Hanging on

Tree mostly stripped of leaves
Plains Township, PA
November 9th, 2005

We went from "Past Peak" to "Most leaves off the trees" in just a few hours last Sunday night. This was when a line of thunderstorms that had caused death and destruction in the Midwest early that morning finally blew through to the East Coast, stripping most of the leaves from the trees. But not all the leaves, or all the trees. Some trees are still at Peak Color and clinging to most (if not all) of their leaves. And I even saw a line of trees that were just starting to change color.

I took the day off from work today to take my mom for an outpatient procedure. The procedure always leaves her spaced-out and woozy for several hours. She's also not allowed to eat beforehand, so after the procedure it's become something of a tradition for us to go to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. The Cracker Barrel serves breakfast all day long, which is good since we didn't get there until around 1:00. After breakfast we spent a few hours wandering through stores letting the anesthesia wear off - mostly stores that sold pillows and towels and other big, soft, non-breakable stuff.

At about 4:00 the sky opened up and we were socked with a heavy and lengthy downpour. I fear that many of the leaves that had hung in there up til this point finally lost their grip this afternoon. We'll see in the morning!