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	October 19th through 25th

Nobody golfed. It wasn't just the temperature that kept people off the links, there was also rain. And snow. And sleet. And hail. The only people spotted on the lake were the lift and pier removal men who braved the cold water with steely determination, stout hearts, and a little crying.

Early last week it was the cold that kept the clubs in the locker. A 17°F morning added a cover of ice to the many lawn puddles that dot the shore turf.

All the pothole puddles on Knott Lane also froze.

Then came the snow.

The first snow event totaled 4.5 inches and whited up the pines quite nicely.

It was at this point that many bowed to their new Winter master.

While the entire lake shore has been wintered up, the lake itself remains mostly ice free.

Later in the week, the snow turned to rain, then back into snow, then back into rain. By the time it ended, the lake was 0.75 inches deeper and the shore was 0.75 inches wetter.

The rain took much of the snow from the lane only to have it replaced later by a weekend dusting.

The lake temperature is falling. If this weather continues, it'll be an early ice-in.

Somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;<br>
the band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,<br>
and somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;<br>
but there is no joy on Knott Lane — the raft still needs to be taken out.

At the bar, much of this week was spent finishing the interior of the off deck video game shack. An important lesson that should be passed on involves the roller type to use with a "paint stick". A paint stick looks sort of like a giant syringe with a roller replacing the needle. Paint is sucked up into its handle and, when pressure is applied to the plunger, the paint flows into the roller and is applied to the surface. I can't stress the importance of being sure to use a roller with interior perforations. Paint will not flow through a solid cardboard tube and as the pressure builds the result is an explosion of paint from the roller's sides which will coat floors, walls, and wife with shrapnel of color. After Mrs Nemo stopped crying, we cleaned it up and used a manual paint roller.

There were reports of some smaller lakes icing over last week. With barely above freezing highs and lows in the teens, the last 7 days have more closely resembled late January than the second last full week in October. Lucerne remains skiable, but I'd recommend a dry suit and a heated tow handle. There's still plenty of dates left in this year's<a href='/icein/IceIn2020.html' class ='defaultlink2' target='_blank'> Ice-In contest</a>. Enter soon before all the winning dates are taken.<br><br>-Nemo pushed hard on the plunger, instantly regretted it.

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