The Last Gasp

83 yesterday and 80 so far today, then reality hits. I am much less enthusiastic about the “heat” the past two days than I was all of the summer. It has not been unbearable, but still warmer than I would care for. It has given us an extended pool season. Early in the week I could see that it was going to get warm again this weekend, so we kept it up. After today, it will begin to get drained. Some day we hope to have a pool we can keep up all year long. I would also like to have a hot tub as part of the pool as well. I know that sauna’s are the UP thing, but I just have never enjoyed them much.

It was a fairly slow week, with not a lot of stuff going on. We did have rain a couple of times, including some severe weather. As far as I could tell, the severe weather did not cause any big problems, with some moderately strong winds and some hail. We did welcome the rain though. We are still running way behind and every drop is welcomed. The grass has not greened up a whole lot and I think that is because we are just too late in the season to see much greening of anything. 

While several of the day’s this past week have still been very summer like, it starts to cool off by around 5 pm and by 7 pm, a jacket or sweatshirt is likely needed. We have had several early morning lows with temps in the low 40’s. We still have not turned the heat on in the house, but there sure has been a few mornings when I wish we did!

On Thursday Bleau had his first school year hair cut of the season. He does not go all summer without a cut. In fact he gets his hair cut every 40-45 days. At that point, he is quite ready for a cut. Mostly his face and especially his eyes. So I guess he really needs a trim every 40-45 days, but could probably get by with a full cut every other visit to the groomer. There is a reason besides, I am starved for material, that I am discussing Bleau’s grooming practices. It’s because they are the only two pics I have for this entry! On the way there, I pulled to the side of the road and took a selfie of us with his long shaggy hair in his eyes. On the way home, I took the after selfie before we pulled out of our parking space. 

So far this week is starting off like last week ran, pretty slow in the activity department. The temps look to cool noticeably, with tomorrow’s high around 20 degrees colder than todays. Some rain to usher in the cooler temps and lag a bit into tomorrow morning. Not a lick of snow seen on the horizon at this point. Seems strange to even be mentioning snow with temps in the 80’s two days in a row, but it is not out of the question for us to see the first flakes of the season fall by the very end of September or early October.

As far as the color show goes, it seems to be running pretty close to average time-wise. Most areas will peak out in the October 7-11 time frame, with the higher terrain south of Houghton peaking 4-6 days earlier and areas right down by the big lake 4-6 days after. I was in Twin Lakes on Friday and the colors there were much more changed than here in Jake, where we are still almost all green. I would say that in around 10 days they will be at peak. Houghton/Hancock are around 3-5 days ahead of us and had some color, but nothing to get excited about yet.

I think that will cover it for this week. Have a great one and…

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
JD