October 10, 2011 -- At Leech Lake

This morning at 8:30 a.m. the sky was overcast and grey, the wind was out of the SE at 8-12 mph and the temperature was 47 degrees. From the time I arose to sometime after 1:00 p.m. I was doing work for my California job, consulting with a global PR firm called Allison & Partners.

After a quick sandwich for lunch, I went across the street and took a long walk in our woods. The wind was rustling through the trees and every so often it would rain yellow leaves. I love our woods in the Fall. The smells, the beautiful colors, the entire thing. I only wish Kathleen could be here with me because she loves the Fall even more than I do.

When I emerged from the woods I walked down the dirt road to our cabin and began the chore of putting up the storm windows. I took my time and enjoyed the entire process. Just as I had put the last storm window in place and was folding up the ladder the rain came. There had been a forecast of rain throughout the day, but at 2:45 p.m. it really opened up.

Back inside my warm and dry house, I cleaned up and prepared for dinner at the Newman's cabin tonight. John and Karen invited me, as well as Tom and Elaine Malay over for dinner prior to us moving down to the Malay's house to watch Monday Night Football on ESPN. Malays have the Dish Network and get ESPN, where the Newmans don't get it with their basic plan, and we have no TV at all at our house.

I made a salad to bring, while John and Karen provided the Italian meatball sandwiches, chips and veggies. After dinner we cleaned up and then made our way down to the Malays. It was the first time the Detroit Lions had been on MNF in more than a decade, and tonight they were hosting their division rivals the Chicago Bears.

It wasn't a well-played game, but the Lions did manage to win 24-13 to improve to 5-0. It's the first time that Detroit has won five straight games to start a season since 1956, a bit before my time.

I left the Malays just after 11:00 p.m. and came home. The temperature was still a very nice 55 degrees and the sky was clear allowing the light from the 99% waxing moon to bathe the entire peninsula in its soft, white light.

Tomorrow I'm planning to drive down to St. Cloud to see Kathleen's mother, Marge. If all goes well I'll spend some time with her at St. Benedict's and then take her out to dinner. I hope to see my brother- and sister-in-law Tim and Sandy, but Tim said Sandy isn't feeling well and he may have to work tomorrow. I guess I'll have to play it by ear.

I'm planning to be back to the lake sometime later in the day on Wednesday. At that point my only other ventures from Leech Lake will be to go into town to buy groceries.

My next post to this blog will likely be on Thursday, Oct. 13, my beautiful daughter Melissa's 30th birthday. Until then...