HAPPY OCTOBER

I am sitting in my Duke blue recliner on side B, the side of the clinic with the big windows, open spaces and lots of light. It is definitely the more cheery side of the clinic. Melissa, my nurse for the day, just took my temperature and blood pressure and removed blood through my catheter to check my blood counts. In another 30 or 40 mins, I'll have my results and be on my way home for the rest of the day. Before my appts, Holly and I try to guess what the counts will be for the upcoming lab draw. Sometimes we are really close, sometimes not so close. Today my counts are on the way up, so we'll see how high that white cell count has climbed, how many platelets I have, and what the red cell number is. I had a good rowing/push-up workout this morning so I know the red cell number will be above 9.0.

October is such nice month. It is cooler as fall arrives. The leaves start to change. The sunlight is very pretty as the summer haze recedes. It is especially pretty with the polarizing sunglasses I wear when I go outside. I was walking through downtown Hillsborough yesterday afternoon to check on a new park they are creating on the Eno River. Hillsborough is putting in a Riverwalk from the downtown area to Occoneechee Mtn, some 1.5 miles away. The new park is being created on the Riverwalk at about the halfway mark and will include picnic areas and other recreation options once it is finished. It is near one of my running routes around town, so it will be nice to hop on the Riverwalk to add mileage to my run. The added bonus is that it will be along the river too. I'm sure it will be pretty.

On my way back home after checking out the park building site, I stopped in the library to check on a mystery writer I'd read about (Ian Rankin). I have a number of books I am working on right now, but wanted to see if our small library had this famous author's work. I was delighted to find that we have lots of his titles, most of which are about an hard boiled Edinburgh detective. Just on a whim, I also checked to see if they had a book written by one of my old Exeter high school classmates which had recently been reviewed in the NY Times. She frequently writes articles for the NY Times, and just wrote a book about the Brits since she married one and has been living in England for 10 yrs now. To by surprise and delight, our small library did have the book, so I checked it out. I left for home thinking how nice it is to live in this small town with a good library and running routes and parks along the river. It is really very pleasant.