Going to be heading down to Dixie’s place in about an hour to visit her and thought I would get in an entry first.

Yesterday I walked down to the mailbox and had just gotten back and was going through the mail when I heard a knock on the front door. I opened it to find Joan, Santa’s wife, standing there. She looked great for someone I’m guessing has got to be around 70. She wore a nice shiny sleeveless top, and every time I see her she has her hair in a side ponytail, though it suits her well. Her face was made up nicely, too.

She came to ask where we got the screen in our carport and I asked for her email and told her I would email her the link to where we got it on Amazon.

She didn’t come inside the house, but she saw into the living room as we were discussing home improvements and I was telling her we didn’t have a traditional living room setup and all that. Functionality is more important than appearance to us while we’re still in this place.

Their place is bigger than ours. They have a 1700-square-foot triple-wide. She was telling me about their plans for replacing carpet and installing the kind of flooring I wish we’d installed. Also, remodeling the kitchen. Fortunately, I shouldn’t have to hear any of it from here. But then if they’re sawing and hammering some things outside, I might. I swear I’m done with living with those with money! I don’t want to live in the slums, of course, and I know people do home improvements everywhere, but this has been unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Then again, everything about this whole damn place is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

Anyway, I learned something interesting from her. It turns out she’s been a real estate agent for over 25 years and still is. There are some regular realtors in the area, including a woman named Peggy who lives here. Well, Peggy didn’t disclose to Dahl (spelling?) and Barbara, the couple that bought Ralph’s place, that Ralph died inside the house. I didn’t even know that myself. His son was staying with him when he got up one morning to find he passed in his sleep. A lot of people are freaked out about the idea of buying a house someone died in. I remember seeing the EMTs there one last time and thought he had another stroke or heart attack and later died in the hospital, but nope. Wonder if whoever is in my grandparents’ house knows my grandmother died in her bed? I guess disclosure laws vary from state to state and they may not go that far back unless it’s something like a mass murder that took place or something out of the ordinary like that.

Anyway, looks like we’ve got ourselves a realtor nearly half a decade before we’re ready to get one, lol. I did tell her that we’re probably going to sell as is and that I joke with Tom about this place being every realtor’s worst nightmare because of the way I made quite a circus of it with wall stickers galore. Plus, we really fucked up the laundry room and small bathroom floors.

I was surprised when she said she doesn’t hear all the planes we’ve got going here and I’m beginning to wonder if everyone is deaf or if my one good ear is bionic. But then Carolyn did acknowledge them, so I don’t know. Every fucking time I opened the door yesterday to shake out my duster or dump recyclables or something, there was a plane roaring overhead. :-(

Tom saw his new doctor yesterday and sure enough, it’s a foreigner. Some older Asian guy whose accent was a little hard to understand. They really, really should be mandated to do speech exercises to get rid of their accents. When it comes to doctor-patient communication, there should be no misunderstandings!

We were talking about how sad it is that he won’t have good insurance for another 2.5 years and even sadder that I’ll likely have to wait 11 years. Just wish this country wasn’t so obsessed with independence and we didn’t have sick, twisted presidents who think everybody can afford to pay everything themselves as they can, but that’s the attitude here. You want it, you got to get it yourself unless you’re illegal. No one wants to help anyone that’s from here.

We have money budgeted for different things and the money budgeted for medical stuff is kind of low right now, so he hasn’t even gone to the lab yet which he told the doctor. He’ll get to it in another month or two and then they’ll call with the results. Of course they couldn’t just use the damn portal. They’ll probably post results there too, but all the phone calls people waste time with simply aren’t necessary. If something was wrong, that would be different. So far, he’s been very lucky, though. Other than struggling with obesity, he’s only had high blood pressure so far. He does have exercise-induced asthma, but he doesn’t trigger that very often.

The whole medical situation in this country just pisses me off. There’s got to be a better way so that not only can poor people afford the services they need, but so that middle-class people like us don’t lose such a huge chunk of our income to basic things. As usual, only the rich have it the best. Although in this state, even the fucking illegals have it better than we do. Everything’s about putting the outsiders first. Meanwhile, if this country wanted change, it would have been done ages ago.

I realized it was silly to gather the pigs in boxes and set them aside when changing their pen when all I have to do is move the gate in a way that blocks the entrance to the kitchen and have them just step aside while I pull up the dirty liner, clean the floor below, and place the new liner down. They were very good about it. They didn’t try to break away or go anywhere they shouldn’t, although these big beefy guys could never fit under the stove or beside the refrigerator even if they wanted to.

I’m getting the sense that Aly is on the verge of breaking up with Cam because they’re taking a break, as she told me. I’m not the least bit surprised. She’s sounded doubtful on and off yet when you find the right person, you know it. You don’t have so many doubts for so long. I think the type of guys she’s going for is part of the problem. The dominant-submissive thing may be a fun fantasy and may be ideal for those not looking to get serious, but I question just how ideal a guy like Cam could possibly be in a long-term relationship because of their thirst for control. When he mentioned bending people to his will in his old Ask profile, I remember being like no, just no. Seriously, if I was looking for someone, a profile like that would scare me right off. That alone right there tells me something about the guy. Anyone who’s going to want to be that dominant in bed is going to want to be dominant elsewhere as well. If I’ve got my facts straight, he stole a Twitter account of hers she can’t get back. Well, isn’t that pretty controlling?

When they do break up, hopefully she’ll stay single for more than a few weeks rather than jump into a whole new relationship. Not wanting to be alone is one thing, rushing things is another. It’s easy for straight people to do, though. I can just imagine how many boyfriends I would have had before meeting Tom had that been my main cup of tea.

Personally, I can’t picture her ever getting married and if I were less than a year from 40, I would wonder if maybe all my failed relationships had something to do with what I was attracted to, or maybe it was something about me, or maybe I was just plain old cursed in that department. I still think she might have better luck if she searched for an equal instead of a Dom.