My throat is better today than it was yesterday. Yesterday it was hard to talk without my voice cutting off or a coughing fit ensuing.

Tom’s lab numbers are great. His TSH is 1.something. He saw his doctor today and everything was great except for wax buildup in his ears. The doctor offered to clean it out for him but he said he would take care of it himself, knowing they would probably charge $200 just to do it and that it would probably hurt like hell. We have an earwax removal kit. He was also down 6 pounds.

We went on a 15-minute walk (I had already been on the skier for 15 minutes), partly to verify where that loud car lives that we suspect is owned by someone too young to live here and who isn’t the caretaker. It turns out that it is at the house I suspected it was at, but the great thing is that the house is up for sale. Yes!!! The sign said, “Newly listed.” I just hope I’m not replaced by someone moving in with a car that’s just as loud or a motorcycle.

I wonder if they got complained on…kids living there, dogs allowed to bust out loose through a doggy door, and now this guy. Why live in a retirement community if you want to live like you’re in the mainstream?

The only other thing that’s been running around loose here, though I don’t mind since it’s not noisy or destructive in any way, is a tuxedo cat. It was curled up in the grassy area between our property and next door when I stepped out to pull the packages in. It appears healthy, so I doubt it’s a stray.

Temps are going to be climbing into the 80s so it’s time to switch the bedroom and bathroom vents. I close the bedroom one in the winter and open it wide in the bathroom, then do just the opposite in the summer. Oh, the motorcycles and car stereos I’m going to hear on the freeway at night!

Tom had talked about putting posts on the far side of the bed in which to attach the soundproofing material so as to at least muffle the traffic sounds. But then I got a brilliant idea. Why not hang it from a ceiling rod? I was looking at room partitions and one of them was a hanging privacy curtain. We decided to get the rod instead of the curtain and attach the soundproofing material to its hooks. Another benefit to this is that it will divvy up the huge bedroom and make it sort of like two rooms in one with a little mini-retreat in the back. It may keep the room cooler in the summer as well.

I hate to disappoint the rats but now that we know we’re going to use what’s left of the soundproofing material, I dragged it from the bookcase into the bedroom. They like to run through it, but I don’t want them pissing or chewing in it any more than they probably have. Instead, I took an old brown Snuggy blanket from my folks and made a new tent in that area by draping it off the shelf above the bottom one. Now Burkey boy can chew the old book tops in private.

So far the new shampoo seems to be preventing my hair from falling out as much, but it dries my hair a bit and makes it harder to brush through, even with the detangling brush. It will be interesting to see if I get new hair growth or if it just slows down hair loss.

Later…

OMG, I’m so pissed right now! And confused as hell. Burke just went crazy and practically attacked me for reasons I’ll never understand, screaming as if he was in pain or terrified when we were just playing as we always play. I’ve got cuts all over my hands and arms. I hate to think of how much worse they would be if I had worn long sleeves, but still, I’ve had it with this scaredy rat crap and these fucking rats acting like I beat the shit out of them regularly.

I terrorized him a bit afterward and I don’t feel guilty for it. He deserved it. I treat them like gold and they treat me like this? I don’t deserve this shit with all the time, work and money we both put into caring for them. He’s lucky I didn’t beat the shit out of him to the brink of death. Believe me, I want to. And the fuckers we got him from. I’ve got raised welts now that are itchy and sore. Really I want to kill the little bastard and I almost wish Hoodie was still alive so I could put the bastards together and let them kill each other.

I always knew these rats were skittish and general. They came from the wrong people. I just never thought he would lose it on me like that and turn on me. I don’t know that he was actually trying to attack me more than he was just freaking out, but still, enough is enough of this shit. These rats are just fucking ridiculous with their skittishness. Burke sort of acted like he felt bad about it afterward, but I was too pissed to care.

Still no response from Tammy about Lisa’s message, and I still don’t know if she just didn’t get it or if she got it, passed it along to Lisa, and Lisa’s like Aly… unable to move on.

Funny how many people preach forgiveness because I don’t see many people in general showing a good example of that. Personally, I wish I could be less forgiving myself. I really do. I could ignore Andy and Paula, but I would probably still be dumb enough to talk to Aly, Nane and Maliheh if they contacted me. Not responding would be both smart and what they would deserve, though.