In a time-honored tradition, going back two years now, we celebrated Lori’s birthday by hiking in Robert H. Treman park. Once it was an hour’s drive from where we lived; now it’s 8 minutes from our new home.

With the unusually high temperatures and daily dumps of rainfall going back a couple weeks now, nature was operating the waterfalls at full capacity and had packed as much humidity into the hot still air as would fit. I imagined, in my fevered heat prostration, we had been transported to the jungles of Borneo. A machete would have been handy to hack through the viscous humidity. We were greeted by a cheerful older hiker with “Good morning, fellow fools!” In short, it was what Lori calls “comfortable”. I kept my views on the limits of human endurance to myself in order to permit Lori a pleasant hike on her birthday. Other than the risk of heat stroke and dehydration, the morning was pleasant. All the heat and rain had created a dense verdant lushness. We finished early as the crowds started pouring into the park.