This morning I woke up at 5:00 and we left an hour later after setting the bombs off. I ended up doing a ton of work today between prepping to bomb and cleaning up afterward, but 80% of the work was cuz of the animals.

We put the animals in the backseat and drove leisurely to Circle K where I got a brownie and coffee. He got soda and cakes. We also got a couple of scratch tickets and one won $3.

It wasn’t too hot like I worried it would be. It was actually pretty cool at first and I had to wear a sweater over my tank top. There was a nice breeze keeping it from feeling too hot once it got later. We didn’t go into the house till almost 10:00 and it didn’t smell at all, although we did what they said to do, and we opened windows to ventilate the place for a while. It was the perfect day for it too, cuz it wasn’t too calm, nor was it windy. Last night was a whole different story. It was wicked windy. Our power even flickered in and out a few times.

Tom still hasn’t gotten Microsoft Word up and running, but he said Mary has it still (that’s who it got it from) and we can reinstall it if we have to. For now, I switched from using WordPad to NotePad, because I was worried that I couldn’t copy and paste from Word Pad like I know I can from NotePad. This program’s very plain and simple. There are no colors and no spell check, but if you hit F5 it puts the time/date in for you. I like that. Microsoft Word does it too, but not with a hotkey.

Mary called earlier with some computer problems.

Paula called yesterday and I decided to answer since it had been a while. I wish she’d hurry up and lose that damn phone for a good 6 months sometimes! Nonetheless, we had a nice chat.

Oreo, one of my mice, was so cute earlier the way she was setting up the nest. I shred paper for them every time I change their cages. Anyway, she dragged strips of paper, one by one, from cage to cage and it was so cute. She doesn’t always set up nests in the same areas.

We got to see some interesting animals around here. I got to see my first jackrabbit today on our way back from the store, along with some quails. Yesterday, I saw my first Gila monster. Two of them. At least, we think that’s what they were. At first I thought it was Gohpie, who I haven’t seen, then I thought it was a small snake till I realized it was a big lizard. It was about two feet long. I took some pictures of it, but they didn’t come out too well. Tom said they’re as poisonous as rattlesnakes.

Tom dug up an ugly shrub-like thing that was by Scuttle’s grave that looked like a giant spider, which was nice of him to do.

A couple of weeks or so ago, our property began to become littered with little green clumps of what I thought were weeds, but today I noticed little flowers sprouting here and there. He says desert flowers bloom at this time of year. That ought to be really pretty.

We got the flowers planted and I started to get pissed off at God and society for a minute there while we were working. It wasn’t even 9:00 AM, yet someone, somewhere towards the front of the house, was blaring a car stereo. Again, it sounded nothing like having one of those blaring a few feet away from you, but still, I was like - you mean I still have to listen to this shit?! In the middle of a 10-acre ranch? What’s this world coming to? Before long, there’ll be no place to go to live in peace. There’ll be loud music everywhere that can be heard for miles and miles. What is it with these people I’m so embarrassed and ashamed to call my fellow humans? Why do they feel such a need to put on a show and be noticed? What makes these people so desperate for attention? So desperate to stand out and be heard? Anyway, the amazing part was that it only lasted a few minutes, not a few hours.