Wrote down the dates that we’ll be gone on a Post-it for next door and walked it over. Both of them were home. Bob said it’d be no problem yanking in the trash bin for us since we’ll be leaving right after we put it out.

We’ll be testing the surveillance cameras this weekend, as they know, and assured me they’d call 911 if they saw anything suspicious. Again, we’re not expecting any trouble. People have come and gone on vacation in this park for decades without incident, even the houses at the park’s edges, particularly the ones that back up against wooded areas. Well, we’re not on the edge, and we’re in a high-traffic area with busy roads and houses all around us.

At one point I made the comment about wishing I’d caught whoever took my bike (I still think it was a worker or a visitor) and Virginia was all surprised like she was learning about it for the first time. At first I thought to myself, “Oops!”

So I told them where we were going when she asked, and then when Bob followed me outside I said, “I’m sorry I didn’t keep my big mouth shut if you didn’t want her to know about the bike,” and he assured me he did tell her and that it was just in one ear and out the other. Then when I thought about the last few times I talked to Virginia, it all made sense. She’s going Dureen. Poor Bob. Bob is very sharp-minded despite being 86 and a few years older than his wife, so it must be hard for him to deal with. Poor Virginia too, though she’s probably not aware that she’s losing it. It makes sense, though. One time she didn’t seem to recognize me right away, and well, everything is a little too funny.

“The lady on this side of us is cruising now, haha, and I didn’t know your bike was stolen. One should be able to just leave things right smack out front of their place if they want to, haha.”

So Bob led me in back and my first thought was that he was going to show me a section where the retaining wall busted with all the rain, but instead he showed me how a couple of our bushes, one being a camellia, was dangling over the wall and dropping blossoms and twigs onto his trash and recycle bins, and asked if he could trim them back.

I felt so bad as I had no idea it had sprung over the wall so quickly, but he understands how busy we are. I offered to pay him, but he said he didn’t mind trimming them at all and has his bins right there anyway. Unless Tom beats him to it tomorrow after work since it’ll be clearer then. Since he won’t be working as much OT, he expects to have more time to keep up on the landscaping.

There are WAY too many trees and plants for this lot! I’m guessing the lot size is something like 70’ long by 40’ wide yet we have a HUGE variety of shit on it. I guess the previous owners had nothing better to do but keep planting and planting away till they ran out of space. We’ve got an organ pipe cactus, aloe vera, Yuccas, that grassy-looking thing that’s sort of roundish, rosebushes, Cypress trees, a birch tree, African daisies, camellias, azaleas, and tons of other shit I can’t even name. I’m surprised there are no palms. If it were up to me, though, we’d just have a couple of palms and nothing but nice bright white gravel.

Will definitely get them a little something on our travels as a way of thanking them. I almost feel bad about being so annoyed by his saws and hammers, LOL. Going to take the addresses of some folks too, in case I send postcards, but the problem isn’t finding postcards so much as it is finding stamps. I wish they’d make more pre-stamped postcards, but just in case, I will be armed with addresses. :)

Outside he said, “You lost a lot of weight.”

Wow, really? The scale only says I’ve lost a few pounds, but I guess I definitely do “look” like I have as the bodybuilding re-sculpts my body that still has a long way to go yet probably will never get there. Yeah, Fitbit is already losing its excitement for me. Sort of, anyway. I realize I’m just as hungry increasing my workouts as I am decreasing my calories. Working out an hour or more a day makes me hungry as hell, but I like how I can eat all I want and get away with it.

Had a strange dream where Norma and Sharyn were showing me something they found that my mother had created when I was around 10 years old. It appeared to be a piece of celery in a wooden box with a glass cover. Inside of it, just above the celery, she’d written: Jodi’s kitchen diet.

I suddenly took off crying, feeling insulted by it, knowing it was a “creative” and “artistic” taunt about the extra weight I’d sometimes carry as a child. A part of me hoped one of them would come after me to comfort me, but they never did.