Cook County News Herald

Cooler weather— calmer traffic?






 

 

I’m glad that fall has arrived. I like cooler weather. If I didn’t have to work, I wouldn’t mind 80-degree temperatures. If I could spend hot afternoons on the cool beach rocks of Lake Superior, soaking my feet in the water, I wouldn’t mind summer’s heat. If I had enough free time to float around an inland lake in a canoe or an inner tube, I would love to see the mercury climb.

But since I’m not on a perpetual vacation, I’m glad cooler weather has finally arrived. I function better when the weather is cooler, when I can wear a comfortable old sweatshirt with my jeans. I have an interesting sock collection that I like to wear when the temperatures drop. I can sleep better when it’s cozy under the blankets instead of stifling.

I have nothing bad to say about fall. Except…what the heck happened to summer?

I know, summer is busy for everyone, but this year the warm months just seemed to slip away. I didn’t get a chance to write an Unorganized Territory about a perennial summer complaint— traffic!

After a close call with inattentive drivers in the intersection by Blue Water Café, and then by the new one-way street by Dairy Queen, and then by Java Moose, I wrote a note to myself on the little tablet I carry around for just that reason. My note to myself said, “Driving home from work, don’t use Wisconsin Street.”

I have little notebooks and scraps of paper all over the place with notes scribbled on them. I turn to these tattered tablets when I’m stumped for ideas about what to ramble on about in this column.

I planned to express the summer frustration of having our small town grow by a thousand or so. I was going to rant a little bit about the lake-lookers who drive two miles per hour when I need to get somewhere.

And I was going to conclude with some sage advice for folks who might be visiting or who recently moved to Grand Marais. Go to the light!

I know, we get laughed at and we laugh at ourselves for being a one stoplight town. But that one stoplight can save you from a lot of aggravation on busy summer days. I frequently forget this summer rule and drive down the old Gunflint Trail, only to sit there for 10 minutes waiting for a break in traffic. Or, I think I’ll go home by turning right from First Avenue to Wisconsin and then onto Highway 61 to once again sit and wait…and wait… and wait.

But it was such a busy summer that I never got around to writing that column. It’s hard to write a column when you’re stuck in traffic.

Now that school is in session, traffic seems to be slowing somewhat. I’m looking forward to the cooler weather and the calmer traffic. But we do have a few more busy weekends ahead. Unplugged events are taking place at North House Folk School this weekend, so I need to remember not to drive down the old Gunflint on Thursday through Saturday. Moose Madness is coming up in mid-October and the city of Grand Marais will be buzzing with families up for the moosethemed events.

So the advice to head to Broadway and the one stoplight is still good advice. I just need to slow down and remember it.

Everything in life is somewhere
else, and you get there in a car.

E.B. White


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