Remembering to be joyful

Weather - something old men talk about and everyone else mostly ignores until it upsets your plans.  Maybe young mothers discuss it a lot too, since where you go and what you do is often curtailed by the whims of mother nature.  The winds have been howling through the state and so has the rain.  Floods, blown-down trees, lack of power and other calamities have brought peoples lives to a halt throughout Alaska.  In our part of the state things still seem to be flowing along nicely, the rain being annoying and the winds mostly creating fun distractions. 

A couple of days ago the winds shook (and knocked down) trees in our neighborhood, but since most of our neighbors have the trees cleared away from their homes it didn't adversely affect anyone.   Wade went out to help people cut up the trees and supplied people with wood to season for next winter.  The rattling of the trees also brought down a ton of leaves.  We laid on the lawn and watched in wonder as in "snowed" birch and aspen leaves across our yard.  Then (of course) we had to fetch a rake, bury one another, throw the piles in the air and jump like Linus (minus the wet sucker).  Hmmm, forgot to mention it has also hit 60+ degrees here ??? in late September!!