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	August 4th through 10th, 2025

Last week started out smoky. Carving out summer fun in the acrid air is possible, but requires perseverance, stamina, and more than a few tissues.

Early in the week, looking over the hill to the west you could see Mentonga through the murk. Beyond that there was only murk.

During the smoked part of the week, the sunsets were nice.

The murk moved on mid-week (Huzzah!), just in time for ragweed pollen season.

Lucerne had only one ski show last week. It was great!

There's only one more scheduled for 2025. If you haven't seen it yet, be at Water's Edge at 6:30 PM this Wednesday (The pre-show starts around 6:00 PM and is well worth the time).

Welcome and congratulations to Bob and Cami, the newest shore owners on the lake.

It's always good to have another couple to chase away the sky raccoons.

The foul fowl are getting way too comfortable on the north end of the lake, going so far as to do Abbey Road album cover recreations on West Shore Drive.

As if insulting 60's music fans was not enough, they then entered the water and mooned us.

Other birds were also super active last week. They were emptying feeders in about a day.

While north end squirrels have not yet tried to offend local Beatles fans by mocking cover art, they have continued to raid bird feeders and be generally evil.

Back on the lake there was sailing! On the north end, the men prefer a breeze from the south. Wind from the south has been rare this summer, but we had a good 8 mph zephyr on Friday. Only tipped over once.

Tipping over was not made more emotionally distressing by cold water. The lake temperature is close to 80°F.

There was a campfire gathering of the Lucerne Infirm on Friday. We attended for the friends, fire, tails of warning, and beer.

On Saturday, the main drag in Rhinelander was shut down for an all class reunion. There was food, drink and free music. The Rhinelander Pub and Cafe had the ever entertaining, mysterious, and tasty "Hovering Pizza".

There was rain on the weekend.

The lake got half an inch overnight and another tenth of an inch on Sunday morning. The area needed it.

Corn fields, well...a corn field, on the north end of Lucerne is just weeks away from its first picking if the deer don't beat us to it.

Watching an underpowered outboard pulling a kneeboard made some smile and took us back to the early 70's.

The smoke is gone (for now), the lake is warm (ish), and the air is still hot. Now is the time to get your second wind, objectively easier without all that smoke, and push the summer fun 'ometer to 11 before Labor Day. Armed with energy drinks, tanning butter, and tails of warning from the Lucerne Infirm, the plan is to push the envelope without tourniquets or casts. That's the plan anyway.<br><br><br>-Nemo took most of the mysterious, hovering pizza home.

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