(Doug taking a rolling lesson with me
Doug has friends here as well as a brother in Appleton, WI and a sister in California. Everyone is deeply concerned. Lake Superior waters can become treacherous, and hypothermia is a constant danger. We continue our vigil as the clock ticks.
Doug is a teacher in the Milwaukee Public School system. He is also a kayaker and, I would like to think, a good friend. He has done me innumerable favors and used to paddle regularly with the Milwaukee sea kayak group. Today, on our Yahoo site, someone posted an article from a Duluth newspaper (Minnesota). Apparently, a Ric Winter of Wisconsin was notified that a kayak registered to Doug (his brother) was found washed up on shore in the Duluth area. Doug's car, keys inside, were also found nearby. No sign of Doug. I fear the worse.
The web page of a local TV station has a picture of a kayak cockpit, and I believe it is the boat shown above. I have just spoken to the news room at the paper, and they have nothing new since Tuesday, 3 days ago.
After 10 years, I've treated myself to a new car. This time a Subaru Forester. I only have about 300 miles on it, but I have formed some opinions about the vehicle...some good, some not so much. To begin, it rides well, has all the goodies I was willing to pay for and has excellent visibility. The moon roof, when open, essentially converts the car to a convertible.
One nice touch is the removable, screw-in tie down point. It would have been better, in my judgment, if it had been centered, or at least not so far off to the left (perhaps they didn't want it near the tow package).
(The old, and very reliable, AE-1 film camera)
I didn't have to be admitted to an intensive care unit, but I did spend much of yesterday recovering. Our youngest was here with our grand daughter, Adena. This little bundle of joy is, fortunately, her father's daughter. It's not that our daughter isn't mellow, it's just that our son in law in really mellow; and so is his daughter. As long as she is fed, not hurting too much from teething and dry on the bottom, she is lay back, intense in her concentration and quick to smile. One other thing. Like all babies, she sucks the energy out of the place.
I have come to call her squeaky as the noises she makes while asleep wake me. And right there, my friends, is why I was so tired by time she left. I was waking up at all hours having heard a noise and fearing she was in distress. Although everything would be fine, I was often unable to fall back asleep, at least for a while. At the end of the gig it was I who was in exhausted distress. There just isn't any substitute for age.
With today's digital cameras (and excellent films) it is incredibly simple to capture fall colors. Year after year, photogs make pilgrimages to Vermont, the Smokies and other picturesque locations to capture the colorful change of seasons. Few, however, will succeed in capturing something really special. After all, it's all been done before. It requires, at least, the right light and a perceptive eye. Best light usually occurs early in the day after a rainfall when the saturated air softly scatters the light.
Unwilling to travel or wait for the perfect conditions, I grabbed these shots at a parkway 3 blocks from my house. Break out the cider. It is fall.
One of the online medical letters I get recently stated the following:
Standing downstream, I watched while he first admired the fish, then gently placed it in the water and held it until he was sure the animal was okay. Then, he let it go.
In the end, this sign did it for me.
Paddle safe...
We dressed properly and feathered into the wind.
As Nydia was on shore taking these shots, we will need to wait for JB to post images taken in a marsh we found. Lovely place. Eventually, we caught a little surf coming back.
Good friends, good paddles.
Doing so simply allows images to pile atop one another and be recorded as if happening at the same instant. It's easy to do (don't forget the tripod), makes for a satisfying image and is (at the end of the day) just water.
It can get crowded out there. Folks often forget that we get trans Atlantic shipping as well as Great Lakes' vessels going in and out of the Milwaukee harbor. More over, there are skippers running about in sail and power driven crafts. Through in the surfers, kite surfers and wave runners, and you have some days with lots of folks per square mile of water.
The wind shifted to the north after gusting offshore to 40 knots yesterday. I got out alone and was treated to big rollers and some calaposis. I'm putting some of the crests at 5 feet as they were breaking over the wall and hid the channel markers from me (the markers sit higher than my head, the traditional 3-foot wave marker). I bobbled and surfed and, then, thought better of being out there alone with no helmet and no companion. Especially since the lake seemed determined to dash me on the wall.
More often than not, we go for coffee. More specifically, we go to Sven's. It's 2 minutes from our launch site, the coffee and food are above average and Steve (owner of Sven's) is often there to bend our ears. I often have soup since, alas, coffee has begun irritating my GI tract (you know you're getting old when coffee disagrees with you and whiskey goes down easier). So, after the last paddle with Leslie, we headed to the north side and the Dairy Queen near out homes. I tell you, when the weather is warm there is nothing like one of their vanilla cones dipped into chocolate. Oh, Mama. Which, of course, reminds me of an interesting (perhaps only to me) story.
I know the people who originally owned this franchise, and some time ago they invited me to speak to their state-wide meeting of franchise owners (I don't remember why, but it was on cardiology). I asked to see a nutritional sheet on their products and was surprised to see how relatively low in fat their "ice cream" was compared to other brands. You need to know that here, in Wisconsin, there are minimum fat levels you need to meet to before calling something ice cream.
It was just a long enough paddle to get the cow webs out. Good therapy. Today, the weather is changing with wind gusts of up to 40 Knots expected.
It rained yesterday, and the sun is not yet up today. I just stepped outside into the darkness and breathed in the moist warm air while crickets serenaded me. There was no wind, not even a breeze. Aside from the crickets, it was quiet. What a great way to start the day.
They come from all over and by many means to get out onto the water to play, relax or go somewhere. Like fire, water draws us to her and holds endless surprises for the unprepared. 
A few weeks ago I watched my grandson and other children in the Cincinnati Museum for Children as they played in the water section. Although they were at the age of short attention spans, the water held them captive...sometimes for an hour or more. The older kids could see how hydrostatic work could be turned into mechanical work; but most of the children just came to play in this wonderful stuff. To tell the truth, I envied them and their sense of discovery.
Although we have no centerfolds in our magazines, there are all sorts of opinionated reviews regarding how they act on dates. We even (and without shame) talk about their weight and other measurements. But let's face it, we choose the one we love mostly by her eye appeal, especially as to how she looks caressing the water and the way she moves (I don't smoke, but I have this urge for a cigarette).
Back inside, JB and Jessie busied themselves with navigation exercises. After about three and a half hours on the water (I had arrived early to practice strokes) I headed in since I had to teach the next day (today).
It was nice to see Jessie again. As she lives in LaCross, on the Mississippi, we haven't seen her since the Door County Symposium. 
Even the inland lakes are seeing heavy traffic. Above is a scene from "Gilligan's Island," a shallow in the Yahara River (near Madison) where boaters gather to party and save gas.
