters on the lake, it would be a great day to go fishing, but I don't want to bother Tom Malay by asking him to get his 14-foot aluminum boat into the water. Some day, when we live here year round, I'll have a small boat so I can go fishing on days like today after my big boat has been stored for the winter.

I was out on the dock taking some pictures of the lake, because it's so calm, when Rome Van Rossum stopped by. He'd be threatening a visit since I saw him at the Ottertail Peninsula Association potluck dinner a couple of weeks ago. I was coming up the dock when I spotted him coming around the corner of the house. We stood out in the backyard (lakeside) and talked for about 20 minutes. I invited him in for some coffee (three times, like you're supposed to in MN), but he refused (all three times), saying he knew how much I had to do to get ready to leave tomorrow. It's true, I've got a lot of cleaning yet ahead of me.

But first, I'm going to finish this pot of coffee, then make myself a cheese, onion and tomato omelet for breakfast. That's about all the food I have left in the fridge.

I cleaned the house throughout the day, but still managed to take a walk down the dirt road to "swamp 1" and later a walk in the woods. I also grabbed a rod and reel and made several casts off the dock using a lipless crankbait trying to scare up a swallow-swimming walleye, perch or nothern, but I didn't hook a thing. Nonetheless, it was still fun to throw a lure into the water.

At 5:45 p.m., with a light wind of 5 mph out of the SSW, a temperature of 38 degrees and clear skies, I went out onto the end of the dock to watch one last sunset this visit and enjoy a Wild Blue Beer. What a peaceful, wonderful way to close out my last evening at Leech Lake for the foreseeable future.


A Halloween sunset over Sucker Bay, Leech Lake

From 6:30 to 8:15 p.m. the cleaning continued. I vacuumed the bedrooms and hallway, cleaned the kitchen counters, stove and sink, and cleaned two bathrooms. I also found time for a quick sandwich (my dinner considering all the food is gone) and got on the PC to check the scores of the NFL games and the Giants' progress against the Texas Rangers in Game 4 of the World Series.

Stupid MLB forced the Giants flagship radio station, KNBR, to stop streaming live broadcasts of the games on the Internet. I guess MLB and Bud Selig want to squeeze a few more dollars out of people to get them to subscribe to Gameday radio. This is yet another reason I HATE baseball. I guess it's on to the NHL and the San Jose Sharks. Here's what the lamebrains at MLB had KNBR post:

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT STREAMING:

Please note that some of our broadcast partners have asked KNBR to block the Internet audio streaming of their programming:

ALL MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL GAMES

This unfortunately Includes ALL SF GIANTS GAMES

For streams of MLB games, please go to MLB.com and subscribe to their Gameday audio service.

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It's now 8:21 p.m. and Aubrey Huff just hit a two-run homer for the Giants. Giants lead 2-0 in the top of the third inning, and 2 games to 1 in the Series. By the way, the first three games of this year's World Series were available on streaming audio on KNBR.com; until today that is.

Since it's Halloween, I decided to watch a classic horror movie, the original 1931 release of Frankenstein. I love this movie, and it was one that always terrified me when I was a kid.

I just checked the score of the Giants game, and they won 4-0 and now lead the Series 3 games to 1. They can win the World Series with a win tomorrow. Of course I'll be traveling, so I won't know the final score of the game -- and if the Giants won the Series or not -- until we land in San Jose.

I'll make one final entry tomorrow before I leave for the airport. Until then, good night from Leech Lake