Just when I decided to call Ricki if I still hadn’t heard from her come the 1st, she emailed me. She said she could do Bailey’s dress up with no problem when I order her, but isn’t sure about Alexa’s. She says she’ll talk to her seamstress. Meanwhile, because her mother-in-law just had to die now of all times, Haiku will be delayed yet another couple of weeks, but oh well. At least I’ll get her eventually. Then I’ll just have to hope that her father-in-law doesn’t decide to go belly-up the instant I make my next order.

I got up just in time today as not long afterward there were a series of booms. Most were mild except for one.

Got one number today. It’s good that I’m getting something nearly every day, but I’d like to get a lot more than just one or two numbers!

We lit another stick and got the same results – it burned too fast and smelled too smoky. So this prompted us to try another experiment. What we did was we took the black pearl, which we haven’t used yet, and put some into one of their 2x12 zip-top bags and threw 5 sticks in it to soak overnight. Some sites even recommend a 24-hour soak.

Later…

Now we’re burning a stick of White Shoulders to see how long it burns, but it doesn’t smell anything like White Shoulders. It smells more like joy which is a flowery scent. At least it smells of something other than smoke and isn’t burning too fast. When it’s done I’m going to try one of my double-scented sticks.

We looked at more land for sale on eBay and discussed the pros and cons of being someplace as far from a city as we are now or even farther, and as I told him, no place is perfect. There are always going to be pros and cons wherever we go. Besides, look at my track record. There’s been a problem of one kind or another in all the places I’ve lived, so we just have to go for the place that seems like it’ll have fewer problems. You know, like the difference between trash-dumping neighbors hundreds of feet away, sprinkled with dogs running rampant and sonic booms, versus bass-banging, ball-thumping freeloaders a few feet away, sprinkled with a chorus of barking dogs. So no matter where we go, there’ll always be something.

I’m still hoping to head north. I want the privacy and sound-muffling of trees, and I want to be where there are fewer freeloaders.

At least we know that if worse came to ultimate worst, we could always grab an acre of land for about $500 and pitch a tent on it, and believe me, this is exactly what we’d do before we returned to the city!

What’s really scary is how a person can simply seize our house from us, which in a sense, is exactly what the cock that fired Tom is doing. It’s as scary as knowing a person can don a black robe and decide the fate of a perfect stranger. How is it that this one here can have so much power over what happens to us, while this one there can have so much influence in other areas of our lives? And people we barely know, too. I hate having so much of our lives dictated, molded and shaped by others! Others whose intentions aren’t usually good. It’s just really very unnerving to know that others can do that to us so easily and impact our lives in such horrible ways. Just how do others get such a hold on us even at our ages, while we ourselves could never affect anyone’s life a fraction of the degree they’ve affected ours even if we tried our damnedest? I’ve wished the cock that fired him the biggest, most fatal heart attack ever, and at least I know I can fight back by way of spells. That’s somewhat comforting to know, so I guess I can’t say we’re completely defenseless. I mean, we can’t necessarily stop others from doing whatever they’re going to do to us, but this black-nailed witch can make them deathly ill for it or worse!

Later…

My double-scented sticks aren’t ready yet. Just like with the White Shoulders we tried yesterday, it’s barely smoking, and what little smoke there is, smells of just that and not of butter rum. I think we’re just going to have to soak them longer, in which case double-scented sticks would be impossible. Whatever it is we’re doing wrong, I hope we figure it out! If not, we could always buy dipped wholesale incense. Their 100-packs are $2.25, and if we sold 10 for a buck, that’d still be a good profit.

Later…

We talked about it some more and decided that it may be easier and better if I got the incense that I intend to use for myself ready-dipped. That way I’ll know it’s going to smell exactly like theirs and we won’t have to worry about having to keep too many dipped sticks inventoried. If we do get any orders, they’re going to want theirs fresh too, and not to be told they have to wait a couple of weeks, so we’ll make theirs ourselves.