I don’t know what got in to the trees but all of a sudden they are changing like crazy. In two days they’ve gone from looking blah to looking like autumn. I drove up to Warwick to return something and I couldn’t believe the amount of color just since Sunday when we were last there. So pretty! I needed a camera in my forehead to snap photos as I drove by.

It’s been drizzling all morning, and after I came home I decided the dogs needed a walk since they were bouncing off the walls. A little rain wouldn’t hurt us! I’ve been taking all three together instead of just Alex and Hailey and then coming back and doing it all over again with Bella. Bella pulls so hard! But somehow when I have all three Bella is much better. It works, much to my surprise.

Some of the leaves in the road caught my attention, so after putting the dogs in the house I grabbed the camera and headed back out. The black “canvas” of the street sets off their colors.

I thought this one looked like a red chili pepper!

And this one like the feather of a tropical bird.

Raindrops caught plunking into puddles.

I’m still not sure about this autumn and its show of colors. We are supposed to get heavy rains tonight so that will certainly not help. Then, this weekend we are expecting very windy weather. I don’t think the poor trees have much of a chance of attending the autumn masquerade ball in full regalia.

Don’t cry little burning bush, there’s always next year!

Not sure as in not sure what I am going to say or what this blog post is really going to be about. I have no new pics to share. Not much happening with fall color this year. I think the trees are water logged. Our color, which is usually spectacular, I don’t think is going to happen. Many trees have already dropped their leaves, never mind the whole changing bit. It’s like they’ve given up. Too much rain. When I mentioned it to Rick he said exactly what I had not thought about before. It’s like when you over-water your plants in the house: what happens? The leaves drop and fall off. Kind of the scenario we have going on here. Very sad. I look out the window to leaves drifting down ever so slowly all day long that have not even changed yet. It’s truly unfortunate as we usually have the most beautiful autumns/falls. I have my doubts about this year.

As I type Rick is on his way to LA, CA. I probably haven’t mentioned it because basically I not supposed to be broadcasting this, but given my blog is now private it doesn’t really matter. Remember last year when the company Rick works for was awarded Ms. Emmy? Well, this year Rick’s goal was to get them nominated for an Oscar, which he somehow managed to accomplish. So now, tonight, he is on his way to a do a presentation as to exactly why their cameras deserve an Oscar. We are truly bummed that Ms. Emmy (the statue) won’t be meeting up Mr. Oscar (the statue) to have any kind of meaningful relationship together. It seems that they only award the Oscar statute to those so-underserving-Hollywoood-stars/starlets and not to the technology field that runs the show. Only a “plaque” or a “certificate” is the best they can hope for. Still, an awesome accomplishment. I am so proud of my hubby for pushing through to even get the nomination! Go Rick!

Neighbor Aileen and I went to the yarn store today (an hour’s drive away) to get yarn for different projects. I cannot reveal mine because of certain people who may be a recipient of my knitting efforts. Suffice it to say we were both successful. Before heading out I went over to visit Aileen’s newest member of her barnyard. (In case you don’t remember I get fresh eggs from her chickens.) Meet Ollie, the miniature pig!

I swear, he is the cutest darn thing I think I have even seen. Personality with an A+. When we went down to see him he was in his little dog house (or is that piggy house?) and he was so wrapped around the blanket he had in his little house that he was all tangled up and couldn’t get out. He was making little piggy noises and as Aileen tried unwrapping him from his blanket prison he squealed and squeaked. Poor little guy! When she tried to pick him up, well, he squealed like a pig, what else? I was totally enamored of Ollie at this point.  Such a cutie!

I am also not sure of the weather. It’s been in the 80’s for two days now. Pretty strange. Supposedly (and hopefully) dipping back down into normal range temps for the rest of this week. Too hot folks! The only difference between these temps in the summer and this time of year is that is cools down significantly in the evening so our air conditioning remains where it should be this time of year: OFF. Enough of those kinds of temps. Really.

However, we still have cicadas going at night. What is up with that? I don’t think we’ve ever heard them this late in the year. Maybe all the rain stopped them from finding mates. Who knows? It’s been strange for sure.

Also not sure (yet) but I may be doing some volunteer work that combines horses (which I used to love being around) and children with disabilities. More on that after I explore the situation more. It could be really good for me.

I have more things tonight that I am not sure about, but those will have to wait for a different post.

Right now the only thing I am sure about is that I have not slept well for the past several nights. So, on to a decent night’s sleep!

Early morning shadows on the bathroom wall and door from the wood blinds. Weird, huh?

As I sit here this morning in front of my computer I have no idea what I am going to say. I just feel like I should be here writing. Something. Anything.

I am working on a blog post about the cabin and the land around it but it’s more complicated than I thought it would be. It’s hard to describe what it’s like to anyone who has never been there. I’ll keep at it.

When I told a friend yesterday that I was having trouble navigating my own house because I kept thinking I was at the cabin and would go to the drawer here at home thinking it was the silverware drawer, only to find that it wasn’t. She scolded me with a “but Lynne you were only gone two weeks!” It’s hard to describe to someone the amount of immersion we experience. It’s not like going on vacation to a motel or resort. It’s our second home. Literally. Sometimes I feel like I am two different people: my New Jersey self and the Wyoming/Colorado cabin self.

I snapped these photos from the truck on the long drive home. Here is the sunrise in Iowa on our second day.

And the sunrise in Ohio on the third day.

This was taken a little later in the day in Ohio. I thought it was an interesting sky. I think it looks more like ripples of water on a lake than clouds in the sky.

It has turned to fall weather here. Our nights are dipping low into the 40’s and last night we had high 30’s. The last couple of days have been sunny and pleasantly warm with a cool nip in the air. Perfect! I find it ironic that it basically rained here the whole time we were in Colorado, and there we had sun every day. Now that we are home the rain seems to have disappeared just when I was craving a rainy day after two weeks of sun.

Another friend wrote to me the other day and asked how could I complain about the sun shining? Trust me, you would be bored to tears with day after day of brilliant sunshine. Weather of any kind that is the same—whether it’s constant rain or constant sun—gets monotonous. I like the sun; just not all the time! We were really hoping for rainy/snowy/cozy weather at the cabin but it doesn’t happen much when we are there. I know you all think I am crazy, and maybe I am!

After reading this blog post over I guess I really didn’t have much to say, but I like the pics so I am posting this anyway.

We arrived home in the very same kind of weather we left in. Rain. It rained nearly all the way through the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, again. We haven’t seen rain since the very first day we arrived in Laramie to do our shopping on the way in to the cabin. Two weeks without rain! The temperature upon arrival was a chilly and damp 50 degrees F which feels so much colder than the dry-almost-non-existent humidity of Colorado.

The dogs somehow knew we were home the minute we pulled in to the driveway and all three erupted into a frenzied joyful barking. We let them out of the truck and they ran around, barking of course, in the front yard. I’m sure the neighbors at the opposite end of the street knew we were home after that racket. The kitties once let out of their crates in the house roamed the rooms with tails straight up and eyes round. The house was chilly, so on went the heat for the first time this year. It smelled good; comforting. We unpacked the truck in the light drizzle, put some things away and then finally sat down to a well deserved glass of wine. We heated up the leftover chicken pot pie we had brought home with us from the cabin because we couldn’t bear to throw it out and had that for our dinner while we watched the TiVo’d premiere of Terra Nova.

Our neighbors called and told us to be on the look out as a big bear was getting into the trash down the street and we had just put our trash out for pickup in the morning. They said they’d had a bear in their garage three times over the past week. Welcome back to the wilds of New Jersey! Rick turned on our outside lights at the street thinking that might deter him.

Too tired to do anything else, we went to bed. As I lay in bed listening to the soft patter of rain outside I thought not for the first time how good it was to be home. We both love the cabin but now it’s somewhere we go on vacation and not home. At least “not home” in the sense of where we live. When we are at the cabin, we are home. Hmmm ... does that make sense? It’s hard to explain. I know I’ve said it again and again on my blog, but when we are there we are home and when we are here we are home. I think you get the idea. I am starting to come around to the idea of a trial year at the cabin, winter and all, once we retire. What a blog that would make!

This morning as I type it’s raining. The sky is gray and dark. So different from the brilliant blue that we had for the past two weeks. When I look out the window I see a wall of trees crowding the yard instead of an open meadow and golden aspens glowing in the morning light. Our trees here are just starting to change but I don’t think they will be very pretty this year. They look soggy and defeated. But they are oh so beautiful with their many colors when they do change. We shall see if all the rain has made a difference in our normally gorgeous fall.

I have much to do today as you can imagine. Grocery shopping is #1 on my list, then laundry. My new machine will certainly be getting a workout over the next few days!

I’ll leave you with a photo I took last week.

Blogging tonight from Bryan, Ohio. Where is Bryan, Ohio? you might ask. Not too far over the border from Indiana, that’s where. We just barely have our toe in Ohio.

Last night we were in Council Bluffs, Iowa (just barely a toe in Iowa across the Missouri River and Omaha, Nebraska). We are right on track, and even slightly ahead of our time last year. I wrote it all down when we reached borders, lunch, dog pee stops, etc.

We are listening to “The Help” on audio and the miles are flying by. I have read the book and seen the movie but it’s all new to Rick. The readers are wonderful and even one of the characters (Minnie) is the actual person that played her in the move reading her part in the book.

We are getting tired of hamburgers although I have to say that Hardee’s and Culver’s have really really good ones. Tonight we are having pizza delivered to our hotel room door. It’s not here yet and it’s 7:37 p.m.

The dogs have been walked and we are settled in until just before bed when the dogs will need to be walked again. eBay has settled herself on the mound of bed pillows and looks quite happy to not be in the crate in the car. Sam is walking around exploring the room.

Thank goodness tomorrow night we will be home in our own house! It’s more exciting embarking on a journey than making that same journey back home again.

It will be good to get home but it’s always sad leaving the cabin. I know that loads of laundry await upon my arrival home (three bags full stuffed up in the pod) and all the other things that belong to my daily ritual which have not been the same now for two weeks.

I am too road weary to read this over before I post it, so it is what it is tonight. One more road day! Hurrah! At least we are not losing an hour a day now due to time zones. That’s a good thing!


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