“You’re not going home, Jodi.” That was the message in the reoccurring dream I had for months back in Oregon. The “message” was delivered through half the damn town. I’d pass by Jan at her old store, she’d ask how I was, I’d answer, then she’d say, “I’m sorry, Jodi, but you’re not going home.”

I’d check out at the grocery store and hottie Liz would tell me to have a nice day, then, “You’re not going home, Jodi.”

Then Randy the mailman would bring me my mail, greet me with a friendly nod and smile and say, “Sorry Jodi, but you’re not going home.”

This was just a couple of years after losing our home and land in Arizona and then the land we had planned to build a home on in Oregon. It was also at a time when I was into entering sweepstakes and contests.

In real life, Randy came around shortly after this dream and started off with, “Sorry Jodi.” Just when I went stiff as a board and no doubt pale as a ghost, he said, “But I don’t seem to have any wins for you today.”

Just the way he started off so similar to the dream was one helluva creepy, freaky experience!

Backing up to the series of dreams and what they meant. To me, they represented the obvious; that we wouldn’t be homeowners again anytime soon if ever again. Well, that’s the way it has been ever since we last owned a place in 2004 and that’s the way I thought it would always be. Although it took a little time, I grew accustomed to renting once again for the first time since 1993. I was even ok with it, liking the fact that we didn’t have to pay for anything that broke that wasn’t ours. The management company, although they ripped us off in the end by denying us our deposit despite the fact that we left the place spotless and undamaged, never bothered us. They didn’t show up unannounced on a regular basis and the place didn’t have a million problems despite its age.

Then we came here and things were just the opposite. Our landlord comes down anytime he feels like it, the place has regular problems, and it has made me miss owning a place and being the boss of what happens and when so long as it isn’t urgent. The number of times we’d have to pay to fix things could never compare to how many times I’m either annoyed by the landlord himself, his dogs, or worry that he’s going to wake me up depending on what my schedule is at the moment.

The economy has also knocked what are normally 100K - 200K houses and modulars down to 15K - 100K. For the first time in years, I saw possibilities that just weren’t there before and that I thought never would be there again.

If you read my blog yesterday, you’ll know we went and checked out a rather nice 55+ park. Well, now the question is, was last night’s dream a sign of something good to come, or was it merely a reflection of my wishful thinking? The dream certainly suggests we just may get into this place, but I’d rather not state the name of the estates in public or where it is.

The dream only lasted a few seconds. I asked some woman (someone in the sales office?) about plants, trees, or something to do with landscaping. The only part of her answer I remember was the last few words… “Because of the flower arrangements.”

We also apparently had a bird we kept outdoors because it was rather loud. LOL, nothing we’d ever have in real life. I’m not a bird person anyway. But I asked if we could keep it outside and she said, “Sorry, but you won’t be able to keep anything like that outside here.”

The thing about it is that in the dream I thought to myself that I would miss the bird but would be perfectly ok with giving it up. Like I knew we were going to live there.

Christiane did “poke” me back after all. I was wondering if she would. Thanks, good looking. :)

Later...

The road home has been a long one that has required tons of research and sightseeing. We drove past a senior park here in town and wouldn’t even go into it as we didn’t like how it looked from the road; all dumpy single-wides. We love the idea of saving money, but we want to find something we can live in comfortably for the next 10 years, too. Hopefully, we will be able to find a good balance and get something between dumpy and fancy. I don’t need to have the fanciest place anyway. Just one that isn’t so damn old and ugly.

So we headed into both Rocklin and Roseville. A park we checked out in Rocklin seemed in between the dumpy Auburn park and the nice Roseville park. It was beautiful, but nothing that would take your breath away. I like the Roseville park better as it had wider streets, garages, and a little more breathing space around the homes. The Rocklin park also had modulars and not trailers, but they didn’t have garages and the streets were so narrow it was hard to believe two cars could pass each other on them. It was still very well maintained with beautiful flowers everywhere.

Saw some old folks sitting outside their places, and one guy even said good morning to us as we were slowly cruising by, and you definitely had to go slow. Not only because the roads have many curves and turns, but also because there are speed bumps in the roads. Another thing is that there’s only room for one car to park in the narrow driveways. Forget being set close to the road, these places are practically right on the road. So excessive company would hardly be a worry there since there’s no on-street parking and no place else to park all their company. No room to leave dogs outside regularly either from what I could see. It too, was walled off, so there’d be no outsiders passing through it with blasting car stereos and shit like that.

So then we came home, jumped online and found a place in a park in West Sacramento for just 6K! The catch? Well, it’d be a bit of a drive to work for Tom, and the place, although beautiful looking from the outside, is probably a dump on the inside. Especially since they didn’t show any pictures of the inside other than the living room, and they mentioned it needing some TLC. The thing is estimated to be 30-40 years old. This place is 45 years old. It was well-shaded and appeared to have a little more space around it. Loved the pink flowerbed that ran along the front of it and the bright cheery sunny yellow color of the place itself. We estimate that we could comfortably save nearly a grand a month there, which would allow us to fix the place up, but we don’t exactly want to play fix it and we don’t want Tom to have such a long drive to work, though we also looked at getting a newer car that wouldn’t guzzle as much gas. Either way, it’s there as a possibility, though at that price it may sell fast. They already reduced it from 14K.

There is still so much research to be done as there are so many possibilities, each with its own set of pros and cons. So getting out of here next month is unlikely. It could take till the end of the year, but I’d rather take longer to get it right and make a smart move this time around than act in haste and end up regretting it. We’ve done stupid enough times in the past. Now it’s time to do right.

Been doing quiet, but that’s cuz of the heat. It’s going to be around 100° all week. I was surprised at how hot I felt when we were out this morning yet it wasn’t even that hot yet. Have I really grown that sensitive to heat since leaving the desert? Or am I just that fat?

I was surprised to wake up the same weight as yesterday despite how much I ate yesterday, but I think I might be up tomorrow. I did the math twice and I don’t think I went over 1500 calories today. Still, that’s a little high for a short middle-ager. I should take it down 200-300 cals. I just don’t know if I could stand the hunger and fatigue.

The internet is out (what else is new?) so I’ll have to post this later or tomorrow. What else can I say for now? Well, the best deal we actually saw so far, though only online, was a land/house deal for 74K where they finance it themselves and you don’t have to deal with banks or anything like that. The places were also laid out more like traditional houses, set short side to short side instead of long to long. I like that better as it gives you more space around you, but that also leaves more room for people to get more dogs and leave them outside.

Anyway, the net will probably be out for hours and by then I’ll be in bed, so I’ll just post this in the morning. I really hope we have a better connection wherever we end up! This is getting really ridiculous!