The plan was for Tom to focus on vacant houses, hoping that’d up the chances that the owners would be desperate enough to have it rented and therefore not as picky about who they take in. Well, we found this trailer in Auburn that seems very promising. It’s a very small, old and dumpy trailer at 10 x 50 which comes to 500 square feet, and may get a dusting of snow since it’s just over 1000’ high in elevation, but it’s in a remote area. The woman he spoke to, who said we were the first to call about it, said you have to “look hard” for the neighbor. But she also said the neighbor complained about the last tenants, so either they were unbelievably loud as in hanging outside with car stereos and company galore, or it’s not as secluded as it seems to be. She never said what they were doing or if she evicted them. Either way, we’re anxious to check it out and have an appointment at 1:00 tomorrow. It’s 35 minutes from here but would be half the distance to work, not that he’s still not going to look for a better job elsewhere. As small and as dumpy as it seems, it seems pretty ideal for us, but Tom got the impression that the woman, who sounded like she could be in her mid-60s, was stern and so we don’t know how picky she is. He also thought she may be Jewish, cuz he got the impression that she wore the pants in the family, and because she wouldn’t see us today. A lot of older Jewish people don’t do things on Saturdays. I don’t like how she said we’d have to fill out an application. If she checks for credit, we’re screwed, unless she can accept our explanation of why it’s screwed up. The rent would be $825 and she only wants a $175 deposit. If it’s going to be free of car stereos, barking and other shit, the size, age and dusting of snow just might be totally worth it. It’s only 3º cooler there right now. Meanwhile, K-Falls, which is over 4000’ high, is 30º cooler at the moment. While it’s definitely kind of rural, it at least has high-speed internet and probably mail service, too.

She didn’t ask about pets or where we were living now but asked about our ages. I just hope we get it! It seems so ideal for us until we either get rich or into a retirement community, whichever comes first. If anyone deserves to be compensated for the chaos we’ve gone through with a peaceful place, it’s us. I’m praying like crazy, but I still don’t know that God would ever let us live in peace. One thing I can say for sure, though, is that if He grants us this wish, it will totally convince me more so than ever that yes, praying really does make a difference. I used to think prayer was total hogwash, just pure wishful thinking, figuring that what’s fated to be is going to be anyway whether we ask for it or not. But now even I have to admit it at least seems we’re more likely to get something we want if we ask God for it. However, this would surely go a long, long way toward convincing me quite a bit. I asked Mary if she thinks repetitive prayers makes a difference. I wonder if it matters if I asked for a quiet place with good neighbors once, versus 20 times, versus 100 times. Are we more likely to get what we want the more we ask for it?

Mary also suggested in the letter I just got from her that I do a prayer where I take 3 white candles and write my name on one, Tom’s name on another, and what we want on the last one. Then, placing them in a pyramid, call on Emlael, Sachiel, Stamiel and Simiel, angels of power, peace, money, security and other things good. I asked her to spell these names out phonetically for me since I couldn’t possibly call on anything I didn’t know how to pronounce. She said once I call on them, tell them what we want and all that and speak from my heart.

I was just telling Tom that the candle spell I did before we came here seemed worthless. The one where you take a white candle that represents yourself and a green one that represents money. Then you place them an inch closer over a 9-day period till they touch. Then Tom pointed out just how much money I’ve won. Well, that was a hell of a delayed reaction time and we nearly died along the way, but better later than never!

I’m not going to pray that Incense Galore comes through cuz that’s not nearly as important as a home and a better job. We’ll just get PayPal to get our money back instead, cuz something’s obviously not right with them. They haven’t answered my letter.

Anyway, if we get this place we’ll definitely have to look into some sort of storage, be it an RV, a small trailer or something. This place may be even smaller than the Klam dump. As I said, we seem to be getting smaller and smaller each time! We’ll take it, though, if it’s going to be peaceful. An RV may be good just so he can have an office since it’s only got one bedroom. The more I think about it, the more I think the Klam dump was around 400-500 square feet and not 600-700.

We checked out a duplex in Citrus Heights, and we both agreed there was no way we’d take it. Not only were the houses miserably close, but each house had half a dozen cars! The driveways and curbsides were jam-packed with cars. Soon they’ll have to start making houses not with driveways, but with parking lots! It’s also a scummier town with car stereos galore. There was nothing good about it other than that the garages were between the units and everything was on concrete. That’d be a negative to the trailer, but if there are no car stereos cruising by every few minutes, and no one parking right next to the wall of it, it won’t matter cuz we wouldn’t have to worry about sound reverberating underneath the floorboards.

If we do get the place and the lady visits, I wonder how she’ll take to dead squirrels, live rats and a couple of mannequins. I still intend to get my taxidermy squirrel. It’s still a funny thought, though. I mean what would I tell her, “Don’t worry, the squirrel’s dead, but the rats are alive, so be careful where you step?”