Getting ready for the in-between

Holy rain! I don’t think I have ever experienced such a long stretch of wet weather as I did this past week. We woke up to rain Monday morning and it pretty much did not stop coming down until early Thursday morning and that was because it changed to snow. We then had a snow and rain mix occur Thursday into Thursday night and Friday morning. All told we picked up more than 5″ of precip this past week, which is about twice our average for the month of October! The rains Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday fell with temps in the upper 30’s to low 40’s, so it was extra nasty. Surprisingly, the natives did not get too restless with all of that nasty weather. There were complaints for sure, it seemed like everyone did not even want to talk about it, for fear it would just make it seem worse!

I personally did not mind it too much, but it did keep all of us cooped up inside, including Huck, Millie and Bleau. I felt sorry for them, as they were stuck inside for just about all week, except to go potty. The nasty weather also put a damper and dimmer on the color show. There are still leaves in the trees, but about 30-40% of them have come down and it will take just a few days more before most of the trees are bare. Even with the nasty weather, it was a good show, but had there been even a bit of sun, it would have been spectacular. Probably one of the best color shows we have had in years. Had the weather been more cooperative, I would have a lot more pictures to share, but between a busy schedule and all the wet weather, that is the only picture I managed to take!

It always escapes me how busy I get at this time of the year. Somehow I always seem to forget all the little things that have to be done, many of them not being able to be done until the second week of October and many of them needing to be done before that week ends! Toss in a trip to Marquette on Thursday that had me away from home from 9 am to 11 pm and it only compounded things. I had hoped to get my seasonal outlook done before the work week ended, but was not able to. I did work on it yesterday and today and it is done and will be released tomorrow morning. For those of you lucky souls reading this, you get a sneak peak! OK, so maybe not much help, but check back tomorrow morning in the forecast text section!

The other main activity this week was a play that Grace was in. It is the same traveling group that she worked with last year. There are a pair of instructors that travel around the country and they stop at different places and in less than 5 days time, go from nothing to a full play. It is really amazing how much some of the actors (all kids) memorize in that short amount of time and how well choreographed the entire production is. At 4 pm on Monday, all the kids are just showing up for auditions and do not even know what part they will have or if they will even have a part. By Friday at 7:30 pm, its curtains up and the show starts!

This years production was a take on Beauty and the Beast. It did not follow the traditional story-line much, but was still very entertaining and fun to watch. If I did my counting right, there were 56 kids that were in the play, ranging in age from around 2nd grade to high school. Grace played one of the park rangers (it really was a different script!) and even had her own brief speaking role. Here is a quick video of it. She really loved it and it will be fun to watch her get more and more prominent roles as she gets older.

So other than a few announcements, I guess that I am done for this go around. The first announcement is that I will be in Ironwood this Thursday, at the Cold Iron Brewing Co to give a talk on weather. So if you are in the area, please stop by, things start at 6:30. Secondly, the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club will be holding its annual trail work session this coming Friday and Saturday, the 19th and 20th. We have a pretty good list of things that we want to get done and there have already been folks that have contacted me to let me know they are planning to come and help. All are welcomed and there is free lodging being offered to the workers at the Trailside Lodge in Calumet and the Lac La Belle Lodge in Lac La Belle. We will also be having a cookout for all of the workers Saturday at the Trailside Lodge. We will be meeting at the Trailside Lodge both mornings at 9:30. Right now, the weather looks to be very nice on Friday and just a small chance of some snow showers Saturday. Hope to see lots of you there!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
JD