I feel so jazzed and energized when I go through [or experience] a terrific, productive weekend. Plus the weather was so sunny and warm. What is known as an Indian Summer. Love it! I've always been more intuned with the Spring and Autumn seasons.

Most of the weekend was very good and positive, plus some upsetting news. Before going into the "jazzed" stuff ... I'd called Mom early Sunday AM [before going out to view the Marathon] and she told me she'd fractured her right ankle late Saturday afternoon outside the house. [Also bruised her right knee in the fall.] I'm referring to my parents home in upstate NY. Dad was at the golf course and Mom couldn't get up or pull herself onto the front porch. [Thankfully the weather was comfortable and dry.] Fortunately there was someone visiting my Uncle Bob next door. He saw Mom as he was leaving, went back into Uncle Bob's house and they both came over to help out. Whew! My father was called, he came home and took Mom to the emergency room. I did call my parents around 6:30pm Saturday evening and left a voicemail. Mom said she was still at the hospital in VT. Doctor says it'll take several weeks or so to heal properly and she's got to rest alot right now. I told her I could take some time off from work to come up and help out. Mom said it wasn't necessary, as there were family and friends up that way to help out.

Saturday was my monthly visit to ferret shelter in Yonkers. On the way to Grand Central Station via subway [the G line to be exact] ... me and all the other passengers in our particular car were gazing in wonder, awe and mirth at a male passenger. He looked to be dressed in the remains of a Halloween costume, that resembled something out of the 1970s. It wasn't so much the outfit or funky sunglasses, but the huge [and I mean huge] afro he was sporting. I haven't seen one like that in 25 years! You could barely seen his face. It was a sight to see and even a 2 year old in a nearby stroller was gawking at him. On the 12:20pm Metro North train to Yonkers I was reading my new book, "One Minute for Myself". One of the quotes it mentioned was ... "In one minute I can change my attitude, and in that minute I can change my entire day". So very true ... powerful, yet simple stuff. So, during the last 10 minutes or so of the train journey, I let happy thoughts slowly weave through my head and gazed at the Palisades. The Fall Foliage was at its height in color; with lots of golden yellow, brunt orange and glimpses of maroon. Sparingly dotted along the Hudson River were sailboats drifting on the water. Lovely, peaceful sights to behold.

Aliza picked me up at the train station in her new, second-hand car [Volvo] and we chatted on drive to Joanne's. Briana was at home getting over a cold. Poor darling. When we arrived Joanne was outside attempting to clear up the Halloween decor in the front yard. I took some pix ... as its all really cool looking. Aliza couldn't stay long to chat ... but had to run home to her daughter. In the house and shelter Joanne and I caught up on news et al. She told me the shelter is running at full capacity with 30 furkids. Over next two hours I took care of two groups of 8 to 10 furkids. One of them was dear, little Fuzzbutt who has an enlarged spleen. I gave him lots of loving cuddles and extra FerreVite. He'd nap for awhile in a sleep sack and then follow me around the shelter while I did my duties. Every so often I'd pick him up for more cuddles and he gave me a kiss [licked my nose]. Such a good boy. These new shelter additions weren't familiar with the poopy paper routine, so I'd be cleaning up "accidents" all over the place. Had a tea break with Joanne and we talked about relationships with men. Back in the shelter I took all the waterbottles and filled with fresh water, cleaned up poopy papers, put away toys and mopped the floors down. Then it was time to freshen up, change clothes and had back to train station. It was a good day!

Sunday found me taking care of many fun projects, household chores, cooking pasta sauce from scratch, as well as viewing the annual NYC Marathon which runs [ahem, pardon the pun] through my neighborhood. My long distance phone service is working again ... Hurray ... so I was able to make calls. While out in the early evening doing my "power walk", I bumped into a fellow Kucinich volunteer [Michael] I know from meetings. We had a fascinating conversation on several topics and he'll be at the upcoming Meetup. It was a damn good weekend and I was following some of the principals of "One Minute For Myself". I highly recommend this book to others.