Static Uniform, Q. Cassetti, 2011Things are sticky hot and its not even 11 this morning. The newscasters were proud to tell us that it was going to 90˚ today so the fans will be whirring, shoes off, and little prayers to the computer gods that the machines don’t fry in the heat. I have been experiencing some glitches so I am not too certain that my little prayers have been heard.

Yesterday was tranquility base. Truly. I read. Made lunch and dinner and then took a monster nap. Truly a vacation day….and well received. If only I could do this for 3 or 4 more days, the strands of gluey spaghetti that constitutes my thinking and thoughts would become streamlined and elegant, giving me spaces to put new ideas, thoughts, pictures. But the ole biological hard drive had a day to cool down but not a total reboot.

We got into the water (knees deep) with poor hairy black Shady Grove (who is getting a new haircut from Mandy (who is back with us!!))—hot and panting. We made her do a little paddling around and she had a big drink of the lake water and immediately settled down. I was entranced (and finished)The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World’s Most Perplexing Cold Cases—a fast and engaging read about the amazing problem solving skills of three particular, eccentric and brilliant people (an artist, a profiler and a polygrapher/manager) who through wit, intuition and deduction…and seeing what truly is there, to resolve cold murder cases that have frustrated generations of police and FBI agents. This tight knit group of friends founded the Vidocq Society, (from their page):

“An unusual, exclusive crime-solving organization that meets monthly at the Union League of Philadelphia, 140 South Broad St., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Members of The Vidocq Society honor Eugène François Vidocq, the brilliant 18th century French detective who served the Sûreté, by applying their collective forensic skills and experience to “cold case” homicides and unsolved deaths. At Vidocq meetings Vidocq Society Members (V.S.M.’s) evaluate, investigate, refocus, revivify and solve the unsolved deaths officially brought to them.”

to address these cases with the best in the business. Hot lunch and cold cases…pro bono and as a way to bring the best minds together to unravel puzzles that they all have a passion and profession to solve. Not too heavy, but really good and a book you do not want to put down. True crime rocks.

This week is a short one…so I need to make this quick. More, I hope, later.