Happy Thanksgiving

To all my friends in the States (and everyone else too!). Ours is going to be kind of mellow because I came down with a cold yesteday. BLECH. 4 day weekend and what do I get? Sick.

These are the leaves that are no longer on the Japanese maple trees.

Unexpected gifts

I was going to entitle this "My father doesn't have lymphoma and other good news", but we got some sunshine on Sunday and I thought of this one instead.

I wandered around with a camera Sunday morning when we got a burst of sunlight between storms. It just lit up the trees. I wish I could grasp that light and just hold it.

No, he doesn't have lymphoma, just a real nasty bacterial infection that mimicked it. His immune system isn't so great right now, but he's still around.

This is the silvervein creeper that I am very fond of, but the Love Monkey won't let me grow up the side of the garage. Neighbor around the corner has a big vine growing all over her fence.

I went to donate blood on Saturday and my systolic pressure was 38 points (38!) lower than the last time I went in. It's been steadily climbing for almost a year and a half now and I don't know why.

Maybe this is an anomaly; maybe I just used the restroom at a better time than the previously. It still feel miraculous. (note to Fillyjonk: I did completely stop taking the cetirizine months ago, even occasionally. Perhaps that's a possibility)

I really am so lucky in so many ways. I really don't need to wait until Thanksgiving to be thankful.