Another day of being teased and losing sleep to the damn sweeps I’m once again considering dropping. Last night UPS left a message saying they were making a delivery today that needed someone with a government-issued photo ID to sign for. Assuming that maybe they weren’t scammers after all and I was going to finally get that check, I ended up losing sleep to that damn diamond that’s probably not worth shit. It’s what they say it is, but it still doesn’t look like we could get much for it, even though it’s bigger than they said it’d be at .57 of a carat.

Meanwhile, Tom’s gonna play phone yet again with the scammers tomorrow and see what bullshit they tell us next. He thinks maybe there was a dispute of some kind over paying me cash rather than sending the wakeboard and whatever other shit was to come with it.

And they didn’t even have the decency to call and say so? Just what kind of bullshit company is this? So what if there’s a dispute? They already gave their word about sending a check rather than the wakeboard, so that’s what I should get! Tom says he thinks that worst-case scenario we’ll get the wakeboard, but that won’t bring us nearly as much money, and of course there’ll be the hassle of trying to sell the damn thing. Tom says all we have to sell to make the cruise I wish I hadn’t won is the guitar if we end up getting nothing. Yeah, but this delays my getting this Indian doll I’ve wanted, some beauty supplies, and worst of all, it delays EFO. Something does not want us roaring full blast with that thing!

Yesterday, someone stole the bottles and left the gate open. I wondered at first if maybe Bill came around to do clean-up, thinking they were filled with trash, but his SUV wasn’t here when I ran and checked. I’d have chewed him out for taking from us without having the decency to tell us if it had been him. Anyway, God spared someone a very vicious beating. They were only bottles, but I’d have been sending the wrong message if I’d done nothing, especially if the klepto saw that I saw them. One saying “Help yourself. I’ll just sit back and watch.” Tom thinks it’s kind of funny. It’s obviously someone as desperate and as broke as we were who passes by regularly enough to realize the bags had been out there too long to be regular trash. Besides, you can kind of see through the bags anyway to tell what’s in them.

For 2½ miraculous days, which was mostly during the time it was snowy, I didn’t have to hear from the canal dog or the one across the street. But now that we’re back in the 40s and the snow and rain have come to a temporary stop, the fucking beast across the canal goes on its 4-hour barking spree which usually starts around 4:00. I hear it every time I step into the kitchen and away from the radio.

The good news is that my ear’s doing remarkably well. I thought by this time there’d only be a few scattered days where I didn’t need to take ibuprofen or something, but instead, there have only been a few days where I have needed to.