The weather for the coming week appears likely to be wet, cloudy, and damp, with temperatures mostly in the 60s. The rain is welcome news. Monday is the day to watch, as all signs point toward a heavy rainfall that could amount to two inches in town, with still greater amounts elsewhere in the county. Combined with the rain already received this week, what has been a notably dry spring may soon give way to a wet summer. By the end of next week, rainfall may stand nearly an inch above normal.
The prospect of rain has done little to discourage the commissioner candidates. Six have stopped by the weather tower in recent days to discuss funding for the proposed weather radio station. Their views are varied and do not always agree with those of the village. I have learned that the weather tower is an excellent place to receive opinions, whether requested or not.
In other political news, Magnus Johnson has secured the Farmer-Labor nomination for governor. The foxes recently purchased for the Tourist Park are reported healthy and tame, and after a visit of my own, I can confirm that this is mostly true. Finally, I accompanied Miss Fjell to inspect acreage along Kimball Creek, where the trout fishing is said to be excellent. In return, she has again offered instruction in the finer points of dancing this Saturday evening at The Wigwam to the music of Nelson and Seglem. Whether the instruction proves successful remains an open question.
I find my thoughts returning to those foxes. They are friendly enough when one arrives bearing food, but they remain foxes all the same. Thoreau wrote in Walden that “the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.” He was speaking of far larger matters than foxes, but the observation holds. Things are rarely quite what they first appear to be. A season that begins in drought may end in rain. A wild creature may accept your company without surrendering its nature. Even a place can feel familiar long before it is fully known. Perhaps that is simply the price of staying long enough to notice.
Editor's note: The image is of a car with the Farmer-Labor Party's billboard. the Farmer-Labor Party was a left-wing political party in Minnesota and one of the most successful third parties in the United States. Literature is on the hood of the car. The final image is of Magnus Johnson of the Farmer-Labor Party. He served in the Minnesota House, Minnesota Senate, US Senate, and US House of Representatives in that order. Senator Johnson once said, “I ain’t ignorant and a lot of this stuff that you read in the papers making me say things I didn’t is all bunk. … I didn’t say that I didn’t give a dam about books. I mean, I didn’t say it that way. Some books ain’t worth readin’ and some are. I ain’t got much time for ’em, but I would read ’em if I had time to read ’em.”