Talked to my folks today and they sound much better. Dad sounded chipper and coherent. We mostly talked about work, weather, and things like that. He also dropped another hint; one that only his daughter or anyone else who knows him well enough could pick up on. When we hit upon the subject of our hoping to live in a real house someday and the possibility of moving to Florida he said, “A few years and you’ll have enough money to go wherever you want.” He didn’t just say it with confidence but in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. No, this was a statement of fact, much like how he assured me on a Friday back in the hospital in CT that something would be worked out by the following Monday. That’s because he knew he was going to surprise me with the ticket to Arizona.

But “wherever” I want? That’d take quite a bit of money. Yet even though I know they’re far from poor, it’s hard to believe they’d leave me that much. The economy has affected their store, and like it or not, it costs a lot of money to get old, need tons of medication/doctor visits, then die. I just would’ve thought all this, even if they haven’t yet gotten to the dying part, would clean out most of their savings. Then again, if they’re talking about leaving us enough money to get to where we want to live, vs. enough to get there and also to buy a place, that’d be different. 10-15 grand would comfortably get us across. But if they’re thinking houses as well as transport money, then we’re talking around 50K. No way. Just no way. I simply can’t see them having that much to leave. If I’d been an only child, then the sale of their condo, store and vehicles may be close to that but not with two other mistakes of theirs in the picture. BIG mistakes.

Come on, big bro, you can have a nice big fat deadly heart attack, can’t you? Come on, big sis, see all those pills you have to take? Why don’t you be a good girl and swallow the whole damn bottle? ALL of them.

I was glad to hear from Maliheh last night who’s alive but not well. She’s been having problems with her knee and shoulder, but at least she’s not homeless. She definitely doesn’t seem like herself these days, though. It’s like she’s losing more and more of her energy. Even she said she’s crashing early and getting up late. She used to be so full of spunk but now it’s like the life is drained out of her and as she herself put it, she doesn’t care if the world ends at the end of the year like some people believe it will. It’s kind of sad seeing her go downhill like this. Who knows if it’s a permanent thing that’s just going to get worse or if she’ll perk up and feel better at some point? I mean, she’s only coming up on 55. Well, 55 isn’t exactly over the hill. She used to love to chat for hours with me night after night. She said she misses that, too.

The propane people are coming tomorrow. Propane’s only down a dime a gallon. It won’t drop significantly till the spring. So the 100 gallons we’ll be getting will cost $260. As warm as the winter’s been so far and since it’s now February, it should easily last well into the spring unless it starts raining on us like crazy like I sometimes wish it would. But I also like sunshine, saving propane by not having to run heat during the daytime, and being able to open windows and air the place out.

In less than two hours I heard Jesse come and go twice. Still can’t figure out if someone’s staying with him or if this one guy just has that many places to go. The vehicles and chainsaws are putting the dogs to shame lately. Really, the mutts are quite comatose in comparison. Now, though, he’s really driving me crazy with that fucking bulldozer of his. How can the drive possibly need bulldozing when it’s barely rained half a dozen times in months??? I swear if this guy has nothing to do he makes something up and finds something to do just to be outside and annoying. Why can’t he sit on his ass indoors in front of the TV or something like that like most guys would love to do? I’m just so sick of having to hear from this one guy every single day of the week! I really hope we do get to move this summer but that’s what we thought last summer, so I don’t want to get my hopes up. For now, I have the music blasting. That bulldozer is so thunderously loud that not even earplugs could block the sound. I suppose the motorcycle is next, followed by either the dirt bike or ATV. Maybe even both. Really, what’s the point of being out here if I’ve got to listen to all this shit???

I just looked and it says it’s going to rain again on Tuesday. So what’s the point of doing all this today? I know we’ve been having a drought but it isn’t May either. May is when the rain stops for 4-5 months so why can’t he wait till then? And why can’t it just rain and rain and rain?! I’d still have to hear the truck come and go a lot, but that would eliminate the Harley and the bullshitter for a while.

Later…

I hope tomorrow won’t be as noisy as it was today. Today was as noisy as it would be back when Jesse was still working and the dogs would bark 10 hours a day. First Jesse was going in and out with the damn truck, then bulldozing for a couple of hours. Then just when I thought I might catch some peace around here, our little chainsaw fanatic starts up for a few more hours in back.

Obviously, it’s not trees they’re sawing. Not only are the other parcels of land adjacent to this one smaller than this one, but even if the property was as big, by now they should’ve run out of trees to cut for as long as this has been going on! They’ve been doing this nearly every day for months now. It’s got to be some sort of outdoor workshop or project they’re building.

The rat’s cuteness helped make up for some of the annoyances and frustrations. I threw my sneakers on so that pulling on the resistance bands when working out wouldn’t hurt my feet, and since I was only doing a few exercises I didn’t bother to tie the laces. I was doing a side raise with one leg and the rat was jumping up and down like a kitten trying to catch the dangling laces, LOL. His little paws were flailing as he attempted to catch them and it was so funny:)

I’m amazed at how well these decorative nail stickers hold up. It’s been nearly a week since I stuck one on my thumb and it’s still holding on strong even with no topcoat or sealer of any kind.

Still don’t know what the future holds for me as far as what blogging sites I may use and under what name. I kind of like it on Facebook. I don’t get the fun of tracking or surprising visitors/comments since I can’t post publicly cuz of the troll, but I like how I can decide who sees what entries I post. On other sites, it’s either private, friends only or public. But sometimes I just don’t want to share certain posts with everyone on my friend list. Besides, I’m really loving the break I get from the sicko in Texas. So I don’t know if I’ll ever pick up with my old blogs on my-diary and MyOpera as myself, or start anew on some site like thoughts.com under a pen name and use aliases for friends and family. Everybody’s names would have to be changed if I did that. Even if I didn’t identify myself, she’d know it was me just by the names of the people I mentioned. I might even have to keep my location secret as well.

sighs Damn trolls!

Later…

Maliheh got a good laugh from the funny pictures I sent her last night but that still doesn’t explain why I never got notice of her picking up postcards. Then again, there can only be two reasons why. She either didn’t pick them up or I wasn’t notified.