July. Ah, July. I should love you. You bring warmth. Sunshiny smiles but frankly anymore I pretty much hate you and want to skip over your existence. This past one being no exception.

I’m still discombobulated over Scout. Oh, the missing goes on and on. I had to change the picture on my phone because every time I looked at it, I gulped. I’ve dealt with pets dying before, but this one….no. Sudden. I haven’t accepted. We still had so much left to do. We went from normal to dying. The heart aches. Hard. 💔 Depression and sadness have revisited. Another gulp.

My usual sojurn to North Carolina’s Outer Banks is cantankerous this year. North Carolina is on the list of high risk states, which means that isolation will have to be dealt with when we return. And, the Outer Banks is also on Isaias‘s places to visit ….just as I’m supposed to go, on Sunday. Mid-morning to mid-day, I’ll find out whether visitors to the Outer Banks are permitted or not. You may know by now, I am a weather geek and don’t mind riding out a Hurricane 1 storm. But will I be given the chance?

So, yep. I was pretty much thinking everything in this world sucks…which may still be true…but then I heard something on the deck….

Please forgive the quality of the pictures. They have been taken through a window pane on the door and have all kinds of reflections, not to mention that wild critters give diddly squat about keeping still and posing. They most definitely don’t understand selfies.

There’s something about watching what I imagine are two sibling raccoons cavorting on your deck after midnight to make you feel better. Compared to other raccoons who’ve visited, these guys were small. The smaller one had a full tale while the bigger one’s was thin, which struck me as odd. They were everywhere, so curious, even not afraid to press their noses against the door to look at me. I hope they gain fright because most humans are not like me. They played in the water. Dug in my plants (bad baby raccoon!). Frolicked in the bird bath, so, so cutely. Tried bread. Tried bird seed. Ate peanuts. Sometimes they rolled the peanuts in the bird bath. Oh, how my heart needed to see these little characters. How I wanted to hug them…yet very sensibly controlled myself.

On previous nights, an adolescent fox and an adult fox have also visited. For peanuts.

What is it about peanuts? You have one and you just can’t stop?

Life is nuts. I love it.

💖