The Calends | To many ancient people, the waning of the light signaled death. In Welsh mythology, this is the time of the year when the God of Darkness, Goronwy, battles the God of Light, Llew, and eventually takes his place as King of the world. |
September 2nd | Lori and I went for about a 25 mile bike ride yesterday, which wasn't bad after being laid up with a broken foot for a couple of months. I'm afraid that she'll dump me if I ever quite bike riding. Jeff and Ben (son-in-law and grandson) went trail riding on their bikes today; a picture is forthcoming. |
September 3rd | A honking skein of geese flying south is a lovely sight and sound, and when it's the first of the season it's a delightful prodigy as well. |
September 4th | LBLR has been completely empty since yesterday (almost a whole day now), but that will change with the arrival of Jeff K tomorrow afternoon, North Carolina Laurie on Thursday, Denny T on Friday, and Dotz & Bev on Sunday. The resorting season is still far from over. |
The Nones | The LBL Lake level (1282.32 feet above sea level as we speak) is at its lowest level of the year, but it is still a couple of inches higher than it normally is at this time. It's now nearly 4 inches lower than it was when the gauge was calibrated on May 4th and nearly 11 inches lower than it was at its peak on June 21st. And by the way, that swing of 11 inches from highest to lowest is the second largest swing in the 5 years that I've been following it. The largest difference was in 2008 when it varied by 12 3/4 inches over the course of the year, but we may yet reach that if the Autumn rains don't start soon. |
September 6th | A lady whom I've referred to on a number of occasions as North Carolina Laurie started reading the LBLR Chronicles back in 2008 or early 2009. She sent me an e-mail for the first time early in 2009 and the first mention of her in the Chronicles was on April 6th of that year (two days before her NC Tar Heels beat my MSU Spartans to win the NCAA Basketball Championship). Believe it or not, Laurie and her husband Paul arrived at LBLR for the first time late this afternoon, a trip that has been talked about for over three years. By the way, the story of her connection to the Northland is in the "Stories, Poems, & Anecdotes From the Northland" section of the LBLR website; if you'd like to read it click HERE |
September 7th | This is a neat way to warm the house up a bit on a chilly September morn. Click HERE. |
September 8th | Today is Youth Waterfowl Hunt Day; lots of shooting going on this morning. |
September 9th | Here's another benefit of being old. If you want to know what day of the week it is but you can't remember, you can find out by just looking at your pill box. |
September 10th | Thanks to Dotz, Mick, Sarge, and Bob for a whole day of hard labor. Click HERE. |
September 11th | So long to North Carolina Laurie and her husband Paul who left this morning after their first LBLR vacation. They said that they'll be back, but I hope we don't have to wait another three years to see them again. Thanks for coming you guys! (By the way, they did catch some fish.) |
Programmers' Day | Let us raise our glasses in a toast to all current and retired computer programmers throughout the world (including yours truly), because today is "Programmers' Day". It's the 100th day of the year in hexidecimal, or the 256th day of the year in base 10 (which is also 28). Programmers' Day, which falls on September 12th in leap years and on September 13th in non-leap years, is observed in approximately 20 countries (including the US) and became an official holiday in Russia via an Executive Order signed by President Dmitry Medvedev in 2009. |
The Ides | As some of you will remember, it was three years ago yesterday that my youngest daughter (Teri) moved to Scotland to study at the University of Edinburgh. She flew into London that morning and as she attempted to board her connecting flight to Edinburgh she was promptly arrested. To see an account of her first day in the UK (and her first time in jail), click HERE. It's from a "facebook" entry. |
September 14th | Tomorrow will see the arrival of Wayne B and family from Arkansas, Deb C (for the third time in three months) along with her sister and brother-in-law this time, and (if you can believe this) Lori for the second time in a month. |
September_15th | The August 27th Chronicles entry contained a conjecture about young Loons learning to fly. To read that entry, click HERE. This afternoon a few of us witnessed one of the Loon chicks doing some practice flying. After a few abortive attempts, he finally made a short, but successful, flight. He ran on top of the water (as Loons must do to get up enough speed to get into the air), rose a foot or two above the water and flew a short distance, came back down to the surface and ran on the water for a bit, then became airborne for a second time before hitting the water again. Thanks for pointing that out Dotz! |
Rosh Hashanah | At sunset today Rosh Hashanah begins and we commemorate the 5773rd anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve. |
September 17th | Due to the absence of Autumn rain, the lake has dropped about an inch and a quarter in the last fortnight and it now stands at 1282.22 feet above sea level. That's about normal for mid-September. |
September 18th | Everything is covered with a good hard frost this morning. Neato!!!! |
September 19th | Today is a "pass". (So far anyway.) |
September 20th |
As you will remember, last year's Old Farmers' Almanac predicted this whole year to be very cold up here in our neck of the woods, but it turned out be quite warm.......in some months the warmest on record. The fact is, I really don't think their prediction could have been worse; it was simply terrible! So for what it's worth, here is their prediction for this winter. First of all, the snowfall is predicted to be average or below in every month, so the snow cover should be about what it was last year.......which was lousy. From a temperature standpoint however, November, January, and March (every other month) are predicted to be warmer than average, but December and February will be colder than average. So temperature-wise it's kind of a mixed bag this winter. One thing is for certain though, it'll really be tough for them to miss it as badly as they did last year; how could they possibly be that far off two years in a row!?!?!? |
September 21st | Today is the last day for you loyal, friendly and kind, but excessively critical Virgoans, for tomorrow begins the sign of the Scales. |
The Autumnal Equinox |
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. -- George Eliot (circa 1860) The sun crossed the equator at 9:49 this morning, thus ushering in the earliest Autumn since 1896. However, the one that will arrive in 2016 will be 28 minutes earlier than this one, so as I've said before "some of these astronomical tidbits can be rather difficult to fathom". At any rate, Happy Autumn to one and all!!!!!!! |
September 23rd | I haven't spoken with any hunters yet this year, but there must be tons and tons of grouse in this general area because there's tons and tons of shooting going on this morning! |
September 24th | Wait! Wait! My son-in-law has informed me that duck hunting opened this past weekend, which was probably the reason for all that shooting yesterday. It was not grouse as I had previously conjectured. That makes more sense. Thanks Jim! |
September 25th |
To Wayne B and family:   Thank you very much for the lunch at Sammy's today.......but next year it's on me. This time for sure and there will be no arguments, right? You guys are way too good to me. To see them (Wayne, Patsy, and Kevin, at least) "enjoying" a late night episode in the fish cleaning house, click HERE. |
September 26th | Last evening our learned City Council, by a vote of 5-0, agreed to allow two Mud Bog Runs per year in an area just to the south of Bass Lake. It seems to me that a Mud Bog Run is not the type of event best held inside the city limits or near a lake known for vacationing.......but one has no choice but to trust the judgement of our City Fathers. At any rate, it's going be loud and it's not going to be pleasant. The dates will be the first weekend of May and the second weekend of October. If anyone wants to make reservations at LBLR for those weekends, rest assured that they will be warned in advance. Sigh....... |
September 27th | While out fishing, the phrase "man overboard" sometime is funny and sometime is not funny. (What's your opinion Jennifer?) |
September 28th | On the other hand, while out fishing, the phrase "if we catch six more we'll have half a dozen" is never funny. |
September 29th |
Christina and Renan left yesterday after a quiet three day (two night) get-away at LBLR.   Already they are making plans to come back for a longer stay, and I sure hope they do.   Even though it was short, it was nice having them here.......thanks for coming you guys!   Christina, send me an e-mail if you see this, would you?
Here's David and Patsy after a Mother/Son fishing outing. And just so you know, David's fish was a lot bigger than it looks. Click HERE. |
September 30th |
It's hard to know when the Autumn colors are at peak; it's so darned difficult to gauge it. It appears that we might be in full swing, and that maybe this is just a bad year. It seems like every year that the colors are not what people think they should be, it's always because the Autumn has been too warm, or too wet, or too dry, or too something else.......and who really knows if any of those things are relevant? Not me! And sometimes when we think it hasn't been a good color year, three days later the woods are on fire. Personally, I think it might just be a tad early yet. At any rate, here are two pictures of the shore across the lake from LBLR.......what do YOU think? Click HERE Note:   The above words were written four days ago (but not posted until today) and since then the landscape has changed considerably. The colors have blossomed and it appears to be a pretty good year. The pictures you just looked at were also changed to depict today rather than four days ago (one from across the lake and one from by cabin 3). So ignore everything above........what a difference a few days can make!!! |