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!

Thanks to all of you for your caring thoughts and wishes. It was like getting a caring cyberhug in return. I am feeling a bit better and not as strung out. I have to get a handle on my emotions and not allow the actions of other people to contort my life so. Really, should I be making myself miserable over events that I cannot change and that are beyond my control? Wasting precious moments of life being depressed? I think not, but it’s so hard not to fall into the same pit time after time. Maybe I can blame it on my cayenne temper from the Italian side of the family. Then again, maybe not ...  I am going to try and do a better job of keeping emotions in check.

The stress brought on another scary incident of sleepwalking on the night we learned about the cancelled contract on our Colorado house. I haven’t had one in a few years, and they are creepy. I found myself opening doors in the hallway outside our bedroom, looking for the bathroom which of course is not in that direction. I even picked up the gate we lean against our bedroom door opening to keep the dogs in with us at night and placed it across the stairs instead. Of course, I didn’t realize it until morning dawned and it was time to go downstairs that I had even done it. I don’t remember going through the gate the first time, but I do remember fussing with it on my “return” trip. I don’t like sleepwalking!

In the meantime, our weather has been delicious—cool, sunny and non-humid. I think that’s about to change this week with temps in the 90s and the return of humidity. Pool time! The day lilies that surround the pool are now blooming (see above), the phoebes are adding to their nest in anticipation of a new crop of babies, we now have a red fox prowling the neighborhood, and I have a wonderful supportive husband who understands my dark, stormy moods. All in all, life is pretty good. So what if we go broke?