Clues...

It will soon hit the fan
Which of the magician's hand should you watch?

So Mama Nature is waving her hand at us, just like a magician does to distract you from the trick he is playing on you with his other hand. She gives us this unbelievable array of brightly colored leaves and days of cool dry air to make us feel good while she revs up the storms of soon-to-come winter. But don't be fooled. Others' hands are giving away the plan.

For, when sailors do what ever it takes to scrub away that waterline mustache, you know they are getting ready to hall out; and that means winter is on the way.

Soon the fair weather paddlers will disappear along with the doesn't-own-a-dry suit group. Pool sessions will begin, It will snow, and ice will form along the shores. Water temps will drop to hypothermic-inducing levels, and the days will be terribly short. Folks with seasonal depressions will bum out, we will all gain the weight we just now managed to lose from last winter.

Our skin will get dry and cracked and dandruff will return with the snow flakes. Snow blindness, cracked finger tips and lips and frost bite with happen along with slips on the ice and ice flows that shift and block us from getting off the water. Finally, our friends will look at our war-scarred bodies and wonder, if not ask aloud, why the hell we do this in the dead of winter? How, I ask you, can we possibly describe to them how much fun it is?

Paddle safe...
DS