Wow, no messages or even blog peek-a-boos from Maliheh yesterday. I thought I’d hear more from her now that she’s on vacation. But I know there are a lot of storms going on that might’ve knocked her power out. It’s a miracle we didn’t lose power ourselves yesterday, though the net was slow at times. I’m glad I wasn’t asleep because we had hail and some pretty ferocious thunder, too.

But I got to wake up in pain instead. Yeah, I had another one of those killer toothaches. The kind I first think is connected to my ear. It was horrible and nothing seemed to help it at first. Why does God sic this shit on me so often? I practically drowned myself in a bottle of Aleve, but it took forever to dull the pain enough to fall asleep. Then I woke up a few hours later in pain once again and took some more Aleve. I fell back asleep pretty fast. When I got up for good it ached, but not nearly as bad, and right now I’m fine.

When I’m going through such pain I say, “Ok, this is it. I’ve got to get to a dentist – even if I have to pay for it myself – and deal with this shit once and for all.”

But when I’m not in pain I realize how much I’d hate to have to shove so much of our “savings” into my mouth, and that I would only be swapping in an old problem for a new one of some kind.

He did learn, however, that in just a couple of months, we’ll be eligible for paid holidays/vacations and insurance through the temp company if he doesn’t get hired on. It’s just that the temp company’s insurance would be more expensive.

Now, on with someone who’s too much a part of our everyday lives and who I expect to hear from any time now. Jesse. Tom talked to him yesterday when he came down for our latest problem and learned why he’s been driving this horrendously loud old truck lately. It also added one more “coincidence” to the ever-growing list of accidents, illnesses and injuries to those who have either annoyed me or screwed me over in some way. And again, I did not consciously wish for this to happen. Not quite anyway. I have sometimes wished Jesse would not get killed, but at least be in a wheelchair for a while so he can’t be tending the land and making so much noise.

First he came down on the ATV to pump water that had pooled by where the septic tank is, and to dig a trench to help guide it away. Apparently, when the idiot dragged that dead tree up to his place, it created a trench along the way for the rain to run down and pool at the septic. And Tom’s flushing the toilet 50 times when he clogged it up earlier didn’t help either, LOL, which we laughed about.

He’s been widening his driveway so he can turn around easier, so that’s part of the racket I’ve been hearing lately and why someone came to pick up trees. He’s just about done with this project, but that’s ok. Within a week or two we’ll just go right into a whole new project.

Anyway, Tom casually mentioned the truck he’d been driving and Jesse came out and asked if the police had been by. Tom said no and asked what he meant, and that’s when he told him that supposedly a deer popped out in front of him, causing him to lose control of his truck, roll over and total it. We wouldn’t be surprised if he were really drunk at the time. I know for a fact he drives drunk because that day we lost power and I was up there trying to get him to call the electric company, he was already blitzed and planning to head into the city for the night, which he no longer appears to be doing judging by the sound of the quiet Friday nights we’ve been having lately.

The point is that once again we’re wondering if I both consciously, but mostly unconsciously, influenced this to happen because he’d been doing a fine job of annoying the hell out of me lately. This happened right after the annoying as hell 5-hour bulldozing expedition I had to listen to. It’s kind of funny, but it’s not since I’m the one that has to deal with it by having to listen to him run and gun engines for nearly an hour a day when you consider that he comes and goes 3-6 times a day and does this for 10-15 minutes each time he leaves. And it’s another classic example of how I’m affected by the events in other people’s lives, but they’re never affected by mine.

Then there was the puppy, too. I was so pissed to learn of its existence, knowing I would then have to listen to 3 of them barking up a storm when he used to work instead of 2. Then ironically enough, it got run over.

I just wonder if he’s going to get a new truck once the insurance company pays out the value of the other one, which I would think they’re going to do.

The drama queen certainly wasn’t on disability and sniffing oxygen when she and her kids picked on me the summer before last. And funny how the tables have turned, too. She was picking on us for living in poverty and having nothing but a dingy old trailer in life back when she was pissed at me, yet now we’re doing pretty good while she’s on disability. Well, you don’t get shit from disability, so unless Mark’s making good money – and I hope for her sake he is – she’s looking at a lifetime of financial woes. I should know. I’ve been there before. From the mid-80s to the mid-90s.

Later…

It’s been a dryer, quieter day than I expected, though I did hear the truck a couple of times.

It’s Maliheh I’m getting a little worried about. After one day of not hearing from her, I thought she was just exhausted and catching up on her sleep. But after two days I’m thinking her wifi might be acting up. Or maybe something went wrong with her mother. I just hope she’s ok and that she’ll find a way to get word to me soon enough, whatever’s going on!

Do I think she dumped me? Well, anything’s possible, but I highly doubt it. If she got sick of me or upset with me for any reason, I would think she’d be the first to tell me. I will, however, admit it’s a bit odd that she should disappear, for whatever reason, at the start of her vacation.

Unfortunately, I have no way to track her online activity. We’re not Facebook friends, she doesn’t tweet, nor does she blog, so all I can tell is when she’s checking her mail and I haven’t seen her doing this.