Tom had to remove my optical mouse and replace it with a roller-ball one. It too, has a scroller, but it’s not working. That’s it, God, mess with our computer stuff since we don’t have a well to fix.

The 11th St. gas house, as we’ve been calling it, is still available as I vibed it would be. I also vibe that that’s where we’ll end up. The only thing I don’t like at all is the fact that next door’s driveway runs right alongside the bedrooms which means the car doors are going to sound like gunshots in those rooms. So I may sleep in the living room and hope that the people with the huge yard next to it don’t go getting a dog if they don’t already have one. All I know is that if we move in there and they’re quiet, they’ll move and be replaced with trouble. That’s how it always works for us. Each turnover gets progressively worse. The only thing that could make the place a real nightmare would be if cars with loud stereos came and went, but we have to go somewhere to escape the killer electric bills in the winter, and we can’t live in peace anyway. If we got this house, heated by gas and so close to work, we’d save quite a bit of money.

I was kind of hoping we wouldn’t have to sign a lease because we’ve been with this company for coming up on 10 months, and so we don’t have to be trapped there if it’s bad (although, if it’s like Phoenix, I’m leaving, lease or not), but I think they’ll make us sign a 1-year lease. We can’t leave the state before a year’s up anyway, though. My vibes say we’ll leave in November of ’06.

Tom’s got it figured that right now, people think gas prices will drop soon. But because he knows they won’t, people in rural Sacramento will be putting their places on the market when they realize they won’t drop right around the time we go hunting for a place, and they’ll be really cheap. I can’t imagine anything being so kind as to line anything up in our favor like that, but we’ll see. Of course, if we ever did go rural again, we’d have to convert to a hydrogen vehicle. We could never afford the gas. Fortunately for us, most people wouldn’t have brains enough to do their own converting like we would. I still don’t think we will, though. I think we were meant to be in the city and so that’s where we’ll stay, listening to the neighbors’ dogs, kids, car doors, car stereos, basketball games, and whatever else they can sic on us.

Meanwhile, it’s not even mid-August and it’s already cooling down. I was actually cold on our 7 AM walk this morning.

I called Paula and again I got her machine, so I left a message.

Now here’s the weird news. The rude bitch next door returned the puzzle. But what’s weird about it is that we walked out to find it lying on the part of the sidewalk that meets the driveway. Why would she put it there and not on the steps? And why would she return it? I never said I wanted it back. Maybe she just doesn’t want any puzzle in her place that belonged to someone who blasts her out, but if she’d quit ignoring the dog when she had company, maybe I wouldn’t be so quick to do so. She’s still not leaving it out for long periods of time, and she goes and gets it when it goes off when she’s alone, but she still sometimes ignores it when she’s got company. This is when she gets based, though I still find it hard to believe she can hear it over that TV as loud as she plays it. On the other hand, if she were suddenly disgusted by the puzzle because it was me who gave it to her, why not just throw it out? She probably felt that returning it was her way of saying, “I don’t want your shit in my place.” She probably walked across her yard, and right as she got to the start of ours, she tossed the thing over. On the other hand, nuts like this are hard to figure, and I don’t care anyway. Three weeks or less and she’s just a memory. Both Batty Bev and Fat Pat.

As we approached August, the death vibes I had for Blondie faded, fortunately. I’ve been doing spells on him like crazy even so, and so far he seems like a healthy little guy.

Later…

Well, I take that back. She is leaving it out. It’s just that instead of leaving it out in the mornings, now that it’s cooler, she’s leaving it out later. She threw it out at 11:00 and I’m sure it’ll be there for most of the day. I’m also sure she’ll water today because she didn’t yesterday.

Oh wow, it looks like she may’ve just pulled the dog in. But will the fucking thing let me sleep today? I’ll be crashing in the late afternoon which is when it’s more likely to be out there.