Many years ago when I was 10 or 12 years old, there was a patch of unseasonably warm weather through the end of one fall week in October.    On Saturday, the temperature was just about 79 degrees and my best friend Byrne Keefe and I decided it would be fun to go swimming in Lake Harriet.  So we got my dad to drive us to the semi-secluded Queen beach and dove right in.   OMG was it cold!   We never expected the water to have gotten so cold such a short time after summer.   We actually stayed in the water for five or ten minutes and had a good time, but we never tried that stunt again.

So since the forecast is for 80+ degrees here on Thursday, let this be a warning to you that while you can bake in the sun in April, you will be in for quite a shock if you dip your toes into that water now.  I think that Minnesotans get such bad cases of cabin fever that when the snow finally melts, we often let our hearts overrule our heads.

The picture here is a print that has been hanging in our house for over 30 years.  I’m fond of it because my dad and I would often go fishing near the sailboats just so we could spend a pleasant evening listening to the band concerts.  We were both terrible fishermen and rarely caught anything big enough to consider taking home.  But we always had fun.