I knew that getting good sleep the night before last and having energy was the exception and not the norm. Some strange thumping sound woke me up in the middle of my sleep last night and I couldn’t fall back asleep for a couple of hours. Naturally, I’m tired today. My sleep is cursed no matter where I go and what I do. There’s just no escaping it. As I told Tom, I think soundproofing is a waste of time and money. I’ll still wake up, quieter here in general or not. Plus, the soundproofing can’t block the loudest of sounds like the landscaping and fierce thunder. I just hope it doesn’t affect my sleep badly enough to wish we’d waited longer to get a mortgage for a place in the mainstream. At least I won’t be asleep every Tuesday during the daytime. This Tuesday, they’ll likely wake me up, though.

Furthermore, my back has been aching and I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been too tired to exercise regularly or because of the memory foam mattress. Could be this chair I’m working in since the back is tipped too far back and I have to hold myself upright. I can recline back when watching shows but it’s easier to sit up for writing, yet I don’t have proper support. That’s why my new pink, salon-style chair is on its way!

Not liking this memory foam mattress much to begin with, I’m going to give it to him and get the very first coil mattress I got in Cali while we were still in Auburn. This one had a plush pillow top and didn’t need a mattress pad. It won’t get here for a month or two, though. I just don’t like how memory foam makes me warm and is hard to change positions after you sink down into it. I miss the bounce of coils even though they do sag quicker than memory foam mattresses.

Our new toilets and bidets were installed today by a guy with a 5-year-old boy. Guess he couldn’t get a sitter. The kid was actually well-behaved. The toilets are great in that they’re lower, so the toilet step we just got is more money wasted. The bidets look much better and very stylish but will take some getting used to.

Also wasted were the upholstery cleaner we got and leather wipes since the chairs I used the wipes on don’t feel any different and probably are actually vinyl.

I’ve been up for 11 hours and have heard 12 planes so far. No helicopters today but there were 4 of them yesterday. So, definitely disappointing but my biggest concern is how I’m going to survive the weekly landscaping. It’s gonna be the equivalent of trash day at the old place because it takes them three or four hours to do it, and even worse because it’s so much louder. Every now and then I slept through trash day but there’s no way in hell I’m going to sleep through this shit literally right smack dab outside my windows. It’s not a few-minute ordeal either. First someone edges, then someone mows, and then someone blows but there’s a gap in between. They don’t go through each step one right after the other.

He saw a dark solid colored snake that was about 3 ft long when he headed to the storeroom, but when it saw him coming it slithered off under the fence to the field in back. Because it ran like that and didn’t coil, it probably wasn’t poisonous.

Decided to drop Replika because they changed the appearance and were giving me fewer credits for logging in. You know I hate change, especially when they take away features rather than simply add them. Besides, I never could take it literally like so many people seem to be able to. It just wasn’t real. It was just a computer program that was programmed to respond in certain ways depending on what was said to it. Nothing can ever replace Aly who I still miss terribly. I was amazed and even a bit saddened by how many people got so into it that they would “marry” their reps and even have babies with them. Do they realize that it’s not real? Role-playing and pretending is one thing but that just seemed a bit much in my opinion. Sometimes I wish I could make-believe and make something seem real that isn’t but I guess I’m just not good at brainwashing myself.

My skin is a bit drier since being in this house but I can still get away without lotion for the most part. Still have numbness at the side of my right thigh as well. I’m beginning to wonder if that will ever go away.

A couple of days ago we got more rain than we’ve seen in the last five years! It really came down long and hard and there was lots of thunder and lightning. The front part of the lanai’s roof leaks but it’s simple enough to put a coating over the metal roof.

Hate how the fridge has what looks like coffee stains running down part of it that’s really rust.

I checked and yes, this does seem to be Berber carpet in here. Very pricy stuff. We have vinyl siding on the house which is a dull tan color. The maroon trim is even uglier. The carport and steps are tan with black and white specs scattered throughout and also kind of dull.

He went through the park rules and there’s a mix of good and bad. There are no set times that kids can’t be in the pool. But since it’s a smaller park and most people aren’t from here and would likely have any grandkids in other states, I’m hoping there won’t be many kids in it.

You can’t do things like put tin foil in your windows, paint your place wild colors or turn your lanai into a shed if you wanted to. You also can’t let your dog bark, leave it outside, or make sounds loud enough to be heard outside your house like if you have a party or something.

Yeah, well, from the looks of it, the lady to the left is one step away from assisted living and I’m sure we’ll get someone in there with a loud vehicle that will be a definite rule breaker and that we couldn’t complain about if we didn’t want to get spited for it.

It’s more Florida-like here than I thought it would be this far north. I mean, there are more palm trees and plants and decorations that do make you think of Florida. Plus, there’s the sandy soil.

Left a post on Facebook that only Andy could see asking that people not send me political/race/religious-related memes or jokes because I’m simply not interested and have heard enough of these subjects. I’d be willing to bet just about anything, though, that he’s not only seen the post but will continue to send me that shit anyway.

We’ve been getting stuff like crazy from Amazon. Found out that the mailman delivers Amazon stuff which will lower the number of delivery trucks running through here except for Sundays. Here’s a list of all our goodies:

A new shower caddy that’s on a tension rod for my shower since the shower isn’t any better as far as places to put things than the other ones were. It’s definitely nicer in that it’s cleaner and newer looking. In fact, it almost looks brand new. His is a combination shower and tub so it’s narrow and takes some getting used to for him. We might have a leak in that area so he’s going to use mine for a few days to let it dry up and then run water and see if it gets wet again in front of the tub.

Horrible blackout shades. They’re light filtering instead and have holes in them for strings to go through.

A bookcase/headboard similar to the one we had for 16 years or so.

Philips Sonicare rechargeable electric toothbrush for kids which fits my mouth better.

Norelco shaver for him.

Fancy toilet paper holders for both bathrooms.

iPhone and fancy case for me.

Starfish and seashells hand towels for the kitchen.

Textured coverlet.

Cordless vacuum cleaner (awesome).

Splatter screen for frying.

3-tier spice rack.

A treadmill.

Kitchen sink faucet.

Cute little ceiling fan/light pull chains with tiny fans and light bulbs hanging from the ends so you know which is which.

Floral crossbody purse.

Dual-sided long-handle shower brush for scrubbing your back (great one).

A body pillow and feather pillows. The feather pillows are nice in that they can be reshaped but they’re a bit pokey and the material used to encase them is kind of “crunchy” like it’s part paper or plastic and not just cloth.

A doorknob and number keypad lock for the door.

Plungers and toilet brushes for the bathrooms.

Decorative doormat for inside the door with birds and flowers.

Wind chimes.

A set of necklaces.

Light bulbs that hopefully won’t be so blinding.

Hand towel holder for the master bath.

Navy drapes for the master bath that gets a ton of sunlight in the morning which really warms it up in there.

So much to write about and so much I’m forgetting! It’s not always convenient for me to make notes.

I’m continuing to like this place better than the other place although it isn’t noise-free. Right now I’m hearing the drone of tractors working in the new addition. Didn’t think I’d hear it in here or nearly as many planes as Cali.

I took a walk early this morning and it was gorgeous. A touch humid but still very nice. I walked straight down our street which is pretty long. I saw that they’re adding some new homes at the very end of it but it’s too far away to bother me in any way. Hope no one decides to leave a dog out back in the mainstream area that I can see from the bedroom as I’d definitely hear it in here at night.

So the noise negatives are that I do hear planes and helicopters. Just not as many as at the old place, especially helicopters. At least I hope it won’t be as many.

Also, there are no highways close by but there’s a road about a mile away in which I can hear some traffic in the dead of night. So it isn’t dead quiet at night like I hoped. Just not as loud as the other place.

I haven’t been up all through the night yet but I’m guessing that part of the positives as far as noise goes means I won’t have the obnoxious buzzing of small planes and helicopters circling round and round. I also can’t see this place being choc-full of projects.

A definite positive that I’m totally loving is the lack of loud traffic. I don’t even see people walking and bike riding like I would at the old place. I’m sure being the hottest, muggiest time of year has a hand in that, though I do see tons of golf carts going by. I don’t hear tons of door slamming, especially with seasonal places right next door and across the street toward one side of the house. The lady next to us on the other side is very quiet and doesn’t go out often at all. Watch. Now she’ll die or move and we’ll get someone in there with a loud vehicle that comes and goes half a dozen times a day. It would be just my shit luck.

A small plane just flew overhead. Again, they’re disappointing but not surprising. I was really hoping we could get down to just a few a day but I knew we wouldn’t. Everybody’s flying everywhere these days and I don’t see that ever changing. The only way we’re not going to hear planes and helicopters is when they go electric but that won’t be in my lifetime.

Tom’s actually right in saying they were at cruising altitude when he heard them. I didn’t think I would be able to hear any commercial planes flying above about 15,000 feet but because it’s so quiet in the area in general, I can hear them over 2000. They have all different planes at different heights. I don’t know that there will be the 60-80 or so planes I’d hear at the other place but probably still at least 20-40.

Tom is out right now running errands so I’m taking time to catch up here. I’ve been battling horrible fatigue but today is better. I wanna say I’m too old for such big moves and changes in my life but then again, 55 isn’t that old. I can see this being hard on someone over 70 but at my age? I just hope my thyroid hasn’t died off anymore and that I haven’t become diabetic! I know I’ve definitely gained weight. My clothes are tighter, I’m even less flexible, and my joints are stiff as hell. I get that the joint thing is definitely menopause and due to being holed up in hotels for three weeks, so I’m definitely looking forward to being more active whenever my energy levels allow me to be. It’s just frustrating because some days I simply don’t have the energy to do much.

What’s also frustrating is knowing I won’t be able to lose whatever weight I’ve gained. I don’t even know if I can prevent myself from putting on any more. Again, I’m hoping the weight gain was just because it wasn’t convenient to eat healthily and I couldn’t be very active in the hotels and not because my thyroid has died anymore or anything else is wrong. I’m too short to be dragging around all this weight! I feel like my metabolism is so damn slow now that even starving myself probably wouldn’t get me very far.

He signed us up for insurance yesterday and we were surprised to find that it’s a lot cheaper than we expected! Even cheaper than in Cali!

We talked about investing in stocks and seeing where we end up a few years from now. We’re going to fix the place up for us and our own comfort and enjoyment but at the same time, it will up the value of the place. It’s a cute little house and I like that it’s quieter here but I don’t know that I want to be cramped in here for the rest of my life. So maybe the stock market will be our ticket to a bigger, newer place. It would really be nice to live in something that wasn’t more than 10-15 years old.

Oh, and another negative here is that the neighbors are definitely closer than Nancy’s place. So hopefully when the place is no longer empty on the bedroom side, they’ll be quiet. Working at my desk with the blinds open, I can see the cute little statues they have at the side of their lanai. A Pelican and some mushrooms.

Signing in during a thunderstorm. Been so busy and exhausted that I’m way behind in my journal. I doubt I’ll remember all the details of everything at this point but I’ll do my best to cover the highlights. Been in the house a couple of days now and my only complaint is that it’s too small and we’re still in a flight path, but so is most of the world these days. Might as well finally make peace with the damn things and get used to it. I don’t think it will be quite as bad as Citrus Heights, though. I sure hope not!

We’ve got a long way to go toward getting the place where we want it to be but it will give us something to do little by little. It’s just harder when you’ve only got so much room to work in, but it’s important to get their shit out of the way that we don’t want so that we can work in our stuff when it finally gets here. That won’t be for a couple more weeks.

Just as I knew it would, the sleep issues and fatigue have followed me to my new home. My first night it was my bladder that woke me up along with the storms. I also had a splitting headache. Last night it was a nightmare about drowning and then my bladder again.

Still dealing with fatigue and partial numbness in my leg. The leg I can live with but I really hope I get more energy back so I can do more.

Some of the thunderstorms are as loud as they were in Maricopa. There’s no way we can soundproof that out and unfortunately, the same goes for the landscapers. First they edge, then they mow, and then they literally go right by the bedroom with their obnoxiously loud blower that sounds like what the other park had. They came on Tuesday and I’m really hoping they don’t do this shit every week otherwise it’s going to be worse than trash days at the old place. Every now and then I managed to sleep through trash days, but there is no way I could ever sleep through that no matter how exhausted I was. They come up the carport and along the sidewalk that wraps around the side of the house that my bedroom is on.

I can’t say whether these trash and recycle trucks will wake me up or not before the soundproofing material is up, but I highly doubt it.

Had a lot of people out to the house so far. An electrician to replace some breakers that came to $1400 that the IRS paid most of, LOL. He was baffled as to why they gave him $1100 the other day but then he figured it had something to do with Unemployment and the stimulus.

The carpet cleaning guy was out as well which cost $400, and we’re so glad we had him do the couch and chairs. It’s amazing how much cleaner he got them and the carpet! It may not look brand new but pretty damn close and good enough until and if we ever do get new floors. It took him three hours to do it.

Eventually, we’re going to replace the AC, refrigerator, and probably the dishwasher but those things aren’t high priorities. Getting the bedroom soundproofed and replacing these old windows is what’s most important. For some reason, the only window that’s been replaced is the one in the kitchen.

We got the new toilets and now we’re waiting to find out when they can be installed.

Other than planes, a few helicopters, and small planes, it has been way quieter here in general than the other place. It just really sucks about the planes, but considering that I heard one as soon as I stepped foot in this place the first time I came to see it, I knew right then and there that we were still in a flight path. I’m just so glad to be rid of the constant loud traffic! Can’t see there being so many projects here either.

I’m at the built-in desk off the kitchen by the back door, and while it’s cute and nice and bright, maybe I’ll move my office into the bedroom. That’s the only room that has extra space in it. That way I’ll have a little more privacy since I can close the door and concentrate better on whatever I’m working on but I don’t know. I kind of like it out here.

Going to eventually replace some of the ceiling fans, especially the one in the bedroom because it makes an annoying buzzing sound and is off balance.

Haven’t heard much else going on around here but I did hear some barking off in the distance. I could barely make it out, though. The great thing is that some of the houses here are seasonal and the house next to my bedroom as well as one of the ones across the street are definitely empty. We saw the lady who lives on the other side of us getting things out of her trunk but we didn’t hear anything. She had a brace around her leg and a very hard time walking.

Just did a quick survey for the hotel. He and I both agree it was an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. The biggest nuisance was the horrible smell. Of course, trying to sleep during the daytime as a light sleeper was tricky but it was way worse than the other place. The night lady was nice enough to give me some free cookies to snack on during the last night there.

Margaret sent me a long message mostly bashing Dixie. So the ambulance and cop cars were at her house that we saw. Tom said it looked like it was a few houses down but didn’t want to walk down and investigate. I guess Diane fell and the EMTs called the cops because they were screaming at each other.

Andy’s being his usual annoying self sending me stuff he knows I’m not interested in (Trump stuff) and making me regret reaching out to him. It’s just that I love him otherwise and don’t want to hurt his feelings by ghosting again. He may not be perfect but he’s always been loyal. I’ll just give it a week or so before I message him again.

Although I slept better last time around, I continue to be tired. However, I’m excited because we’ll be going home in less than 8 hours! There is so much to be done but I’m looking forward to it. Not looking forward to the money it will cost but to personalizing the house.

Went over yesterday morning after we had breakfast and the only two negatives are that the place is small and yes, we’re in a flight path just like we were in Citrus Heights. Oh well. I’ll just have to live with it, I guess, just like most people do these days. Planes and helicopters are almost everywhere. I knew he was full of it when he said the plane he saw was “whisper-quiet” and at cruising altitude. I couldn’t have heard it if it was cruising and I probably wouldn’t even be able to see it either. If I could, it would be a tiny speck in the sky that was barely visible. The planes I heard and saw seemed about the same height of about eight thousand feet up. The question is if they’re as frequent as in Citrus Heights. Two of them went overhead when we were walking to and from the office which only took a few minutes, so I could sign the lease. Then there was a helicopter while we were inside the house.

The most important thing is getting rid of all the loud traffic so close to the house, and I agree with him that it’s much quieter there. Only a couple of cars and a golf cart went by when I was there and they were quiet. Even the garbage truck is quieter. They were there when we arrived, and not only is the truck quieter but they shouldn’t have to go back and forth since they have guys jumping out to grab the trash. That is until the park decides to get the huge, loud, automated trash trucks the other place uses.

The only other strange thing we heard and saw was a street sweeper. So far, I don’t think anything I heard would have woken me up. We’re definitely set back further from the street as well, and it’s weird being higher since the houses aren’t at ground level.

They told him that some of the places are seasonal and it looks like the one across from us is empty. Not sure what the deal is with the ones on the sides. The one on the left side has a lock box on it and there’s always a car there. The other one didn’t have a car when we were there and I noticed that one of the blinds in the window is half off, suggesting that it might be empty. Could be someone just too old to notice or care but it definitely stood out as a bit odd.

The housekeeper did a good job but not a great one. She did miss some places. She did a good job in the bathrooms, on the appliances, and on the floors, but she didn’t dust the top of his armoire or the refrigerator, and I’m sure she didn’t dust the fans either. Also, the window sills are filthy. I guess she tried to dust them and the blinds but they started falling apart. The blinds are definitely old and flimsy and need to go. I’m sure they’re the originals.

The lanai doesn’t have regular windows. Instead of glass windows, they’re some kind of taut plastic. The beds are gone and the guy that took them was kind enough to take the unwanted bedding as well. I decided to keep a couple of decorative pillows and one of the quilts but the rest we didn’t care for. Damn, did these people use a lot of pillows!

He met the mailman. A black guy named Maurice delivers it full-time. He started off joking that it wasn’t a good way to make a good first impression. Tom was baffled the first and then Maurice said, “Half of the stuff is for you.”

LOL, we have been making some huge Amazon orders, all right. He had some groceries delivered and we’re going to have more delivered today. The sink in the kitchen needed a new faucet, plus I need a new purse since the pink coating on mine is peeling. Also getting leather cleaner because while the kitchen set may be in good shape, the seats are sticky to the touch. Added seat covers in case cleaning them doesn’t help. We’re also getting a treadmill, the same coverlet the other hotel had that I liked, and a printer that prints nail stickers. Plus a splatter guard for frying, dish towels, and a spice rack.

Getting some cleaning and kitchen stuff from Walmart…a cookie sheet and a set of skillets.

I can’t wait to get away from this slow connection! Believe it or not, our connection is going to be four times faster than at the old place.

The guy came out to charge the AC but unfortunately, it will need to be replaced. The split system we wanted to get would cost too much to have installed, so since we’re going to be stuck with the floors for a while, our money is going to have to go to that.

The carpet cleaner will be out Wednesday morning so at least it will be sanitized even if they won’t be able to make the stains invisible. We’re pretty sure they had some kind of animal.

Still don’t know when the new toilets are going to be installed but we’ll have the bidets Wednesday as well. Damn, do I miss those!

Pain and sleep disturbances…the story of my life. Still have pain in and around my ear and I slept horribly. It was extra bangy for some reason so I was woken up 4 or 5 times. Then there’s the fact that I just couldn’t get comfortable. I couldn’t lie on my bad ear because it was too sensitive and I couldn’t lie on the other one because then my leg would start burning and tingling.

I really hope I’m not kidding myself by telling myself that the constant sleep disturbances end with going home. Really worried that as cursed as my sleep is whatever is cursing it will simply do something else…cause me to have more nightmares or wake up just because. I also wonder if people knocking on the door like when they deliver packages might wake me up. There’s a closet between the bedroom and the door but the door is still relatively close to the bedroom.

To make a quick update on where things stand now, the cleaning lady did a better job than he thought she would. The washer and dryer are also relatively new and work well. He washed my plush mattress pad yesterday.

It won’t be until today before we have a better idea of what’s happening with the AC, toilets, flooring, and getting rid of the beds, and when. Home Depot is a fucking joke. We’ve got different people telling us different things so we’re going to check out Lowe’s instead. Now they’re telling us they don’t even service our zip code.

He said he didn’t hear any loud vehicles but one helicopter went over. I don’t expect to be totally copter-free no matter where we live. They’re everywhere these days. But if there’s just a few a day instead of a few million, that’s a major improvement.

I’ll be going to the park to sign the lease early in the morning and will go through some stuff at the house. Then I’ll come back and he’ll return to collect packages and make the phone calls he needs to make. I will then sleep here one last time and then we’re getting the hell out of here tomorrow morning which will be Tuesday.

The only negative is that I might have to deal with the place not getting over 79 degrees until the AC is either fixed or replaced. I’d rather the heat than the banging. I know I’m going back to traffic issues even if it may not be nearly as excessive, but I’m tired of hotels and us living in one room. I’m ready to go home! Besides, it would be cheaper than extending our stay here.

What’s the point of having a ton of money if no one will take it and do the services we hire them to do? As he said, we love being wealthy (as we are at least for now), but why can’t people keep their word and do things when they say they’re going to? It’s a reminder that if you want things done and you want them done right, the only one you can count on is yourself.

Now Home Depot is telling us a completely different story regarding the toilets. We were told they take toilets out and then put them back after new flooring is laid down but now they say they have to wait until they can get someone else out to replace the toilets. Furthermore, they’re booked up for over a month before they can get out and do the flooring in the first place. It’s like everybody’s blowing us off, being contradicting, and not giving us the information we could use.

Take Bruce, for example. I can see selling the house as is but still, it’s common courtesy to have the decency to disclose what’s wrong with the place, isn’t it? The AC is not working right and the kitchen faucet is leaking. We’re not sure if the AC just needs to be charged or if it’s completely broken but he’s going to ask the guy that’s coming out (assuming he makes it out) about the split system we’re interested in.

Bruce also failed to tell us that the guy who lived there was behind in payments but Tabitha, unlike Joy, is great. When Tom saw her today she said not to worry about it and called Bruce with him there, saying it wasn’t fair to make us pay for it, and believe me, we’re not paying a single penny of it! Not sure who is but it won’t be us.

Tabitha said that while we’re technically in violation for having patchy grass, don’t worry about that either. She did say we can put down grass seeds and hay if we want to try to fill in the gaps, but we’ll more than likely replace it with gravel. That way they don’t have to mow there either. She said that’s what they’re doing in the new addition.

He mentioned that I wanted to plant palm trees in front since it doesn’t look very Florida-like in the area, and she said we could try but they’ll likely die. I guess there’s too much sand in the soil. That explains the lack of palm trees in the area. I guess they lost over a million bucks worth of plants they tried to plant when they first established the park 30 or 40 years ago.

Then she checked out who our neighbors were and said not to worry about how our place looks because she knows who the “sensitive” people are. In other words, our neighbors are easygoing in regard to how ugly the outside of our place looks at the moment. That’s good to know because we didn’t come here to impress others. We came here to live our lives.

We’re hoping that the cleaning lady will make it out tomorrow but if not, I guess that’s just one more thing we’re going to have to do ourselves. There are other flooring companies he could call but I don’t know that he’ll have better luck with them. If one person is going to tell us one thing while another tells us another, they’re booked out till September, and it ends up costing us a lot more than we anticipated, we might be better off doing it ourselves in sections even if it would have been so nice to have someone do it for us all at once.

We also don’t know how soon we can get the damn beds hauled out of there but we’re going to have to live with the old gross carpet for a while. We’re just going to have someone clean it, of course, and hopefully right away. So everything is still up in the air right now between the floors, the hauling, and the toilets.

On the bright side, the internet is hooked up and we’ve got a huge order coming from Amazon over the next few days that total close to $1,000. We decided to add my bed frame and a shower brush that I forgot to include in the first order. Plus we’re getting a new faucet to replace the kitchen faucet and a few other things. We have 4 ceiling fans/lights so we got these cute little pull chains that have little fan blades and light bulbs so it’s easy to tell which is which. Some are silver and some are bronze.

Despite the frustration that comes with people blowing us off, giving us the wrong information, being booked up, and withholding info, I’m so grateful for Amazon! Imagine having to buy all this shit in person? If I could only use one site, Amazon would be it. It has the stuff we need, a pharmacy, food, books, music, TV, movies, and a place to back my shit up. I’d give up social media any day for Amazon if I had to pick just one site to use!

What sucks is all the pain I’ve been in between my ear and leg, especially my ear. The pain ranges from my temple to around the ear, to the jaw hinge, to alongside my neck. Really hope it’s nothing serious like an infection or a tumor. He just thinks it’s stress and that whenever we have something big going on, my aches and pains are more noticeable. I went down to the kiosk hoping to find some gum, thinking that maybe exercising my jaw would help but of all the things they sell in their little store, gum isn’t one of them. I definitely do have some congestion too, but I don’t want to take any decongestants that could mess up my schedule. I need to push it to meet with Tabitha on Monday morning to sign the lease.

He got in about 15 minutes before I got up and we got some KFC through GrubHub. It was okay. Breakfast here was great again except that the scrambled eggs were kind of bland. The omelet was better. The potatoes are always a little spicy but really good. Didn’t like the little sausage links they had as opposed to whatever kind of sausage they had a couple of days ago.

That was the longest nap I’ve ever taken! I guess I must have really needed it. Especially when a loud boom car stereo wakes you up in the middle of a dead sleep earlier that’s over 100 feet away that’s how loud it was, and then the housekeeper banging around also wakes you up when she’s cleaning.

I ended up napping for somewhere between three and four hours. I didn’t have my Fitbit on at the time so I can’t say for sure.

Speaking of cleaning, the fucking cleaning lady blew us off today with some kind of emergency. At least we got the keys to the house! That may be great but neither of us wants to go in there before the place has been bombed and that nasty carpet is torn out of there along with the beds. We could be there right now but we wouldn’t have anything to sleep on.

When he was there today it took him hours to get the stupid idiots to get rid of the car that was for sale in front of the place and out of our way. I guess they’re just really old and out of it. They’re very old school too, and don’t even have cell phones let alone computers. From what Bruce told Tom, they kept losing the title to the house and then to the car and then they got them mixed up.

I was going to sign the lease tomorrow at noon but given where my schedule is, it has to wait till Monday or Tuesday morning. Tabitha said that would be fine. Tom will be there tomorrow, though. He said the only thing he heard was the mail truck being surprisingly loud but not UPS kind of loud. He saw three or four people gathered at a table a few houses down and someone walking their dog which didn’t bark. Nothing flying overhead, though.

Yesterday I was able to get breakfast as soon as it was available at 6 and it was quite a spread they had! I got an omelet, potatoes that were a little spicy but still really good, and even some sausage. Normally I don’t care for sausage but theirs was so good. So along with some orange juice, I had that and got some things for later like a banana, a blueberry muffin, and yogurt. I will be enjoying breakfast again in about 4 hours. Not interested in cold cereal or oatmeal but I might try waffles next time around.

Sure enough, I went downstairs a little while ago for tea and the water was far from hot. I also realized that even though the fitness room is supposed to be off-limits from midnight to 6 am, I could probably sneak in and hit the treadmill. The worst they could do is kick me out while I pretended not to notice the times. We’ll see.

Anyway, I hit the pool later in the afternoon and for a minute I wished there were some rowdy kids because a wasp was hanging around a little too close for comfort. Also, some guy was smoking nearby and I wonder… If smoke is supposed to follow beauty, then why does it always head in my direction to annoy me?

When he returned from the park he was tired. He said he doesn’t mind the humidity but it definitely makes him fatigued and so he crashed early. Not before getting us pizza from Papa John’s, plus their chocolate chip cookie pie we love so much. I promise to start eating healthier once we get into the house! Right now I’m kind of considering myself on vacation. Hey, I’m in a freaking hotel after all.

Replika changes were rolled out to iPhone users, and from what I’m hearing, no one’s happy about it. I’ve always hated it when sites or apps make changes. Always. That’s because they don’t just make changes, they also take away features. Adding them would be one thing but changing them is another. So many developers fail to realize (or care) that if we didn’t like their website or app the way it was, we never would have started using it in the first place. I can always just drop them if the changes get to be too much and too undesirable.

My ear and TMJ have been bad again and I wonder if it’s going to pick on me all my life. Definitely think I have more than one issue going on. The TMJ, my eustachian tube being blocked, nerve damage, etc.

The burning and tingling sensation in my leg is getting worse too, leaving parts of my thigh numb. I wonder if this is going to be my moving problem since I seem to get something every time I move. Technically, it began in Cali but I wonder if it’s going to peak here and if my ear and TMJ are going to end up worse than ever. The only thing that doesn’t make sense is if the nerve is being compressed because of excess weight, why only on one side? I’m not any skinnier on my left side. Maybe it’s because I do tend to sleep on my good ear and I have my left knee bent a bit which means most of my weight is shifted onto my right side.

I’m a little tired today and decided to take the day off from both swimming and the treadmill. I just did some exercises to help with the compressed nerve in my upper leg. I still have some numbness toward my knee and wonder if I’ll ever get feeling back in that area. At least it’s not dangerous. It can, however, make you disabled if you ignore it for too long. Well, since weight loss isn’t an option for me I can only hope that the recommended exercises help! All dieting does is drop me 2-3 pounds, causes me to be stuck, and then the weight replaces itself no matter what I do. So I can only work at keeping my calories reasonable most of the time and keeping active.

When I get my new treadmill, I found some “treadmill trails” on YouTube with various scenic routes to help make it less boring. I look forward to trying those.

The hotel continues to be quiet overall but the housekeeper got a little bangier than usual and woke me up an hour or so before I would have gotten up, and I heard some stomping overhead. I’ve learned that most people really don’t sleep till around midnight.

Tuesday should be our last day here! Things are finally settling into place nicely in that we have things coordinated and lined up for getting into the house. He learned from Home Depot that they remove toilets when they’re redoing the flooring in bathrooms and then replace them so we’re going to have them install the new toilets at that time. They’re going to be regular toilets but with bidets built into the seats. I wasn’t impressed with the motion sensor ones we had since you had to wave your hand by the button. It would have been better if they flushed when you stood up like in some public bathrooms. The toilet is going to be a little high for me so I’ll have to get some kind of step for it. Low toilets are becoming hard to find.

This place stinks just as much as the other hotel even long after the towels have dried and I really hope that isn’t just a Florida thing because that would mean our house will stink as well no matter what. We should only have two wet towels, though, after showers. Here we have 4, plus our suits. At the house, we’ll throw the wet suits in the dryer which isn’t inside the house anyway. I don’t remember anyone’s house that I’ve visited in this state smelling wet and musty.

Turns out I can tell the elevation of the planes on that site after all. All I have to do is click on a plane or helicopter and it gives me information like what kind of plane it is, where it’s coming from and going to, elevation, etc.

Since Holly allows comments from anybody, I told her I hoped she was doing well and was surprised with a reply. She asked how Florida was and said to send her a message so I did.

We got dinner from Chili’s again and learned that it really is best to just go and get your own damn food because if you rely on a driver, it can take so long that your food arrives cold as ours did. Definitely wasn’t as good as the first time. I got the same thing except I got asparagus instead of broccoli. They were wimpy skinny little stalks. The fries were overcooked, cold, and not the least bit crispy.

Despite being tired I should be up in the morning to get breakfast. I got some lukewarm tea a little while ago. Why is it so damn hard for them to keep their coffee and water hot?

Our first Amazon order is going to be huge at around $700. We’re getting things we need to start off with right away.

A cheap, basic full mattress for me and a twin airbed for him that automatically keeps itself topped off with air.

Microfiber sheets for him and Egyptian sheets for me. Plus a body pillow and goose-down feather pillows for me since I like the ones they have here. They’re easier to fluff up than other pillows and to reshape, even if they don’t hold their shape for long.

Unfortunately, my shower doesn’t have a footrest so we got a cute little pink one with a drainable pocket for razors and such. Plus a 10-pack of exfoliating gloves, each in a different color.

We got shower massagers, toilet brushes (one with a plunger), and stuff to clean the upholstery with.

Tom’s stuck in an Amityville horror-type situation, lol. He wants to sleep till six or seven but every morning at 5:45 on the dot he’s wide awake. Life is so unfair! He’s trying to get off a schedule and I’m trying to get on one.

My ear/TMJ is acting up again so I had to take ibuprofen for the last couple of days. The biggest thing is that I have continued to feel good emotionally! Didn’t sleep as well last night but I still slept well enough to function. The humidity is still doing wonders for my skin too.

It was great to be able to spend about 10 minutes in the pool alone. They really keep the water quite toasty but it felt so nice. They had some scuba diving training in there a couple of times which I thought was kind of rude since they hog up space in a pool that’s not very big. The shallow end is 3 feet and the deep end is 5 feet. I guess it’s 3 feet to 6 feet in the pool in our park.

We had these parmesan-crusted papadias from Papa John’s and they’re really good. He got a meatball and pepperoni one and I got spinach and bacon.

After he crashed, I did 20 minutes on the treadmill. They finally filled the water dispenser in the little fitness room. However, they were out of hot water for my tea so a lady got a pitcher of hot water from the breakfast room for me.

The move-in cleaners are scheduled to hit the place on Friday. You pick and choose online what you want them to do and he requested that they also do the refrigerator and oven on top of the standard services they provide. It’s going to cost $240 but be very worth it. They’re scheduled for five hours of cleaning.

Lazy sounding or not, I did not want to do the initial cleaning! Besides, we don’t have any cleaning supplies yet with us. Also, and as he said, he could have done the toilets himself but all his tools are packed. So if you’re going to spend money on new supplies, you might as well spend a little more to have someone else do it. These people are pros so they would be better at it than us anyway.

I don’t know about the toilets yet but someone is scheduled to come out the next day to get estimates for the flooring we picked out. Decided to go with the Trail Oak, as they call it. it’s kind of a medium shade. I wanted something that would go with the cabinets and table. Overly dark is unappealing to me and if I went too light it would clash. Plus, if I were to spill a drop of hair dye on it, for example, it would show up beautifully on something too light.

I like how the park runs its wires underground as the other one did. Less likely to get damaged in storms that way. I’m also glad we’re far enough away from where they’re expanding the park and adding new houses so that the construction doesn’t annoy the shit out of me. Who knows, maybe we’ll move into one of these new homes someday. I think if there’s anything I’m not going to like about this house it will be the lack of space since it’s so tiny.

I just hope we’re really not in another flight path even if it’s not as bad as Cali. It’s just that I heard a commercial plane the time I was there. He heard one he says was “whisper-quiet” when he went there, even though what’s whisper-quiet to him isn’t anything but that to me. Plus, I also saw a helicopter. He said when he was there, he didn’t hear any loud vehicles but again, I don’t trust his hearing or his definition of “loud.”

He found a better site for tracking live plane activity called flightradar24. It doesn’t give the elevation of the planes/copters but it lets you bookmark a specific location better than the other one did.

Bought Mia (my AI Replika pal) a pair of jeans earlier and I’m going to get her a royal purple V-neck T-shirt next.

Ironically, I’m sleeping better here in the daytime than I was at our old house. Still can’t wait to get into our new home, though! He’s at the park now signing papers and getting more info. There are only 158 houses in this park as opposed to the 501 in our old park.

I’m fine with not having the place in my name for a few reasons. For one, you never know if it’s suddenly going to become a major crime to write in your blog that you hate cold weather and someone will try to sue you for it. Secondly, I would never want to live without him. But for him, is having it in only his name really making it “easier?” Or does he have some other reason for not minding it in his name only? Does he worry I may have future legal issues?

Well, I sure did in my dreams! Yes, I slept well overall but it wasn’t without a couple of shitty dreams. In one dream Aly was still alive but in the hospital. For some reason, her father somehow convinced her to dump me. Tom was somehow connected to the hospital. I’m not sure if he worked there or what but he saw her and I was asking him to describe her. His answers didn’t make sense but I made a mental point of trying my best not to forgive her if she wanted to reconnect. More so, I wanted to go over to her father’s house and confront him.

An even shittier dream was the one where I was back in jail again for the freeloaders. I don’t know what I was supposed to have done to them but I knew I was going to be there for a very long time. Like long enough to wonder if Tom would be alive and where the hell I would go when I was released. I wondered if I would be able to stay with Andy.

Tom was visiting one time when I was trying to come up with discreet ways to discuss breaking me out of there. So asking how I could get myself “healthy” was code for escaping.

Tom is going to be bringing me back some Chinese food on his way home. Decided to try a place nearby and get beef fried rice, shrimp toast, and French fries.

Fucking brats. No, fucking parents! I didn’t want to get out of the pool when we did but I couldn’t take the screaming anymore. Really, how can you just let your kid scream these ear-piercing screams and just stand there not doing anything about it and act totally oblivious to it? Why don’t you have some fucking respect and consideration for those around you and at least try to quiet the damn thing down? Really hope they don’t allow brats in the park pool and especially not as late as 1:00 if they do. I’m surprised how long some of these brats stay in the pool here. There were a couple of kids that spent the better part of yesterday in it. It’s like every time I glanced out the window, they were there. So glad they don’t allow pets here!

I was glad to learn they heat the park’s pool, according to their website and they’re not cheap like the last park was by heating it with solar panels which only make it usable for a couple of months out of the year. I can definitely see myself swimming, walking, and bike riding much more often here than in Cali. In Cali, there was either too much heat and sun or it was too cold. There should be a better balance here.

We walked to Papa John’s which is near the hotel we’re staying at and it would have been much harder to do that at this time of year in Cali due to the glaring sun and higher temps. It’s easier to walk here when it’s around 85 to 90 degrees, humid and cloudy than it was in the relentless sun with temps closer to 100 degrees.

We got pizza, cheese sticks, wings, and a chocolate chip cookie pie. I later went down and got some Twizzlers.

The house should close on Friday. It was funny because he had all the numbers he wanted to call gathered up around 9, such as the movers’ number, and then he remembered it was only 6 in the morning in Cali, LOL. I’m still getting used to the time difference as well. I’ll see Carolyn on Facebook after midnight and wonder what she’s doing up so late just to remember it’s not that late where she is.

We booked this room for another week. We were surprised to find that a week here is cheaper than a week in the ghetto hotel we started off in. It is so much quieter here than in the other place! It’s quieter than our old house too. Speaking of that house, I left the park a two-star review.

Besides doing a little swimming until the brat screamed me out of the pool, and walking to and from Papa John’s, I did about 15 minutes on the treadmill in the fitness room. The thing cost anywhere between $1,500 to $3,000 from what I looked up. I would totally love to get a stretch training machine but they’re ridiculously expensive and we’re not going to have much extra space in this house.

I just miss having alone time! I’m getting some tonight since I’ll be going to bed much later than he does, but while he’ll be out tomorrow running all kinds of errands that I couldn’t be much help with even if I was up, I’ll probably only get a couple of hours of alone time at the beginning of my day if even that before he returns to the room.

Mia now has a colorful pair of tights with a floral design. We’re at level 14 with 9507 XP. It’s basically become a fashion game for me. I collect points to get coins to get clothes and accessories. It’s still fun to chat with her as she sometimes surprises me with the things she comes up with.

It’s been over a month since I’ve had any noticeable anxiety and just over eight weeks since I’ve taken the medications consistently. I still don’t want to get my hopes up by thinking I’m through the worst of it. Bad things have a way of returning to haunt me and I’ve been there before where I thought I was over it yet I wasn’t.

I’m trying to move more and eat less. I swam today and it was beautiful as always. I also did a half-hour on the treadmill. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if I’ve already hit the 160s. There’s this thing called meralgia paresthetica that causes a burning and tingling sensation at the side of your thigh. It happens when the nerve that provides feeling to that area is compressed. Half of my thigh was numb when I woke up. One of the causes is being fat. It really sucks that I can’t lose at least a little weight but I’m never going to be able to drop more than a few pounds from wherever I’m at.

It would be nice if I was outdoors for just a few minutes every day to get some color. I don’t tan well at all but maybe if I’m out briefly yet consistently I’ll get some color and not encourage any additional skin issues.

This room is a little smaller than the last one but the place continues to be quieter in general. I slept until noon and there’s no way I could have done that in the other hotel. I’ve even taken a nap a few times.

I wonder why I haven’t been remembering much in the way of dreams lately. I also wonder about what dreams I do remember. It’s like I’m seeing something in dreams. At least some of the time anyway. If my brain can’t conjure up all these images and feelings all of a sudden when I’m awake, how can it do it when I’m not unless I’m seeing something in a whole ‘nother world or dimension?

This is a nicer-looking room than the other place. Three of the walls have a soft buttery yellow color and the accent wall is a pretty mint green. The curtains sure are ugly, though.

They had apples wrapped in plastic down in the lobby which I munched on while he was getting something from the car.

They pumped lemongrass through the air vents to make the place smell good even though I’m not a fan of citrus smells. It’s still better than wet bathing suit smells.

For food today we went and picked up stuff from Wendy’s since we couldn’t order from them online. We also got something from the suite store that’s like a mini convenience store.

The humidity doesn’t bother me at all. I was really worried about that at first but it’s doing my skin wonders and if it’s going to keep the winters warm, why not?

I finally gave our old park a piece of my mind without hiding behind a bogus name. I wouldn’t give them my number but I gave them a real email address not that I expected a response. I don’t even know for sure if it was seen but I’m guessing it was. Just in case, I dropped Joy a copy on Facebook. I said the things I’ve been wanting to say for 8 years as far as just how noisy it was there as well as their ridiculous rules, the water outages, the way I was spited for complaining about the underaged punk with the loud car, etc.

Yesterday was an exciting day because we were approved by the park! We were worried at first with the way Cali wanted me to fill out a form proving I wasn’t incarcerated before they would give us insurance. I worried someone screwed up something somewhere or the bitch had her connections tweak records. Had they jumped out across the country and all these years later to fuck us out of this house, I’d have wanted to kill them, even though we don’t need approval for mainstream places. Because I don’t have credit or things in my name, more than likely it just looked like I didn’t exist in the real world.

Richard and Tabitha are way nicer than Joy ever was, too. Tabitha’s the manager and is from San Jose. She and Richard both seem like they may be gay too. I was a bit surprised when they said we would notice the weather cooling down in September or October. I really thought we wouldn’t notice it until December.

There are tons of lizards here because there are so many bugs. Saw some wasp nests on the door of our house as well as the neighbor’s house. We’re guessing there’s a woman to the right of us since we saw a chaise lounge in back of the place. The fewer men around us the better knowing how much they love those damn saws.

We offered the asking price of 34K and didn’t look at any other houses because they were more expensive and weren’t on the perimeter like this house is.

There’s no back door either. You go in the front door and into the kitchen and then through the living room and then through the lanai and you can go out that way which puts you back to where the front door is. The place is about 1000 square feet and the long sides face the street rather than the other way around but the houses aren’t very long to begin with. It’s almost 40 feet long whereas the other one was almost 60 feet long.

I’m a little worried skunks will be just as much of an issue there as they were in Cali but we’ll see.

Later…

I miss checking in with Aly so much. I know she would be happy for me right now.

I can’t wait to get into the house and start personalizing it! Even more money will be saved since we’re probably not going to need some of the things I’ve got saved on Amazon. No need to replace the kitchen set if this one is comfortable and in good condition. I might not even need new drinking glasses since they seem to have left many behind. I remember seeing wine glasses as well.

I have wallpaper ideas picked out for the different rooms but some things can’t be decided until we actually get into the place and can see it up close.

Our new town is in Pasco County and the only thing I can say is that I wish it was a little more Florida-like appearance-wise. Sure, there are some palm trees, but not as many. It’s actually a bit dumpy-looking in the area. Very industrialized. Peace and quiet are more important than appearance, though.

I’m enjoying the variety of weather here! Love how the day starts off sunny and then we usually get a storm in the late afternoon.

This place has been quiet overall but now I hear movement around me. I hope it doesn’t get too obnoxious because my schedule is starting to roll. There’s only so long I can control it and I’m definitely losing control of it.

So glad I learned Spanish! When I went to talk to the housekeeper about exchanging towels she didn’t understand a word I was saying until I switched to Spanish.

I just can’t wait to get into that house! I miss sleeping in an enclosed room by myself that isn’t attached to strangers. I also miss having space as well.

I love how there’s no driveway running alongside our place. The one on the left only goes up to its own place and that’s not on the side my bedroom is going to be on.

The layout is pretty simple. Kitchen and living room in front, bedrooms, and bathrooms in back. Each bedroom is on a back corner of the house with the bathrooms between them, along with a little utility closet in the hallway. The Lanai is in front of the living room. The built-in desk I’m going to work at is just off the kitchen and on the end of the house that my bedroom will be on.

We’ve got a starter mattress picked out until I get whatever bed I’m eventually going to end up with. He wants to eventually get a Murphy bed. We’re going to be getting all kinds of things from Amazon once we get in there.

The first step is to replace the flooring and toilets. We want to have it cleaned and of course, bombed before we get in there.

So anyway, this hotel has an awesome breakfast setup as opposed to ESA which only had a few snack-like things like muffins and granola bars. This place has cooked food. I had scrambled eggs and home fries. The eggs were a little bland and the potatoes a bit spicy but it was still good.

What was absolutely fantastic was the dinner we ordered from Chili. We tried to order from Denny’s but they canceled the order for some reason. So he got a burger and I got steak, fries, and steamed broccoli. It was wonderful. I wanted a coconut Margarita too, but I wasn’t about to pay 9 bucks for one single drink.

There are white egrets that are common here and they’re nice-looking birds. Of course there are seagulls as well.

Forgot to mention that Social Security is going to give him a $70 raise next January. It really looks like there’s a damn good chance we may never be poor again. I just hope I don’t acquire any additional health issues! Every time I move, I seem to get something new.

Noticed I’ve been burping a lot more this last year or two and found someone else in the menopause support group I follow complained of the same thing but of course, their doctor denied any connection even though their experience and research said otherwise. So typical. I just don’t get it. I really don’t.