It’s coming up on 10:00 p.m. yet still sounds pretty cityish out there. We got the pounding of bass, horns honking, sirens and voices. Yeah, they’re camped out on their porch from what I can tell, so with no background sounds I can just barely make out a cackle of laughter every now and then. I love the in-between temps when it’s not too cold or too hot, but it sure makes things noisier. When it’s too cold or hot, the attention-getters have their car windows closed, and the dog’s quieter. For now, even though it’s getting late I had to put the music on just now in order to drown out the circus outside. It’s sick, really sick, that one has to live this way unless they either go to a really remote place or can get into a retirement community.

The AC is the cheapest to run and the portable heaters are cheaper than the gas heater, so we may still move my office into the bedroom, even though it doesn’t seem like next door is going to do much more than annoy me with their loud truck motor, driving that boat in and out a few times a day. I think that’s why they have the swings set up in the middle of the yard too; to be able to drive around them easier. Of course, there’s no saying how it’ll be in a month or so over there. Anyway, with me in the bedroom all the time, I wouldn’t run the gas heater as much. Just enough to keep the rat comfortable and to keep us from feeling like we stepped into the North Pole when we go into the kitchen. It’d also get me further away from the dog, though I do still plan on getting the debarker, even though I doubt it’ll reach that far. I think it’s meant for dogs that are just a few feet from you. I could’ve used the damn thing at the duplex if they really do work! What I end up doing for sure will depend on how the finances are in a month or so from now.

Tom’s getting better and getting his strength back. He was so damn dehydrated there for a while that he could hardly pee or sweat. We’ll never know just what invaded his digestive system, but we just hope that why it happened isn’t connected to the program! He got a lot of work done today and may even be able to test it on some races as soon as tomorrow. Assuming there’s no further interference from above or from anywhere else, it’s just a matter of it being a waiting game from here on out, but at least there’s something to wait for and we now have a sense of direction. I planned to get the Cheri mannequin sometime in the late fall, but if we’re making money like crazy then, I’ll just postpone her till we get settled somewhere. Meanwhile, the Barbies, Tonners and Ashton-Drake dolls would be a lot easier to move than any 6-foot mannequin.