Last night Alfie didn't come in before darkness fell and I should have gone looking for him and insisted. Instead, I sat reading the biography of Lillian Hellman that I had taken from the library and ignoring the fact that the only other mammal in the house was Lulu the Cat.

When I heard over-excited barking, though, I took a flashlight and went out.  Yikes.  There was the Alf, circling a huge porcupine out by the blueberry bushes.  Ordinarily Alfie completely disdains and ignores my pathetic wheedling, "It's time to come in now" but this time he reacted to and obeyed my panicky yelling "No! Get away!" thereby saving me from a 35-mile trip to the only 24-hour-emergency-veterinarian. (You would think that he would remember the time four years ago when he had a very serious tangle with a porcupine and not go near one again. But no.)

So this morning I went out and picked the ripe blueberries. Many more green ones waiting...either for me, or the porcupine, or the deer, or a bear...whoever gets there first, I guess.

Martha Stewart tells me, in her August issue, newly arrived here, that soon I should refill the birdbaths (well, I do that almost every day, along with the feeders, cursing the squirrels and chipminks at the same time), host a cocktail party (not gonna happen), make pickles (no), and inspect my beehives (thanks anyway, Martha; I think not).

What I AM going to do soon is settle in for the Olympics. I love the Olympics. I find myself suddenly caring passionately about the broad jump and the butterfly stroke and the pommel horse...things I never once think about in the intervening years. I think what really appeals to me is the awareness that all over the world people are watching and rooting and feeling patriotic in a good way, not in a let's-bomb-that-country way.

I do find myself wondering why all the hugging is necessary during the women's gymnastics. Some of it seems gratuitous. I mean, if you truly feel warm and affectionate toward someone....sure, give 'em a hug. I'm all for that and I do it myself now and then. But why do you have to hug 18 people each time you jump down from the balance beam? Just saying.