For the millionth time, why can’t we get neighbors like us? Why do they all have to have some kind of annoying flaw(s)? Is anybody else as quiet as we are??? Next door has taken to banging. They fucking woke me up a couple of hours earlier than I planned on getting up, and Tom heard it while I was listening to music. He said he’s not positive it came from them, but the question is, is this going to become a regular habit? If it’s what I think it is, they’re going to drive me crazy. Crazy enough to swap rooms with Tom. I’m thinking that for some reason they may’ve gotten in the habit of locking their doors and are now knocking when they want to be let in. Either that or someone who lives nearby started visiting them by going into their backyard and knocking on their door. Tom thinks someone was hammering. Other than this banging thing they’ve started, I haven’t heard from them till now, their prime time. They’re out gabbing in the back, but I can’t hear them with the fan on. I’m just so glad they’re not as loud as blacks! Still, there’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to bass them out but knowing I can’t cuz we got Patty living with us. Besides, this isn’t Arizona where they’d simply go inside if they found it annoying. They’d run and complain to Pam.

Meanwhile, I’ve only heard the dog barking by the front door when she goes out to get something from her van or to water the yard. She just set up a sprinkler. First she did the back and now she’s working on the front. I’m sure I’ll hear the dog barking in back by Sunday. I never get to go more than a few days without hearing it, and she’s practically taken up residence in the backyard. And I thought Bev was out there a lot! What I wonder, though, is this: Has the dog barked while I was asleep and managed to sleep through it? Or has it just not happened to bark while I’ve been asleep?

I still don’t know why they need to see each other 50 times a day. What daughter would want to see her mother that often? Most would never want to live this close to their mothers. Especially when they’re young. If anything, they can’t wait to get out and on their own, away from their mothers. Like I said, God always has to make sure whoever’s closest to us does something annoying.

I wonder if the Sacramento people are like Arizonans who consider complaining a mortal sin, or if they’re like Oregon and MA where they’re quick to do so? If I had to choose, I’d hope they’d be like here because I’d like to be able to speak out about something that annoyed me without the risk of being jailed or killed for it, even if it meant I was more likely to be complained on for blasting my music.

I just hope rural Sacramento will at least be comparable to Maricopa, minus the sonic booms and hunters. That means we’ll get music and barking, but the barking won’t be loud like it was in Phoenix. I hope not, anyway. God knows how many people will come knocking on the door there too, but oh well. Hopefully, we’ll have a doorbell because then they’ll just ring that. If there’s no doorbell, though, they’ll knock on the door. I’ll also make sure the bells aren’t right outside wherever I sleep. Maybe, just maybe, we can fence at least the area around the house, but I won’t count on it. We couldn’t fence around Maricopa or on the mountain, but I’m glad we didn’t! It would’ve been such a waste and we lost enough money as it was.

I love it around here once we hit 10 PM. At that time Patty’s gone to bed and next door’s unlikely to be hanging out or going back and forth, so it’s nice and peaceful.

We have to remember to check the military base locations when we go to buy a place, and the hunting areas, too.

I hope they don’t have the your-land-is-my-land attitude that Arizona had. I didn’t think it was right for people to drive over other people’s land or to allow their animals to roam through it. They did this in Phoenix, too. I remember the Frisbee game Tom had to break up in our driveway, as well as the father who decided our driveway was a great place to teach his daughter to ride a bike. Oh, the stories we’ll have for years to tell others about Arizona!

They’re saying that by Monday we could be in for a high of only 52º and a low of 32º! I can’t wait to be back in a warm climate! After living in the desert for so many years, even 70º seems cold.