Blowing in the wind...

"Will there be an escape this winter down to the warmer climate? The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind." 

Yesterday, we had to deliver some things up to our new "pad" at the RV park by Minnesota's Walleye Factory (Lake Mille Lacs). We borrowed my daughter's utility trailer and loaded it up with a picnic table and hammock frame. When we got up there, it was like being a wind tunnel. It was windy, it was cold. It has been a while since I fished Mille Lacs. I almost forgot how much wind that lake can generate. 

On the way home, the experience up the lake gave me pause for a few thoughts. This is the time of the year I hate the worst. Why? Because the weather can turn ugly at any minute. Five years ago, we had five inches of snow. Of course, those of us who are a bit long in the tooth, can never forget the Halloween Blizard of 1991. I still get the shivers thinking about it.

What is my point? October becomes a real blizzard (excuse the pun) of activity. It can be a very nice month with a lengthy Indian Summer, or it could be a very short, truncated "season of the leaves". And then the cold, the snow, the dark, the gloom. I can remember one year when I was much younger (this must have been an example of man-made global warming), October was beautiful, and it carried over into November. Since the company I worked at gave the day after Thanksgiving as a day off, I played tennis with a friend of mine on that that. Dressed in a parka? Nope. T-shirts and shorts. 

What does the Farmer's Almanac say about this winter? It does not matter, as they are wrong half the time. This El Nino thing might make it a warmer winter with less snow, a warmer winter with more snow, a colder winter, or - who cares. Let's just get it on so we can get it over with. My wife and I had a wonderful summer, and we hate to see it end. But end it must, and we must pay the piper now. 

Will there be an escape this winter down to the warmer climate? The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind. That being said, I rate that get away as somewhere between the possible to probable. Since my bride is the one who brought it up, I would shade that more towards the probable. And that is just fine with me!