Here’s the latest house update, and believe me, it’s a tremendous relief! Huey came by today just after noon. Tom got me up at 11:30 with coffee which was sweet of him. I had crashed at 4:00, so I had had enough sleep.

Anyway, Huey came and stank the place up (he smokes and I could smell it on him) and we ended up signing a contract to agree to sell to him. We’ll be getting a little over 5 G’s on May 7th. Again he expressed his sympathies about the bank’s fucking us over, saying he had hoped to get us at least 15 G’s, but we got what we figured we’d get. He’s going to let us stay here for free till June 12th and he said to let him know if anything comes up and we need more time, but we think we can make the deadline without a problem. In fact, we just may clear out a few days earlier. He picked the 12th because that’s his birthday. All we have to do is leave the appliances, keep the house in the same condition, and pay the utilities. We’re not going to stiff APS in the end because that could create hassles for Huey which wouldn’t be fair. I’m not even going to put a spell on the place. I want to move and am ready to move so I see no need to curse it. It’ll be cursed enough by whatever haunts this land.

As we figured they would, the bank’s claiming we owe $102,000 when we know it’s really about $95,000. As Tom told Huey, he actually witnessed them create false documents out of thin air for all kinds of reasons during the 8 years he worked there. That’s okay, though. We have enough money to move on and will see to it that from now on we’re never again in a position where people can screw us this bad. The key is to make sure no one has a hold on anything we have. From now on we’ll buy everything outright. If we get a new vehicle, we’ll pay cash for it. If we ever have enough money for a boat, we’ll buy that in cash too, though I don’t expect we’ll ever be that rich.

One thing I can say for sure is that if someone told us the day we moved in that we wouldn’t even be here for 5 years, I wouldn’t know what to think. Had they told us that after the freeloaders popped back into our lives, I’d have thought for sure it would be because they’d end up running us out. At least the stress I’ve gone through on account of all this has been nothing compared to the stress I’ve had to endure in the past. I mean nothing. I think that as long as I don’t ever want sex or a kid again, or get thrown in jail, nothing can be that bad.

We were talking about how valuable this land will be in the future and how I had wondered if something up there was having this happen now to stiff us out of a lot of money in the future, but since we’re talking 25 years from now when Tom will be in his 70s, we’re really not losing much. In other words, why stay here and suffer just to get a little money at the end of our lives when we could have more money in the meantime without the hold on us?

Soon the surveyor’s going to come out and stake off the 5 lots. It’ll be interesting to see what this house will end up on. Not much compared to what it’s on now! They’ll also take pictures of the inside of the house. Hey, a living room with giant rats! That ought to entice buyers everywhere. Also, it’s too bad I don’t have a realistic replica of a rattlesnake for my big Chris doll to sit on the couch and hold. Wouldn’t the people just love that – seeing what would look like a real little girl with a big smile on her face as she holds her pet snake! Could’ve set her or Jade up to look like they were strangling Lady, my lifelike stuffed dog.

Almost slipped again when Tom said that the surveyors needed to watch for snakes and let him in on the fact that we have a few rattlers that like to nestle right by the door. Rattlers that were not only brave to begin with, but that get braver each year as they get to know us better and therefore not shake their rattles to warn us of their presence. This is so true, too. They probably wouldn’t strike us if we passed right by them, not that it’s a chance we’d take, so we have to really watch for them because they’re not afraid of us. They’re plenty used to us and we know it’s the same ones each year. Even the king snakes stopped slithering off at lightning speed when they see us.

Poor prairie doggies and bunnies. They’re going to miss me and this space for sure!

Some dog we’ve never seen before has been hanging around the shacks a lot. I’m sure it belongs to someone in one of the new houses.

We could practically read each other’s thoughts when Huey would mention different things. When we were talking about how fucked up some of these banks are, he told us that they asked to see that Mexican’s passport when he went to cash a check (he was born and raised here), then got into a whole spiel about how mean everyone is to blacks and Mexicans, and I was like, will you shut up! I’ve heard enough of the damn sob stories and how they’re such poor, poor abused souls. What about us and the abuse we get from them?!

Same with when he was trying to get this pig to arrest this guy who stole from him that had a felony warrant out on him. The pig said it wasn’t his job to arrest him and that it was the detective’s. I almost came out and said, “Must not have been Jewish.”

He mentioned having master keys to Redmans and Cavcos, but no Palm Harbors. Then he said he wouldn’t enter anyway without someone being here and I almost said, “Well, I should hope not if the one entering doesn’t want to be shitting teeth for a week or two.”

Anyway, I’m glad we never did get a dog or a mannequin in this house, though I probably will get the mannequin in the late summer or early fall. It’s also good that we’re not moving with mice. Not just because they stink, but because that’d be rather torturous for them. They hate traveling, but rats don’t mind.

I’m excited and a bit overwhelmed at the same time. We’ve got a lot to do in the upcoming weeks. I kind of wish I could snap my fingers and have it be a few weeks from now. Even a few months.

I told Mary not to send any mail after June 1st if she’s worried about it sitting around and then getting lost in the transition.

When Tom calls Miss Perfect in a day or so, he’s going to say we’re only getting a little over 2 Gs in hopes of encouraging them to buy the RV. He doesn’t want to call them back too soon after last speaking to them because he wants them to have time to sit and stew about it. Oh, I can imagine the stewing they must’ve done last night! We wish we could’ve been flies on the wall for damn sure.