Tom let them have it at work for using him. They’re totally taking advantage of him and ripping him off. He was supposed to get time off for overtime once he got salary pay, but instead, they’re running him ragged, working him overtime, and not giving him time off. He put his foot down today and let them know - this is ridiculous!

He saw his mom after work. I gave them all a bunch of puzzles and she gave Tom a couple to give to me. I started one earlier.

Tom also planted the seeds. Meaning, he told Mom how much I like Pepper, telling her not to tell Mary, knowing that she will anyway. That way she won’t feel put on the spot and like she has to make a decision right away as she would if it came directly from us.

They’re also getting a truck, and since we’ll never have one at the rate we’re going, they offered to let us use it anytime we want. That was very nice of them, and we appreciate the offer.

Now I’ll explain what I meant by “the boat.” Tom had the grandest idea yet on our way to Helen’s yesterday. Instead of buying other land elsewhere if we make a lot of money selling this place if the area builds up as I predicted, we could buy a boat and make our home the south Pacific Ocean! Oh, how I’d love that! That’d really be escaping civilization, that’s for sure! No people, no traffic, no spiders, no scorpions, no ants, no pigs, no freeloaders, no off-brands, no laws. Just Tom, whatever we have for pets at the time, fresh air, sky and water (burglars would be impossible)! I just hope we don’t have to wait 20 years to do it. Tom’s going to check into how much boats cost. I would think they wouldn’t really cost any more or less than houses on land do. Naturally, we couldn’t do this unless we could afford for Tom not to work. Hopefully, though, we won’t have to wait till he’s retired. We’d buy the boat outright, then our only expenses would be food, which we’d buy in bulk quantities (we’d get powdered milk instead of regular milk), and the fuel to run the generator for electricity. We’d probably have some type of cell phone, which is now capable of being functional in the middle of the ocean. We wouldn’t be able to have TV, though. A satellite needs to point in the same direction all the time, and we sure as hell couldn’t pick up cable TV out there. Although he’d miss TV, and I’d miss it for the music channels, he says he’d still have his computers and other things, as would I.

We’d have to do email for everything. Nobody could get mail to us, but I suppose we could get a PO Box somewhere in Hawaii, New Zealand or Australia.

I was surprised when Tom mentioned this. For some reason, I had always been under the impression that he didn’t like oceans and tropical climates. I love tropical as much as the desert. Maybe more. It’s the cold and the snow that I don’t miss! It may get a little nippy out at sea at times, but I don’t care. It’s a dream I intend to fulfill someday, and I think I can, too. It’s a material dream. It’s the “action” dreams like being a singer that don’t come true for me, although my Teddy Bear is no “thing.”

She and Mary are my only concerns, but who can say what kind of a relationship, if any, I’ll have with them at the time? It’s too soon to worry about that, as much as I wish Teddy Bear could be a part of my life forever. Again, that’s just not reasonable being with Tom. If I were single, then yes, perhaps we could have a life together, but I can’t expect her to always have a part-time fling going with me and not settle down with someone who can live with her and be with her full-time. Also, if I had to choose between her and the boat with Tom, you know I have to choose the boat with Tom. I wouldn’t think twice about that one.

What’ll be so cool is the constantly changing view. Here, although the view is gorgeous, it never changes. It’ll be similar, though, cuz for the most part, all we’ll see is water.

Because boats have built-in furniture, which you have to have for obvious reasons, we wouldn’t take a thing with us furniture-wise. We’d take the Bowflex, though, of course, and our personal shit. Not all of it, though. Breakables will have to be secured, which would be a bit of a bitch, so I’d probably leave my least favorite cheap dolls behind, as well as some knickknacks. We’d have an open-house tag sale. I may not even do mice on the boat. Rats, though, I’ll always have.

I wish we could do this before 10/2003 and stiff the black bitch, but I know that’s just a dream! They’d be so pissed too, if I absconded.

Someday, some future occupant of this house is going to be in for a surprise if they peel the Velcro panel off the side of the tub and discover the goodies I’m leaving behind – a few knickknacks I don’t want, an old ugly purse, a journal page, and some ugly material ma gave me. At each end of the tub, there’s a Velcro panel. The one by the faucet is where you can see the plumbing and all that, but the one towards the back of the tub is just hollow space.

Two mice broke out of one of the cages. As soon as we got back from Helen’s, I spotted one white mouse running across the bedroom, and another one pulled itself up on top of the maze. The maze sits on top of the small tank, and apparently, I hadn’t centered it, so there were gaps big enough for them to squeeze through. I could tell they broke out right before I got home. The animals aren’t used to me being out, as many appointments as I have, and it was around feeding time.

Little Buddy still comes out to run around and play with me a few times a day, and Teddy Bear screams at me all night long.

So I was right. When we moved, I was pretty much under the impression that this would be our last move. When we got here, though, I knew I was wrong. At least it’ll be a beautiful place and house to live in till we do sail to sea!

Serenity. That’s going to be our boat’s name.