Up at dawn this morning, I walk outside to the familiar sights and sounds of daybreak. The high-pitched call of the Cooper’s Hawk greets me. I can’t see him, but I know he’s near. A little later, when the sun is higher, a flock of parrots will fly overhead. I’ll have no trouble seeing or hearing the parrots.
I check the weather app. It’s a brisk 57 degees — cool but not too cool — on its way to near 70. No rain today.
Then it’s on to newer apps added since the fire. Air Visual tells me the air quality is good today. We’re safely in the green zone. According to Watch Duty, we’re safe from fire. In fact, I don’t see any fires in LA at all.
There’s an even newer app on my phone. I got this one a few weeks ago and it’s pretty important too. It tells me the pacemaker now in my chest is working fine.
I look out to the east and see the light stirring. Through the eucalyptus I catch beautiful shades of red and orange and gray. From experience, I know a picture will never capture what I see. But I like the sunrise and take the photo anyway.
And so my dog and I walk the yard. The dog sniffs everything as if some animal was in the yard last night. Rabbit, bobcat, deer, bear? Or maybe just a lizard.
Who knows what was there? As for me, I check the garden and fruit trees.
Can’t say how much I enjoy this. Tooling around in shorts and a sweatshirt, it is cool and barely daylight. I check the cara cara orange. Yesterday I had my first orange of the season and it was a little early. I’ll wait a couple weeks before trying another. Same with the mandarins.
But soon, very soon, my morning walks will include a fresh cold juicy cara cara or mandarin picked right off the tree. Can’t wait.
All in all, it is a very pleasant morning, this Thanksgiving Day. Just a typical November day. Except it is Thanksgiving and I’m feeling grateful which is not hard.
I recall one evening last January, when standing in my yard, I took a different kind of photo. That photo was taken in howling wind as I looked north west toward Eaton Canyon. The Eaton Fire, then called the Close Fire, was just getting started.
I was certain our house would burn down. The fire was too close and the wind too strong. As we drove away in hastily packed cars, I did not expect to see our house again. Tragically, hundreds of homes were destroyed. But, ours was not.
So, my list is long this Thanksgiving Day. My house is standing and the sun is coming up. I am here to enjoy this beautiful day, the morning’s color, the birds and the trees. My dog makes me smile and this whole post is now veering into something trite. But, it’s not. It’s actually some of the really good stuff in life.
And there’s more, much more. No, not the turkey that I’ll smoke low and slow. I’m talking about the best stuff of life and that’s family. Later today I’ll have dinner with my family. My wife, son and daughter. All four of us here together.
As I said, my list is long this Thanksgiving Day. So much to be thankful for and the day’s just starting.
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