I don’t understand myself at times. Sometimes sleeping at 75° with the fan blaring on me doesn’t cool me down enough. Yet last time around I go to sleep at 76° and end up so chilly I have to turn the fan off. Go figure.

I was standing at the back corner of the house looking down the street and all the shit going on in the street yesterday morning when an orange SUV I’ve known to reside at the back corner of the circle stopped to ask me what was going on.

The driver introduced herself as Mary. She looked to be around 65-70. I told her I called the office this morning and Joy told me they’re working on the final phase of an irrigation overhaul that’s been going on for the last four years. It should take a week and a half to complete. I figured it had something to do with water and that it wouldn’t take just a day or two.

Late last night Tom took a walk to see what we could see. There are some heavy metal sheets covering the holes they dug out and some orange cones. At one of the cones, there’s a pile of dirt sitting on a sheet of plastic. When I went out walking tonight I noticed they put a little outhouse up the hill just past the Twenties.

Amazingly enough, I’ve still been able to sleep okay (they start early and finish late). The only time it gets loud is when they’re cutting the holes, which doesn’t take long and there aren’t too many anyway. I could see a plume of street dust being kicked up when the guy was cutting the hole just beyond Bob and Virginia’s place. Not wanting to stink of tar, I ran indoors.

Even though it hasn’t been as insanely loud as when they cut trees down, it’s annoying enough. As I told Joy, it’s really a shame that nearly every single day I have to hear something loud going on around here. I love the park otherwise (where else can I run around at midnight and feel safe?), but the noise levels do get ridiculous at times. Definitely not what I would have expected in a retirement community.

Mary asked if I liked it here and I told her yes and no. It was funny because she said, “Wow, it’s so quiet where I live that I feel like I’m in a morgue. Then again I have the cemetery behind me.”

LOL, yes, I know exactly where she is. She’s in a much quieter location than we are, even though I could walk to her place in just a few minutes. The way she’s situated not only against the cemetery but further back from a road that gets much less traffic, and nestled sort of behind a garage and thick brush, would certainly make it quieter.

Most importantly, I’ve been feeling good for the most part. Anxiety has mostly been at a minimum and I’m still hoping that menopause is near. I’m a little surprised my cycles didn’t stop last year, especially since they started young.

I was reading more on perimenopause, and the article that lists the symptoms could have been written by me… Unexplainable feelings of doom and gloom, extreme worrying, random crying fits, feeling like you’re losing your mind… Yes, I’ve gone through this at one time or another along the way.

The weather’s been hot and dry. Late at night, it’s gorgeous, but come early morning it can be chilly.