Click here to see the other months in 2006:
| The Calends of August | It's August ALREADY!!!! As a result of its sudden appearance, I hereby take back what I said on July 1st. Click HERE. |
| August 2nd | I'm delighted to have my friend Roy Schmidt, past owner of Mal Bay Resort, his dear Daughter Lori, his son-in-law Dave, and his grandson Barrett here in Cabin # 1 this week. |
| August_3rd | Look what Roy caught this morning. Click HERE. |
| August 4th | The summer seems to be dragging on and on and on......and on. It's getting to the point where I think I need a short vacation (from life, that is), but I'm not sure how to do that. The only idea I can come up with is to spend the next few days brimming with mindless optimism. I'm going to put an immensely positive slant on everything that happens........here and everywhere else in the world. That should be a vacation from life, shouldn't it? |
| The Nones of August | The lake level continues to drop. If it continues as it has been, two days from now we will have lost the 1.25 inches that we gained in the two nights of rain early this week. The weatherman predicts rain tonight but as we've seen all summer, that, along with 10 krona will buy you a hunk of cheese in Denmark. |
| August 6th | For an example of the current state of the flora added to LBLR in the year 2000, click HERE. |
| August 7th | Here's Macy jumping off a dock to catch a tennis ball. Notice the way her eyes are rivetted on the ball. Click HERE. |
| August 8th |
As of today it has been a full year since I've taken anyone to the emergency
room to have a fish hook removed from their person.
Maybe we'll make it through the whole summer without one. On this day in the year 1974 my family and I (wife and 2 daughters at the time) and another family from Rochester (Bonnie, Joe, and family), were spending a week at a resort near Alexandria when we heared on the radio that President Nixon had resigned. |
| August 9th | One of the Osprey nests between here and Randy's place has been abandoned already, about 3 weeks earlier than last year. But I never was able to tell if there were any young ones in it this year. |
| August 10th |
It was a great evening! Randy and I went to Rivers Wine Bar and
Bistro (hereafter to be referred to as "The Wine Bar") and it was amazing! The
ambiance was delightful, the staff was great (especially Ann, the
bartendress), the wine was excellent, the food was delicious,
the other customers, who were coming and going the whole evening, appeared to
be having a great time, and the entire evening was enjoyable. If you're
in Grand Rapids and would like a touch of class, I highly recommend The Wine
Bar. Hang in there you guys, you're a great addition to Grand Rapids and I
hope you're around for a long time. One other observation (and this is just a personal preference).........among the clientele the women out numbered the men by at least 4 to 1 tonight. I don't know if that's normal, but I'd be happy to see that trend continue. |
| August 11th | "During late July the star Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after the conjuntion, the 'dog days' because Sirius is the 'dog star'." If one uses that as a definition of the "dog days" (there are several, ya know), today is the last day. |
| August 12th | More later.......... |
| The Ides of August |
Rain all morning........a nice, slow, gentle rain; no wind and no thunder. "Wine is one of the most civilized things in the world, and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection. It offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than possibly any other purely sensory thing." -- Ernest Hemingway (1932) |
| August 14th |
The lake level went up 2.6 inches due to all the rain yesterday. In the ancient Roman Calendar, yesterday was the Ides of August, and today would be referred to as: "a.d. XIX Kal. Sept." which literally means "19 days before the first of September". (a.d. means ante diem or "days before", XIX is Roman Numerals for 19, Kal. is short for Calends (which is the first of any month. Why the "K" instead of a "C"? I don't know.), and of course Sept is the next month). However, if you count out the days, you'll come up with only 18......that's because the Romans counted "inclusively" (ie, they would count both today AND September 1st whereas we wouldn't count today). |
| a.d. XVIII Kal. Sept. | The Secchi disk reading this morning was only 10 1/2 feet, which is 2 1/2 feet less than the last one. Each reading has been less than the previous one since the high of 14 feet on July 11th, with this one being the biggest drop. Possibly there's a little algae in the water this time of the year, or maybe a pollen build up. Maybe this is typical of most lakes and if so, we'll have to wait till next year at this time to see if it happens again. Or maybe it has something to do with all the rain from Sunday. Who knows?! |
| August 16th |
Here is a response to yesterday's entry (above). It's from
Jennifer Klang of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency: "Jerry: It is very possible that all the rain could have negatively affected your Secchi readings. For some lakes, increased rain brings nutrients into them and makes them worse. Conversely, for some lakes, increased precipitation actually helps by (for lack of a better term) "flushing" them out. Only by watching how your lake reacts over several wet/dry cycles can you start to get a feel for how it reacts to precipitation or lack thereof. [In addition], it is not uncommon for lakes to be at their lowest [clarity] at this time of year. As the weather cools, the algae and aquatic vegetation will naturally slow down their production and the waters will clear up again in late September and early October - or until your lake does a fall turn-over." |
| August 17th | Rain again last night. The lake went up 1.3 inches, which puts it back up to the level it was at nearly 2 months ago. Neato!!!!! |
| August 18th | I suppose the time has come for us to face it.......summer is coming to an end. August is more than half over. The Loons have not yet started to lose their beautiful high-contrast black and white, but it will begin shortly. The water fowl have not yet started to thin out, but that will begin shortly too. Already I've noticed some red leaves on the Lilac bush and the Maple tree by cabin 3. Some of the willows on the shoreline are starting to turn brown, and the needles on some of the tamaracks are getting a trace of their autumn gold. It's rare that we have a chilly night these days, but it's happening occasionally. Every 24 hours we're one day closer to the first cold rainy September evening when a glass of wine and a fire in the fireplace will be a joy. Patience......patience......it'll come......it'll come...... |
| August 19th | Congratulations to Pat and Michelle, who were married on the front porch this afternoon. They are the second couple who have "tied the knot" at LBLR since I've been here. Click HERE to see some pictures. |
| August 20th | The entry for last June 4th included a picture of a snapping turtle laying her eggs on the resort. Click HERE. Unlike the little Painted Turtles which don't dig their way out of the ground until the Spring, the little Snappers left this morning, only two and half months after the eggs were layed. The little snapper in this picture is difficult to see because it's covered with sand, but the turtle is in the center of the picture and the hole it came out of is in the lower left. Click HERE. |
| August 21st | It has been 8 days since that fairly heavy rain, and as per Jennifer's surmise on August 16th (above), the lake has cleared up some. The Secchi disk reading this morning was 12.5 feet. |
| August 22nd | Click HERE. |
| August 23rd | A person should resolve to be silly every single time an occasion arises where someone is around to appreciate it. But before you do it, make absolutely certain that someone IS, in fact, around to appreciate it. You have to be very careful how you use your silliness these days, because so much of it falls on deaf ears and that's such a waste. And as one ages, one can never be certain how much silliness one actually has left....so use it all up, but use it wisely and don't waste any of it. |
| August 24th | Hey Cindy (also known as SL), before you start asking me about it, here's the campfire wood for next Spring's girls weekend. It's ready........so relax. Click HERE. |
| August 25th | The whole Hanson clan left this morning. I'll see you guys next year.....and for two weeks next time, right? |
| August 26th | To Lori (whose youngest daughter recently moved to the East Coast): Since my youngest daughter has been living on the West Coast for quite some time now, I know how you feel. But all we can do is accept it, realize that a parent's job is to become obsolete, and think that, perhaps, we did our jobs fairly well. That kinda makes it tough for us to visit them both in the same year though, doesn't it? |
| August 27th | Read John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row". If you've already read it, read it again. Read it slowly and savor every line. If you don't have a copy, let me know and I'll lend you mine. |
| August 28th | Today the Minneapolis Tribune carried a short article indicating that our favorite old weather forecaster, the Farmers' Almanac, is predicting a very cold winter with a lot of snow for the midwest and the plains states this year. However, it said nothing about their dismal record in the past years. |
| August 29th | Every day there are hummingbirds at my feeder all morning long. Yesterday there were hummingbirds at my feeder all morning long. This morning there are none! In the Farmers' Almanac there's an entry for August 31st that says "Hummingbirds migrate south". Do you suppose that they all packed up and left last night, and do you suppose that the time they begin their migration is almost identical no matter where they're located, so that the Farmers' Almanac notation is that accurate? I can't believe it. This has to be a fluke. Maybe they are still around and I'll see them later today. |
| August 30th |
Still no hummingbirds! I really think they hit the road yesterday. There were four Turtle stories (including pictures) on the Chronicles this year. If you're interested, here's a summary: April 21st -- Baby Painted Turtles emerge, click HERE. June 2nd -- Mother Painted Turtle lays eggs for next year, click HERE. June 4th -- Mother Snapper lays eggs for this year, click HERE. August 20th -- Baby Snappers emerge, click HERE. September 3rd -- Painted Turtle sunning himself (added much later), click HERE. |
| August 31st |
Oops! After a 2 day absence there was a hummingbird at the feeder this
morning. Maybe some have left so the activity has dwindled, and I just missed
him the last 2 days. Hmmmm....... Incidentally, there was also a Chickadee eating from the hummingbird feeder several times today. I've seen Orioles do that fairly often, but this is the first time I've ever seen a Chickadee do it. Click HERE. |
