I have not posted anything for about a month. Part of that has to do with how busy life has been. A trip to Miami to gather stuff to bring back here. Working to get things in place so we are comfortable without having clutter. Staying on top of the falling leaves. Getting the wood organized and in place for the stove. All of the day to day chores involved in setting up and maintaining a day to day existence in a new place. All true, but no excuse for the lack of consistency in what I set as a goal for myself. So a brief update seems to be in order.

The transition from the warm, tropical climate in South Florida to the mountain climate of western North Carolina has brought a learning curve in many areas of life. Preparation for the changing seasons requires thought, knowledge and work. The thought and work I am prepared for but the knowledge comes as I experience the change and gather new information.

For instance, to deal with the leaves I bought a little battery operated blower. My thought process was that I could charge it, use it and continue that cycle. Blow leaves and do other stuff while it charges and then blow more. The thought process made sense to me. I did the work component by charging and blowing, recharging and blowing some more. Turns out that my knowledge base was not adequate for the task. I had no idea that the volume of leaves would be so great. They stacked so deep on the ground that I was lucky to do a ten by ten foot section before the battery would run down (about ten minutes of work). I did not know that it would take the battery about five hours to recharge, in essence giving me about a ten by twenty foot section per day. In addition, the section would start getting covered again by the time I got the blower back on the charger. It was a losing battle. By the end of the fourth week the blower started making odd noises, I think it is dying on me.

At this point I could either let the leaves stay on the ground, buy a better blower or get a rake. Leaving them on the ground was not practical. The drive is gravel, long and has a good incline. The wet leaves make it slippery and dangerous to drive. More importantly the wet leaves make it dangerous to walk on as the ‘slip and fall’ factor is greatly increased. Buying another blower was an option but we ruled it out as it was over the budget at this time. A rake, on the other hand was well within the budget.

The rake earned its price many time over as I put it to good use. There is close to a thousand feet of drive plus yard area to rake. I have gone over each several time and believe I have raked enough leaves to fill a couple of dump trucks. I did the racking without complaint and really enjoyed it. It was good outdoor, physical work. It was functional and practical and bore positive results in several ways. I connected to fall memories of my childhood. My sister and I lived for several years with our great grandmother. She was a remarkable woman. She was a saint in my life. I raked a lot of leave while living with her. I also made a little spending money raking some of the neighbors leaves. Life was so simple and good then, to bad I did not know it at the time. Next year I will be better equipped to deal with the leaves.

Today is Thanksgiving and we will be entering new ground. This will be the first Thanksgiving in 29 years without at least one of our children with us. I know that we will be close in spirit. We have much to be thankful for today and every day. A book I recently read said that as we grow in our awareness of the way things are we find that gratitude is not a feeling but a way of life.

Happy Thanksgiving!