Over the past two days I’ve been tagged by two different people— MJD over at Return of the White Robin and Patsy at The Best of Times — for two different memes. I guess I’d better get busy and put my thinking cap on! So, since MJD was first in line, here is my response to the Rant Meme. I could have come up with more once I got started.

You’re supposed to tag five other people who will be annoyed that you tagged them, but I honestly can only think of three people to tag. Some of my blog friends don’t like to do memes.

Susan at Slice of Life just because I know she will truly be annoyed and because she gave me both my blogger awards. And she’s a nice person.
Krista at Coffeespaz because she’s a good sport.
Patsy at The Best of Times because she tagged me for the other meme and to keep it in the family (she’s Susan’s Mom).

4 things that should go into room 101 and be removed from the face of the earth. (I must admit I had to look up Room 101 to see exactly what it was.)

1. war
2. zealots (both religious and political) because they are the cause of most wars
3. cancer
4. puppy mills

3 things that people do that make you want to shake them violently.

1. Carry their dogs around in an open bed of any kind of truck; either loose or tied up.
2. Toss litter and cigarette butts out of car windows or on the street in general.
3. For not buying our beautiful custom home in Colorado.

2 things you find yourself moaning about.

1. Our house in Colorado is still unsold after over a year on the market. A real moaner. (see #3 above)
2. That the new momma bear and her three baby cubs have been sighted by our neighbor at the end of our street but she hasn’t brought them up here to see me yet!

1 thing the above answers tell you about yourself.

Gee, about the only thing that stands out is that I am really bummed about our house back in Colorado, oh and I am crazy for wanting the bears to come into my yard to visit.

RULES• I was supposed to link to the original meme, but that link kept locking up my computer and the first time I wrote this entry I lost it all because I tried to link to the original. So, I am NOT going to do that in case it locks up your computer too.
• Be as honest as possible so people get to know the real you!
• Try not to insult anyone - unless they really deserve it or are very, very ugly!
• Post these rules at the end of every meme.

So that it! That’s my Rant Meme.

Yesterday I was out in our woods taking photos of some flowers. I saw this tree and for whatever reason decided to take a photo of it. Take a close look at the two photos below. The first one was taken with flash; the second one without a few seconds later.

Could this be a faerie? I think this is pretty strange! And no, I did not alter this photo in any way. I don’t see any explanation in the second photo for the image in the first photo, do you?

Here is a closer look:

I don’t know about you, but I believe in faeries!

Ahh ... the web of life. It weaves its gossamer strands into each and every one of us. We are all so intricately connected; yet we are not. Either via the “web” of the internet or via family, friends—the web enfolds us all. Pick a strand and follow its length. Where will it lead? Will that strand lead us far from our known boundaries? Will we come up short-stranded and not go much further? Sometimes the strands get tangled and there is seemingly no clear path.

The decision is ultimately ours, but yet we are nudged by inner forces that push us in a particular direction to do a particular act; or not. One small hiccup and your life takes a very different direction. Sometimes I think it all comes down to timing.

The other day when Rick and I drove down to Wayne, a tractor trailer swerved to miss a bicyclist and was over the line in our lane. Due to Rick’s quick reflexes, we narrowly missed a collision. Timing. A few minutes sooner and we might have not been able to miss him. A few seconds later and we would never had known the experience at all.

We all make decisions in life every second of every day. What we do today may impact our lives a few days down the road, or in a few years. Do we smoke? Drink? Eat things we think are healthy? Will it really matter?

Sorry for getting so deep tonight, but mostly my father-in-law Vaughn is on my mind. As most of my readers know, Vaughn underwent open-heart surgery three weeks ago to repair a faulty valve. The surgery was more extensive than the doctors had previously thought. Before surgery they had given him a 60% recovery rate. After surgery things looked very good. Then we quickly had to recalibrate our sensors as he started having issues with breathing and cognition. Three weeks post surgery and he is still not showing a great deal of improvement. Tomorrow he will be moved to a different hospital where he can receive more post-operative care and rehab. At this point we are not certain what quality of life he can achieve. We only hope that within a few weeks he is well enough to be moved from Houston back to his home in New Mexico.

At 81 years of age would you have opted for a tricky surgery knowing that that your heart could give out at any given time? Or would you let nature takes its course and go naturally? Hard choice. Quality vs Quantity. At this stage I think I would have to opt for more quality time, but then again you just never know, do you?

The other day Rick got an email from an old colleague at Agilent asking whether or not he would be interested in a job back in the same old environment he just got free of. Hmmm ... uhm, no, thank you. However, had we chosen to remain in Colorado and wait this out, it may have been the answer to our prayers. Or maybe not. Our house back there is still for sale and maybe we could still have managed to live there over the past year (hey, we are still paying the house payments, lawn care, and etc., plus our home here) and come out ahead. Then again, maybe the job offer would have fallen through. You just don’t know.

We all do the best we can to follow the strands of our lives wherever they may take us. We can only hope that whatever strand we choose to follow will lead us in the right direction. We are all, after all, caught in the web of our own making.

One of the things about living in New Jersey that’s hard to get used to is humidity. After 30 years in the dry climate of Colorado there are things you forget. Like sweating. Everything sweats. Ice melts faster. Dogs pant more. Bread molds within a few days of purchase. Windows fog up with the air conditioning on. I don’t really mind the humidity or sweating, it actually feels good to my skin.

Yesterday morning we were all rudely awakened by a thunderstorm at 4:30 a.m. that dropped nearly an inch of rain. The humidity was higher than the temperature when I got up and it was a bit foggy. The sun threatened to peek out from the cloud cover all day but it never quite made it.

I should have remembered one other thing about high humidity — jeans will not get dry when hung outside. Moral of the story: don’t do laundry on humid, clammy days unless you’re prepared to use the dryer.

I’m sorry that I haven’t been blogging much. Frankly, I just haven’t felt inspired to do much of anything. I can’t seem to climb out of the funk that seems to surround me like the green muck in the pond above. I go about my day doing all my usual things with some fun outings with neighbor Kim sprinkled in, but I feel like I am just surviving and not really taking full advantage of life. I am living a monotone/monochromatic existence right now. Even Johnny needed a jump to get him going this morning for yard duty. Don’t worry about me; I’m okay, just blah and kind of numb.

Just when we thought Vaughn had started on the road to recovery, we got a call from Rick’s Mom this morning telling us that he had taken a turn for the worse last night and is now back in ICU. She was a bit muddled about what exactly the problem was, but it seems that the pneumonia is back in his lungs. Not good news at all. We just talked to him last night on the phone and he couldn’t really get enough breath to talk much to us, but at least it was something. They haven’t been able to get him up and moving much which is probably not helping things. I don’t know what the future has in store for him, but right now he could use all your positive thoughts and healing energy directed his way. Just send them in the direction of St. Luke’s Hospital in Houston, Texas.

To update on some things, we did see Doris (the bear) a week ago Saturday when my Mom was still visiting. Sailor alerted us to her presence in the yard by doing his alarm barking. Sure enough, there she was in the woods inside the fence. Rick and I stood in the yard and watched her for a few minutes. At first she did her little huffing noise at us and we took a few more steps backward, but she quickly resumed her foraging without paying us the least bit of mind. I went back into the house to get my camera and Mom, certain that she would be gone when I returned, but no. She was still there. We stood and watched as she ate and rolled around on the ground with her legs in the air for about 15 minutes. Mom couldn’t believe we were standing in the yard watching a bear so calmly! When she was finished with her dinner she went over to the fence and cllmbed back over into the woods. I did take a few fuzzy pics and I’ll include them. It was just too dark to get in-focus photos. You decide: are fuzzy photos of Doris better than none at all? When she was gone Rick went down to see what she was eating and it was the roots of the swamp cabbage. Very tasty.

There hasn’t been any more news of our local runaway cow. Either she just hasn’t been spotted or they are too embarrassed to tell us that they’ve attempted a capture and failed yet again. I hope she and the bear are getting along alright. It would seem that she’s eluded her captors rather successfully. I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything new.

My cherry tomatoes are all coming ripe now. I like to pick them right off the vine and pop them right into my mouth. They are warm from the sun and still smell like the vine that way and at their luscious best. There are too many to eat all at once though so some have to wait to be eaten later on a salad.

We did manage to have a night in the city on Thursday. I plan to blog about the premiere of Slow Dancing at the Lincoln Center within the next few days. In the meantime check out their web site. The camera that was used to take all the slow motion was of course from the company Rick works for. We went to the party for everyone involved in the project, from dancers to cameramen: special invitation only!

So now you’re caught up with the latest news. Thank you for all your support through these difficult weeks — it’s meant a great deal to me to know that you care!