If only it were winter

If only it were 20 degrees colder, we'd be hunkering in for a good blizzard right now. The weather has built up over the last 48 hours. Down here by the lake, it's "blowing like stink" as Sally says, and the forecasters say we're just getting going. But it's 45 degrees instead of 25 degrees, so the coming deluge will be rain, not snow.

If you haven't ever walked on the Park Point beach in a storm, you should. This is a good time, because it's actually not that cold. The lake is still 55 degrees or so, so the wind blasting in off the lake is tepid compared to a blow like this in January. But the waves are gi-normous and they slosh all the way up to the beach grass line and the only people out besides you are kiteboarders and they're crazy.

The waves starting crashing about five waves out, so it's a wide white field, and all that white surf is also crashing. You get a deep bass feel in your ears just from the wind pressure, then you add in the roar of the surf and it's multi-dimensionally loud. The pines are full of wind, too, but they're not whispering like in some Sigurd Olson essay, they're roaring.

Hmmm...Roaring Pines Lodge...that could be our B&B down here.