Autumn is Here

This being the first official day of autumn, we can all celebrate the cooler temperatures and the leaves starting to turn. We did a very nice hike yesterday with our friend Laurie in one of the Triangle Land Conservancy areas called Johnson Mill. I'd never been there but both Holly and Laurie had. It was a pretty, wooded trail near a creek for much of the trail. Laurie is in training (perpetually I think) so she carried her backpack with 35# in it. I'm lazy and only carried a bottle of water. But as my Asheville friends know, that is an improvement since I used to do hikes with little or no water. They used to tease me about drinking at home before the hike. My motto "Never Prepared" came about because I was forever hiking without all the extra "just in case" stuff like fleece jackets, raingear, more water, etc that my Asheville pals are so good at taking with them when we hike. Of course, in the mtns you really are more likely to need that stuff. I'm always surprised how much cooler it is once you get to 5000ft. And well, if we're going with Susan, it's likely to rain or snow or something weatherwise, not that it ever deters us.

We got to meet Alex's sister and mother at a brunch yesterday. So glad that I had the day off from the clinic and could join in the fun. They are visiting from Germany until later this week. This trip they visited Charleston, Savannah, and the mtns in addition to the Triangle area of course. Since their currency is worth so much more than ours, I hope they shopped alot while they were here. Maybe it'll help our economy.

I had to get platelets on Sat since they were down to 9,000. My white cell count and red blood cell count were down some too, but I didn't need whole blood. Today my counts were down a bit but again not requiring any transfusions. My next appointment is Wed when I am hoping things will be on their way up instead of down. This nadir thing is tricky. You don't know that you are at the bottom with the counts until they actually start back up.

My Dad and his wife arrived yesterday from Charleston. They are driving me to the clinic this week while my platelets are especially low. The clinic recommends that I not drive when the platelet count is super low, just in case I get in a car accident. I'm not really clear on what difference having someone else drive makes. I mean if we get in a car wreck, I'm going to bleed fast no matter whose car I'm in and regardless of whether I'm driving or not. Maybe they think being a passenger is just safer. Dunno.