It’s there, it’s there! My first book sale in Deutschland!!! Yes, it’s showing up on the reports now! Yay!!! I knew my new German friend wasn’t playing with me. I just knew it! I know it may sound silly, but tears of joy are stinging my eyes right now at the thought of my first sale there. I just thought it was going to be by Nane and then maybe Barbara. Once again life proves to not always be what we plan it to be. Thanks, Abby!

To finish covering yesterday before getting back to today – the rain we were supposed to get was just a few quick bursts of light rain. It was supposed to rain yesterday which would’ve made me feel more comfortable figuring Jesse would be less likely to be out and about bothering me since he just cannot stay inside his fucking house for more than a minute when it’s not hot or raining. Really, we gotta get away from this cock. I either have to worry about him waking me up when I’m on nights and then him stealing the peace when I’m on days. The thought of having to live with this little cock for much longer makes me want to beat my head into the wall! But I still fear we’ll be stuck here long enough to have to deal with the re-roofing and painting projects as well as a million other projects. If I wanted to live where there was so much of this kind of activity going on I’d have sought out a farm to live on if I wanted to hear loud vehicles, saws and hammering. It’s better than barking, screaming kids and loud music, but it still gets old.

I was trying to fall asleep when the prick came down alone in his incredibly LOUD truck just after 10:00 to get some plywood from his shit pile. I could hear the fucking thing over the sound machine even though I had the thing blaring its ass off.

Oh, how good it feels to vent in print like this. Yes, very therapeutic. But I have to keep him out of my public journals at least while we are here which hopefully won’t be for several years to life.

Anyway, he slams the sheets of wood in the back of the truck (we have GOT to ask that he bring his shit up by his place and claim we may want to deck the base of the hill out with flowers, along with pointing out that yes, the truck is VERY loud), then he pulls up by the place, gets out and sort of walks down by the door across from the bathroom as if he’s looking to see if I’m up or for any new leaks. I go to the main door, sure to sport an unhappy expression but not say anything to piss him off and possibly provoke me into going after him, and he asks how the pipe’s doing. As dumb as he is (unless it’s got to do with electrical or plumbing) he obviously gets that he woke me up, though I was actually just nodding off, and he quickly left after I told him it was fine. In truth, I don’t know if it’s “fine.” Miss Observant here hasn’t noticed any new wall stains but personally, I don’t give a shit anymore as long as it’s nothing that could affect or cost us. Let the fucking thing leak for all I care!

I appreciate that he doesn’t do it every day, but he comes down more for his shit than for any other reason so it’s definitely time to see if we can get him to get it the hell out of here. It’s such an eyesore anyway. He can leave the back of the pickup, but I want everything else gone! We can’t know for sure we’ll be moving next year. We could be here for years like I said before. A part of me wishes we could buy this section of the land from him because then we’d reserve the right to either gate the driveway or just tell him to FUCKING CALL FIRST! That is after we had him haul his shit outa here. But we could never afford that and I don’t want to own what can be lost. You can’t lose what isn’t yours unless you can buy it outright and even then there are still some risks. That’s a big lesson I learned in life.

Woke up to a bad nightmare but it had nothing to do with me and Tom or any friends. It had to do with the rat, though I don’t know why I was calling him Tinkerbell and not Tinkerboy. He was named after Tinkerbell.

I was running on the treadmill when he ran up to it. I hadn’t realized he was out loose. The treadmill was backward, though. I was facing away from the rails and panel though I wasn’t running backward. I yelled at him to stay away but he jumped onto the treadmill and got “sucked” under the front part where the plastic almost meets the belt. In reality, that gap isn’t big enough for even a mouse let alone a huge rat. I jumped off and started screaming his name. Then I flipped the treadmill over which now seemed not to have any rails or panels. The underside was facing straight up at me and I began to claw at the screws with my bare hands. In reality, the underside doesn’t have any kind of a covering other than where the motor is, but the entire bottom of the one in the dream had a cover. Tom came up to me with a screwdriver and started unscrewing this “cover.” I was crying and fearing the rat was dead because I didn’t hear any struggling or squeaking coming from him. I asked if it was possible that he’d been killed and Tom said, “Sure.”

I cried, “No, no, no!” and then I woke up. I hope the dream didn’t mean his time is almost up. It shouldn’t be till next summer or later. He might even make it to the end of next year.

I’m taking the day off from my real-life treadmill to let my joints heal. I’ve had pain in my outer right knee. My joints had been doing better since you gotta put some impact on them to strengthen them, but I should probably start wrapping both knees when I run. Running at 4 MPH may not seem like much but I assure you it’s a serious workout. Try it and see how many minutes you can keep at it. It’s a big run, alright, and it’s why many people don’t lose weight. They’re just not willing to put themselves out and exert themselves to the degree that you’re sweating your ass off, you can barely breathe, you’re dying of thirst, and your muscles are burning. Plus you gotta go at least a little hungry. But that’s what it usually takes. I’m 46 now, not 26, so I should get wrapped up. All I have around here is an ace bandage to wrap my knee in, but it’s better than nothing. I asked a friend who’s also a personal trainer and will see what she says.

The shakes have been giving me great energy and helping to fight hunger and fatigue. I tried Boost, Special K and Slim Fast. I decided I like Boost the least. They’re the least sweet yet they have 27g of sugar and 240 calories. The others have 190 calories, 18g of sugar and are much sweeter. Slim Fast’s cappuccino is a definite winner!

Tom also drinks these shakes but has been really tired and rundown lately. I worry about him. They’re running him ragged at work. If they keep him after the holidays, I hope they either back off the OT or make him do something less strenuous. He feels he’s too old to do such a physical job. He wants to lose weight and get fit; not kill himself. The extra money isn’t worth it if he’s always going to be so exhausted.