Tom didn’t get the pictures. Obviously, he was either too busy or there were too many people around. He was going to take pictures of a particular plant in the building that’s just like mine, only bigger. I wanted to see what it looks like, but I’ll just wait and see when our own grows.

A few evenings ago it rained hard for 5 minutes, then sprinkled the next evening. I was surprised as it’s a rather unusual time of year for rain.

I haven’t been working on my story, but I’ve been catching little typos and discrepancies that I’ve been fixing.

Last night I heard some really weird sounds coming from under the house as I sat in my office. My first guess is that it was either caused by a snake or a rodent, but I don’t know cuz it seemed like something bigger than that would’ve had to make the sounds, but nothing bigger could be under there. I haven’t seen any holes leading under the house big enough for something like a rabbit and it certainly couldn’t have been a person messing around under there. That’d be a dangerous thing to do out here in the dark at this time of year what with all the snakes and scorpions we’ve got here, and they’d have to rip the skirting off to get under there, something I would’ve definitely had to have heard.

I changed my mind and decided not to get the Leptoprin for a few reasons. For one, Tom doesn’t want me taking it since it is for the significantly overweight. Secondly, I don’t want to spend money on something like that at this time. Lastly, I said I was going to accept myself as I am and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Being chunky won’t kill me, and if I ever do want to lose more weight someday, I’ll probably do it by not eating every other day. I won’t starve more than one day in a row, though, or else my body will think it’s starving and will start eating my muscle.

The last bomb treatment we did in here was worthless. I don’t know if it’s because we used 3 bombs rather than 4, but that probably is the case. I’ve been seeing spiders every day. Fortunately, though, they’re fairly small. We probably won’t bomb till around our anniversary when we go to Red Lobster. If they were big, we’d bomb as soon as we could.

Mom gave Tom her famous $20 bill during his last visit which sort of surprised me. I added half of it to my allowance which is now up to $20 (I’ll be ordering a few mugs by our anniversary) and am planning on getting an assembled fairy with my membership discount with half of our anniversary money which will be $25.

Tom said I must be slipping because Mary seemed healthy enough. Well, just as soon as she pisses me off again with either her big mouth or her camera, she won’t be.

Later...

I went out and looked and there is a hole by the master bath big enough for a rabbit to squeeze through, which is what Tom and I both think is what made the racket. He’s heard it too, and rabbits are big enough to make such noise and they’re also nocturnal. How cool it’d be to have an X-ray machine that’d allow us to see what was under all parts of the house!

The car’s on the fritz, as usual, so Tom stopped at Wal-Mart for a part he needed and grabbed a plant watering can. It’s a pretty one with pink flowers with a gold handle and spout.

We’re now using the little tape recorder I got for messages to each other that we don’t feel like writing down on the board. I told him I still might use the thing to leave notes to myself, so I’ll leave those in Spanish so he won’t be confused, thinking I’m talking to him when I’m really talking to myself.

Tom should be sending me a text message anytime now to tell me if I got any mail. I hope the only reason I haven’t heard much from Mary lately is because of money shortages or all the commotion around her and not because my being a potentially dangerous kind of psychic has scared her. I know some people get spooked by those who can predict things, heal people or make them sick, but I can’t help my abilities any more than I can help my height. It simply is what it is, but I try to use it within reason. Meaning, I’m not going to strike every human being in the world sick just because I can. If no one’s done me any harm, then there’s no reason for me to be harming them. Anyway, I’m sure she knows better and that’s not it. I’m sure she’s just too stressed or waiting on commissary money. That’s why she hasn’t sent stamps yet. And who knows? Perhaps she thinks my abilities are cool.

I think I accidentally forgot to replace a racial slur in one of her letters too, which I usually change, not because she couldn’t handle it, but because we’re living in such sensitive times and you never know how the people checking the mail might react. Then again, the East is much different than the West. Meagan and her girlfriend are supposedly moving to Massachusetts cuz they’re sick of how Arizona treats gays. They have shit for rights out here. Like I said, the West isn’t very kind to gays and Jews, but it’s a great place to be of color. Except for Texas. Texas has no place in its heart for naughty welfare bums.

I’m going to have so many unused minutes on my phone come July 15th, that I might give the number to Paula after all so she can call me with her man/law troubles. I mean, I might as well use what I pay for. First, though, I want to see if her calling the old number just to get a disconnection message prompts her to write a letter for real.

Now for the biggest news of the day. There’s a new house across from next door! It looks identical to the one further out that came in a few months ago. It looks to be a 3-bedroom. I’m psyched about the value it adds to our place, but again, the more people, the more potential for trouble and noise. They’re bound to be white as it’s a brand new house so that cuts the potential for music, but I am a little leery of their dog. Once they move in and deposit it in front, which is facing us, it could get a little noisy at 450’ away. Without woods, you gotta get closer to 1000’ to lessen dog barking, but there’s a good chance that I may hear it and their kids even over the louder computer fans we now have, and I should definitely hear them outside, just like I could if the renter’s kids and dogs were making a ruckus if I were out there. So it’s one of those things I have mixed feelings about. The more people, the more money, but the more people, the more dogs and music I have to listen to. However, there are only so many houses that can be noisy to us as opposed to in the city where you’re closer to so many more houses what with the way they’re packed in so tightly. You can’t put more than one house per acre out here whereas in the city the average spacing is something like 4 or 5 houses per acre. We do suspect, however, that there are more houses coming on that lot because of the way this house has been placed so close to the edge of the property sort of between us and next door, and because Tom said he saw other stakes in the ground over there. I doubt they broke it up into 1-acre parcels, though. My guess is that there’ll be 2-4 houses in the end. As for privacy, they don’t steal much. Only if we were out by the north side of the house would we see them well. From the living room window and my office window, I can only see the front door and one living room window. From Tom’s office, you can see a bedroom window, and from his bedroom, you can’t see it at all. I thought they’d be in plain view where we park our car and trucks, but nope. Can’t see them at all, thanks to our giant mesquite tree. It’s the one that ultimately ends up in front of us that will eat our east-side privacy. Even so, I am so not ready to listen to their dog in here which I know damn well I’m going to be forced to do so they better put some value on us! At least we know what to do if anyone turns out to be a significant problem. We’ll either put up with it or get out. We sure as hell won’t be writing city letters or complaining directly to them. I’m not going to jail for anyone ever again. Arizonans cannot handle complaints. You could even get shot for it out here like that guy did that bitched to this other guy because his cattle were traipsing through his land regularly. He not only shot him, but he torched his house as well.

In my next letter to Mary, I’ll be asking how badly bleaching her hair damaged it. We’re going to be dying our hair during the July 4th weekend. Tom’s going to be dying his blue and he’ll want to dye it to a normal color when he goes back to work. I’m either going to dye mine purple or blue or maybe go with a dark brown. If the bleach is going to fry the hell out of it, then I’ll go with the more normal color. If I kept my hair the same length, it wouldn’t matter. Then again, if I did end up frying it, it wouldn’t kill me to cut it to the middle of my back what with how fast it grows. My hair would now be to the crease between my ass and legs if I hadn’t trimmed any of it since I left jail.