The renters are still alive and still here, I’m sorry to say, but I’m not at all surprised. Why would we be allowed to lose such shitty neighbors so fast? Although I still haven’t seen anything (and that’s what we’re going to tell Jesse no matter what), I was lazing around enjoying the last of the peace when I heard barking start at 7:20. But it wasn’t quite loud enough to be Jesse’s dogs, and the bark was different although familiar. I went into the bathroom, slid the window open, and sure enough, I could hear one of the renter’s dogs barking loose somewhere down in the ditch. I recognized the bark for sure and this would explain why yesterday I could’ve sworn I heard something that sounded right outside here for a second or two.

So not surprisingly, the renters aren’t gone and they haven’t tied the dogs up. We just haven’t happened to see them slip by. I’m also now back to wondering if they’re why Jesse’s dogs have been going crazy after all. Maybe it’s not a temperature thing or them missing Jesse or more activity going on due to the holidays. Maybe it’s the renter’s dogs. Only somehow, they’ve been smart enough not to mess with his dogs when he’s here.

I started to wonder why they hadn’t attacked his dogs since they’re still running around loose, but I’m wondering if Jesse exaggerated that story to begin with. He said one of them could “barely walk.” Yet just a couple of days later we saw them running around up there when we were coming back from the store. That’d be quite a miraculous recovery had it really been barely able to walk.

Anyway, it’s just one more reason to be glad I’ll be up on New Year’s Eve because there’s no way they’d pass up such a golden opportunity as that to get trigger-happy on us.

Someone was shooting yesterday evening, but it wasn’t them.

So yesterday really turned out to be a shitty day. From 11 AM - 7 PM, the dogs went crazy. It really sucked! Then that person with the really loud motorcycle came in (again we thought it was coming down here), then left when they saw he wasn’t home. Doesn’t anyone in Jesse’s circle call first?

The dogs haven’t gone off yet, so Jesse’s obviously not working today. Since I know he wouldn’t dare stay home, though, I know he’ll go gunning out between 10:30 and noon. And then I won’t be able to do any proofreading until he gets back in 6 or 7 hours.

No snow here, thank God, but I still see it forecasted at times for Auburn. I’m pretty sure they’re talking about the summit. Down here at the foothills, we should be pretty safe. Tom’s seen pickups full of snow that obviously came down from the mountaintop.