Things I’m grateful for:

1. Texas storms. Yes, they can sometimes be devastating, but what incredible power! Nature kicks some serious butt.

2. Texas springs. Fleeting, short, but incredibly beautiful, with wide swaths of bluebonnets and other wildflowers coming up almost at once. Then the big trees in the park begin to leaf out and everything is so gloriously green.

3. Our own River Road, a winding ribbon of highway that stretches from town, up through the Guadalupe River canyon and into the town of Canyon Lake. In the spring, if I squint my eyes slightly while on that road, I can almost believe I’m in the Sierra foothills back home in California. The river along this stretch is an almost impossible shade of clear emerald green.

Today was my first truly I-don’t-want-to-do-anything-except-sleep day. I got clobbered with a nasty wave of nausea this morning just before breakfast and it took me quite a bit to recover. Another wave hit just as Rory and the girls got here and I was given some medication to help knock it down.