Well, we are home from Maine. I miss the lake, the loons, my family and the simplicity and togetherness of life there. DH, Carmine and I lived together for 5 weeks in a 2 room cabin and always knew where the others were and what they were doing. Now we have gone back to our more separate, busy lives here.

I am glad to see my sweet outdoor kitty, Spooky, who was fed by our neighbor Uncle Dave while we were gone. She has a soft heart and shares her food with any animal passing through who is hungry. But she is no pushover, she will defend her food from other animals who are capable of finding their own. When we left, she had befriended a 3 legged racoon, who has apparently moved on. I haven't seen him since we've been back. Yesterday there was a beautiful white and grey feral cat on the porch with her who ran like the wind when I opened the door to feed Spooky. I am also glad to have a washing machine under the same roof again! Living in the pine woods means a lot of dirt and pitch on clothes and it is a pain to carry them in to town to wash.

Well, today it is back to work for me. I have been doing my work the whole trip via the internet, but this is the first full day back at the hospital and my sleep lab. I have tried to ease into it slowly, stopped in at work for short periods the first few days back. I have the Vacation Brain Syndrome. Everything just looks so different to me after being away. One thing DH and I have agreed on is that we have Too Much Stuff! I was reading a Real Simple magazine the other day while getting my hair cut. In the mag intro, there was a letter from the editor, who had just hired a dumpster (!) to clean out the clutter in her house. Sounds very tempting, but a bit over the top for me. We started last night with cabinets in the garage. Had piles for Toss, Recycle, Donate. It was a start...somehow DH was not able to part with things such as 3 cans of vintage 1980's oven cleaner spray (we have a self cleaning oven!!!) Sounds like something for the HazMat pile.