The instant I got up and clicked off my sound machine, I could hear Bob’s blower next door. This is the third day in a row too, that I got up at 9am. Guess something up there wants me to hear shit around here. 

After his blower, and what might’ve been a few seconds of hammering, he got up on his roof to hose leaves off his carport roof. 

I’m sure the park landscaping frenzy will begin any second now. I'm going to have to accept the fact that as long as we live here and as long as it's not raining or really hot, this place is going to be noisy whether I like it or not and whether I think a retirement community should be like this or not. We're going to be here for at least another decade unless we lose the place, so I am just going to have to learn to adapt once and for all. Quiet places may exist for others but they simply do not exist for me. Never has, never will. 

My waste of time chat with Joy proves I need to just deal with it. After nearly two hours of something really loud running yesterday, I called and asked her why it’s a daily thing here while other places do their landscaping just once a week. I was surprised when she told me it was because if they don't keep up on it on a daily basis they not only get behind but they get calls with a lot of pissed-off people complaining. I am really surprised that people would rather hear all this racket for some pretty visuals. Of course you don't want the place to get too shabby looking but every single fucking day still seems a bit extreme to me. I realize, though, that the majority rules, and since I seem to be the only one here who’s bothered by it, they’re not going to change their routine anytime soon. 

I realize that some of the racket could be coming from houses outside of the park as well as the golf course or the cemetery, but I really think it was inside the park. 

Now I hear a car alarm going off. I may have to do my “talking texts” later in the evenings because it is just too distracting here in the daytime. At least it’s peaceful at night. 

The “red lady,” as I have been referring to the woman across the street with the red SUV, has returned from wherever she was for a few days. 

Later… 

LMAO! I was trying to tell Aly via speech to text that I didn’t mind the parakeet we had over a decade ago singing when I was doing dishes, but would long to take a bat to the thing’s head when it would go on and on while I was trying to talk on the phone, and Google keeps saying I wanted to take a “bath.” LOL 

Andy's on the plane now and on his way to his brother’s place in Pompano Beach. Hoping he forgot the damn Kindle! He should be busy having fun and doing things he doesn’t normally do, not playing online. 

Tammy called yesterday and I decided to answer, figuring I wouldn't feel guilty about ignoring her as much as I hate chatting live as long as I answer at least every month or two, LOL. Most of the time I’m not even aware it’s ringing anyway. 

She and Mark are doing the best they've done and probably what's years. They are now looking at manufactured homes for what I guess will be a retirement community. I told Tom that I warned her about having to deal with daily landscaping, but he had a good point in saying that maybe not because they don't have trees that lose their leaves there during the winter like we do here. 

She is also continuing her work as a victim's advocate and says that her place is still quiet and the people are very friendly. I joke about moving in next door to her and how all that would change, and it's true, it would change if I moved in next to her. Noise loves to follow me wherever I go. 

Anyway, she has Haitian neighbors that cooked dinner one night for them and she says it was really good. 

I didn't know this but she almost died when she had a hysterectomy. I know she had a hysterectomy several years ago because of cancer, but I didn't know that she also had a staph infection that nearly killed her. So something up there likes to tease us both with death, I guess. 

Last night I dreamed that I came upon a brown rat that looked like Tinkerbell, a rat we had about 8 years ago that was the best rat we ever had. She was just as friendly and playful as Tinkerbell was. She’d just had a litter of babies and I wanted to keep some of them, including her. I was watering some backyard somewhere and all the rats were sitting on the grass and I was trying not to get them too wet while I flooded a plant that had been drying out. 

Then I had a dream involving my dad. I guess I was desperate or something because he handed me a wad of cash before they were to take him to prison for who knew what. I asked something like, “Will this save us?” and he looked at me as if to say of course it will. 

Those bills must have been really big then!