Not surprisingly, they’re having days in the 90s down in Arizona. The 5-cast shows mostly 80s for Maricopa and 70s for Sacramento.

We’re going to the thrift store soon. Meanwhile, I asked Bob if blank incense sticks go bad in time because I noticed lately that they’ve been leaving a smoky smell behind. It’s almost as if someone were smoking a cigarette along with burning the incense.

I got a puzzle at the thrift store yesterday. I hope to do it before the newcomers arrive to steal my peace and concentration.

Someone came by today to pick up some old junk Bev had in her garage, but they gave up and left after she failed to show up. I guess they were volunteers at a used appliance store or something.

She and Romeo were here yesterday for most of the day. I still can’t imagine what they were doing. Perhaps painting, though I’d think that that would be the owner’s job. And is she really paid up till the 1st, or is she gone for good now? No one’s been by yet today. The blinds, bench and wind chimes are still there, but it looks like she may’ve taken the drapes down from inside. I went to check the mail yesterday and saw a vacuum sitting in the middle of her otherwise seemingly empty living room.

It’s been wonderful not having her live there over the weekend in case she had any animals over, though I just hope to hell she hasn’t gone to leave us with something much worse! Since we’re probably not going to make it out of here till July, rather than June, that leaves us with two months of having to deal with whatever comes in there next.

Next door hung out back for hours and went in and out like crazy on Friday, but yesterday’s rain put a damper on that. It’s still too early for much activity to start up over there. Tom saw one guy barbecuing on Friday, but still no knife-tossing.

After the thrift store yesterday, we went to K-Mart and I got a few cheap packs of incense, and a trial-size can of perfume, and he got a phone card but hasn’t been able to activate it yet.

Then we went to a used bookstore. They took most of my books and I picked up 5 new ones for myself.

We also went to an indoor flea market to see if they had any bikes or washers. We didn’t find anything of interest there, though we ended up chatting with a woman who had several PG dolls and had even worse experiences with them. We simply had to fight for the dolls and get our money back on the last one I tried to get that they ran out of, but at least in the end, we did get the dolls and money. This woman, though, said she lost money to them. They sent a doll minus its accessories and were told she had to send the doll back before she could get them. So she sent the doll back, but instead of sending back the doll with its accessories, they kept the doll and claimed they never got it. Does PG want to lose customers?

Our last stop was at Burger King. I can’t believe I haven’t gained any weight with all I’ve been eating! That brings us to our current plan. Giving notice on May 1st would be too risky. We may not come up with the money in time, though finding a place won’t be an issue. There are always places available. We agreed, though, that if we limit ourselves to $40 a week in groceries, which should be easy enough to do and worth the hunger, we can give our notice in June and get out of here in July. I don’t like the idea of spending 75 more days here, but we have no choice. Tom assures me that we won’t get trapped in here past July. Let’s hope not!

I got a letter from Mary yesterday saying she got my book, it looks great so far, and she’s honored to read it.

She says the officers are cool there, but she doesn’t write about them because they read her letters. I wonder why they read her letters. They must read mine too, not that I care.

She said she was sorry our computers were having problems and then wrote a prayer of protection. Gee, that’ll help us!

I don’t know why she returned the Oregon pictures I sent her, but oh well. I’ll just split them between Bob and Paula.

Later…

The Salvation Army, and a used appliance store we just drove to, are closed. I still can’t understand why any business would want to be closed on a Sunday when most people aren’t working. Before we went, I told Tom I didn’t vibe a washer this weekend, but the good news is that I vibe tomorrow being the last time he’ll have to play Laundromat at least until we’re out of this damn state.

Today was the first day that Bev didn’t show up at all. Now I’m starting to think she’ll be turning in her keys tomorrow, which could put the newcomers here before the 1st. Ugh!

Bob emailed me back saying that the blanks won’t go bad as long as they don’t get wet, but if they do, lay them out in the sun to dry. Also, he can get the original Angel, but it’d cost 4 times more, and although he hates Patchouli, it’s his number one seller.