The signs are everywhere. 1) In the outside temperatures. Just two short weeks ago we were having days in the high 70s and low 80s. Nights were in the 60s. Not so anymore. Now we are lucky to reach 70 during the day and the nighttime temps blissfully drop into the mid-50s every night. AHHH. Not so so good is our pool temp.  2) which has not gotten above our lowest “swim-able” temp from the first time that we went in at 68 degrees. Ouch. Time to close the pool. So sad. It seems like just yesterday that we opened it up for the first time. 3) The trees are losing their fill and becoming pale. Many trees around town are already showing signs of changing. 4) The cicadas are as numerous now as the crickets. The crickets started in about 2 weeks ago, and according to my mother, is one sure sign of Fall. The cicadas only sing at night and very rarely now are heard during the day. 5) Our turkeys seem to be banding together. We have had a family unit of two hens and four chicks that come faithfully about 2-4 times per day. Today I looked out and saw twice that many at the edge of our yard. Hopefully they will stay on private property when it comes turkey season and they won’t get shot at! I’ve come to think of them as my extended family. [more on the turkeys in a later post.]

Here in the East [so far] we’ve experienced a “true” Spring and Summer rather than the extended seasons of Colorado that mainly exist as Summer/Winter. Spring was April-June. Summer was July & maybe August. We’re hoping Fall is the same and will last (hopefully) until at least early December before the snow flies. We are looking forward to fall foliage as we’ve not seen it before. Stay tuned.

We expected so much more from all the weather reports. On Friday they were predicting 2-6 inches of rain and lots of wind for after midnight that night and into Saturday. I took heed and cleared our pool area of all things that could blow away or get washed away. I carted all my flower pots into the garage. I took down the tiki torches, the patio umbrella and stored them inside the basement.

We had three cords of wood delivered last week and I’ve slowly been stacking it in a dry spot under our deck. I made some progess this past week [and picking off the slugs was a lot of fun], but it was pretty rainy and wet so we still have a huge pile of wood in the back yard. I bought a new tarp at Home Depot on Friday and we covered it up to keep the wood from getting any wetter. We had plenty of programs stored up to watch on the Tivo and were almost looking forward to spending the weekend inside, cozy and happy. We were prepared for Ernesto to do his thing.

I woke up several times in the night expecting to hear rain pounding down on the roof, but I didn’t hear anything. When I got up Saturday morning it was barely wet outside and drizzling a bit. We had about a tenth of an inch of rain overnight. Big whoop! It was pretty nice in the morning with only ocassional drizzle. It started to rain around noon and continued throughout the afternoon and evening. The wind blew pretty hard and the rain kept coming down. It was a tad chilly so we decided to start a fire in the fireplace and watch a movie. It had turned into the cozy kind of day we had wanted all along. By the time it was done we had gotten about 2 inches of rain. Not bad, but nothing like we had expected either.

Yesterday we carried all the potted mums back out onto the pool deck. They could have benefited from the nice rain, but who was to know that they wouldn’t get battered? The sun came out and gave us an absolutely beautiful day with a touch of fall. The dogs got to take a walk down to Green Turtle Pond. Thank you Ernesto, you treated us kindly.

The hit HBO series, The Sopranos, is really big here. Nearly everyone you meet watches it faithfully. I guess you can imagine why since it takes place in Jersey. I think a lot of the country gets the wrong impression of Jersey because of it. They all think that Jersey is filled with people in the mob, everyone has a toxic waste dump next door and there are ugly buildings and factories everywhere.

Rick and I are somewhat out of the loop since we never subscribed to HBO and before moving here had heard about the series of course, but never watched even one episode. [Hey, we are just now discovering 24 too!] We have some catching up to do. So, I bought the first season on DVD and we’ve watched about 4 episodes now. I don’t think we’ll watch all six previous seasons, but at least we’ll get the gist of what’s going on. At least we hope so.

Our neighbors told us that many of the scenes when they are supposed to be in Vermont or Maine, are really filmed in and around our Township of West Milford! When the owners of the pet store where I buy dog food and I were chatting one day, the subject of The Sopranos came up [in the context of us just having moved to Jersey and people’s perception of what it’s like] and they told me that the strip club Bada Bing, is actually a real club on Route 17 called Satin Dolls where they film those segments of the show. They call it a “Gentlemen’s Club.” Hey, they can call it whatever they want it doesn’t change the fact it’s a strip joint.

Just last week in our local paper the front page story was all about how they were filming an episode right up the road from our house! So now we’ll have to watch and see what we can recognize when that episode airs this fall. Here is the story from the paper:

If it’s too small to read: “The HBO hit series, The Sopranos, was filming in West Milford on Awosting Road on Tuesday. The scenes involved a car chase and something in the woods. The set was closed to the public, but James Gandolfini (who plays boss Tony Soprano) was visible through private property woods. We don’t know what the storyline is, but judging by the bruises on his face, it isn’t going to be portrayed as Tony’s best day.”

Guess we’ll be subscribing to HBO soon.

Sorry for the graphic title folks, but I’m sure you’ve all heard the phrase before. Now finally, we have quantitative proof that the answer to this question that we have long wondered about is NO. Bears do not shit in the WOODS; they do it in our back yard! I was gone for a short time today and when I came home I let the dogs out and went out to scoop which I couldn’t do earlier today because it was pouring rain. What I found was not doggie droppings. No indeed. My first thought was BEAR! It was blackish, like a cow’s in consistency, full of seeds. The dogs didn’t want to go near it. I looked over at the fence and sure enough, the rail was down again just like last week. The bird baths were still standing upright, so he/she has learned that much; no food here. When Rick came home I showed it to him and he agreed that it was indeed bear. Was it just a convenient spot to relieve itself, or was it sending a message to the dogs [like our coyote used to do at our cabin] that the yard is just as much its territory as it is theirs? Maybe I should set up the video camera when I leave the house as this is the second time, and at the same time of day, as it happened last week. Is it Ursa? Or maybe the young teenage bear that was our first visitor?

This entry has nothing to do about swimming. Just now Big Al and I sat poolside for quite some time in the darkening dusk, just reflecting on things. Sometimes you just have to. We watched the bats do their seemingly choreographed bat-ballet of dips and swoops until my neck got cricks from watching them. Now it’s too dark and I think they’ve gone to bed, which I am about ready to do.

We just sat and reflected on life in general. When you make a big move, [as many people I know have never done in their entire lives] you leave more than a house behind. You leave life as you previously have known it behind. You also leave some friends behind. Sad, but very true. Some friends make no differentiation between the distance between you. They call, they email. While other friends can’t quite make the leap, therefore cutting you loose. Please don’t think of this as plea to call or email me with remorse after having read this. That is not my intent. I am merely stating what I am feeling tonight. Granted, I am not in the best of moods. And, I am feeling lonely. I have to admit it. Even the cicadas are not as noisy, but that’s because it’s quite cool outside right now.

I do love living in Jersey. It rains here. Trees grow without having to plant them. People are friendly and very nice. As much as I feel at home here, I am still alone.

I am seriously thinking of closing off my blog site to the public and just writing for myself off line. For those family members that check frequently I can still send you updates. For the most part this blog site is primarily for me and I was hoping to add something to someone else’s day by writing about my thoughts and experiences. My survey has shown me that not that many people are really interested in the site beside family members and a few friends, so after I think about it some more, you may find this blog site closed to the public. If that happens you can always email me and I can send you the new link.