THE AUTUMN FROM HELL

I'VE BEEN neglecting this blog for several weeks, but it hasn't been for lack of excitement. Quite the contrary, in fact. The week of November 7 - 11 I spent mostly flat on my back in the hospital, having been admitted with dizzy spells and extremely low blood pressure. While I was there, they filled me with such a smorgasbord of chemicals that they grew reluctant to release me -- because now my blood pressure was too HIGH. Go figure. Things seem back in balance now, and I feel fine (he said, vigorously knocking on wood).

A week earlier, we had a freak Halloween snowstorm -- a heavy, wet one. Since most of the leaves were still on the trees, limbs came down by the score all over the area. One clipped my car to the tune of some $4,500 in body damage. Here was the scene the morning after...

Falling limbs took out power lines throughout the region; we were lucky to be in the cold and the dark for only four days. Others had no power for a week or more.

A couple of weeks before that was the pokhyelbka incident which I wrote about in the last posting.

Yes, it's been a rough autumn so far. But next week is Thanksgiving, so we'll count our blessings and be grateful for them. Best wishes for a peaceful holiday to all who visit this site.

And then -- Black Friday and all the attendant horrors of the weeks that follow. May we all keep the year-end holiday season in proper (and sane) perspective.