The Leaves Are Gone Too Soon.

TODAY, at work, the groundsmen - maybe groundswomen, too - were rounding up leaves by blowing them into huge piles. The leaves flew into the air as if they were trying to get away. Whirlwinds of yellow and red were everywhere.
I feel so sad to see people remove the leaves. Why not just let them stay? *For me.* Not for the elderly people who will have to walk through them and undoubtedly slip and slide. Not for the people who like things neat. Along the street, too, where yesterday it looked as if a good two inches of fluffy golden snow was under the poplar trees, today there was a tidy row of raked leaves ready for tall buckets. Containers to take them away. (sigh)
Today I had a stability test at the doctor's office. It's to see how good my balance is. (I would never get tested for mental stability. Robin Williams said, "You're only given a little spark of madness. You musn't lose it.") I stood on a platform hooked to a computer and it showed me as a small X on the screen. First I stood on a firm platform and then a soft one. I thought I wobbled all over on the soft one, but the assistant said I did good.
Then I put on goggles and followed a dot on the computer screen with my eyes. Next, the light from the goggles was blocked, everything was dark, and the assistant tilted my head back and forth and forth and back and sideways. Wowee! I won't know anything about the computer test for two weeks, but right now it looks as though my balance is better than I would have thought. Me, who walks into walls and falls over sometimes when all I'm doing is standing still. (I don't fall all the way over. I always catch myself.)
At work I will be using Adobe Dreamweaver. The software was installed yesterday. I haven't updated Web sites before so this is a new skill I think I'm looking forward to learning. I think! I also think it's funny that I've been keeping track of my real dreams each day - rustically scribbling them down on my desk calendar each morning in pencil - and now I'll be using the most sophisticated software with the name "Dreamweaver." If I didn't already have two blogs I never touch, I'd start another one.
This last photo is one I want to share. I found this fortune in my mother's old leatherette handbag. I keep the purse by my side of the bed. I don't know how it got there. There's a rule in our house though. Once something gets somewhere, it generally stays there for a while. (I wish I knew where my nail polish went to live!) I like to think that my mother had many happy adventures. She could make one up out of almost anything. Making bread, taking a walk with us kids, holding a baby on her lap, having lunch with friends. Oh, Mama, you are still loved so much!
If anyone wants to try those numbers in the lottery go right ahead. Let me know if you win - femminismo