My LiveJournal reader is back. 

It wasn’t even 9 o’clock when Bob started his fucking hammering. Had a bad feeling about today too, when I got up. Maybe we should just forget Hawaii or Florida and just go rural again when he retires, getting a chunk of land in a cheaper state, which would probably have to be in the west somewhere. The closer we are to people, the more we hear them. Meanwhile, the guy is 86 years old. How many more years could he possibly have the strength to do this shit? I just don’t want them moving or dying before we do because I fear something a lot worse ending up over there. This isn’t the 70s. Noise is just as accepted here these days as it is in the mainstream. I dread the day they start allowing big dogs in the place and okaying them being left outside round-the-clock. 

It seems the West in general has a totally different attitude when it comes to noise than the East, same as it does with dogs. Most people out here think it’s wrong to take a dog indoors while most people in the east deem it cruel to leave them outdoors 24/7. I spent 26 years in the East and almost the same amount of time in the West, so I am familiar with both cultures. It’s like it’s more “ok” to be obnoxious and noisy in the West. I mean, look at Tom, a native Arizonan. He doesn’t think Bob is being rude at all and says this is simply what people do (though Tom’s not noisy and no one else in our immediate surroundings is out there beating and banging on things). The West has more of a live-and-let-live attitude when it comes to noise. People expect it, they accept it, and complaining about it is like a sin. Well, my dear husband whom I love very much is entitled to his own opinion, but I find the racket very annoying and distracting, “normal” or not. People just don’t care, though. 

Andy asked me if there was any way I could be just as noisy in return. Well, yeah, I could sit out there and beat a hammer or a stick or something on the patio table or blast my music with the door open, but I have better things to do with my time and I don’t care to be just as rude as he is. Would two wrongs really make a right anyway? 

Instead, I unplugged my laptop from the 30-inch monitor in the living room and I took it into the bedroom. Because the living room is so huge it’s harder to mask sounds in there with the sound machine, unlike in the bedroom. The master bedroom is huge too, but not cavernously huge. It’s a pain in the ass because the laptop key functions are limited as opposed to my other keyboard, but this is the only way to escape it when I’m on days until he either dies or gets too feeble to do this. As mean as I know it sounds, part of me wishes he would have a stroke that would limit his mobility. But this guy has just as much strength, energy and stamina as a guy in his 20s. He still walks and rides his bike almost every day. Of all the lazy guys out there that would like to sit in front of the TV all day and do nothing, we just had to get stuck next to another project junkie. I’d be willing to bet almost anything that he and his wife don’t even own the computer. Maybe not even cell phones. The research I did on them shows they have a landline. I respect the fact that they’ve been here a lot longer than me, that they’re very nice people otherwise, and that the guy’s only got so many years left to do what he loves to do. I just wish it didn’t have to be at my expense. 

I hate that it’s already September. We’re already starting to have highs down in the 80s again. Before the month is out I’m sure I will get to be a penguin or a leopard at night. Sounds scary? Relax, I’m talking about my 1-piece fleece pajamas. One has skiing penguins all over it and the other has a leopard print. 

I’m usually good at figuring out my own computer issues, along with things I want to do, but when I can’t… It’s Tom to the rescue. The Kindle cloud reader doesn’t support a text reader, so he helped me find one that does. Now I have the option of listening to stories as well as reading them. 

I have been setting my little windup timer to go off every half hour at which time I run at 4 MPH for two minutes, burning a total of 20 calories. I do this until I have burned a grand total of 300 cals, which is about 15 sprints and 30 minutes total. I also worked my arms and abs. I would like to have 1200 cals a day but I still usually creep up closer to 1500.