November 21^st, 2004:

Cold but sunny; windy overnight but not bad during the day. It has been pretty cold for the last half of the week, but temperatures are close to normal for this time of year. Those nice days got us off our guard again.

DuWaynne Plaskan of Marean Lake phoned last Wednesday to ask if the lake was still frozen over. I told him it got pretty shiny when the temperature went up Monday, but as far as I could see it was still frozen. He said there was a strip of ice about four hundred feet long and a hundred feet wide in front of his place, but other than that Marean Lake was wide open. It was about half frozen last weekend but opened up again. He has about five hundred Canada geese swimming around in front of his place.

I got the binoculars out and could see a strip that looked like open water running east and west, and some dark strips out in the narrows, but basically it was still frozen over. Now I have a problem - I reported that the lake froze over on November 11^th. Is that still the official freeze-up date? Or do I have to wait until these cracks close up? This morning it was –12° and the cracks were frozen up again, so take your pick - November 11^th or November 21^st. I think I’ll stick with the 11^th.

Today we went to the Bjorkdale Craft Fair and Turkey Shoot. Doreen and Shirley shared a table, offering our photos and Shirley’s translucent rock slices. She stamps an image on the slice with an embossing ink, mounts it on a little stand with a candle behind it, and the light shines through illuminating the image. Neat!

I wear trifocal glasses and have cataract problems. Merv and I entered the turkey shoot, mostly to make a donation to the Lion’s Club. When my turn came to shoot, I could focus on the sights or on the target, but not both. After I shot, Ed Betthel said, “There’s an old poacher!” but I didn’t know what he meant. Ten minutes later, he told me I won with a perfect bullseye! I can’t claim skill - I never have been a good shot, and haven’t shot at all for many years.

When we were in Deadwood, we both entered tournaments - one on slot machines, the other on Blackjack. I, who never play the slots, won that tournament and got a twenty dollar prize. Doreen never plays Blackjack, but she won first prize, ten dollars. The Blackjack tournament was straightforward playing, but the slot tournament called for considerable skill and control - the machines are set to play for three minutes, and the object is to make as much as possible in that time. You have to keep pressing the “Spin” button to get as many spins as possible. When I won my big hit, I wasn’t even watching the machine!

Maybe the time is ripe to buy a 649 ticket!

Things are pretty quiet around the Park. About the only activity is Brian Shuya hard at work clearing back the brush and deadfall along the roads in the core area. It looks pretty good, too.