Did you see all that storm damage over the weekend? What a wet July Fourth that was! I am still trying to dry out my fur. The sun on Wednesday afternoon helped a bit, but not nearly enough. Our editor, Jim Taylor, spent some time catching up with Fred Hurley at Public Works to find out exactly what happened. I was already shying away from the fireworks when the thunder began rolling in. I heard the fire scanner go off all night — our volunteer fire companies were hard at work. The fire reports are quite long this week due to the trees that were uprooted and snapped all over town. Reporters Jenna Visca and Sam Cross came in on Monday morning talking about the carnage they saw from the rough winds and rain that disturbed the partying that is typical for that weekend. A tree was down at Fairfield Hills, and C.H. Booth Library was without internet for a few days due to a tree that had fallen on the lawn at 25 Main Street, too. Hopefully that was the last of summer storms. While I am a black cat, I do not enjoy the dark clouds that come with rain.

Longtime Sandy Hook resident Amy Krompinger will be heading soon to the 2026 Women's Masters World Field Hockey Cup. This will be Amy’s second time participating in this major event, which will take place this year July 22-August 16 across four locations; Amy is heading to Rotterdam to represent the USA. She is already known to many in town as she is the founder, owner, and head coach of Aim Athletes Field Hockey Club. She is also a wife and a mother of three and, according to a note from a friend we received in May when this news was first shared, “She is truly an inspiration for other young girls and women and an asset to our community. Her family and friends are so incredibly proud of her achievements and can't wait to cheer her on in [Rotterdam].” This year’s will be a record-breaking global participation, with over 400 teams from across the world registered to compete. The United States alone is sending 15 teams — seven to compete in varying men’s age categories and another eight in women’s categories. Best wishes everyone (especially Amy)!

Many people headed to the coolest spots they could find during last week’s heatwave. When she was visiting the library one morning, Shannon Hicks found this little guy enjoying some quiet reading near the main entrance of 25 Main Street. He almost looks like he’d been near the A/C too long. He also looks pretty happy to be inside with a good book.

Belated congratulations to Megan Ferrell, who recently reached the quarterfinal round of The People’s Artist competition. Megan moved into Newtown last autumn and has found one of those beautiful spots very close to the center of town, but far enough that she’s not in the middle of the noise and traffic. An award-winning creative director, photographer, and entrepreneur, Megan recently entered the competition hosted by Johnny Depp and The Art of Elysium, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit. We had a press release about Megan and her entry into the event in mid-June. The competition opened May 4, with new rounds each week, and as mentioned earlier our recent arrival made it to June 25 before being knocked out of the running. I saw some of her work recently and she is quite a talent. I hope she has the opportunity to show some of it locally pretty soon.

Some other residents were showing off their talent during the big 250th July 4 weekend. Gordon Williams let us know that the East Hill Retirement Center hosted a patriotic song fest. I guess it went pretty well! Gordon said that after a "sumptuous feast," the residents packed the auditorium. Don Peterson led the singing and was accompanied by Ruth Gustafson on the piano. There was a printout of all kinds of different patriotic songs that each resident had. It included, of course, the national anthem, “Yankee Doodle,” “America the Beautiful,” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Gordon said a particularly interesting song was “Semper Supra,” for Space Force, the new armed forces group. Don showed the audience how it went, and all the residents joined in. All in all, it was a festive event and part of the projects that were planned to celebrate the country's 250th birthday.

More music is coming to town, too, readers. I hear Alisa Bowens-Mercado of New Haven's Alisa's House of Salsa is slated to return on July 23. While her last event at Aquila's Nest Vineyards did not go as planned, she is excited to return and teach Newtown the basics and fun-damentals of Latin dancing. The three hour class of salsa basics will be enough to have everyone dancing all night. I know this because Alisa is actually Sam Cross' salsa instructor. Sam is going to try her hand at teaching salsa, too. She is doing an exclusive one-night-only class at Lathrop School of Dance within Edmond Town Hall on Friday, July 17. While Sam was petting me the other day, she told me all about it. The one hour class will give Newtown's soon-to-be salsa dancers the perfect taste of what one can expect at Alisa's class the following week. Both classes are open and welcoming all levels of dancers, and no partner is required. Sam promised me both she and Alisa can "lead" just as well as they "follow," whatever that means.

Purr-haps someone will be able to help me with this, but does anyone know about a time capsule buried at the Soldier's Monument on Route 25? I've heard muttering from Newtown residents on social media about it. Apparently, one was buried in the area around 1976. They were wondering when it was going to be dug up, and how it would be nice to do so around America's 250th anniversary. I heard that someone with a metal detector could easily find the plaque attached to the cement right above the capsule. This intrigued Jenna and her fellow Newtown Bee coworker Lynn Remson, who went on a hunt in the building's archives to try and find more information about this time capsule. Whoever buried the time capsule may want it to be opened at a later time, so my paws right now are tied ... I would also love to learn more about this time capsule, so if anyone has more information about it, please give my dear friends at The Newtown Bee a call. I'm not asking because I want more yarn to play with, I just like history, I swear ...

As you know, readers, cats very much like to laze about. We don't make much noise. The golden retrievers in the office do not always get that memo. This was the case on Wednesday morning when Pickles Baggett stopped in for a few minutes to say hello. I was lounging in the window when I heard this loud whining and whimpering. I had no idea what was happening until Pickles was led to the front office and was given her treats.

I’m going to head back to one of my cool spots to recharge and start collecting more tidbits for you. I hope you’ll remember to head this way again next week, when it will be time to … read me again.