We were out for a good 6 hours today. Before we left, we were overwhelmed by the smell of gas. Tom got out, found there was a leak in the hose, then ran to turn the motor off before it caught fire. I swear we can’t even go a week without vehicle trouble! We are so, so cursed in that department. Fortunately, he was able to fix it.

Our first stop was at the storage place to drop off a few more things we won’t be needing anytime soon.

Our second stop was at the mail place. Sure enough, there was nothing for me. He got quite a surprise, though. A check for $374 from BOA. We’re not even sure what it’s for. Something to do with something we didn’t need to pay for. The catch is, though, the fuckers wrote out a third-party check, making it a bitch to cash. We went to a BOA branch, but they wouldn’t cash it without certain forms of ID which he didn’t have. So he used their service phone to see if he could find out why they’d send him a check he couldn’t cash, other than to play with him, and sure enough, they hung up on him as soon as he gave his name. That’s BOA’s favorite thing to do; hang up when the call pertains to Tom S. So after he ran up their phone bill a bit and I stuck my gum under their counter, we decided to contact the credit union down in Arizona about mailing it to them to cash. We could cash it at a check-cashing place, but they’d want a huge chunk of it just to do it.

After dealing with those assholes, we went to a place similar to Home Depot to compare lumber prices. They had these really cool wind chimes I’m going to get some time that are made of wood rather than metal.

We went to a Chinese/American restaurant that was excellent. He even tried their eggflower soup and admitted it was good. His cheeseburger and fries were cooked to perfection. My pork fried rice was so-so, but the egg foo young was the best ever. I look forward to getting some fries in the future for myself, along with glazed chicken and crab rangoons.

I hung out at the library for an hour while he did job research right around the corner at The Work Connection. Except for a lonely old man who wouldn’t shut up at times, it was nice to be able to browse the web, even though I couldn’t download anything.

When I checked my email, I was delighted to find a shipping notification from the incense people saying it was shipped today. That’d put it here Monday which can’t come fast enough! You know how I crave my smells as much as most crave sweets. I really thought they either forgot all about me or that it went to someone else.

Hand-dipped incense sure does dry fast in an RV! I’m already enjoying the Chocolate, Brown Sugar, Vanilla Musk and Watermelon I dipped.

Monday I’ll have Black Henry, Blueberry, Bump & Grind, Butter Rum, Carefree, Carnation, Chamomile, Angel, Egyptian Gods, First Kiss, Forbidden Fruit, Gingerbread, Happy, Hollyberry, Hugo Boss, HP Guiltier, Indian Fruit, Oriental Nights, Magnolia, Patchouli Rose, Pleasure, Pear, Rose Geranium, Sexy, Somali Rose, English Rose, Unforgettable & Vanilla.

Tom didn’t apply for a job today but found half a dozen or so promising ones. The only thing he won’t do, besides work for BOA, is truck driving. He doesn’t dig driving and he sure as hell hated driving the RV, which we’re moving tomorrow, closer to the construction site.

We’re not completely sure what we’re going to build; a 2-story dome or two 1-story domes that are connected. Maybe we’ll start with something small to get moved in faster, then expand later. As it is we agreed to compromise on the fence. Instead of a complete 5-strand fence, we’re just going to do a 3-strand fence in areas people could drive in through. Later we’ll add more strands or a grid for the inevitable dogs and kids that’ll end up with us.

We saw someone drive by for the first time since we came here nearly two weeks ago. It was a guy with a big dog that he let out to roam around loose while he checked out some land. He never exited his truck, though it was obvious he was looking at land, then backed up to where the dog was, which started to come onto our land. Then he turned around and left.

The people a few lots down are gone, too. Maybe they really were just camping.

Because we don’t plan to go out tomorrow, we stopped at the grocery store after stopping at DQ for blizzards. Since I ate so much today I only got a bag of chips and some freshly picked raspberries.

I also finally managed to find some postcards. I got 6 different scenes I’ll be sending both Mary and Mom one by one. After I mail Mary a card and a letter on Monday, that’s it till I hear from her. I want to make sure she’s gotten the cards and letters I’ve sent so far and my book before I go sending more.

Tom finished College Romance which he agrees is better than Imprisoned Love. Only this idiot here got the last 6 pages out of order! Hope I didn’t do that with Mary’s copy, though I’d think she’d have told me if I had.

My skin’s been a bit less dry here and my lungs are a lot less tight.