Two Lucky Ducks

The first "lucky duck" is Gil. He's made it through Year One of his stem cell transplant with only a few minor glitches. He's happy. He's healthy. And judging from his most recent post on this blog site, he's in love! (Thank you for the lovely mention, Gil.)

The first photo above is of Gil standing in front of the sliding glass doors (10 Webber North at Karmanos) beyond which the carefully protected stem cell recipients are either preparing for their transplants or recovering from them.

As a celebration of Gil's one year anniversary, we went up to the unit to visit the nurses and staff who took care of him during his illness. We came bearing gifts of food (chocolate drizzled pretzel rods!) and a scrapbook I had made of photos of the transplant and Gil's recovery and his year at home since resuming his normal life.

The second "lucky duck" is Willow's favorite toy -- aptly named Ducky -- a squeaky little yellow companion who has agreed to curl up snugly anywhere, anytime with her now-best-friend.

Willow is a regular at Camp Bow Wow (doggy daycare!) in nearby Brighton a couple of times a week when I have plans for the day and cannot be around to "watch" her and prevent puppy-chew-damage. She and her canine pals are referred to as campers, they take their noon-time naps in their assigned cabins (separate kennel runs with little doggy cots), and the human playmates/caregivers at the camp are their counselors!

Tonight we set our clocks back. This is a good thing because both Gil and I are very early risers. We have had to wait for HOURS for the sun to come up and get our days started. We get up early because we both have our best energy surges in the early part of the day, and our puppy is ready to get going on her day's plans as well.

I spent the day cleaning out my garden of summer's spent blooms and readying it for winter. I'll be spreading the fallen raked leaves among the plantings to protect them from the winter cold and give them the micronutrients they need to come back strong and healthy in the spring.

Haiku:

Dark turns into light

Fall back. It's that time of year.

Everything slows down now.