Christmas in November

So far, November has been kind to me, in her way.

It's been crazy weather wise, but we've been spared the tornadoes spawned by last week's 65 degrees, the floods that came with the storms, and now we are remembering what below freezing temperatures and wind chills feel like. They suck.

Almost everybody I love has been sick, and it's a lingerer. This crud comes with respiratory infections and pneuomonia for the unlucky like my son and my Mom.  Husband and I have been spared, mercifully, and everyone is on the mend.

I've have every ache and pain and issue known to Mel this month, but I am dealing and I just keep moving forward. The worse I feel, the more I need to get outside, see blue skies, hear a hawk screech, crunch leaves underfoot and feel the wind on my face. It makes me smile, even when I don't feel like smiling.

The dog and I have walked many a mile this month, and I'm surprised how addicting exercise can be.
I'm also surprised to have a new pain in the hips to add to the list. Mary, I feel your pain too, now. I think it's from the walking, but I do not intend to stop.

I'm losing weight, feeling ok despite the arthritis and nerve pain, eating well and trying to keep the wine consumption to a respectable level. Trying.

I've had plenty to worry about, but I think I'm keeping it in perspective. Sandwich generation issues, life issues, neverending existential crisis issues.  So I'm gonna just keep on walking, and counting my blessings.
Being Thankful. And Grateful.

Sixteen years I've lived here, maybe four or five times I've been to the forest preserve three miles from my house, but I never knew where the trails were. It's been Christmas in November for me, truly. The dog has never been happier. He loves our walks, and he's a better behaved and less antsy dog now. He's lost four pounds and I've lost eight since this summer. The dog's doctor was very pleased, and I assume mine will be too. I finally got my BMI into the green zone. I didn't like being in the yellow zone, not with my heart health history. I'm doing what I can, which turns out to be more than I thought I was willing to do.

The ripple effect is interesting. The more I do, the more I want to do. I've starting picking up the free weights again, deciding once more that I don't have to have Grandma arms, not yet. I've started jogging for parts of the walk, and this is huge. I hate to run, I always have, and yet, here I am seeing how far I can push myself, how far I can go, how many steps I can add to my day.

I've given myself a gift I knew I needed but didn't know how to get.

Here's some pictures from our latest excursions to the very awesome and close by trails, which transition from the grassy knolls of glacial kames and moraines to the crunchy trails of an old oak forest. I adore everything about it. Even the train tracks, constantly stacked up with freight and coal and who knows what.

I sang John Prine on this walk, Mr. Peabody's Coal Train has hauled it away......

 I love how the trails meander, following the countours of the land.

I love that there is always a red tailed hawk, sometimes two. 

They don't much care for the dog, and this one flew overhead, screeching his discontent.

Tucker was not interested in the hawks. There are squirrels everywhere.

 Today was too cold for a walk, but tomorrow, we might bundle up and go anyway. I need it.


In other news, my kids are amazing. They are giants to me, so tall and so very grown up. I come up maybe to their shoulders, and it's comical.

I'm so, so lucky to have them be such awesome human beings, healthy and mostly happy.
This is daughter on her way to the high school volleyball awards banquet. She had a very good year.
Lots of accolades and even caught the eye of a big ten recruiting coach. Not that she's interested in any more hard court indoor volleyball. She wants bare feet and sand in her toes, and she aims to get it. I'd bet on her.

This is my son and his most photogenic girlfriend, at the formal dance for her honors sorority.

I always told my kids, from the time they were little that whoever they fell for better meet three requirements: smart, funny and your biggest fan. My son got it right, because she is all of that, and so much more. We just love her, she's perfect for him, and they complement each other so well.

So, I have much to be thankful for, I really do. For all the worrying I do, things are so far, so good.

I'm going to wallow in that for a while, and coast right through the dreaded holiday season and the chill of winter on that wave of good fortune.

Wishing the same for all of you -

nice walks, moments of gratitude and grace,

a quick passage through the cold and dreary months ahead.

xo

I've been bitten

So, I don't usually care about my blog stats. I delete that weekly email from Google without so much as looking at it. But when I view my posts all lined up on my blogger page, it shows comments and hits. I tend to run about 1:5 on the comments/page views ratio. That is until lately.

My long rambling nature post about coyotes and hawks and pheasants got five times more hits and I wondered why so I clicked on the analytics. There is a referer site that drives traffic to get ad money called vampire stats. There are dozens of these referer sites, zombie stats is another. Don't do what I did.

Do not click their links. At the least you will drive more imaginary traffic to your site. At the worst you will get infected with a virus, the least of which bogus redirects your google searches, the most severe which tries to steal your personal information. I found the blog telling me not to click the link AFTER I clicked the link. That's just how my life goes, curiosity kills the cat sometimes.

I don't think I got a virus, but I've had several already this year, scary ones, and I'm starting to get a little paranoid out here in the heartland.

Now I'm off to do a full scan and wonder once again, why I do this, put my thoughts and words and pictures out there for other people to use, abuse or monetize. It makes me a little queasy and a lot pissed.

Feel free to visit the blog over at Spam Spoiler to learn more, to commiserate and to learn that there is nothing that you or google or anyone else can or will do at this point in time. Just like the damn spam phone calls, we are apparently stuck with this new world order.

This bite is gonna itch for a while, I'm pretty sure.

Nature's Concerto

This post comes with a lovely soundtrack, press play then enjoy the eye candy.



The leaves didn't so much fall as get flung to the ground by rain and wind this week. I wish there were a gentler slide into the cold dark months. Wouldn't it be grand if the leaves changed color and held on for a month or two instead of a week or two?  Maybe that's why I take SO MANY pictures. I can look at them as long as I want on my computer screen. Not quite the same, though.

There have been some amazing tricks of light: morning sun setting oaks ablaze in amber, evening sun spinning hickory leaves into gold. There have been  hard frosts, crisp crystalline mornings. There have been so many moments captured in bits and bytes on my magic camera.

Here is a glimpse:

Morning.....

Evening.....

Morning.....

Crystalline....

Symphonies of color and texture.....

Music for our eyes.

Happy Fall, y'all.

xo

ps about the volleyball. We won Tuesday's game and lost a tough 3 set match Thursday in the State final 16. It was a good run and so much fun.

I did.

After that last mopey post was published, I did put on my boots and my raincoat and go for a walk in the woods. There's something about the post-rainfall quiet that is magical. Everything is crisper, shinier. And really, really hard to photograph well. The dog and I came back covered in burrs, I don't know how many times I have to learn NOT to traipse through the woods in my fuzzy sweat pants. Anyway, here's what Tuck and I saw:

Giant puffball mushroom size of a soccer ball, allegedly edible. I'll pass.

This last one was my favorite. Nature made some art, all by herself. I was beside myself and took half a dozen pictures, and couldn't get the lighting right, but that's ok. It was there, and I saw it.

We're still picking burrs off of everything. Small price to pay, though.

And now....

Tonight we watch volleyball! Our team won the Regionals and now we're off to Sectionals, against our cross town rivals. It's going to be crazy. We beat them in conference play this season for the first time in four years and we need to do it one more time to keep going. I'm almost nauseous just thinking about it. We've never made it to the State playoffs, and if ever there were a year, this is it.

Volleyball has been the best thing about this fall. Our daughter is playing great, the team is playing great and we've had our best season ever. Ever. I could never have imagined this future. And I can't imagine what I would be doing if I weren't sitting in a high school gym tonight, cheering and clapping until my hands hurt.

I'll let you know how it goes.

xo