Had an enjoyable 3 days on the Jersey shore with my dad and K. It was just too hot to do much of anything, though, so we ditched the kayaking. We did some blueberry picking, and i came back with plenty to snack on plus freeze for the off-season months.

We took Bailey, the dachsund to Island Beach State Park, which reminded me very much of the Cape, not at all what you'd expect for a New Jersey beach...



...A 10 mile long strip of white sandy beaches, very uncrowded on a brutally hot day. Go figure. The dog, however, was frightened by the noise of the surf and pretty much cowered under our beach chairs. When i walked him along the beach, he kept making a beeline for the boardwalk that led back to the car. He's a little bit timid when out of his element.

We visited K.'s favorite jewelry store down there and i brought with me a very nice dark blue gemstone ring my late grandmother gave me when i was very young. I never knew if it was real or not, but the stone is quite large, probably 3 carats. Alas, the jeweler told us that it was mostly likely glass becuase you could see right through it and it was set in sterling. (Apparently good jewelry is always set in gold.) Well, it was good to find out, but i don't think i'll spend any money resetting it so i can wear it on my ring finger. I'll just continue to enjoy it as a pinkie ring.

On Friday morning, i spent several hours weeding my dad's raised vegetable beds in the backyard. It was still shady there and i was a little antsy for something to do since we'd spent so much time indoors. The soil was quite sandy and while i didn't feel anything biting me, an hour or two after i came in, i started getting very itchy, mainly all over my scalp and around my ankles. In fact, it was so bad, i didn't sleep well that night; i kept waking up and scratching. Since that time, I've been breaking out with an ugly rash which we think is some sort of allergic reaction to something that bit me in the garden. My dad did say that sometimes when he walks back there, he feels something biting him but you never see anything. He never had the kind of reaction i did. These rashes are spontaneously breaking out on different parts of my body, mostly my torso, with raised welts. It's a little alarming, but i returned on Saturday when my doctor is closed and i don't want to blow $100 on a walk-in clinic.

I'm monitoring it and hoping the reaction will work its way through my system soon. The only other thing that occurred to me that might be causing this reaction are the herbs i'm taking for my lyme disease. I'm starting my 4th week on these 3 herbs, and each week you gradually ramp up the dosage. I'm not up to the maximum dose yet. When i got home i reread the sections on possible side effects for each of the 3 herbs. For the cat's claw and resveretrol, the side effects are all gastrointestinal, so i don't think it's them. For the andrographus, they say "allergic responses" (withought really defining what that was) were very, very rare, so i still tend to think i'm having a reaction to something that was biting me in the sand.

The dachsund and the cat both go outside, and one night the cat slept in my bed for a few hours, but they both get flea meds and neither was scratching, so i ruled that out as well.

I remember, too, that while weeding, i came upon a small colony of what i think are potato bugs, those brown colored beetles. I know they eat veggie plants, so instead of squashing them underfoot as i would usually do, i squashed about 10 of them between my fingers. It's possible the beetles emitted some noxious chemical and that's what i'm reacting too. To some this maysound far-fetched, but don't forget that many of our modern pharmaceuitcal drugs are derived from natural substances found in plants or animals.

Anyway, i'm reluctant to cut back on the andrographus, since the book indicated that of the 3 herbs, this was the most important one to take and more importantly, my headaches haven't been around for over a week. I'm on no other medication at this time for the Lyme, so....

However, these hives are pretty bad, so i did skip the andrographus dose this morning. (I take the herbs 3 times a day.)

Last night, i didn't have trouble breathing, but i did notice that my breath sounded kind of raspy. I was debating whether to drive myself to the hospital emergency room and incur the costs. Didn't really want to and in fact i'd already takien a sleeping pill and was in bed but i was almost afraid to fall asleep if my breathing did change. I actually got dressed in case i needed to leave (or call 911) quickly. Fortunately, i made it through the night. Good god.

But wait. My adventures aren't over yet. I left the Jersey shore very early on Saturday am, around 7:30 am, as i wanted to avoid driving in the unbelievable heat that even burned my arms with AC on in the car. It was a 3 hour drive, so i got home around 10:30 am and was tired from both the heat and lack of sleep and was just looking forward to laying down and relaxing.

But i couldn't get in the front door, even when i put my shoulder to it. The 1st thing i thought was that H., who was cat-sitting my cat, perhaps without thinking locked the 2nd lock on my front door, the old that i never use and which in fact i don't have a key to.

I was in trouble becus that was the only key i had to the house. I had given H. my garage door opener as she preferred entering the house that way, and thru the garage/basement door since there are handrails on the basement stairs, unlike the stone stairs outside leading to the front door.

I had my cell phone with me and called my mother, but i kept getting a busy signal. I kept trying every 2minutes for about 15 minutes before i realized that mom wouldn't be able to do anything to help me since she, too, has only the front door key.

I called 911 and a very nice young officer came to the house. I pointed out that while everything was locked up tight, i had left 2 2nd story windows open in the back for ventilation, and i was willing to sacrifice a screen to break in. All i needed was a ladder to climb up there, but my ladder was in the garage, which was all locked up.

The cop said maybe he could take the door on the side of my garage off the hinges and we could enter the garage that way. We could see through my garage window that the key to the basement door was in the keyhole, so once in the garage, i'd gain access to the house.

But the cop needed a nail to put out the hinge nails. I ran to my toolshed and there was nothing there, but i pried out a nail i'd banged into the wall to hang stuff on. But it was too big.

Now of course the first thing i'd done was to call H., but i knew that on Saturdays she spends the whole day with another girlfriend for shopping and often the movies. (I left a distraught message for her.)

But i suggested to the cop that maybe if i went over to H.'s house, my garage door opener might be sitting right there on her kitchen table. But i wasn't sure if H.'s 95-year-old mother would recognize me or let me in the house, so the cop agreed to go over there with me becus she would more likely respond to a man in uniform. The mother is Hungarian and doesn't speak much English and is also suffering from dementia. But she did let us in. A quick check of the kitchen revealed no garage door opener, and the cop indicated we could do no more. So he drove me back home.

he told me i could call a locksmith who could drill out the old lock and put a new one in for a "couple hundred dollars." No way was i going to pay that. I said, "Do you think the fire department might be willing to help me with a ladder?" He said, "Maybe."

I was just about ready to dial the fire department when i had one more thought. I told the cop, at this point, i wouldn't mind cutting a hole thru my (very old) screen door to undo the latch. Once inside the porch, the French doors to the family room would still be locked, but there is an old window leading into the bathroom. It's the only remaining original window in the house that wasn't updated, and in fact had recently scheduled with Windowland to put in a viny replacement window in mid-August. So i wouldn't mind it, i told the cop, if you could then help me break that window and i could climb in the bathroom.

The cop, no doubt not having enough adventure in my sleepy little town, was game. He broke out just the bottom half of the double hung window, which was plenty of space for me to crawl through. I thanked the cop profusely for his help, and swept up all the broken glass.

Not too much damage done since i'm replacing that window anyway, and i saved myself a couple hundred dollars for the locksmith.

And, as it turned out, i DON'T think H. inadvertently locked the 2nd lock on the front door. The sun, at 10:30 am, was beating down on it and i think with all the humidity the wood swelled. I've had problems opening it before, not just with the wood apparently swelling but also witwh some viny insulation strips that were put in above the door; it keeps falling out and i think jams in the door.

From now on, i will carry the key to my basement/garage door with me so this doesn't happen again. What a to-do.

Oh! I nearly forgot to mention the gas mileage. In my last post, i talked about how i got 39.4 miles to the gallon with my 99 Honda Civic HX. I clocked the mileage driving down to the Jersey shore. It was all highway driving but i took pains to maintain an average 60 mph. I was curious to see how this would compare to the 39.4 miles per gallon i got with mostly my daily commute.

guess what? I got 42.6 miles to the gallon! Amazing. I chalk it up to doing hardly any braking. Since i left on a Wednesday, there were no traffic jams down there and it was pretty much smooth sailing. Hooray for Honda!!