Love how Grammarly added a tone detector that helps you get the right feeling across in whatever you’re writing. Like if you sound confident as opposed to defensive or whatever.

Last night, as I was listening to a symphony of night sounds like the freeway and all kinds of planes, a part of me wanted to cry at the thought of being forever cursed with excessively noisy places for reasons I’ll never understand. It’s been that way since 1992, although Maricopa wasn’t too bad in general, and Auburn would have actually been the quietest place we ever lived if we could have gotten Jesse’s mutts out of the picture.

Anyway, I started to tell myself it would be pointless to cry over what fate can’t be changed and all that, but then we have lived in quieter places, so I know it’s possible to get one. It may not be possible to get a place that’s literally quiet, but every other single place I’ve ever lived in has been quieter than this. So it’s doable.

So what was today’s project? Oh, I just got to wake up to insanely loud sawing and woodchippers. Now, they didn’t actually wake me up because I had the sound machine going, even though according to Google Maps, the activity took place just 150 ft from the bedroom. It sure would have woken me up when the tree actually came down had I not already been up! it really hit with a ferocious stud.

When I first got up, I thought it was coming from the oak tree in the center island down the street, but then I looked out and saw that they were in the common area between Dal and Santa. So it was the park that ordered the job, not surprisingly, even though I don’t recall seeing any dead or dying trees in that area. Even Dixie was wondering why they were killing that tree. Tom said if it was leaning over a house, that may be why because if it were to get struck by lightning, it could fall on the house. I don’t remember if any were leaning over anybody’s house but there were three huge branches stemming off of the trunk. They cut it down to where you had just the trunk and two big branches, so about a few thousand pounds worth. They sawed the thing and then with amazing precision and strength, a guy whacked the wedge in the center of it forming more of a gap. When the thing finally went down it was with such a mighty boom that the entire house shook and the windows rattled in their panes. I was so glad I had gotten up when I did because there’s no doubt that it would have jolted me awake. I would probably think someone kicked the door in if it wasn’t for all the people and activity that goes on regularly here. It may have been cool to watch the tree coming down but I’m sick of this shit. Just totally sick of it. We can’t even go one fucking week without some loud annoying project. They’re not done yet either. They’re going to have to come and haul everything away, and if they choose to grind down the stump, it’s going to be loud as hell.

The last commercial plane wasn’t until 12:30 last night and then the small planes and helicopters took over along with the freeway and it just gets old. It really does. Sometimes I just want to hear nothing. I just want peace and quiet. But those moments are few and far between here. Projects in the daytime on top of regular landscaping and traffic, and planes at night. The planes are actually a 24-hour thing, it’s just that they’re more audible late at night and early in the morning when sounds carry better. Same with the freeway which is about 1000 feet away.

We both happily escaped to Rite Aid for a few minutes where I got some wine and we both got treats. So what if I’m 156 lb. Maybe someday I’ll actually care enough about my weight to stop eating for a while. I guess it’s just that age thing. You get comfortable with who and what you are, you don’t give a s*** what others think, and you get tired of filling in the swears that Google Docs doesn’t like. :-) Rite Aid was giving away free Halloween candy so we each got a bite-size candy.

Despite how slow it’s been at work, which Tom expects for the rest of the year, he worked at home yesterday doing a meeting. It kind of sucks because while he does make more money than most people, we as a couple don’t make as much as most people, so doing a detour in New Mexico is probably going to be out of the question even though I’ve asked Becky for some info on the land and the job market in her area. I don’t think we can go straight to Florida without him having a job first, but if we can buy a cheap place with the sale of this place and stay there till he’s 66-70, I’d go for it because almost any place has to be quieter than this!

Dixie saw and heard the felling of the tree too, and said I was the first one she thought of when they came in early this morning and miraculously managed not to wake me up. I did have both sound machines blasting, though. It’s the only way for a light sleeper to sleep on such a busy street.

Love her nickname for Joan… Mrs. Claus. So there’s Santa and then there’s Mrs. Claus. LMAO! I told her that was a good one. I get the impression she doesn’t like Mrs. Claus very much but she’s always been nice to me.

Dixie also cracked me up when she said no hurry on helping her organize the clothes, if Diane comes out dressed for the beach, she’ll just go grab some warmer clothes, haha.

She wishes they would take down that center island tree because it messes up her gutters since she’s right by it, but it’s one of those protected trees in Cali. That old oak tree is probably 100 years old at the very least. I just wish they would stop with all the tree-cutting in general. I’m not only tired of having to hear it, but we need our trees! I’ve lived in other areas that were heavily treed and never did I hear so many of them being cut down.

Since we’re allowed to have up to five accounts on Twitter’s account switcher, I created a fifth account to tweet pictures when I’m about to go out walking. Then when I return, I can see exactly how long I was gone.

Started writing a letter to Stacey which I’ll send her on Facebook since it’s been a while. Almost 2 years. I know she wouldn’t mind an update from me, though I don’t hear much from her, understandably. I really do miss her at times.

So disappointing to see those wonderful orange lines begin to disappear on my book reports. The old setup put an orange line by the date something was either bought or borrowed. I seemed to be starting to be on quite a roll, too.

Okay, Becky just gave me some info on taxes and property and things in general about where she moved to in New Mexico. Tom and I will look around on Zillow over the weekend but I’m not holding my breath. It’s just not that easy to up and move, especially when you’re still working.

She cracked me up after I told her about all I have to listen to here, and not only said that would drive her fucking crazy but also, “God bless you. I’d have killed someone by now.”

Yeah, I think maybe that’s why I keep killing people in my stories; so I don’t in real life. Speaking of that, NaNo starts in just over 2 hours, so even though I’m not very prepared, I’m going to dive in and see where it takes me. One doesn’t have to win in order to have fun, which is a good thing because I don’t expect to win this time around. Just not enough of an idea for the story to reach 50k words.