Thankful Thursday

It was one of those blazing blue Fall days today, temps way up in the mid-fifties (low teens Celsius) after the cold of the last two days. It must have been some combination of the temperature and moisture: planes were leaving contrails all day, flight paths arcing across the sky. I work somewhat near a major airport, so it was fascinating to watch – I wish I’d brought my camera. The leaves along my commute are mostly gone now, there are large twiggy brown gaps in the color and the brightness of the leaf carpets fades. Soon there will be happy Christmas colors to replace them (and twinkling lights!), but don’t worry, no Christmas music before Thanksgiving for me. 🙂

I had a good weekend – saw Ender’s Game, talked to my parents before they flew across the world on Saturday, messed with my plants, bought a book with a coupon, went grocery shopping, missed getting my car’s oil changed by about fifteen minutes because I had the Sunday hours wrong… nothing earth shaking, but fun anyway.

I am thankful this week for:

• the smell of woodsmoke – someone across the street from my apartment has either a
  

  tree outside my apartment, 11/9/13

  wood burning fireplace or a woodstove and it smells fabulous on the way in from the car on cool evenings

• gas discounts – it was great to pay less than $40 to fill up the other week (usually it’s about $50, for perspective)
• safe international travel for my parents (welcome back to the country Mom & Dad!)
• successfully repotting the philodendron my former supervisor gave to me when she retired – at least, I’m counting it as successful, since I did it last Saturday and it hasn’t died yet 🙂
• sea salt and cracked pepper potato chips (so yummy!)
• foot-stompin’ music like this (mouse over for title, or click on over for a listen – you’ll like it) on my Pandora station to help me through boring spreadsheet stuff at work 🙂

Any good Fall smells or sights you’re thankful for? (Or Spring ones, on the other side of the world?)