It'll soon be here...

Suffice it to say, it was a beautiful weekend outdoors. Sunny Saturday, cloud cover yesterday, still in the 60s, with just enough sun peeking through...

I'm not much to photograph my weekend pursuits, preferring to enjoy that which cannot be captured and frozen in time: the sound of oak leaves gurgling at the edge of the water; the scents of decaying leaves mingling on the air with burning wood from a bonfire; the laughs in the distance of children and others taking advantage of getting out, when our high this time of year is typically 45.

The Minnesota gun-deer opener was this weekend too. While a bit of snow might have helped the trackers, and lower temps with the meat preservation, not too many complaints registered.

It's not the sun -- the extra bit of warmth she provides late in the year. It's the opportunity to get out and see what she's shedding light on here today, the changing scenes and the necessary measuring of where you're at, going into the darkness of winter.

I'm starting to eat the blueberries and cherries I put away for the winter; the defenses seem strong, God willing. Not being in the vulnerable group, I'm skipping that flu vaccine to free it up for somebody else, plus I had a fevery bug that laid me low a few days last spring, right before they announced this H1N1 was going around. Hopefully I've built enough immunity to see me through this season, with that and visiting the children in the family and being exposed to the little things, playing close to them.

Wednesday, of course, is the 11th and surely this year, we'll hold Veterans' Day a bit more somber. Wars should be wearying, don't you think? To see through the glorifying hype of the machos on the sidelines. Wars of necessity, foreign excursions, hunting, knowing your backyard turf ...

I've no pictures to offer up today, but I trust you too have your eyes open and live in the present creating your own. For the record, my Saturday morning was spent at our swim opener -- a scrimmage meet, with family members joining in on the relays, and offering us a good mechanical run through for our December and January invitationals.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon outside, at -- true to her name -- Clear Lake. (There's a reason this area inspired Gaylord Nelson, father of Earth Day.) Should have left the park a bit earlier, so as not to drive at dusk with November being the highest deer-vehicle collision month. But I made it home safely and was asleep in the chair by 7:30pm, with a warm meal inside and the weekend chores all completed earlier in the week.

Can we start the Thanksgiving blessing-counting* a bit early this year?

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*Sure beats the blame game, and the neverending aspiring to ever bigger things, so much that you forget the simple blessings you already possess. "When you're counting up all the things you want and don't have, make sure you also factor in all the things that you don't want and luckily don't have."

Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free and all that.

Make it a great week -- yes you can! -- worthy of the freedom sacrifices we'll honor this Wednesday. And don't stop thinking about Thanksgiving...