June 23, 2011 -- At Leech Lake

My wife Kathleen.

At 8:24 a.m. local time I received a text message from my beautiful wife Kathleen that she was on the plane and would very soon be on her way to Minneapolis. From there she will fly to Bemidji where I will meet her at the airport at 4:40 p.m. It will be wonderful to have her join me at our lake home on Leech Lake.

The temperature this morning, the second full day of summer, was 46 degrees. The sky was grey and overcast again, without a hint of blue to it. It wasn't raining so much as it was spitting a heavy mist. The wind was strong at 12-17 mph out of the north, with gusts well over 20 mph, creating rolling waves and white caps on the lake. I did see one brave boat on the water at about 9:15 a.m.

Even though it was wet from all of the mist and light rain T&K showed up at 10:00 a.m. to mow the lawn. With all of the rain during the past week or so the grass has grown really tall and desperately needed to be cut.

My parents and I visited in the early afternoon while continued to do some final cleaning and straightening up around the house. At 3:30 p.m. we left the lake to drive into Bemidji to get Kathleen.

As we drove into Bemidji the clouds parted and the sun came out for the first time in days. By the time we were loading Kathleen's luggage into the car it was 73 degrees in Bemidji, sunny and warm.

We stopped at the grocery store, picked up some unbaked pizzas and drove back to the lake. We ate our pizzas, enjoyed the conversation and then Kathleen and I sat on the dock and watched the sunset.

I am looking forward to a couple of very relaxing and enjoyable weeks at Leech Lake with Kathleen, celebrating our anniversary.