November in Ohio can bring absolutely anything, in terms of weather. One year, I watched my wife’s nieces and nephew play in the piles of leaves in our backyard on a sunny, 70-degree Thanksgiving Day. I’ve seen snow on Thanksgiving, too.
So when November throws us one of those good days, I take advantage.
A few days before Thanksgiving, I made a quick trip to my parents’ place in West Virginia. One thing I never count on seeing in November in Ohio is a temperature reading of 60 degrees, especially in the morning, but the bank thermometer in one small town along my route swore it was true. By the afternoon, temperatures topped 70.
Days like that are not to be wasted. The forecast was warning of a nasty, cold 40-degree rain by the time Thanksgiving arrived.
Sure, I’m thankful for the big things, like having a loyal, loving spouse as a partner in life, being remarkably free of health problems, still having two living parents I can go visit at this stage of life, and (most easy to forget) having the immense good fortune of being born in a time and place in history that makes me part of a tiny percentage of humankind to be lucky enough to live comfortably, well fed and to be able to explore a bit of the world.
And I’m also thankful for the little things, like one more pleasant ride in fickle, unpredictable November before winter’s blast.
