Holy cats it's hot in Indiana!  Actually, it's not so much hot as it is humid.  That's the part that's killing me.  And, along with humidity come....bugs!!!  Voracious mosquitos - I think I had 20 bites at the last count, and that's despite my wearing 'Off' 24 x 7! Slugs the size of....umm.....well, they're big.  Nasty, icky, slimy things.  Mantis', crawling on the fence post at my in-law's house.  Dave was poking at one earlier and it ran up his arm, causing him to squeal like a girl and do the 'get it off me' dance.  Fire flies - now those are cool to sit and watch in the twilight.  Spiders, snakes, frogs, cicadas (YUKKKKK!!!!), crickets..we have a natural orchestra striking up here at around 6 pm (and going all night).

As Geezer and M-Post both know, this area is very rural.  The pace is slow, and I like that.  People are friendly, and rather than ostracizing folks from out of town, they want to ask you questions about what it's like where you're from and ask you to say words so they can marvel at your 'different' accent.  The food is good - down home cooking, the kind that sticks to your ribs (and in my case, my ass) - the prices are reasonable, and the wait staff are, for the most part, not snotty.  Dave and I are going to have a little money to invest in a couple of years, and we've started to browse the home finders magazines to see how much property costs.  I'd like to retire here.  I'd be perfectly happy being a freakin' Wal Mart greeter as long as I had my garden, chickens, goats and dog to come home to at the end of the day.

My mother in law is a country crafter.  I have a couple of skills that she doesn't have (knitting and embroidery), so we're trading off...she's going to help me make a blue jean quilt and I'm teaching her how to embroider (I'm embroidering some pillowcases to co-ordinate with the blue jean quilt). She's also teaching me the finer points of canning and growing tomatoes. 

So far, I'm having decent time.  A few rough spots here and there, but nothing that I can't get over and recover from.  It's just hard being in someone else's house and not having to option of going back to your own house.  I'm in limbo, and I don't care for that much.  But, doing thinks we don't like to do builds character, and that's always a good thing...right?

Later, J-Users...keep my spot warm for me, because I will be back!