Pumpkins, Rain, and Frost

Last week started off wet. It seemingly rained for two plus days. The lake only got three quarters of an inch deeper. It seemed like more, not because of it's intensity, but because of its duration. By the weekend, the sky was kind of clear and the weather was not so wet. All was good in the northwoods. Then the Knott Lane internet went down. This failure wasn't due to a bad router or AI, but rather a planned event involving an ISP that absorbed the old ISP. Fixing the issure required a trip to the ISP's Wausaw location, many phone calls, and some profanity. About eight hours all together. Artifacts of this unscheduled network event included a burned Monday and the lateness of this week's summary page.

Who is ultimately responsible for this networking faux pas? I blame squirrels. It's obvious that the little buggers used their vast nut based wealth to acquire positions on the boards of large ISPs in order to wreak havoc on the local internet. Why? Maybe to extract a bit of revenge for squirrel ball, but mostly because... evil. Well played, you little bastards.

Before the squirrel induced psychological injury of the late weekend, there was the carving of pumpkins.

On the north end of Lucerne, pumpkin carving 2025 was a small, poorly attended affair due in no small part to rain and the lack of announcments/invites.

The first day of rain made the lake about three tenths of an inch deeper. The second day was a tenth of an inch heavier.

There was some rain later in the week, but the accumulation was negligible. This was good in that some of the rain was in the form of horrible, horrible snow.

Between the drops and flakes, there was a little sun and golf. Some of the trees at the NCC still have a bit of color.

Fairway aeration, fear it.

Also beware the horrendous leaf traps!

Other than that, the course is in pretty good shape.

Eventually the sky cleared. Then the air temperature dropped.

The lake temperature also dropped. It's still above 50°F but quite un-swimmable.

Mornings later in the week were cold and thick with frost.

It took well into noon before all the frost melted.

The lake wasn't suitable for swimming, but it was great for canoeing.

Despite the rain, the lake level seems to be going down. We'll get the measurement to see how much next week.

Well, that was entertaining in a way that a great ski run or breathtaking sunset is not. The new network bric-a-brac is configured and working. The involuntary twitching and tourettes of the Knottlane IT staff should dissipate with time. The great squirrel internet downing of 2025 seems over. Let us never speak of it again. Barring another squirrel strike, code monkeys are working to get the ice-in contest up next week. Without the distractions of golf, swimming, and tanning, they should keep on schedule unlike last week's summary page.

-Nemo, protagonist to the antagonist squirrel.

Pumpkins, Rain, and Frost

October 20th through 26th, 2025