The palm tree is still alive. Tom said he’d be surprised if it was still alive a year from now because it’s a desert palm and not a tropical palm. The only real tropical palms are coconut palms, but palms like these come from scum places like Saudi Arabia.

While he thinks it was definitely my powers that broke me free of the inhalers and basically cured my asthma (I only have a little tightness on occasion and it’s also been weeks since I’ve needed the nasal spray), he’s not sure yet if his going without a cold for so long is due to my powers, but will be more convinced it is the longer he goes without colds.

Later…

This rat does not listen. I let him out and forgot about him for a while. An hour or two later Tom mentioned the fact that he hadn’t come to see us like he always does. I called him, but unlike most rats we’ve had, he doesn’t come when called. He’s also not very bright. I accidentally left his door unlatched yet he never escaped like Little Buddy and Little Fella, who were definitely our smartest rats so far.

We took a bottle and drilled holes in the bottom of it like the incense smoking bottles, but not surprisingly, the incense kept going out as it would get smothered in ash.

Also, not surprisingly, the patch is worthless. I’m still the same weight and simply way beyond the years that most of us can lose weight, but it’s ok. I’m so used to being heavy now. Besides, the next time I get threatened or actually jumped, the extra weight will go well with the temper, muscles, agility and fitness.

We were $4 shy of our $60 sale goal when our earlier auctions ended. The cage is going to Florida, the Madonna disc is going to Ohio, the Tom Wait albums are going to Indiana, and I forgot where the keyboard’s going. It sold for a tenth of what I paid for it 15 years ago, but 15 years ago keyboards weren’t dirt cheap like they are today.

I decided to auction both Maria and Amelia with start prices of $9.99. They’ll be up sometime soon, along with all kinds of other things. We’re going to have CD lots to get rid of the ones we didn’t sell at the swap meet, only they’ll have no cases. We’ll slip them in a booklet of plastic sleeves.