I’m zapping Alex copies of my oldest journals through AOL. I sent him journal 1, but it took two mailings to do it since you can’t send more than 3000 characters per email. I had asked him if he was curious and if he’d read them and he said yes. He said work’s boring, so he could read them there. That’s nice. This is the perfect person I’ve always liked to share my journals with. This way I can share my writing, but not just with anyone. The more I like someone, the more I’m hesitant to share my writing with them, cuz then I’ll be more self-conscious about it. But flaky Alex is different. People like Fran, Nervous, and Ellie, are the types I like reading my journals.

It looks like Ma’s gonna be moving into Mary’s real soon. I asked Tom why Dave couldn’t string up phone wires and he said Dave’s inexperienced. Also, Ray and Nora don’t help out with Ma cuz they’re not very together and Ray’s ill a lot. I was wondering why Tom’s got to do the bulk of the family helping, besides the fact that he’s so smart. Tom also told me that the reason why Ma won’t hire anyone to do her lawn is cuz of how she was raised to be frugal, just like dad was. The part I was afraid of, was of ma keeping the house and therefore, keeping the burden of keeping the house taken care of on Tom (not that he’d ever complain either way). Well, she is gonna keep it. Not cuz she thinks she could ever live in it again, but to make her feel that there is hope, even if there’s not.

I still have mixed emotions about how I dealt with her going off on me. Yes, I did promise Tom I wouldn’t lay a hand on any of them and yes, it’d just get me either arrested, shot, or beat up by several of them, but a part of me wishes I had taken the chance and that I popped her one. That’s what most people would’ve done.

I know the music will be back to how it was at first in just a matter of time, or else she wouldn’t have said she didn’t want to hear any complaints about it, but let them. I mean, I hope to hell they do stay quiet, but if not, Tom and I will deal with it. He said noise could be dealt with easily enough, so fine. So be it then.

I get both angry and feelings of understanding when I think of her and her antics. I’d have reacted the same way, but I’ll tell you one thing for sure, and that’s that I’ll never again be walked on by any neighbors or by anyone ever again. She was out of line and so was I, but if they think they can bully me, they’ve got the wrong idea. And what the hell was going through her head, as mad as she was, when she came to my door? How did she know I really didn’t have a gun and would shoot her? How did she know I wouldn’t beat the shit out of her?

Anyway, regardless of who was wrong or right, I’ve been bullied enough in my life and did nothing about it and those days are long gone. I may change the way I handle and deal with things from here on out, but I’ll be damned if I’ll sit back and let someone fuck with me, either.

All’s back to normal around here so far. I got up just before 10 PM and haven’t heard a bark from next door at all. So, they either finally gave a damn about their dog and their neighbors, or the dog just shut up on its own. Tom left at 7:30 and he’d have reported in a message to me if there had been any music, and nothing woke me up, so I guess they’ve been giving me what I want, just like I have, too.

I talked to Tom about the mixed emotions I had about how I handled her coming to the door. I know I did the right thing by not decking her, but maybe I should’ve anyway, whether or not I was taking a chance of getting shot or arrested for it. I said that most people would’ve decked her for it anyway, but he said that’s not true. He said most people wouldn’t have decked her or me if it had been me, cuz I have gone to people’s doors telling them off and they haven’t decked me. True. And most people wouldn’t threaten to shoot someone’s dog, too, he said. He said if it were him that she came to yell at, he’d have laughed and shut the door. Not slam it, but just shut it. I thought about whether or not I should’ve done that, too, so she couldn’t have pissed me off by getting the chance to tell me to shut up (and Tom says it’s OK for me to be angry), but who knows if that would’ve furthered her anger, too. Meaning, if she didn’t get the chance to blow off her steam at me, would the dog still be barking? Would the music be loud again? Well, if it is, we’ll take care of it the legal way. If that doesn’t work, I know it’s gonna be awfully hard for me to restrain myself from taking care of it the non-legal way.

Tom explained something to me that I’m surprised I didn’t think of on my own, since I know how hard it can be to break habits. Tom explained to me that it was never that he didn’t care to do something I’d ask of him like to turn the water off so it wouldn’t drip in the bathroom. It was just that new habits take time to get into. Yeah, he has a point and this makes sense, cuz it took me time to break the routine of just flushing the toilet and then walking away. I had to get in the habit of remembering to pull the handle back down when it was jamming up like it had been for a while. So, what he was trying to tell me was that if I had asked him just once to turn the music down, I should’ve given him the chance to get into the habit of doing it. Not that he would’ve necessarily, cuz these people still obviously don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves.

Anyway, they don’t want to know I exist and I don’t want to know they exist, so hopefully we’ll each get what we want and be happy. I’m a little worried about how much of a nuisance their dog will be in the daytime in the winter when it’s cooler and sounds travel better, and when this thing has gotten even huger and has an even bigger bark, but we’ll just have to see.

Meanwhile, I’m sick of these people. I’ve written enough about them. I’ve talked enough about them and I hope to return to the days of at least not having more than a few paragraphs here and there to say about them, now that it’s gotten rather obvious that he’s not gonna move out again and if he does, the dog isn’t going anywhere, and the dog and at least this bitch herself, will be there while we’re still here. Tom’s right when he said this may very well be it and our last neighbors while we’re here since people don’t go moving in and out of houses like they do with apartments.

I had left my folks a message saying I was surprised they hadn’t called or asked any questions yet. They said they’d rather learn by trial and error. Yes, trial and error can be the best way to learn anything. We also told each other in our messages that we’ll pick a time to chat when we can. It varies with them, too, from day to day as to when they’ll be available to chat.

We got their package the other day. They sent 3 really nice big flags of fish, Bugs Bunny and an American flag with streamers. This one’s cool and I’ve got that up now. For little flags, they sent a cake, Snoopy, flowers, a pumpkin, a cow and one or two others.

We also got some pictures from when she saw Tammy and Larry. There were no pictures of Sandy or Jen, but there were pictures of Tammy giving her dog a bath and of the girls and they’re really growing up fast. Lisa looks older than me in this last particular picture she sent. Sarah really is a cute kid, but Becky looks rather homely. She already has that “motherly” look, if you know what I mean. I think she’s gonna be heavy with a plain face, but she’s only 10, so we’ll see.

Got new address labels from the Humane Society. Of cats and dogs.

For the first time in my life, I like Tetris, which is a very popular computer game. I’m pretty good at it too, but I’m too lazy to go into descriptions of how the game is played.