When I got up at 1:00, I saw that Roto-Rooter was here snaking away at the pipes. Apparently, there was a hole in Kim’s pipe under her toilet, so the entire underside of her place is full of shit. Also, there was a clog where the two houses’ pipes meet up with the main big pipe that runs under the street. They also tried using a steamy hot high-pressure water hose to no avail. Tom said it was probably something that had taken many years to build up, and asked me to try to put a spell on it. So I concentrated real hard and next thing I know I was down in the pipe. Not literally, of course, but in my vision. I could see calcium build-up and all kinds of slimy scum which I concentrated on dissolving. Next thing we know, one of the guys goes running down the street. He then opened a manhole to see if the water was flowing smoothly and after 6 hours of working on the thing, it was! As I told Tom, I never would’ve thought to put a spell on such a thing. That’s when he told me that while he doesn’t think I could control things, he thinks I could at least influence them, and says I oughta try to influence more things in general. You may not be able to stop the stereos from booming by, he told me, but I think you could influence them so they’re not as bad, and even things like what’s on sale at the grocery store.

God knows I wish I could influence that fucking dog back there. Half the time I can’t do anything in the kitchen! I can’t cook in there, I can’t eat in there, I can’t do shit! I also have to have music or something going in the other rooms to drown it out of there too, though the kitchen’s certainly the worst room. I want to turn off my music now so I can sit and listen to my new wind chimes out front, but I can’t even do that. It’s ridiculous! Dogs have been a problem ever since I moved out west, and I wouldn’t put it past them to treat the case of a murdered dog the same as a murdered person. Still, I wish someone would kill it! Maybe then people wouldn’t be so quick to toss their dogs outside and forget about them.

I wish I could influence the bigger sweeps as well. It’s great that I just hit my 100th win, but it’s not doing anything to help get us out of here.

All the chimes are lovely except for one of the indoor ones. The one with the fountain is a complete bust. The water trickles along the chimes so gently that it doesn’t make them clank against one another, and they’re so soft anyway. The sound/vibration activator isn’t very sensitive either, and you have to practically beat on it to get the water flowing. We agreed it wouldn’t be worth returning, though, because after they took a 20% restocking fee and you deduct the postage it’d take to return it, we’d only be getting back about $8. If we can’t come up with some clever idea to improvise it, then I think it’d be a good tag sale item. The indoor one, which I’ve got on my desk, is dull-looking compared to my colorful outdoor ones, but it doesn’t take much to set it off. It chimes for 25 seconds and works by way of magnetic repellants. It sounds really pretty, too. If I cough, sneeze, talk loudly, blow bubbles with my gum, or set a cup down on the table, off it goes. It’s way cool.

Sure enough, my appetite’s increased since stopping the Claritin, I’m up two pounds, eating like a pig, and have a runnier nose. Maybe I’ll start it back up tomorrow. I was going to wait till Friday when it had been a week, but I’ll be up 5 pounds by then!