Tom is still recovering from his cold and we will be going to Walgreens in a few hours or so. Yesterday we took a nice relaxing day to just veg out. He watched TV and I listened to audiobooks. Tom doesn’t have a fever but every time we check me, I’m always about 97. I wonder if that’s part of why I get cold easily.

Haven’t been spending much time on Facebook as it just gets more and more depressing every time I check in. What little I check of the newsfeed is always so full of negativity and repetition that I don’t see how it wouldn’t drive pretty much anyone crazy. Yes, I agree that we need to ban assault rifles. They’re totally 100% unnecessary. But do I need to hear about it a million times? Dwelling on things isn’t always better than under-addressing them.

Been hearing the geese more often which almost sounds like these demented trumpets but I don’t mind hearing them as opposed to this one dog in particular that has a fierce and annoying bark every time the rude owner that won’t put a muzzle on it walks it.

I noticed another house for sale down the street and wondered if it could be Ray’s. That would be nice but I can’t tell from this angle and I’m not curious enough to walk down and see. The big mouth is well into his 80s but doesn’t seem disabled and in need of assisted living, and his wife is the park’s newsletter editor, so I can’t see them moving.

I was looking at the high-rise apartments by where my parents used to live, thinking it would be nice to have a nice view for the first year since we would probably have to rent for a while before we found a place but they’re a little expensive. Tammy said there are lots of affordable places in her area. But as Tom said, what is her definition of affordable compared to mine? Well, I guess that depends on what we’re going to get for retirement, but it’s too soon to know this. He won’t be able to get much of an idea until he’s 62. If he retired at 62 he’d probably still need to work part-time.

When I was watching a documentary about a crime committed in the Ocala Forest, I decided to look up the area, impressed with the seclusion and all that. Because it’s further north I thought it might be cold, but it’s not. We definitely don’t get in the mid-eighties at this time of year here. So I did some research and was impressed with how cheap it is. Space rent, trash and sewer and all that shit comes to $1200 a month here. That’s actually pretty damn cheap for CA. But I can’t deny the fact that having a space rent of about five or six hundred dollars is appealing. That way, if we end up with less than what we expect, we would still have plenty of money. The only catch is that cheaper may mean older places that aren’t as nice. I would really love to have something built in this millennium for once.

I looked at some mobile homes in adult communities and was impressed with the amount of space around some of the houses. We did see a motorcycle in the driveway of one of the places, though, so some adult communities do allow them. Like I said, I’m no longer looking for a quiet place because I know quiet doesn’t exist for me. It simply wasn’t meant to be any more than I was meant to be tall. The best I can hope for is a place that’s at least quieter than this, and since I have lived in places where I was woken up less often, I know it’s possible to obtain. Not being just a few feet from a busy street would really help. In looking at the Ocala area I saw pros and cons. Originally I thought it might be a good idea to rent near Tammy and see if she pesters us or not. If she did, we could settle elsewhere. I like the space around the houses, though, I like the climate, and I like that being further inland is a little safer from hurricanes.

I know I said I’d like to be on the coast, but the thing about the beach is that unless you’re right smack-dab on the beach or within walking distance or at least bike-riding distance from it, it really doesn’t matter if you’re a 10-minute drive or an hour’s drive, at least in my opinion. Especially since I was never one to enjoy sitting on the beach all day doing nothing. Not only would I burn to a crisp, but it’s totally boring to me. I suppose I could take my laptop, but that can be done just as easily sitting on a lanai or by a pool. I’ve never been overly outdoorsy, especially in a place with lots of bugs and humidity. I would spend most of my time outdoors there swimming or bike riding.

The negatives to Ocala would be that I probably wouldn’t have any kind of a spectacular view, like lakes and stuff like that, there are a lot of blacks, the utilities may be less reliable, and we might not be able to order groceries online. It really sucks that you can’t know all the pros and cons of a place without actually living there, but of course, those are always subject to change at any time. The only thing that might worry me a bit about having a more spacious and private yard would be that this might tempt people to leave their dogs outdoors, if not round-the-clock, then during the daytime. Great place for grandkids to scream up a storm, too.

Tom said it might be kind of cool to live near Cape Canaveral so we could watch the rockets launch, but there’s no saying at this time where we’ll end up.