Indian Summer

The weather the last few days has been beautiful. The skies have been that blue, so intense and so clear that it can make your teeth hurt. The forest has turned to gold, rust, orange, and pale yellow green. At this latitude, the leaves are still about half on the trees, though that is changing fast. A few days ago, we had a frost overnight and that morning I stood at the kitchen sink and watched the large oak outside the window shedding its leaves. It was the only tree doing so. I don't know why. There was no breeze. The other trees were motionless and not losing leaves. Just that one. It was a bit of magic.

I went north overnight a few days ago to go over some business there. It was a quick trip. Just overnight. I listened to a book on tape up and back, driving the back roads, taking my time and watching fall progress the further north I went. I stayed at my mother's that night. She was away to the west coast with one of my brothers for a memorial service. There was a poker game that involved much hilarity and too much wine. I came away with a pocket full of change but missing several bills. It wasn't until yesterday that I counted out the coins that I had stashed in a zip lock bag and realized that I had actually come out ahead. Actually, I always come out ahead because it is not the money that I play for. It is the company that sits at the table and the tradition that has grown up out of a shared activity over forty years. You can't buy that with money.

As I was driving home the next day, I got a phone call from my daughter saying that she had hit a deer on her way to take her ACT college exams for the second time. I remember feeling a sense of shock and sadness, both for the deer and for the girl who had to decide to stop or go, who had to undertake a long and grueling exam after a shock to the system like that. She appeared to come through it OK. The car took a hit, but does not look too bad and seems to drive fine. The deer - well, that is more uncertain. It is not known what happened there. It was not in evidence when my daughter returned by the same route after the test. One can only hope that it either suffered little or recovered without serious injury, but we can not know for sure. I have to content myself with the knowledge that my daughter came through it in one piece.

Other that that, we are doing the normal things around here - going to school, homework, groceries, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. The next semi-big thing is Halloween, which this year will most likely see me getting costumed up for a night at the local pub and the two kids staying home in case someone gets lost and shows up at our door looking for directions and an emergency candy bar.

After that, it is Thanksgiving when we will travel north to be with family. Both events are looked forward to.

For those who are keeping track, my health seems to be holding up. I go in every four weeks for chemo and aside from the few days immediately following the treatment, I do pretty well. My blood counts are holding up although the platelet levels were right at the bottom cutoff last time in. I hope that I don't get sent home packing when I go back. It's a long drive just for a needle stick and a blood draw. I'll let you all know though. So, till then.

TTFN.