Today was as hot and dry as Wednesday was, hitting 90º. Right now, though, it’s gorgeous because we’re on the fringe of a storm. There are lots of clouds, lightning and wind, but no rain yet. I’d have killed for these gusts of wind earlier. I’m surprised it’s still hanging on at 79º.

Instead of getting an electric starter for the generator, though we’ll need it anyway for the house on cloudy days, we may get a used car. We need a backup anyway, and he could hook cables to its battery so I could run the AC. It’s been frustrating to have this AC and not be able to run it till he gets home! The weather’s been the opposite of when we first got here where the days were nice and the nights were cold. Now the days are hot and the nights are nice.

I’ve discovered a better way to keep cool. Rather than strip and mist myself with the mister, which only evaporates in minutes, I put on a sundress and drench it. The wetness clings to me and keeps me cooler for longer periods of time.

Bumming it in the wilderness is hard, though I still think it’ll be well worth it in the end.

Tom said he saw two trucks, apparently together, go by while he was outside. Damn, that’s about as much traffic in two days as we had in two months! I got mad at him when I said I hoped they weren’t spies come to shoot me for what we’ve got, and he overreacted and put words in my mouth, saying I never had to come back here again, he’d take me to a motel, etc. I assured him I wouldn’t have come here in the first place if I had any serious worries. It just really bothers me when he reads false things into what I say or misunderstands me, but we worked it out and had a pleasant chat later on.

He was telling me about his strange variety of coworkers. He works with young radicals who aren’t so radical at all compared to the young rads of big cities. There’s a mean-looking chick who’s been in jail lots of times and carries a convicted felon card. For what, though? A souvenir? Of course there are your all-American religious fanatics as well. Lots of stormin’ Mormons here, though they’re tame as hell compared to other groups. They don’t rob our tax dollars, gang-bang it on the streets, and wreak general havoc on people’s day-to-day lives like the freeloaders do.

Oregon water is definitely better than Arizona’s. Both my skin and hair are much softer. That’s reason enough not to return to Arizona!

I let the rat run around at night, but I have to really watch him or else he’ll jump up on Tom’s bed and wake him up, as well as get into shit I don’t want him getting into. He’s gotten to be quite a jumper/climber.

I want to eventually build up a perfume collection. I totally regret giving all those bottles of perfume to Keri at the Crystal Creek apartment complex, but at the time, I thought that that was what was setting off my allergies.

I can’t remember when the last time was that I had to use the snot spray, but I know it’s been months. And soon it’ll be 8 months with no inhaler!