Is something up there determined to replace the Jes pest and all his projects I would have to listen to nearly every day? Once one house gets done with some annoying home renovation I have to hear, another one starts up. I don’t know what the hell they’re doing, but a few houses down they’re hammering and running something loud inside. It’d be nice if they could at least close their damn door. Now someone’s sawing some wood laid out on a couple of wooden horses. 

It is otherwise amazingly quiet. I don’t even hear landscapers or freeway traffic. Not even much car door slamming. 

It’s here! Our new dishwasher has arrived! It was cool how the guy got it off the truck with the lift in back of it. Then he wheeled it into the living room on a dolly. Tom has his own dolly, which he used to get the old one out into the carport. Unfortunately, when he tried to go through the laundry room to the back door, he got stuck and scuffed the edge of that door, so he had to go out the front door. 

Anyway, if I really, really wanted to, I could probably figure out how to fully unpack and install this dishwasher after watching Tom uninstall the old one, but I know it’s one of those things he’d prefer to do just like I would prefer to handle the decorations and stuff like that. I unpacked some of it but will let him do the rest. It’s in a huge box that sits on a wooden platform. The rats would have fun with that. there was even a long stick of wood on top that I’m sure they’d enjoy chewing on. It’s a good thing I don’t care about the old books the previous owners left because they’ve been chewing the edges of them. Every time I dust over there I kick off bits and pieces from the top of them. 

Later… 

I’m a bit worried the car may delay the flooring/carpet a few months or more. The radiator hose is leaking. Tom can probably fix that himself with some epoxy, but he doesn’t know what’s causing the knocking sound he’s been hearing. We definitely do need to get another car. Not something too new that we’d have to make payments on, but this car is 20 years old. Time to move on. Just preferably not before we take care of the floors in here. 

Paula called last night and I answered when I saw her number, knowing it’s been a while since we chatted, even if I still hate phones, LOL. Now I know why I had a dream she was terminally ill. She was diagnosed with heart disease. They’re sending her to a cardiologist. I guess she’s been having severe palpitations that would wake her up, as well as pain and numbness in her left arm, a classic symptom of heart issues. Hopefully, she’s still young enough for them to get it under control. She never smoked or anything like that, so it’s probably hereditary. 

Saw a documentary on the making of realistic baby dolls like the one FedEx will be delivering today, along with my incense and some computer-related stuff for Tom. What’s strange as hell is seeing some grown woman care for them as if they were live babies. That’s just weird as hell to me. “They’ll never get diseases, they’ll never be in car accidents, they’ll never get into drugs,” they said. Yeah, but they’re not REAL. Realistic looking or not, weighted like real babies or not, they’re still vinyl. How do these women “get into it?” How can they make the whole thing seem real and believable to them at the same time they know they’re just pretending, in a sense. Our ability to play pretend just isn’t like it is as kids. We can still pretend, but it just doesn’t seem as real as we can make a game of playing house or whatnot seem as kids. 

*shrugs* Oh well. Whatever makes one happy. I’m never sad for the happy, but I am amused by them at times. 

Had a dream we briefly moved back to the Jes pest trailer, though I don’t know why. Tom was in a hurry to get to work but was due to return in just 4 hours so we could move. 

I called Tammy this morning. She’s looking forward to getting out of Connecticut along with the girls. The house will soon be up for sale. Thanks to the economy, though, the appraiser said she’d be getting 100k less than if the economy was doing well. 

But the economy is better. A house a few streets away is up for 70k. I doubt we’d be able to get more than we paid for this place without serious upgrades, no matter what the economy is, cuz 30-year-old homes this size typically go for around 30k anyway. 

She had her usual gripes – physical pains, shitty weather, and frustrations over seeing blacks ride to the welfare office in their sleek shiny cars and thick gold chains. Yeah, it’s a pity so many of them still choose a life of crime when they now have more opportunities open to them than most whites ever had, but they’ve been the way they are for a long time. Why should she expect them to change now? 

She talked a little about how she and Larry talked about how the three of us were victims of Dureen, and how Lisa’s a druggie and a liar that’s been in and out of both jail and rehab. 

Mark’s having problems at work, which he’s looking forward to escaping. I guess when they head for Florida he’s going to retire (he’s now 63) and then they’ll just have their home improvement business down there. I hope to hell the business is enough to make it on, cuz it’s not easy for an older person to get a job, good economy or not. Plus he’s white, so he’s not going to get first dibs on things, qualified or not. I think it will be, though, cuz things will be cheaper where they’re going. 

He hasn’t been given a title or a salary despite all he’s done for the company he works for. I hope that doesn’t end up being the case with Tom. I was telling Tammy how Bank of America really fucked him over – unpaid OT, etc. – and she said she couldn’t stand them. She and Becky were almost arrested for going off on them. Yeah, I can picture that.