Not much going on other than dealing with the usual city noise. Most of it is street noise. I get woken up almost every day by car stereos. They really make life hard. The question is, how are we going to dodge them till we can maybe get into a retirement community in a couple of decades?

Well, this is nothing compared to what’s coming. Today they officially put a sign out and the house next door is on the market. So the people I saw were the sellers and not the buyers. Either way, this so, so totally sucks! It’s going to be deafening with the barking and screaming right outside the window. Why must they always put big houses next to little houses? This way singles and couples can’t live in peace. I don’t see how the parents and dog owners themselves can stand the racket that kids and dogs make. One of the reasons I have no kids or dogs is that I don’t want to listen to them, much less have something around for us to disagree on so much of the time. So why must I listen to everyone else’s instead? It’s so frustrating watching this happen to us everywhere we go! I don’t want kids and dogs and I don’t want other people’s kids and dogs either! Yet they follow us everywhere we go as if the stereos aren’t enough to have to deal with.

Tom thinks that the soonest it could be occupied would be in 6 weeks, with 3-6 months being the longest.

We’re here now. Therefore it’ll go really fast. By November the Brady bunch and their dogs will have arrived, and as is always the case, I’ll be the one to have to deal with it. This appears to be a 4-bedroom house so I’m sure there’ll be more than just one kid over there. With my shit luck, there’ll be 4. I seem to have been cursed with them in fours a lot. They just don’t discipline them these days, you know? That seemed to have stopped in the 80s. And when I say “discipline” I don’t mean beat the shit out of them, but by God, can’t they at least teach them some simple manners and courtesy? And what is it with kids and screaming these days? They seem to love to just stand there and scream at the top of their lungs. I was a kid once myself yet I don’t get that. That was just never anything I remember finding any fun in, not that Dureen would’ve allowed me to get away with it. I wouldn’t mind them playing right outside the window like they’re going to once they move in next door, but only if they could do it in a civilized manner. It’s when they have to add the screaming to all their games that really gets old. Like I said, how can it not drive the parents batty? And all the barking, too? Most people out west don’t like to take their dogs indoors, though they do tend to take them in more up here where it’s colder than down in Arizona, so maybe I’ll get some peace at least some of the time. If we’re here next summer, though, then the dog will be left out for most of the day like the rude bitch did with her dog at the duplex.

If we were looking to buy a house here that house would be so ideal for being in the city. There’s nothing close to it. The canal wraps around one side then veers to the front, then there’s the street on the other side, and us in back. And we’re about 65’ away from the wall of their house. Only their fence comes right up to within a few feet of the wall of our house. It’d just be so ideal because dogs aren’t allowed here in this house, so all we’d hear was anything coming from across the street or across the canal. It’s a two-story house, so we could use the upstairs for storage if we wanted to.

I got a letter from Mary. She said they not only read their outgoing mail, but they also read incoming mail, too. The officers must hate reading mine then because they’re usually so long!

She also says she’s happy to hear we’re doing better (till they move in next door).

Tom heard from Meagan because she needed him as a reference as he’ll no doubt need her when we get to Sacramento. She got laid off from her teaching job but is reapplying for a new position. She’s gotta be like 6 months pregnant by now so I don’t know how easy that’ll be for her. It’s like with the age thing; it’s very easy to get away with and hard to prove. Bosses have always been turned off by pregnant women, and she’s not just a pregnant woman, she’s a pregnant lesbian. At least she has her partner and a family that gives a shit about her in the meantime.

I heard next door leave about an hour ago. All I heard was one car door. When she just returned, however, there were 3 doors in rapid succession. How many people has she got staying with her? At least I can’t hear, feel or see them! I just hope she–they–whatever, let me sleep at night when my schedule pushes further around. I’ve got the pounding of the bass waking me up as it is, along with occasional sirens. I don’t need the slamming of her doors to add to it. She seems to be out most of the day, but she comes and goes a couple of times late at night. She left at midnight last night and didn’t return for two hours. Still, she’s been heaven compared to Bev, Patty and what we’re in for on the other side.

Speaking of schedules, I’ve been accidentally holding the same one since our second day here, even if it’s the wrong one. I’ve been crashing before dawn and rising between 1 and 2 PM.