Just sitting here enjoying the peacefulness of the predawn hours before the scattered loud trucks, motorcycles and barks start up.

Tom wonders if he’s got too much iron in his blood and that may also be part of why he’s tired. I asked how he’d deal with that if that’s true, and he says the way to help that is to lose some blood. So what’s he gonna do, become suicidal and start cutting himself? He said he may consider donating blood.

Yesterday turned out to be a miserable day. The net wasn’t out too long, but now the hot water is leaking in the tub, and my allergies nearly drove me to smash my nose right off my face. Tom checked the leak and said it isn’t anything to worry about and that we won’t lose propane over it. I still want out of here like yesterday! I’m sick of all the problems this place has and I know it’s only a matter of time before another crisis hits. Something huge. Well, I don’t want to be here when the roof leaks, the floor caves in, the electrical fails, and the stove and fridge crap out. Those are the only things left that haven’t let us down yet. Old places may have problems but I’ve lived in places much older than this that didn’t have nearly as many problems. I swear there’s been a breakage curse on us ever since we met, which means it would follow us from place to place, but I’d rather play fix-it in a place of our own so we could fix it our way and on our own time. Right now I worry we’ll never get out of here. Tom wants to wait till we get Walter’s update. If we get any money - and there are still no guarantees - it’s not going to be till January or February.

Tom got me Nasal Crom nose spray. Hopefully, it will stop the attacks.

Hope I can get copies of the letters my mom exchanged with The Queen of Mean. That oughta be interesting. Really, I’d just love to read them, LOL.

Renate and I agreed to swap postcards because to her that’s more “real” than being just virtual friends. She’s mailing a card to me next Monday and I think it takes something like 14 days to get halfway around the world. She’s going to write in both English and German and so am I. Within a week or two I’ll pick up a card for her and off it will go to Austria.

Nane had me laughing my ass off earlier saying she wasn’t going to play my voice post at work. Smart. :) She knows Lady Rainbow isn’t exactly office material, hahaha.

Poor girl isn’t too happy otherwise. Winter’s hit her full force and her boss is pissed at her for making a fatal mistake.

Mary and I exchanged Halloween ecards, even though I’m not big on holidays, and when I used to be, New Year’s Eve was my favorite.

What happened to Phillip? He never returned to Facebook.

Last night was the second night of not hearing any mice, so maybe the thing we have plugged in really does work. It’s supposed to send a high-frequency sound through the wires underneath the place that only they can hear and that they find annoying. It cycles on and off, but doesn’t run continuously or else they’d just get used to it. It’s also good for keeping spiders away. Too bad we can’t use it when we have rats.

Later…

I’d really like to know if northern Connecticut lost power due to Sandy yesterday afternoon. That’s where Kim is, and if I could know she was without power, that would rule out thinking she could be one of the ones who asked me if I track old friends online. Then I would know it was Molly. Kim doesn’t live far from Andy, and Andy never lost power, so I think it probably was her. If it were Molly she would’ve checked my blogs. Molly never makes any attempts to hide. Kim does. Yet I know damn well she reads my blog due to the comments she’s left.

I went to take a shower this morning, shoved the shower curtain aside, and then I saw a miracle. An honest to God miracle. The tub wasn’t dripping at all. Not one single drop was visible and it was completely dry. Same with after my shower.

It’s been an amazingly quiet morning so far, though it’s not even noon yet.

Saw some pictures of Sandy’s damage. Damn! Makes me realize this place ain’t so bad after all. At least it’s not floating in 4 feet of water and it’s got power.

I’ve lost 5 pounds in 16 days. Hope I can keep the trend going. Speaking of trends, if the net’s up to speed I’ll go do another VP on LJ

I looked out at the cage on the porch and tears stung my eyes. We’ve got bedding, we’ve got food. I can’t wait anymore. I’m getting new baby(ies) this weekend.

I realize, based on reading back on past journals and by what people say, that I’ve gotten to be a rather “dramatic” and “dynamic” writer. I once wrote a story that contained an earthquake scene. The person who read it and gave me feedback said I didn’t really make her feel the fear one should feel if caught in an earthquake. And so I vowed to improve on getting the emotions across, so to speak, whether they were positive or negative. Well, it seems I’ve gotten a little too good at it. While my life isn’t perfect any more than anyone else’s, 2012 has been good to me for the most part. When Andy pointed out that one wouldn’t know that based on my writing, I could see what he meant. One who didn’t know me well would think I was miserable just with the things I’ve had to say about my parents. Oh, they’ve made me miserable, all right. Just not directly for many years. But the things they did were horrible and I can see where that would have a negative effect on the reader, thus giving them the impression that I was miserable at the time I wrote it, much in the way I was miserable as a kid. Guess I need to work on being less of a melodramatic writer, so to speak.

I’ve noticed this when reading back on certain things. Like my life in Oregon. I read back on some stuff from that time and some of it sounded like I was more stressed out than I remember feeling. I was depressed during the first year, but I wasn’t nearly as anxious as I made myself sound in the last two years.

It’s been the opposite with other things. In some ways, my writing while at this project in Connecticut may lead one to think it wasn’t that bad, but it was hell. No doubt about that.