I was telling Tom about my visit with Dixie the other day and how it was a weird coincidence that someone with her name on Facebook was suggested to me right after meeting her. He said I probably mentioned her in a blog and that’s why, and then I remembered Aly mentioning something about algorithms. So I just have to blog about someone I can’t find on Facebook and maybe they’ll be suggested to me instead? I kinda like that idea!

There’s only one Dixie T on Facebook and the only thing I could find on her is that she’s younger than I thought…81. I really thought she was in the late 80s to early 90s. First I thought she was younger till she mentioned Diane’s age.

Pretty sure she doesn’t have any kids of her own from what I can see and that she would have mentioned them if she did. I’m guessing she was married at one point since she refers to Diane as a stepdaughter.

Dixie replied to my emails. I ended up sending two because in the second one, I told her I was unable to text her because the number she gave me is a landline.

She writes well. She said she had a difficult day and expected to have a rough time with Diane this evening because she hasn’t been wanting to take showers lately. She thinks it might be because the support bars are in a different place. Also, Diane has an obsession with bubbles every now and then and Dixie has to watch her so that she washes herself instead of plays.

LOL, I can see why she wouldn’t want to leave her alone for long, especially at night. That must be quite a handful for Dixie to manage since she can barely walk. It just seems like an enormous responsibility!

She said she enjoyed my company and our chats and that if I see her on her patio when I’m out walking, do stop by.

She said she would purchase one of my books this afternoon, but if she did, it’s not showing on my sales report. So if anyone’s been buying my books, either sales take time to show up or Kobo is ripping me off worse than Amazon.

My giant wind chime is too annoying even for me so I took it down. It was like a fucking gong going off out there. Wouldn’t be surprised if some of the neighbors could hear it as well. I’ll hang onto it and see where we end up. If we’re going to have a piece of land somewhere where I can hang it further from the house, I may take it. If not, I’ll hang it back out there before we go and let the next people decide what they want to do with it. Or maybe Dixie would like it.

Right after 8:30, I decided it was a good time to go out walking and then I saw a skunk across the street. I came back in and then I said, “I’m not letting these bastards control me.” So back out I went and I didn’t see any more skunks. There were still some people and traffic out which made me feel a little more comfortable as far as the skunks went. I know they don’t chase people but I don’t want to accidentally get too close to one when it’s harder to see at night and they could be in the shadowy sections of the park.

Ended up walking for about 25 minutes. I didn’t see Dixie on her patio on the way back but that’s okay. We don’t need to chat every single day and she knows I’m not overly sociable to begin with, even though she says I’ve been the friendliest in the 10 months she’s been here whereas most people just wave and say hello and that’s it.

I decided that my book Digital Confessions is too stupid for publication so I’m going through Forget It now.

Can’t remember much in the way of dreams other than proudly telling someone about my new Labrador.

Aly and Cam almost make me seem like I hardly have any appointments. Never have I known people in their 30s to have so many appointments, urgent care trips, ER trips, and hospital stays! Cam had numbness and tingling in his lower back and hips, collapsed at work, and Aly’s last message was that he was at the ER and may be admitted. Damn!

I’m starting to wonder if Aly really is still reading my journals that I email her, so I’m thinking I might do a little test and send her one asking which sentence sounds better for a story I’m editing or something like that and see if she replies.

Although it was 15 degrees cooler today, I only walked for a half-hour instead of an hour because even at 8:30 it was still kind of warm.

As I was coming up Astro, there was still enough light to see Dixie sitting on her patio. We ended up talking for a half-hour. She tells me I’m the only one who has been nice to her and even though I’ve known others here for longer, she’s the first person I consider an actual friend of sorts here. Not an Aly kind of friend but a friend nonetheless since she’s just different than Bob, Virginia and the Twenties and people like that.

Not sure she’s all there but she’s harmless. She does get contradictory and seems to be forgetful at times but hey, she’s got to be well in her 80s. First she said she loved Ray and Nora whom she got the place from. Ray was the grumpy old man I didn’t like and tonight she said nobody liked him. Well, Jon did.

She told me a little about her stepdaughter Diane and yes, she’s mentally challenged but an amazing survivor from what she told me. Her parents took off to Alaska and dumped her in a state hospital where she grew up for 25 years. I thought my childhood was bad! Diane is 72. That loud obnoxious Pride bus takes her to recreational activities.

Dixie said some Mexican woman who watches her at times is too busy with too many jobs and she wanted to know if I would be willing to take over and I actually wouldn’t mind except for my sleep disorder which I explained to her and she seemed to accept it without judgment. She even seemed to understand too, LOL. She said something about going somewhere at night in September and not wanting to leave Diane alone. I told her that if she calls me and I’m up and available and not doing anything else at the moment, I would be happy to help out but couldn’t make plans in advance.

She hates Trump too and is sure that he, Putin and Kim are going to take over the world as evil dictators but I assured her I have a very strong feeling Trump will not be re-elected.

Here’s something weird. I asked if her last name was T and she said yes. I told her that after we first met, a Dixie T appeared on my People You May Know section of Facebook and that person has no profile picture and only one friend in Loomis. She swears it’s not her and that she’s not even on Facebook because she doesn’t ever want to get caught up in social media or anything like that. Says there’s no way it could be Diane either. So even though she’s either denying it, has multiple personalities, is incredibly forgetful, or has a very strange impersonator, I like her. There’s just something that makes her likable even though she doesn’t shut up and may not be very bright or 100% with it.

They lived in some nearby condo for 30 years and she injured her leg and can’t walk well, so she was hoping coming here would make it better but it didn’t. She has to use one of those sit-down carts that you drive when going to Walmart.

Since I’m forgetful too, I forgot that I already have her number on my phone. She gave it to me when we were helping her with her clicker. We exchanged email addresses and I sent her a test email.

She wouldn’t tell me her age, saying she was sensitive about that and I told her that’s perfectly fine. What I didn’t tell her is that it’s obvious she’s pretty old, LOL. She’s frail, arthritic and definitely old looking but I’ve seen worse.

I don’t think she’ll be a pest or anything but at least anyone that comes to the door can’t wake me up and neither can a phone call or an email. She should be easy to ignore if she contacts me when I don’t want to be bothered but I can’t see her getting pesky. As I said, she’s nice and likable and in some ways, if I needed a ride or something like a glass of milk, I would feel more comfortable going to her than to others.

That’s another funny thing she said. She just spent $100 at Sam’s Club and didn’t get anything fresh, LOL. Like she was beating herself up afterward for not doing so.

When I was leaving I said it was a little dark but I would be able to find my way back. And she asked if Tom worried about me walking at night by myself, LOL. Not in a gated community. Diane goes to bed the same time he does, so she was asleep. Anyway, she told me to go down the front steps, then she said no, go out the back and then all of a sudden she remembered she could turn the front light on and I would see my way down the stairs in front, haha, so I did. I couldn’t get in the front door because our fucking door gets stuck at this time of year so I had to come in back.

Discovered another food that doesn’t seem to put weight on me and I’m surprised to say that it’s toast since bread is supposed to be bad for weight loss. As I mentioned before, Tom and I convinced each other to jump on diets together at least till August 10th. Even though his metabolism seems to be slower than mine despite having a working thyroid, I think he’ll be down 5 to 10 lb because he has more weight to lose than I do but I don’t think I’m ever getting under 153 until I’m old and dying. Need to have 1000 calories a day to bust under that and the only way to do that would be with the stomach band because I’m not going to magically acquire the incredibly amazing willpower it would take to do that every day for months. I also can’t live on toast and popcorn for a year, but yeah, I was really hungry when I was getting ready for bed so I threw a couple of slices of bread in the toaster and sprayed it with zero-calorie butter spray and found it didn’t put any weight on me.

Just to see if it was a coincidence or not, I had a couple of pieces of toast shortly after I got up and had my coffee and found that it still didn’t put weight on me. Then I waited about an hour and had another couple of slices and got the same results… No weight gain. I’m pretty sure bread is still supposed to be bad for you either way because it supposedly has a negative influence on blood sugar or something like that. I’ll have to do some research sometime.

Poor Aly found mice again in their garage. They set up cameras and found the nest and have some guy coming to remove it. She also has the same cough and congestion she had before. At least if they ever have to move they can do it right away as most people can.

Had my first dream involving Cam. Even though I’ve never seen a picture of him, I still knew who he was. I lived alone in a place that didn’t look anything like this, and he and Aly came to visit. As we were all getting ready to turn in one night, he started complaining that I was coming between their relationship. Well, he used the word “marriage,” actually.

“So just because I turn to her during some tough times that means I’m coming between you? Well, I’m sorry if I came between you or you think I did,” I said.

I couldn’t believe how rude he was after I put them up for free. I momentarily thought of kicking him out but that would mean kicking Aly out as well and I didn’t want to do that to her. I decided to go to bed, if I wasn’t too pissed to sleep, and would deal with his rude ass in the morning.

Told Aly about the dream and she said he was not accusatory or jealous in any way even though it was still an interesting dream.

Went swimming and the pool was both deserted and gorgeous on what turned out to be a 106° day. Very hot and dry with only 14% humidity. The water felt cool at first, then perfect, then slightly warm after I got out for a second, then dove back in.

Getting excited with August right around the corner! Definitely onto something with the brand and the dose. Just don’t know how much of the dose is a factor these days but brand…definitely!

The only thing that bothers me is what if I never figured this out? How long would it have been before any doctor told me to question and experiment with brands?

Tom was telling me about an article he read where everyone in this guy’s family, including him, would be so dizzy that they would be bedridden. The doctors did all kinds of tests, including testing his thyroid and looking for tumors yet found nothing. Eventually, they gave up on him and told him to go to a shrink. In the end, he had to be his own doctor in order to figure out what was wrong with him. Through research, he learned that the tip of one of his adrenal glands was enlarged. But because the tissue wasn’t abnormal but just more of what was normal, it didn’t show up during testing.

I also remember this movie I saw where this girl started doing crazy things and she too, was referred to a shrink when it turned out she had a rare autoimmune disease that affected her brain. One doctor who actually cared and wasn’t too lazy to do the work of figuring it out, discovered it.

It really does bother me and even pissed me off when I think of all these so-called experts that fail to consider other possibilities. I realize they can’t always be perfect and they don’t always know it all and get it right, but the number of doctors that prefer to take the easy way out and write something off as simple anxiety or whatever is a bit frightening. There’s no excuse for that! We have lost so, so much time and money on anxiety-related appointments that could have been prevented.

Same with the lady rash I had. If Alyssa had just fucking diagnosed me correctly, I never would have gone through the intense burning and itching of steroids and suffered 4 years when all I had to do was switch to all-cotton undies, change them a few times a day, use free and clear soaps and detergents, and get a bidet. It just seems like any doctor should be smart enough to have been able to diagnose and tell me these things the first time around. So Amy is definitely my hero, and Tom confirms that everything looks normal again down there. :-)

I do admit that Dr. O didn’t brush my entire case off as me just being anxious and that she did tell me and explain about pocket flares in the thyroid, which probably had a hand in the booming heart episodes I was having.

Also, when I was telling my GYN what happened she did say, “Oh, yeah, Levothyroxine can have some pretty scary consequences.” She didn’t say, “Anxiety isn’t even a side effect,” like Dr. A did.

Alyssa also did tell me it could make my heart race but for the most part, she blamed it on severe anxiety. Yeah, I had severe anxiety, all right, but it was mostly the medication at that time and some perimenopause. Sometimes she would kind of acknowledge this but Dr. A has always completely denied the medication as having a hand in it. This doesn’t mean I think Dr. A’s a bad doctor. She’s fine with everything else and I’ve seen her for half a decade now so I’m comfortable with her. From the research I’ve done and other stories I’ve heard, sadly, it’s common for patients with problems with Levothyroxine to be written off as simple anxiety cases because most people don’t have problems with the drug and it’s easier for the doctors that way. The less work they have to do to figure things out and look at other alternatives, the easier their jobs are.

I won’t even begin to get into the joke of an endo I first had with the other medical group. Amazing how she had a shitload of negative reviews when she lived here, but then she goes down to SoCal and everybody just loves her. Yeah, right! Fuck you, Doc D.

This isn’t to say I won’t ever be anxious again. I’m not postmenopausal yet and I’m still on this very strong and sometimes finicky drug. But in four months I’ve had only nine anxious days, most of which were mild and short-lived compared to the relentless, kickass anxiety I suffered for so long I wished I would die. Hopefully, it will continue to remain few and far between and short-lived if it doesn’t completely go away, but if anyone knows what it’s like to have the carpet yanked out from under her, it’s me. So I know there’s still a possibility it could come back full force as unlikely as it seems. I think as long as I stay on this brand and then cut my dose back down again if I try 75s and have problems again, I should be okay.

Still paying off things, though. Tom’s almost done paying off his MRI, and my ENT appointment was $250, we just learned. The biopsy is going to be at least $500, so we’re always in medical debt at least until we’re 65.

I wish I could be my own doctor again and figure out my weight so I could lower my risk of heart disease and other things even though it’s only 30 extra pounds, but there’s nothing to “figure out” in that case. I’m just older with shitty genetics. I don’t think being able to tolerate my medication to the point where I had perfect numbers would help either because Tom’s numbers have always been perfect yet his metabolism is even slower than mine. Most guys his height can have over 2,000 calories a day and still lose weight. He has to go to 1600 or lower.

I can’t get under 153 pounds without going under 1200 calories but that’s just too hard. Less than 1200 leaves me tired, grumpy, and hungry as hell. It’s just part of aging. If most older people could just lose weight, they would. I’m just glad my problem isn’t a lot worse as opposed to poor Tom. He has about 100 pounds to lose. We’re definite proof, though, that you don’t have to eat like a pig and sit on your ass all the time to be fat. I don’t even know if I can stay in the 150s all my life (even though I agree with those who say I look more like I’m 120 to 130 since I’m muscular) but I decided that when he’s 80, that’s it, LOL. I’m going to eat whatever whenever at that time since we won’t have that many years left anyway by then.

Purse stealing seems to be a common dream with me. Again, I got my purse stolen in my dreams when I was in this bus station and placed my hot pink purse down on the counter next to me. I only turned my head in the opposite direction for a split second and then it was gone.

This dream took place back in Springfield and I didn’t even know Tom. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get on the bus now that I didn’t have my purse and money to pay for the fare.

I sat down on a bench and a younger woman with long dark hair (OMG, every time I voice type my pigs start chatting, LOL) sat down next to me and seemed very friendly.

I don’t know how I got home but now I knew Tom, and an older woman that might have been my mom tried to call him at work about my stolen purse. She talked to somebody briefly, hung up, and said he was home. Then, sure enough, Tom walked into the place and I told him immediately about what happened.

The other dream seemed to be in Florida. They made a pool out of a small lake. Parts of it had a cement retaining wall and there were ladders like you would find in a pool. I stuck a foot in it and found the water to be nice and warm.

Really annoys me to be told by Tom that I’m just “more aware” these days and that there aren’t really any more loud cars than usual. Does he think he can brainwash me or something? Been pretty aware and observant all my life. We did NOT have as many loud vehicles years ago. Or as much traffic, loud or not. Plus, others have noticed the same thing. Yet no matter what I say, he’s always gotta disagree or suggests it’s “just me.”

“You’d never complain about a plane before.”

No, I wouldn’t…until there were dozens of them every day. They’ve been better lately but I’m sure that by September they’ll be an issue again. Small planes and helicopters are still a bit annoying at times, but hey, that’s just the new me, right? It couldn’t be because we’re close to an airport. Closer than any other place we’ve ever lived.

Didn’t sleep the greatest, although I’ve slept worse and awoken even more tired than I did. Heard the bastard who’s back as expected leave shortly after I got up. Yeah, he’s the bastard who likely woke me up a few hours before I got up when something loud zoomed by, but I won’t tell Tom that. It just gets too frustrating hearing how it’s just me being more aware, being “angry,” or perhaps I was just dreaming it.

Anyway, I’m sure the prick will be back again soon enough, making up for those few days it didn’t get to see its mommy and daddy. But I won’t make a comment like Carolyn and expect him to comment as well as Jon does. Instead of commenting, he’ll just be bothered by my comment/complaint.

There’s an estate sale going on at Dusty’s, so I guess the woman she took care of who lived there for 30 years died, and that house is next to go on the market.

Aly said she wouldn’t even tell Cam who she was considering dumping, let alone me. So it wasn’t me then. She’d certainly tell Cam if it was.

We went out to Rite Aid and neither of us got a single treat. Well, unless my merlot counts. That’s kind of become my new candy. Love the way it makes me feel and helps me unwind at the end of my day.

I had a dream I rode my bike to some pet store and purchased a small clear pink plastic cage for small animals. Then for some strange reason, I agreed to take this huge box and a large plastic ball, even though I knew I had no use for them and that the animals wouldn’t care for the ball. Instead of telling them, I had changed my mind, I simply said I would have to come back for the big box and ball because I could only take so much on my bike. I decided to myself I wouldn’t return, though.

Then I was talking to a young mom who adopted a baby girl and was a really good mother while remembering a documentary I’d seen about an older woman adopting a child that she abused and thinking how different they were.

Only I can have a bowl of popcorn, a beef patty, a cup of coffee, a Slim-Fast shake, and a mac & cheese cup and go from 153.2 to 156.4 in 7 hours. So yeah, going to be right where I am on the 10th, the day we guessed where we’ll be after starting diets together. Oh, he’ll get the results most people get from sticking to diets if he does stick to it, but I think I’ll be 153-154, which seems to be my new low. sighs Sometimes we can’t make our bodies do things they don’t want to do. I just have one of those bodies that don’t respond to diet and exercise. It may respond to 800-1000 calories, but that’s no way to live. Not for me, anyway. Meanwhile, we’re guessing he’ll be down to 260 and he thinks I’ll be down to 149-150. No way. LOL, just no way. He started at 270 and I started at 155. These are first-thing-in-the-morning weights.

I was frying a beef patty in Caribbean Jerk marinade when the damn thing splattered in my eye as I went to flip it. That definitely didn’t tickle!

Tom got two free pillows from work. Some company screwed up and instead of sending computer parts, they sent pillows so everybody got free pillows. I’m going to leave them in their packages and take them when we move. The pillows we’re using now should be fine until we get out of here.

We went to the pool shortly after he got in and there were four other women there. The water was chilly but still pleasant.

When I came back I had a strange toothache. It was more like that section of my jaw ached than the tooth itself. It was by my upper I-teeth, towards the right.

So I’m back on Ask, as I said yesterday, and I see that Aly’s account goes back 6 months. In one of her answers from January, she says she’s currently considering cutting someone out of her life and I can’t help but wonder if that was me she was referring to, but more than likely it was either Molly or Kim. I asked her on WhatsApp but if I don’t get an answer, then maybe it really was me.

I know that because she’s already dumped me once, she could do it again but if she does, that’s it. I’m not going to fight for her or anyone else who doesn’t want to be in my life. I may not be as unforgiving as I wish I was, but I think one area I have improved in is not wasting time over those who don’t want to bother with me. I’m not going to lower and belittle myself by begging someone to stick around. I’m going to just enjoy every day that they’re in my life and leave it at that.

Aly’s both easy and tricky to deal with. She’s great because she’s very intelligent and she’s not the least bit judgmental. But she is very emotional and sensitive and one can never know what may upset her and that could be the most innocent of statements and even single words. Hell, the word “busy” is a trigger for her because it reminds her of when she would be told by adults as a kid that they were busy and to go find something else to do. So I could say that I took my nose spray earlier and maybe the word “nose” will be a horrible trigger for her. While I certainly wouldn’t want to intentionally offend her, I’ve got to be myself as well, so I’m careful not to mention those few trigger words but I’m not going to worry about every single fucking thing I say either. No one can please everyone. No one. There’s nothing we can say, think, do or believe that wouldn’t offend someone somewhere.

Funny how as soon as we make up our minds to go rural in a year or two, I don’t hear the mama’s boy for a few days. As in, things getting quieter before we move, as usual. Then again, he does disappear every now and then and it’s not like a year or two is a few months from now.

Although I would have preferred to schedule my Revenge story on a different Google account, creating multiple accounts at the same place can be a pain in the ass, so I’ve scheduled it in a blog of its own to publish in 2055. I know there’s a risk that the entire account would be shut down if someone saw it and reported it, be it the people I want it seen by or not, thus canceling out the journals that are scheduled in their own blog also for 2055, but there are no guarantees anyway. The scheduling is only for if we both died suddenly and unexpectedly without warning, like in a car crash or something. If I know I’m going to die or we both know we’re both going to die or I die suddenly, one of us will publish what I want to be published.

Last night I dreamed I was going to some doctor somewhere that might have been a dentist. Or maybe not. I’m not really sure. She was reluctant to see me because she thought I might like her a little too much. This wasn’t true but I asked if she could at least take care of something she had started on, but I’m not sure what. Then she said, “Yeah, I guess I’m obligated to finish blah blah blah…”

After seeing her, I left her office which was in a small building and realized I was barefoot. So I went back in and searched for my shoes and couldn’t find them. I gave up and went back outside. But then I really wanted my shoes because I didn’t want to step on anything that could cut my feet, so knowing that I had them when I went in there and that they had to be in there somewhere, I went back in, determined to find them before they closed, which was soon.

Unable to find the shoes upon a second search, I started to get really worried that I would be stuck there barefoot. I don’t know if I was expecting someone to pick me up or if I just couldn’t get very far without shoes in order to call for a ride or get home on my own. For a split second, I was tempted to smash their windows once they closed to trigger their alarms and alert the police that I was stuck there. Then I quickly dismissed the idea, knowing they would take me to jail and not home if I did.

In another dream, I seemed to be waiting forever in some kind of car parts store. The store had a little waiting room in back and I was sitting with half a dozen other people waiting for the cashier to be available. I thought about getting some headlights that I knew my mother needed, but then thought better of it in case I got the wrong ones.

I scheduled the books that I had on Amazon to be published on Kobo over the next few months but they all published at once. Well, they put them out as pre-order items actually. So there are 5 published and 5 pre-orders.

Ordered a couple more sleeveless nightgowns because I’m low on summer nighties right now. I have one in pink, aqua, yellow and black. Soon I’ll have turquoise and lilac as well, so that will make six.

We ordered another bidet for the other bathroom as well. Definitely love the thing and wish I had it a long time ago. I already can’t wait to get one with a dryer in the next place. I always feel fresh and clean. Not only has the burning and itching in my crotch stopped but I don’t have that rash in my groin anymore. The leaking stopped too, or whatever that was where no matter how patient I was a drop of pee would sometimes leak which was why I wore liners for a while. It’s like a true miracle!

I created an email account in a bogus name and created a new account on Ask when Aly told me that new accounts aren’t being redirected. Well, they’re being hit with that game scam popping up on the phone so hopefully, it won’t happen on the laptop. So far, so good but as I told her, if it happens again with this account, I’m gone for good! Hate some of the changes they’ve made to that site but CC is pretty dead. At least it’s there as a backup, though.

She told someone on CC she ditched the account many knew about for a new one where she would no longer have the irritation/hurt of people deactivating.

Rolls eyes A little sensitive, are we? I can see getting a little frustrated but hurt? Literally, hurt? You gotta get off the internet if you’re that sensitive and going to take things that seriously! Really, that’s the one thing that annoys me about her. She’s way too sensitive and melodramatic at times, making way too big a deal out of some things. I got tired of having to watch every little thing I said, so since I can’t know if even the most innocent of statements may be something she’ll take the wrong way, I just say what I’ve got to say and accept that we can’t please everyone.

It really bothers me that people can look up what email accounts we have and what sites we’ve joined through those email addresses because it simply shouldn’t be anyone’s business unless we choose to tell them. So that’s why I created the bogus AOL email address under a random name. I don’t know why this country wants to bear and share it all but it’s definitely not big on privacy unless you take measures to do whatever you can to get some.

Didn’t sleep as well so I’m kind of tired today. I never sleep well during the daytime. I think it’s the stress of having to deal with the earbud and traffic, he thinks it’s perimenopause. Then why do I sleep better at night? I don’t think my hormones know what time of day it is.

Good news. I no longer have to worry about the painting of the roads waking me up because they did it today. Tom was right. It wasn’t loud. Now let’s see if they can stay out of the roads for more than a year!

I scheduled a handful of books to publish over the next few months but they published all at once. This is still okay, though. Aly has been kind enough to proofread Dumping Davina along with me. Once in the store, I’ll tip Alyssa off about it and let her know she inspired the Laurina character. LOL Wonder if it would make her curious enough to buy it, but I doubt it.

Started getting rid of clothes that were too small for me. No more of the, “I’ll wear them when I lose weight” bullshit because I’m never losing weight.

The calls are back. Got a couple that left voice messages claiming my social security number has been suspended due to suspicious activity.

Do they really think people are that dumb?

We’re in the triple digits which will make the pool pleasant for us. We were thinking of going for a dip on Friday evening. But even I get sick of intense heat after a while because it makes it so hard for working out and sleeping, especially working out. I’m on the treadmill right now and I have to do it in chunks.

I woke up for an hour or so at 6 after crashing at midnight and I should have made myself get up then because it’s still going to be a struggle to get to my next two appointments. Instead, I ended up dozing off until 11. :-(

While I dozed I had a dream I could definitely have done without. I don’t know if we were living in an adult community or where it was but the black bitch lived in our neighborhood. She had the same kind of screen mesh alongside her carport that we have.

I was walking by when it was dark and I could see a faint glow of light through the screen and then I heard her arguing with who I assumed was Mike somewhere in the carport. Then the talk turned romantic and she was talking about having another kid. I couldn’t wait to tell Tom and wonder how she would pull that off since that may be pretty tough to do at 44. In reality, she’s only a few years younger than me.

Then I was suddenly inside her house. She wasn’t home and I don’t know if I broke in or if I was with anyone else, but I was surprised at how immaculate it was. I was drinking coffee and poured what was left of it down the drain and put the cup in her dishwasher. Then I wondered if she’d recognize me if she came home, and thought I better just get out of there instead.

If you like the sound of landscaping, then Tuesdays are the days you would love it here. They do the greenbelt and one of the houses across the street on Tuesdays so it’s definitely the most active day for those mowers and blowers.

I totally love the new bidet and wish I’d gotten it years ago. It always leaves me as fresh as if I just stepped out of the shower. If only I had known! I don’t know if it was the treatment or the lack of regular use of a bidet or not always wearing all-cotton underwear that was giving me so many problems, but it’s great to feel so much better! Really thought I was doomed for life down there.

I just worry it might be a bit cold in the winter because it’s pretty cool right now and it’s 100° out there.

It has six levels of pressure and I like it best between one and two. I honestly don’t see how anybody could stand getting even remotely close to max pressure without ripping their asses apart.

I like the regular setting better than the feminine setting because the regular setting gets more toward the front of me. The feminine setting is actually best for taking dumps.

The only thing I hate is that now the toilet seat is even higher. That’s because the bidet nozzle goes between the bowl and the seat. You have to wedge these rubber pieces between the lid and bowl to fill in the gap, and I woke up to find the two back pieces in the toilet. Tom will glue them when he gets home.

Hoping to get bidets with dryers in the next place. Then, just like we eliminated our need for gas by getting an electric car, we wouldn’t need toilet paper either.

Had to get pig food on Amazon but I’m not going to get additional popcorn makers. Yeah, all the colors are cool but I really don’t need a dozen popcorn makers. My pink and purple ones are enough.

Sick of that live chat thing already. The people are boring and it’s not like I’m thirsting to talk to strangers, make new cyber pals, or meet anyone. It’s almost all men and if I don’t get some kid, I get some slut. To each their own but I just don’t find these folks interesting. I guess I’m just picky and hard to impress.

We were talking about when we think we can get out of here, and while life isn’t usually what we plan it and things often take longer than expected, we’re hoping that if things go well with his apps, next year. If not, the year after.

Still excited to return to country living despite the pros and cons. One concern is if he has a 45-minute drive to work and I absolutely have to start a new medication, well, that may be scary with a medication phobia and even scarier if something went wrong. Also, we do have an electric car and it can’t drive forever.

There are also pros and cons of going off the grid. I would prefer to have everything we need already there (the well, electricity), but then if we went off-grid we could pick out our own house. I’m hoping for 5-10 acres to get further from the street as opposed to 1-2 acres, but it seems that the bigger parcels are more likely to be off the grid.

I finally got a health update from Tammy and it’s not good. I was under the impression she was doing better and that she didn’t have sarcoidosis but just typical lung damage from smoking. I keep getting conflicting reports when I look up the life expectancy for those with sarcoidosis. Some say it will kill you within a decade by causing complications with things like the heart, lungs and brain. Other reports say it’s not disabling and most people live normal lives with it.

They’re going to be burning nerves during two separate surgeries next month in her lower back. I was surprised to hear this because I thought she said that when they did this in her neck, it failed to help and actually made things worse.

She had to get a fentanyl patch recently but says the sarcoidosis, which she does have, is stable at the moment.

Another thing is something with a heart valve that is being closely monitored. That’s the scariest thing she mentioned because that’s something that certainly could affect me as well with all the heart disease running in the family. I’m hoping that because I quit smoking a lot younger than anyone else did and am in better shape, I’ll escape these issues or at least not get hit with them until much later in life. I know that being thinner and more active than other family members doesn’t make me exempt from problems but I’m doing my best mostly by keeping active and eating healthy. It’s a lot easier to cut out sodium than cholesterol because I feel like my food options are limited without meat.

Aly went to her GYN this morning for a pelvic exam and some x-rays to make sure she doesn’t have any more fibroids, and I’m waiting for a report from her and hoping she doesn’t need that hysterectomy but it may be the only solution to these ongoing problems she’s been having. She’s been suffering a lot of pain and bleeding on and off. It’s really too bad she’s not able to have that bone marrow operation as well. This country is just so fucking fucked up when it comes to healthcare, and it’s scary how many doctors fuck up as well. They misdiagnosed Tammy, and 5 years ago they told me I was “just anxious,” 2 years ago they told me I had first LP and then LS, and how long would it have been before a doctor was smart enough to tell me to question my brand of medication had I not caught onto that myself?

She said two doctors have told her that the humidity is making her worse but I wonder why she wants to go to North Carolina? It may not be as humid as Florida but it’s still humid enough. I’d go to New Mexico or Nevada. Can’t recommend Arizona after what that fucking state did to me.

Tom and I had a fun, interesting and exciting chat yesterday. As you know, I’ve been torn between rural Nevada and subtropical Florida. I could sit here forever listing tons of pros and cons to both of them.

But then we looked on Zillow to get ideas of what’s available in both areas and then it hit me. Who says we have to choose one or the other? Why not do both? Hawaii may be just a fantasy but why not go down to the Nevada or New Mexico desert for a handful of years and then finish off in Florida?

We talked about the benefits of him working until he’s 70, and to be honest, as long as I’m not suffering in the way that I was with the anxiety ever again, I’d be okay with that. It’s nice to know that if worse came to absolute worse and I needed him to be home all the time, he could now retire, get whatever assistance we may need to supplement the retirement income and be home with me full-time.

If he works until 70, we’d get just over $2,000 a month and I’d start getting a bigger percentage then as I’d be 62. I wouldn’t get as much if he retired at 66 and got $1,600 a month. Right now it would only be $1,100 a month. So I hope he’s not being overly optimistic when he insists that coding apps can eventually boost our income by a few hundred dollars a month.

The idea of going to the desert until he’s 70 excites me mostly because I’m sick of the crowds and being so close to such busy streets. It might explain some of the “country dreams” I’ve had, too. I know and accept that if we go rural there’s going to be nonstop barking from the neighboring properties because that’s just the west for you. Dogs aren’t considered household pets here unless they have to be. So I know I’ll be in for barking day and night. But at this point, if I have to have sound machines on all the time to drown out noise that’s at least drownable rather than have to worry about ferociously loud sounds overriding the sound machine and waking me up, so be it. It’s a compromise I’m willing to make at this point since I’m not allowed to live in peace anywhere. We just have to be sure to get a place at least 100’ from the road and avoid flight paths. I’m talking about military flight paths. Living with Sonic booms was no fun at all.

I don’t know if we’re really going to do this as I do know that one’s plans often get thrown off course due to circumstances out of their control. One of us could develop health issues that could ultimately prevent us from moving to Florida in the end or something like that. I don’t like the idea of remaining in a climate similar to this or even a little colder, but I would take eight more years of that out in the country before I took five more years of it right here. I know yesterday was unusually quiet and it’s been quiet so far today, but I can pretty much guarantee that it ain’t going to last long. The loud car, other loud vehicles, and landscaping will make their presence known before I know it. In fact, here’s the mama’s boy right now.

Yes, rural pose some potential problems like a higher risk of a home invasion, longer waiting time in the event of an emergency, and the potential for more problems from neighboring properties, it also opens the door to all kinds of exciting possibilities as well. While the neighbors may be blasting music, letting their dogs yip and yap, and allowing their trash to blow onto our land since we’re likely going to have to go back to burning trash in a metal drum, we could get our own pool again! Not an inground pool like we had in Phoenix but one of those inflatables. About four feet deep is all we need and remember, one of us is short. I could have fun and just two or three feet of water. :-)

We could also get a dog sooner. The reason we haven’t gotten one here is that I can’t always be available to walk it during the daytime when he’s at work. But if we had land somewhere out in the country, we could put it outside during those times. Why not? Everyone else’s dogs would be outside. I just want to make sure that this time around we have adequate fencing to keep loose dogs out. Hated that in Arizona! Yeah, that’s another thing; they don’t just let them bark nonstop without a care in the world as to who it may annoy, they let them run loose, too.

I don’t know if we’ll get an established piece of land that already has a home on it or if we’ll go off the grid, but I guess that depends on what we find and the costs. We really don’t want to go over $100,000.

At first I was like, but we can’t get a place unless he’s fully retired or he could show he’s been at a job for at least a year, but given how much the average manufactured home is selling for in this area, I think we could actually get at least $70,000 for it as is. So if we put $30,000 down on a house, that leaves us $40,000 to hold us over until he can get a job, and it’s not going to take him two years to get one. Not unless we have another huge recession and that’s unlikely.

We saw a gorgeous modern house listed on a property in Belen, New Mexico, so we’re keeping our eyes peeled. Even if we do this, it’s not going to happen tomorrow or the next day. The biggest thing is that we stay healthy! As far as I can see, sudden and unexpected health issues could be the only thing that could hold us back. Hopefully, I’ll never experience the kind of anxiety I experienced because I’m never going to be in the heart of perimenopause again and I’m never going to be dumb enough to keep taking medication that so obviously seems to have a big hand in making me feel like shit. I’m now going to know about cutting back and questioning brands, etc.

With August approaching, my excitement is definitely turning up a notch after having just 9 anxious days which were mostly pretty mild compared to the weeks and sometimes months of hardcore anxiety I used to go through. I’m definitely onto something with the brand. No doubt about it. I’ll never touch Mylan or Lannett again. As far as dosage? I can’t say for sure exactly how much of that was a factor at this time. I won’t know until and if I return to 75s.

77 days. Just 77 days is all I need to go without a period and I’ll be officially menopausal!

Anyway, there are pros and cons to just about every state. I don’t like how Florida, New Mexico and Nevada don’t have the Death with Dignity Act that should have been implemented everywhere ages ago. That would be one of the few negatives to leaving Cali. Cali also has more programs than any other state. We couldn’t afford to stay here on $1,600 a month, but then we would get food stamps and free insurance to supplement us. Cali is a very giving state. It’s just harder to get stuff when you’re white and you’re from here. We shamelessly took food stamps in Auburn during the recession and it helped us tremendously. We were only disappointed that we didn’t know we qualified for help sooner. A lot sooner.

There is nothing more important than good health and happiness. Nothing. I would rather be happy and healthy and have just enough to get by than feel like shit with all kinds of extra money. Hell, I’d be dirt poor before I went through what I went through for most of the time we lived in this house!

Now for a surprising update on Tammy. First she tells me she’s reluctant to discuss her health with me because she read in my journal how I wrote that we spoke and once again it was all about her health issues. She’s correct. I did indeed write this not because I was sick of hearing about her health but because that seemed to be 99% of what we talked about. She would rarely ask things about me and I felt like I had to volunteer whatever. I don’t mind discussing the same things over and over for the most part (unless it’s race, politics or religion). It’s when that’s all I hear about that it gets old. Like me bitching about the noise or talking about the rats. I can see where that would get old for some people but what if that was all I talked about?

The question is where the hell did she see this? That’s something I would have kept private.

The surprising part was when she said the house was for sale and they’re moving to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. I was like... WTF? How did she go from Ohio to North Carolina? I thought maybe they had a falling out with Mark’s family but she said Ohio would be hard on him, whatever that meant. I’m thinking it has to do with the climate. I told her I couldn’t imagine her moving to Ohio and that she would regret every single snowflake just like I did in Oregon.

Getting a little worried about my weight. At first it looked like cutting my pills wouldn’t affect it but now I don’t know. Or maybe it would’ve happened even if my numbers were perfect and it’s just part of aging and my shitty genetics, but it’s getting harder to get even just those few pounds off that I’ve always been able to lose.

My weight’s still the same at 155.2 (has been for days now) and I worry either something’s wrong with me or it’s too late to lose weight. I’m afraid I’ve hit the latest highs too many times to get back down. The longer the extra weight hangs on, the more it becomes a part of you. So now getting to 153-154 may be a thing of the past. I’ll eat a little less today and tomorrow we’ll see if 155 really has “become me” or not.

Tom and I power-hosed the patio and furniture.

My office is now back in the living room once again but I’m not using the corner desk there. Well, I have the giant TV on it, but I actually brought out the smaller desk I had in the bedroom to put in front of it, angled the treadmill to the left of it, and put a small bookcase to the right of it, forming a U-shaped workspace. The idea is for me to be able to go back and forth from working on the treadmill to working sitting down at the desk without having to unplug things. The screen is a little high when sitting at the desk in a little low when on the treadmill but it’s working out nicely so far. This way I only have to move the mouse back and forth and I’ll hopefully be motivated to walk at least an hour a day this way.

I just wish I could lose more than a few pounds, but at least I will lose a few and I’ll be healthier and feel better. I put the skier in the bedroom where the small desk was so I can ski when listening to my book as I begin to unwind.

The only negatives to being in here besides the fact that it’s noisier with all the big windows are that it’s warmer in this area in the summer and colder in the winter. At least I can be around the animals more.

While today has been unusually quiet as far as traffic and landscaping goes, you do hear the little sounds easier in the living room unless something’s running like the little fan on the corner of my desk or some kind of white noise/nature sounds. Right now I hear some dog yapping down the street that I’m pretty sure lives on the other side of Bob and Virginia. Or maybe it’s Santa’s dog. Heard it when I visited Bob and Virginia on the 4th and then walking to Dixie’s.

Got a very lovely and realistic German Shepherd figurine that is quite heavy from Goodwill. It’s obviously meant to be outdoors but I’m keeping it indoors because it’s so beautiful. Had to touch up some chips with paint, but I just love it. :)

Almost didn’t go treasure hunting there today thinking it’d be too soon for them to have new stuff. When I didn’t find anything interesting where the figurines and dolls are kept, I moved on and cut through an area of the store I don’t usually browse in. It was then that I spotted the dog. Someone probably got it from where the figurines are and changed their mind as they went through the store, then placed it there.

Also got a tiny figurine of a rottweiler puppy with a leash in its mouth.

Just had an interesting and exciting chat with Tom but I’ll explain later, plus a surprising update from Tammy.

Dumping Davina is now finished at 13399 words! But I’m having trouble submitting it for validation. Maybe it will be fixed after the weekend.

Yesterday I was pulling the trash bin in after the trash was picked up, and a woman in a white SUV waved to me. My first thought was that it was Geri since she has a white SUV, but she doesn’t usually flash such a bright smile as this woman did. It was then that I realized it was Dixie.

Tried to talk myself out of bothering, knowing the potential trouble friends can bring, but was curious so I took a walk down to her place and asked if she knew when they would be painting the speed bumps.

She said she didn’t know and when I realized she had been eating, I asked if I caught her at a bad time. She said no, and that she and her stepdaughter were eating salads she picked up at Wendy’s.

I asked if she liked it here and she said she didn’t like having to pay a grand for the lot and having to hire a gardener. They have way more plants than we do, but when cared for, it looks nice and makes the place much more private. Their patio and furniture were nice and clean, too. Tomorrow we’ll be power-hosing our patio and furniture. Despite the regular noise from traffic and landscaping, it’s good to get out in the fresh air and sun if only for a few minutes a day and actually use the bench swing we paid hundreds for.

So she invited me in and never shut up, LOL. She was rather erratic too, in that she changed subjects rapidly and was a bit contradictory. She wasn’t happy here due to it being expensive and the freeway so close, but later she said she was very happy there. She doesn’t seem bothered by the traffic but doesn’t like how she can “smell” the freeway (gas).

Her daughter was scarily ugly. Her face reminded me of a pug dog with her wide-set bulging eyes. She lives there and she’s the one that gets picked up by that loud Pride bus. I guess they deal with mentally challenged people and I get the impression she may be autistic. Those are almost as hard to deal with as bipolars. You cross them or they think you’ve crossed them and they’ll go ballistic on you. Wonder if Kim’s listed as autistic? Despite living in a country that isn’t very big on privacy, I can’t think of any way to look that up and find out exactly what her disabilities are said to be.

I’m guessing Dixie is in her 70s, Pug, her 50s.

Once inside the house, I found that it was the exact same house we have. Just different carpet and colors, of course. They didn’t seem to have much. Their bookcase was mostly empty. They had a small dining table but there was stuff on it, like beads and things for crafting projects. What was weird was that instead of sitting on stools at the counter, they had a little two-seater just inside the kitchen, running along one of the counters. Why block cabinets when you can sit at the counter, I wondered, but it’s their place. So, whatever works for them.

She pulled out a very uncomfortable chair from the dining table for me to sit on while they sat in their kitchen finishing their salads. She pointed out things she liked and didn’t like about the place. She doesn’t like the dark granite countertops but she likes the Berber carpet. Me too. I would still prefer laminate flooring but if I had to have carpet, that’s what I would go with. Pretty sure that’s what Bob and Virginia have as well.

She said that a guy was going into his house somewhere in this park and left the door open behind him. First she said something about him bringing his bike inside and then it was a dog. Either way, some guy followed him in and tried to rob him or something. When she told me this, I remember the time we were coming in from wherever and saw a cluster of cop cars. I wonder if that had anything to do with it. The gates are open in the daytime but since the park is a bit out of the way, I’m guessing it was a gardener or something like that. Random druggies and homeless people simply don’t wander into this park.

First she spoke kindly of the lady next to her and “Santa.” Then she said something about not saying anything to anyone because of her words being misinterpreted, whatever that meant, and also that she was told the people here were friendly but doesn’t think so.

Well, I can think of a certain household that truly doesn’t want to get along with its neighbors. I think at first they started off not caring, then when they learned that some people around here don’t appreciate their shit, they went out of their way to be more annoying. People are just twisted like that. It’s like how Miss Perfect was. First she seemed to care about my feelings and not offending me. Then she didn’t care if she did or not. Then she actually went out of her way to piss me off.

But yeah, the mama’s boy has been coming around more and more, like two or three times a day. It really does make me wonder if he’s homeless by choice and if it’s about spite. It’s like his parents are total enablers, feeding him, paying for the heap of shit he drives, and his cigarettes just so he doesn’t have to get a job and take responsibility for his own life. I can’t think of any other legitimate reason he would be around so often other than due to being a moocher and just for pure spite. From what I’ve heard of Melody, she definitely sounds like the type that would have her son annoy the neighborhood after being complained about. She and her husband aren’t disabled, so he’s no caretaker. My first thought was maybe he was working on their place for them but since 2017? They don’t have any business they run online or anything that I’m aware of, and even if they did, why would that require him to spend so much time there if he was helping them out?

We went to Whole Foods this morning to check out their buffet. Damn parents who let their kids scream and shout non-stop! Everywhere we go, unless it’s really early or really late, some brat is out of control. I don’t understand how the parents themselves can stand it. When I was a kid, kids simply didn’t act like this. They were taught discipline, manners and respect. I wish more teachers would pick up where today’s parents are leaving off. It isn’t just those around them they annoy with their ear-piercing antics, but if raised to believe it’s okay to be so uncivilized as kids, they’re going to become selfish, inconsiderate adults. Well, that’s not what I want running the world in 20 years.

Would love to go to this really cool water park we drove by but it’s because of these brats that I can’t enjoy things like this because they’re always there to ruin things. We both hate crowds anyway, but still. People should be able to go out in public without someone screaming in their ear so loud they can’t hear their husband talking to them, just like they should be able to go out and not have to inhale secondhand smoke. You may not give a shit about your lungs, but I care about mine.

So the buffet itself wasn’t really that great. The pizza wasn’t the best I’d ever had and the rest of the stuff I gathered was just okay. The mac and cheese were outstanding but the eggs tasted funny, bacon is just bacon, potatoes are just potatoes, then there was something I tried that I didn’t like all because it turned out to be spicy. Definitely not worth going back again.

The cool thing was that they have a handful of charging stations outside their place so we could get a free charge while we were in the store. I was surprised by how many other electric cars were there charging as well.

The traffic was no fun either and every time I’m out in it, I long to be in a much less populated area. Since we can’t live in Maui, I really like the idea of Stuart because it’s a lot smaller and almost everybody is older there. As I said, I don’t understand how people can tolerate these wild brats these days, but if you can, you’re damn amazing! I know not all of them act like animals but the numbers are way up there for sure.

After waiting at a long light, Tom pointed out that I’m getting more impatient lately and he’s right. I am. I don’t know why, but I just am. I think most of us get less tolerant and impatient with age. But that’s not what bothers me. I’m content to be who I am. It’s him being more bothered by my complaining than what I’m bothered about that bothers me. He admitted he’s “weak.” I guess in that sense he kind of is, but it also isn’t just him not being able to handle me complaining, I really get tired of him making excuses for or defending the people and things that bother me. Who the hell does that?

I’m worried about my buddy because I’ve had a feeling about her needing a hysterectomy. But then she started improving and I thought maybe my vibe was meaningless. However, she started having problems again, so I don’t know. Unfortunately, I’m not usually wrong on these kinds of things.

I’m also worried about Tammy because she’ll be 62 soon and I’ve had a bad feeling about her hitting that age for several years now. I just don’t know what it’s about.

Not sure I’m going to keep my Twitter account or CC because it’s been kind of dead. Even our camp cabin is awfully quiet.

After we came back, we went out to Rite Aid a little later for treats and my mini-wines I can’t seem to give up. Especially merlot! I first thought it would be cool to get a bottle of Merlot and not touch it for 15 years or so to see what it tastes like after it’s aged, but then when I read up on how to age wine, I found that it’s best for it to remain at a steady temperature of around 55 degrees. That’s not something I can do, so I’m not going to bother. I’m also not going to spend hundreds just to find out what aged wine is like.

Was watching a really cool documentary about the sun and learned some amazing facts like how the light we see when we look at the sun takes a hundred thousand years to get from the core to the surface yet only eight minutes to hit the Earth and four hours to make it to Neptune.

On our way into the store, I found a penny lying heads up in the parking lot. I know from first-hand experience that if you pick up a penny that’s tails side up, it’s bad luck. Well, picking it up on the head side isn’t exactly good luck as I’d hoped because we won’t be installing the bidet today. The tee connector doesn’t fit. Ordered one specially made for Veken bidets that will arrive tomorrow.

“I’m not what you think I am. You’re what you think I think I am.”

Saw this meme on Facebook in the first person that came to mind was Andy. In his mind, I was definitely everything he was and that he wanted me to be, which was part of why our friendship couldn’t work.

He parked up the hill when he got in at around 4 yesterday and then decided around 7 that if they hadn’t moved the barricades he was coming in anyway because Candy needs to be charged at night. Turns out people were getting impatient since it was after 6, so they moved the barricades themselves.

Not sure it was really worth spending the time and money, not to mention putting people out, to coat the roads here. When I was out walking, you could still tell where all the cuts were that they made during other annoying projects, and none of the cracks were filled in. All they did was make everything the same color. It’s kind of an ugly one, if you ask me because it’s so dark. It still looks better than it did before.

They worked on and off for about 7 hours. The huge blowers that looked like they were pushing these generators around, were moderately loud, but the seal coater wasn’t that loud. Jackhammers and woodchippers are way louder. When they had all their equipment turned off, it was dead quiet since no one could drive by. You’d think it was 4am or something.

From a distance, it looked like a giant mop mopping the road and I learned how the process was done just by watching. Didn’t smell inside the house but it was a little smelly outside. I took pictures to share with Tom and on Facebook.

The thing is that I know they’ll find something else to do in the roads before we know it. There’s always some shit going on here. They haven’t painted the speed bumps yet so that’s one more thing I’ll have to deal with and hope it doesn’t wake me up, depending on when they get to that. I’d like to say I hope this will be it for a while but I’m sure it won’t be. If it isn’t the park doing something loud and obnoxious, it will be one of the residents.

On my way back, Bob was sweeping behind his garage. I said hello and asked what he was up to. In a grumpy tone, he said, “Picking up this mess!”

I told him they made a mess of our carport as well and Tom had to blow it off.

Yesterday really got me missing country living and while there would certainly be positive things to that, I still don’t know if it’s wise for an aging couple to just go off the grid.

I also have mixed emotions about Florida’s climate vs. Nevada’s. I really want to live in a more tropical climate that’s warmer year-round but I’d worry about storms waking me up regularly and evacuations and shit like that for hurricanes, and we don’t know how living there may affect our health. There’s just no way to magically know this without living there for a while.

While I wouldn’t have to worry about this in the desert, it gets colder there than a lot of people think. I don’t want to go anywhere where it’s cold, even if it was only for a couple of months.

The mama’s boy has already been making up for lost time, as I knew it would. Came in earlier, though not at 6:30. It made one of today’s three trips beginning at 7:45.

I messaged Carolyn and told her that if they’re on vacation, they picked the right time for that, and mentioned how noisy it’s been and the pictures I posted. They’re in Alturas because their daughter and SIL opened a grocery outlet. They’ll be back this evening.