Today didn’t start off too great. The sleep curse lives on. I figured as much anyway. At least till we get in the house. After just 4 hours of sleep, I woke up shivering my ass off. It was 57º in here. Ugh! So we warmed it up 10º after it took forever to get the heater to work. Then I had trouble falling back asleep, and when I finally did, I woke back up in no time because the sun rose fast, making it too hot. I hate these 30-degree fluctuations! Especially when you don’t live in a real house. Trying to keep the place comfortable is hard.

Fortunately, I had lots of sleep the night before so I wouldn’t be overly tired when we went to the mailbox, Denny’s, Safeway, the library, and the Work Connection.

I got quite a surprise in the mail as well as something that had me a little riled up, but first, I’m worried about Tom and his overeating. He’s literally eating till he gets sick! Not puking sick, but close enough. He seems to be doing this more and more. He says he’ll stop, but I know all too well how breaking addictions and bad habits can be much easier said than done! I wish I could bring myself to eat less, too. Not because I’m sick, but because I’m doomed to get fatter and fatter little by little if I keep it up. I know I can’t lose weight, but must it be such an ordeal keeping 30 pounds overweight? Most people end up 50 pounds overweight when they get older, so that’s part of why it’s such a struggle; I just never maxed out.

It’s storming again right now, but there’s been no rain so far. Just wind, thunder and lightning. Tom put more sealant where it leaks, but I’m sure it still will anyway, whenever it does rain hard enough, as curses are hard to break.

We have both military and commercial jets that fly over us. After the lady at the bank told us where the base is that the military jets fly out of, Tom said they won’t fly supersonic over us because it takes time to get up to supersonic speed which they couldn’t yet achieve once they’ve reached where we are. I hope he’s right!

The chipmunks here are way braver than the prairie dogs. I’m going to get awesome pictures of them when I can. They’re so cute!

To my surprise, the spider plant is recovering nicely, but the big leaf plant is still in pretty bad shock and isn’t looking like it’s going to make it.

Let me cover today’s stops before I get to what came in the mail.

At the library, I typed/printed a letter to Mary. It was 10¢ a page and I had 2 pages. Not only is their expensive landline connection super-fast, but they also have a super-fast-printing laserjet, too. It’s a good thing it wasn’t regular ink, though. I threw it on the floor in front of my seat in the truck and condensation from the AC dripped onto it. Had it been ink, it would’ve smudged.

I also browsed through a Spanish book and understood almost everything I read!

Tom went to the Work Connection and grabbed about a dozen job listings they had printed up. Things are closed on Monday, the day after July 4th, but by the next day, his black eye ought to be healed. That’s the day he’ll go to a temp agency. If they have nothing available, then he’ll get applications going for some of these clerical/computer data entry jobs.

Pizza Hut is between the library and the Work Connection. When we went to go to the truck, we saw 3 squad cars parked by Pizza Hut just minutes after I’d used their bathroom and I wonder – did they get robbed right after I left? Or maybe it was an employee dispute or a drunk and disorderly customer they couldn’t get rid of themselves.

The shocking thing to come in the mail was a card/letter from Mom. Not surprisingly, there was no money enclosed. It’s nice that she wrote, but it still pisses me off to see her go play all day in daycare, then go home to be pampered and waited on hand and foot while we could use a few of the 100 or so G’s she’s got. And she KNOWS we could use it. It was almost cruel of her to brag about the picture of a flower she made in art class that she sold for $10 when we’re so in need of money, the story of our lives!

This card proves Tom wrong in saying Mom can’t write. It’s shaky but plenty legible enough. In fact, it’s easier to read than Mary’s writing. So, if my gut instinct was right when I insisted she really could write, why would I be wrong in saying she’s my folk’s little informant?

Anyway, she said she got my nice long letter and was glad we both like Oregon, sure there are a few things that take time to get used to, but we’re young and can take it. She hopes jobs are available and says that maybe I could ride with Tom to work so I won’t have to be alone so much (I wish I could be alone for once!) I’m going to just go ahead and tell her I got a job in town simply because it’s what women do these days. Normally I don’t put up fronts or put on shows for others and I am who I am, but because this is someone who has money we so desperately need, I’m willing to say what sounds good and spin a tall tale or two.

Mom said she was shocked that no friends or relatives came to the little art festival they had. Yeah? Well, maybe they’re just sick of her selfishness! I mean, she gives us $500, and sure that’s something, but she has brains enough to know we need thousands, not hundreds.

The funny part was when she said that Miss Perfect had a bad spell with the allergies. There’s no doubt that Arizona’s one of the worst states for that shit! Still, Miss Perfect’s always, always sick, thanks to my spells. To the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb, I was singing, Mary had another spell, ‘nother spell, ‘nother spell…

We had another storm. This one brought lots of rain, though it didn’t last long. Sure enough, the vents just had to leak, but not the one in the bathroom where it wouldn’t matter. The overhead window that he put stuff on didn’t leak. I was surprised.

I’m using my book light to write this so as not to have to use this heap of shit’s battery.

Later…

Again it’s raining. This time it’s just a steady rain without the thunder and lightning. The storms here are somewhat monsoon-like. Not too wild, not too mild. During the two weeks we’ve been here that it didn’t rain, I was wondering just how this place was able to stay so green and lush, but now I see. We really wish we’d created some sort of a makeshift cistern!

The idiots at Incense Galore did fuck up. Yeah, I knew they would. I know 95% of the male population is brain-dead, but again, instinct says they’re trying to drive my business away. Well, last night I noticed they left out Carefree, and today, I discovered that Angel, one of my favorites, isn’t really Angel. They substituted it with something else as they did with the Fruit oil, the stupid idiots!