I always make sure to count my blessings. The way things are in the world today, I think that counting blessings is as important as having a retirement account. Given the performance of my retirement account lately, I am doing much better in the blessings department than in the retirement department.

So ... I am blessed with an abundance of leaves in my yard. I have a number of huge oak trees that really dump the leaves. There are times in my yard when the leaves pile up past my knees.

She Who Must Be Obeyed (my wife) gets sick of the leaves. To She's credit, She is very good at helping with the raking and bagging. In fact, some years She probably rakes up more leaves than I do.

However, all of this effort does not come without a price. She is continually scheming to "lose" a couple of the big trees to limit the leaf production. I, on the other hand, being a Dead Head and general fan of all things natural, resist every effort to cut down a tree or even get the branches trimmed.

I think trees are one of God's perfect gifts to Man. There is nothing better than walking under a tree on a warm day and experiencing the shade and feeling the immediate cooling effect. I love going for a walk in the early morning and seeing the sunlight as it illuminates the canopies of the beautiful trees around our neighborhood. Relaxing in a hammock strung between two big trees is surely one of life's most simple yet rewarding pleasures.

I haven't had to tie myself to any of the trees yet to keep She at bay but I am hoping for less than a bumper crop of leaves this year.

God Bless America.

Enjoy!