Someone should burn the plane.

I know Gatlin isn't real. Apparently Children of the Corn was filmed in Iowa. Okay fine. Also the weather was bad. Sandwiches were really good. Fries were good. Grits were really really good this morning. They taste a lot like a not-very-well-mixed Cream of wheat but it could be that I am biased. And Canadian. 

Flew back in between storms with Rammstein's new Angst on repeat in my headphones for nine hours. Cracked a lot of gum. Bit my nails off. Caleb left a bite mark in an awful place and I can't get comfortable. Pretty sure this one will leave a scar. Or my asshole is gone. I'm a little afraid to look but I did since the bathroom is all mirrors and yes, there is not much left. This one might get infected and I'll probably need stitches but for now the whiskey works and the music works and the sandwich wasn't worth the price and I knew that but I had to follow through.

I probably could have left off that whole paragraph but at the end of the day I didn't die in a plane crash, I'm home safe and sound and honestly it's just another bite mark, just another x marks the day in history like every other day and eventually it will be forgotten and we'll do it all again. 

I was supposed to get the rest of my internet privileges back this weekend too but that probably won't happen now. Ha. Ow. Don't make me laugh. It hurts. I found a Vicoden in the drawer just now but I think it's expired. I took it anyway.

FLAT. LIGHTNING. BREAD.

We are in Lincoln, NEBRASKA. 

Actually. Here. Getting myself a sandwich. Long flight. Crazy storms now. I hope we can fly out tomorrow.

I told Caleb I wanted a real Reuben and he called my fucking bluff.

Cardinal sins.

 Oh, hiiiii. 

I spent all day yesterday trying to convince the boys to go to the last-minute next-week show that Behemoth is playing because Archenemy is opening. And Napalm Death. But I was so excited about Archenemy, even though I thought it was a bit of a strange pairing. 

But who cares! Metal shows are back, right? I went looking for a song to play while PJ asked if I was okay, that I never liked Archenemy much before and I was like, are you the mad one here? 

And then I realized I mixed them up with Antimatter. 

Oops. 

My brain is completely fried.

Personal (finance).

Today I'm snarking on the Financial Post while the Devil tries to quell his laughter at my outrage. I've been reading it since I used to read the paper copy of the National Post. I know it leans right but it's well-laid out and has some decent sections, like the part where they detail whether or not Very Rich families can retire based on how they manage their money. Like all media right now, none of it is grounded in reality but I've been reading this one column for twenty years and it still makes me laugh. Now I just read it online.

They always seem to land on a family with three or five rental properties, bags of cash pouring in every month and fully defined golden pension funds. It's just plain horrible. How will they ever manage? 

Indeed. Just how.

I used to try and do the math using my numbers in place of theirs. I never came out on top. No one gave me five stars for my retirement plan, instead maybe a loaf of bread as I looked hungry. 

None of that is Lochlan's fault. He was trying so hard to make a life for us but he counted and continues to count life in terms of days instead of years. Loch doesn't have time to look ahead, he's always looking over his shoulder, making sure he has my hand. Making sure I didn't drop the bread, that my coat is zipped up and that he has my hand. That I'm not crying (or bleeding). That I can keep up. That we have a place to run to, sine we've always running from somewhere. 

Danger is always hungry and cold. Danger means never sleeping or taking precious minutes to worry about the future. Lochlan would get a score of five full stars on his retirement plans because all his money is stuffed in a fireproof safe hidden away In Case. In case he needs it. In case we have to run. 

He is one of the reasons I keep the Devil so close. Not because I ever wanted to but because the Devil has to pay for this five-star future now. He promised and I continue to hold him to it. I take the money and I stuff it everywhere and I don't worry about returns or plans or anything now. The numbers look good and one of these days Lochlan will see that.

Evil lives on. In the form of shoddy filmmakers and not in the form of my beloved slasher dudes.

Sorry, I spent all day waiting for the postman and then all afternoon decking out my twelve-year-old pressure washer with a new pressure hose and tips and a cord because I have maintained it and looked after it well but it is also as big as I am and so sometimes it got cranked around and bashed up as I tried to wrestle it around things and over things and down the path, as it were. It conked out a quarter of the way into my spring cleaning last month and so I ordered parts and sat back to wait and hopefully I put them on right (after fifteen minutes of swearing) and now I have to wait for a boy to carry it outside for me so I can test my connections, lest the whole thing blow up the minute I pull the trigger. It is a dream machine and so I'm not giving it up anytime soon but I do think keeping it in the garage is a better idea than keeping it in the appliance room in the house. That's just dumb because it's in the lowest level so you have to lug it up the stairs, down the hall, across a porch, patio or walkway and down more steps. I can't do this myself, why can't I just wheel it out from the garage? 

Because, says PJ, who lost a lot of gear by keeping it in his truck/garage/shed and so now everything of value comes in. Power tools in the work room. Also downstairs. The only thing in the garage are Jeeps, freezers and plant pots and cheap stuff. Fertilizer. Bags of soil and grass seed and shovels and acoustic garden implements because they are too dirty to bring in. The two lawnmowers are out there but the weed wackers come into the house. So dumb. 

We're dumb. This is dumb. If I can't lift it let me roll it. 

(Now I have Wings going through my head: Let me roll it to you)

I ordered more things for the wedding. We are quickly running out of time but the dress is back and it fits Ruth like a dream. She had her last fitting last week and then we went to Marshalls where I wanted to buy everything but as usual bought nothing. They had Longchamp, Gucci and Valentino bags. They had so many pretty things. I couldn't do it. Hahahaha. Ruth went nuts and bought a few summer dresses and I just watched and poked around. Maybe I'll go back. Maybe I won't. Who knows? 

I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre last night too. Couldn't sleep so I sat up between the boys with my ipad and my airpods and I tried not to jump too much when I got scared but really, and since it's been out for a good long while now, would someone please tell me why Hardesty automatically went to the orphanage AKA Mom's house when last we saw Leatherface he was outside on the street? Also why a direct rip of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers multi-decade delayed showdown? Why a shotgun that can hold a whopping two shells? Why why why? Why in the hell were people so goddamned dumb and why was the guy with the truck so smart and then also so dumb? Why does everything end in a fistfight? Why did the killing start in seconds with nary a hint of inbreeding or lore or anything substantial before they phoned it in with 'naive influencers show up to party wooo!'. Maybe I'm getting old. 

The one saving grace? Leatherfuck (as coined by the only smart-ish character there) has learned to throw his chainsaw like a discus. Not sure why it stays on, as the safety trigger means if you let go it turns off but his is SURPRISINGLY UNSAFE and the chain continues to turn as he whips it fifty feet across the room at our poor hapless victims. 

Gawd. 

The last good one was the one with Jessica Biel. TWENTY YEARS AGO.

Doing it again.

 I got Lochlan to bring the kiln outside. It is packed full of wheelthrown bowls, greenware that's not going to get any drier so may as well get on with it. This is the ninth time I've used the kiln and I have so little to show for it so yesterday I threw for four hours, three of which were on a bat with a loose bolt, and the last successful hour on the wheel without the bat. Throwing on the bat means you take the whole bat off with the piece to dry and you don't have the stress of trying to get the item off the sticky wheel. I have tricks. It's easy, but on the wheel direct I murder the sides of my hands so not sure how this will work going forward. Maybe the bats for big pieces and the wheel for little ones. Who knows? 

It's supposed to rain this afternoon but just a little so I am tempting fate as always. 

In the meantime, I had a decent-ish sleep, it's Friday and I'm plotting a few errands, plus Ruth and I are headed for her final dress fitting before lunch. So hard to believe. She can bring the dress home and then no more trips to the bridal shop and the only thing to figure out is finalizing the food plans and a few odds and ends.

I'm drinking kettle-coffee which is just coffee made with instant from a jar like when we go camping or the power goes out, and I'm going to have a bagel, I think, with cheese, since it's going to be an on-the-go kind of day. I threw away the keurig because I wore it out, and also I added at least twenty dollars a week to the grocery budget which is just dumb to me. And it wasn't all that good anyway. And even though I just cut my caffeine in half the best thing about kettle coffee? No GRINDS. I hate grinds. No mess. No cleanup. No refilling water. No counter real estate gone and no more hassle. I'm not fussy on coffee anyway. Gas station coffee, whatever, I'm here for it. 

Netflix's biggest fan.

 Watched Into the Woods, Red Dot and Intrusion on Netflix (so far) this week. Starting Prey now. Trying to heal my back and learn how to be a little more productive. I can get my list done and then I crash and I haven't had the want to paint in months, trying to throw on the wheel is tiring due to the cleanup routine, and drawing just doesn't work at all so I watch movies and if they don't have subtitles I can work with yarn or do some mending or sewing. Everything is a herculean effort but I'm trying. I sort of went off the grid this week too. I talked to Bailey and the birds and no one else. I talk the dog constantly. I talk a little to Lochlan and a little to Ben and PJ but not much else. 

For the record, Into the Woods you can skip. Red Dot is nonstop jumpscares that end in a Babadook-style parable on grief and Intrusion is rich people games and wives who go from noticing absolutely nothing to suddenly being expert private investigators so maybe we are zero for three. I keep trying, but I'm also saving the good ones (like the new Texas Chainsaw) for movie nights so these are almost just rest hours. That's fine. Not every movie has to be great, not like I'll run out of options, right?

It's spring too, so I'll have to fire up some anime movies and throw in a couple of Bollywood musicals since those are always uplifting. A good foil to all the horror.

New week, new me.

Two showers later and my nails are still caked with dirt, fingers pocked with thorns from the roses and raspberries, palms with blisters from a wooden-handled shovel with a very sharp edge on the metal spade-shaped bowl and the best, shortest and yet heaviest shovel we own in order for me to wield it properly. I moved just over three-quarters of a cubic yard of soil myself yesterday and now, due to the impending storm coming tonight and tomorrow, I have to get it finished, when I would much rather have a long sauna and a short swim, put on pajamas, order a crappy west-coast pizza from somewhere and eat it in the dark while watching scary movies. 

Garden Jesus didn't show up yet today but I think I met him anyway in the form of a woman who stopped to talk to me in the seed aisle at the local small hardware store and we struck up great and long conversation and then I left thinking about it all day. It was focused on children growing up and then self, afterward. It was based around identity, before and after and on enthusiasm and making one's own decisions and it was almost as if Skateboard Jesus (remember him?) found a different form and perhaps a different approach, and came right back, to make me think. 

Life feels good right now. I wrote in my gratitude journal last night. I made macaroni and cheese for dinner (we love our starchy pastas in this house) and I drank enough water. I felt like I had accomplished along but my bones winged and hawed in misery as I tried and failed to get comfortable enough to sleep. This morning the house is quiet, though there is a big bowl of chocolate eggs on the table, and the laundry machines send a quiet hum through the floors beneath me. I have the countdown coffee on, as there are four or five keurig pods left and we are limping to the finish, here and then it goes in the trash and will not be replaced. 

I bought a jar of instant. Fuck it. 

I want to finish all of my projects and this week I'm going to work on finding the energy to do just that.

Facing inward.

Ben has taken to sleeping on the side of the bed with the door closest to him, and Lochlan has taken to holding my head cupped against his neck like he's always done, affectionate to a fault, rubbing his fingers through my boy-haircut but never actually letting go, content to breathe in tandem with me, content to not have me out of reach, or rather out-of-arms. It's a defensive mechanism that serves as a visual reminder but doesn't do any more to keep me safe or to keep Caleb from glowering nonstop. 

We still lock the door at night, but Ben serves as a volunteer extra-measure of security. It also keeps me from leaving to wander the halls when I can't sleep. Now I have to lie there and count the stars on the ceiling, if I can see the ceiling. Or count the freckles on the Lochlan as usually I'm looking that way. Ben's a whole cage with two arms that surround us both and he's so content to just be close and watch the clouds and sip tea and talk books and movies, whereas the Ben of the mid-2000s had to be flying/driving/running somewhere/doing something/someone and he never slowed down for a second. I really love mellow Ben but then again I always have and I often reach up and tug his too-long black curls now, as he has let them grow out to like four inches and they just start flipping and he looks so young again, save for the dark circles under his eyes and the habitual frustrated expression. 

Lochlan and Caleb are ignoring each other. It's new to me. It's not new to them but Caleb's still on his best and Loch has chosen not to waste his energy when he knows he's got the upper hand and the rights besides. 

And again it's not a bunny-year as no one replaced the costume and no one wants to give out eggs when we don't feel like celebrating life after death or spring or anything really. We're saving our energy for May, which is proving to be a packed month, and we're saving our resolve for this impending threat too which rings hollow but is probably still somewhat true.

Hit first (come away bruised).

The world hasn't ended, Mo Grá.

Give it time, Neamhchiontach. 

I meant by your hand. 

I don't repeat myself, Neamhchiontach. 

There's not going to be any push here-

There certainly is if you do that again. Part of a healthy relationship includes not freezing the other person out for some ridiculous ceremonial display. 

Sam asks us to observe certain things as a test of faith-

The only thing I have faith in is you, Bridget. 

A ten-year-old looking the other way. 

Sometimes. Sometimes looking back. And not ten anymore. 

I had to grow up fast. 

And I pay the price for that, and I'm trying to do the right thing by giving you everything you need. 

Then give me space when I ask for it. 

That's the one thing I'm afraid I can't give you. 

Or the world will end. 

Mine does when you ask for time away. 

Then you need a hobby. Besides terrorizing Lochlan. 

I think it goes both ways.

He wouldn't harm a soul. 

Then that's the difference between us.

Life has changed.

It's weirdly disconcerting to go over to Ruth's house, and have her call her cat to come and visit and get used to me by saying Come see Grandma. 

Lochlan almost hit the floor. 

We will be tasked with feeding said cat while she and her husband are on their honeymoon and she wants the cat to have a lot of time to get used to me, but the hard part is the cat won't come near me at all. 

Maybe it's the shock vibe emanating from Lochlan as he realizes that his once ten-year-old girlfriend has a grandchild, even if it has four paws and is velvety-soft. Of course not that his early twenties daughter not only got a pet but is getting married soon. Very soon. In a blink soon.

LMAO. 

Also Ruth and I invariably end up piled on the couch trading memes. Same as ever.

Manic pasta dream girl.

I made Fettuccine Alfredo and garlic naan for dinner last night. I made a metric ton of it. Everyone was full and pushed off from the table after an hour or more, scattering to the four corners of the house to enjoy the heavy rain and a second glass of wine for those who indulge, and water or ginger ale for those who don't. 

But then every single one of us had absolutely bonkers nightmares. Mine were ludicrous, ranging from trying to make a toy shop owner laugh so that she would let me leave, to beating a delayed preteen to death because he made an inappropriate move on me, as I was trying to use the bathroom in a derelict building that I had run into to escape the whole toy shop experience. Every single person I touched in the dream melted where I touched them. I hit the kid with a metal pipe and his whole head caved away like it was cheese dripping off a barbecue grill and I woke up angry and scared. Then I heard the dreams of the boys. They were different and weird and some were worse. 

We are never eating Fettucine Alfredo ever again. What the fuck.

Tart.

 I found a decomissioned WINDMILL in...uh...second here..

WAINFLEET for sale. Wainfleet seems lovely but in a way like I would still be that newcomer with the harsh Maritime-Canadian accent* twenty years after moving there. Or that every building would give you a mini-history quiz as you walked into it and if you fail you get electrocuted at the front gate. It also looks like it floods a lot, often, actually and is almost four hours by car to London. Maybe too far? Maybe not far enough. I don't know. 

Plus the actual blades are missing from the house and I don't know if I would find that charming or not, as I would much prefer to go to bed at night with the soft thwup-thwup-thwup overhead to lull me to my dreams. 

Lochlan gave me a few names of towns I should look in, he said they actually would be enjoyable to live in and they aren't so remote as to become a daily hardship. 

But what isn't a daily hardship at this point, if not life. It's not like I can find Chef-Boyardee at the store. We have four kinds of poptarts in this town. I have to order almost everything online anyway, wouldn't it be better if they drop-shipped it to me from a plane to my windscarred island near Scotland or off Ireland or whereever the grass looked greener before I packed up all my toys and realized it isn't? How many kinds of poptarts do you think you can buy on Anglesey? 

(The answer is it doesn't matter. Duncan found them all on Amazon. Apparently also at Target just across the border since we don't have Target in Canada any more either. I just need to pick my flavours now holy magnolia.)

I think we should stay in Canada, Lochlan reiterates. Not like I get to pick in the end, anyway, right so I just daydream. 

But look. You would see the Devil coming from five miles away if we lived here. I point to a renovated Friary on the Western border with Wales. You could make a gun turret out of this tower. 

Or you could just be Rapunzel, there. I miss your hair. 

I don't.The pixie cut is hilariously easy and I hate washing my hair. When it's long it's never ever down and it's heavy. My head feels so light and free. 

Lochlan had Daniel buzz off all of his curls so that we would match. Lochlan looks so young with his flippy ends and close-crop, no beard and pale-green button down, sleeves rolled up, tattoos out and proud. His cargo pants are threadbare but he still wears them three days out of each week and his leather shoes are so soft he forgets he's wearing shoes and leaves them on in the house until given a reminder. 

What if I miss your hair, Locket?

It'll grow back. 

Exactly. Then you can be Rapunzel. And I will be the bad guy. 

You're not the bad guy, Peanut. 

Maybe I am. 

You just always bite off more than you can chew. 

Yeah.

And then you choke. 

Okay, you can stop now. 

*( Fun fact: after weeks and weeks of trial and error it appears Google still and forever cannot decipher my accent. Hilarious.)

In my dreams the Devil is nowhere to be found.

I didn't make it through Lent, unfortunately I gave up something I needed and I didn't realize it until I had a craving that was uncovered late last night. 

I stayed up to read. I've been doing that a lot lately. My doctors have said part of my sleep issues is that I use the bed for everything. Eating. Watching movies. Reading. Having long conversations and longer naps. Looking at my phone. Drawing. Watching the birds outside the window or the fire inside. Sex. Everything but sleep, unfortunately and so a line was drawn and everything but sleep and sex has to be elsewhere. 

Or sometimes sex can be elsewhere. 

Caleb came downstairs just as I was nodding off at the last page of my chapter and pushed his head against mine from behind the big chair with the lamp where I curl up to read. He kissed my temple and told me to come up and nap with him. 

And I realized I was hungry. Not because my stomach growled but my heart did and he said if I loved him I wouldn't freeze him out like this, so long, so abruptly, and it hurts his heart to even look at me and he needs to hold me, needs to feel needed and as he said this my ego swelled right out of my head and for a brief moment I held all the power over him which is a feeling I would sell my soul for, as it's fleeting and rare. 

I said it was fleeting because I was pulled to my feet, book hitting the ground and I was steered upstairs to his room, door locked behind us, steered down the hall, another door, another lock and I was pushed down, stripped and turned over and I was not about to give up that power so fast so I cried out. 

Gingerbread! 

Nothing, he isn't listening. His hunger is so much greater than mine and I don't want to have it be like this. Not like this. I hate it like this. 

Wenceslas! Diabhal, please. 

But his ears are suddenly deaf, like mine and he says something dismissive that I miss and he is inside me and I was fighting him but I can't now, pinned into the blankets like a Riker frame, a fluttery little moth stuck inside a window glass, looking out at freedom, looking at the reflection of her own death. 

I stop fighting and go numb, curling inward, letting my wings rest. He hates this more, and it's the only strength I have left, to deny him any reaction at all. Any response. Any reaction. He slows to a crawl and then turns me over and is back inside me. 

Neamhchiontach, look at me. Tell me you love me. Every moment hurts. Does he care? Of course not. 

I stare at the wall. 

Harder and I cry out involuntarily. Stop it. Stop hurting me. A sob escapes and he slows, more gentle now. 

I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt you. 

Liar. 

I can't help this, Bridget. It's what you do to me. 

Don't blame this on me. 

It's how I feel when I touch you. 

Like a monster?

Yes. Exactly. 

You can stop it. 

Not after so long.

Then you need to fix that because this is the past. This is where we're supposed to be better than what we were. 

I'm never going to change, Bridget. Not as long as you're not with me. Full time. 

Then you'll always be the bad guy, and you'll never get what you want. 

There isn't a chance anyway so none of this matters. 

Then maybe you should go. He hates that suggestion, and he covers my whole face with his hand. I can't breathe. He ramps up hard again, violent driving into me and I squeal into his fingers, tearing at them with my own but he doesn't stop until he's finished. Then he gets up and lets go of my face and as I take a huge breath, ready to light into him, so angry and betrayed that he breaks his promises time and time again, he tells me he needs a sixty-forty time or the world as we know it is going to end. I turn back onto my stomach, skin stinging from his harsh touch and I ignore him. He's not going to negotiate from this place of the enemy. 

The world ended in 2007, I point out, muffled against the sheets. 

Caleb swears and walks out. I hear the shower and I race off to my dreams, to meet my ghost. He's always a safe haven even if he did leave me here with the monsters forever.

Promise you anything.

Got tickets to Nazareth today. Happy, happy girl.

Will I feel this way until the day I die. (This isn't really a question as there's no proper punctuation, is there?)

Today is still the crushing ennui mixed with a low-grade panic to run, peppered with the seeds of self-doubt as the anxiety ebbs and flows just enough to leave me questioning everything again, but also since I don't care I'll just continue on. I still feel like if something out of character occurs or any wrench is thrown into the gears I will lose my shit but otherwise it's all just okay. The gratitude is present, just behind and underneath the grace, as always and the sun has come out for a while to warm our hair while we start gardening and maybe don't talk quite so much. That can wait for the rainy days, or the days we work closely together in a quiet environment and for now it's good just to exhaust our muscles and bones, allowing our blood to drown both in a pulsing river of activity and effort. 

That's a mouthful, Lochlan says thoughtfully. He's impressed that the Devil is far but dismayed to find the ghosts so close. Is it better the other way around? I don't think so but then again, it depends on the day. It depends on the day and the bravery of our dear Princess. 

Sometimes I can handle either or both. Sometimes I can't manage breathing and opening my eyes at the same time. 

Sleep would help. Some restorative adventure would help. Some less-frightening alone time would help. I was ridiculously worried that everything would go to shit while the boys were away and that's carried over and I haven't quite let go of it yet but I will. I made my list. I did my breathing. I'm trying to keep up with all of my tasks to help myself and yet it feels so solitary and overwhelming I'm not sure how to proceed half the time so I just plow ahead even when it feels yucky or weird. It's akin to the feeling in the Prairies when the boys had moved already and I stayed behind to finish the sale of the castle and pack our most precious things. And I'd sit in the garage and sing along with the CD player and wish I was anywhere or anyone else. 

Sam says that Lochlan is the anchor but Jake was the rudder. 

Why can't you be the rudder now?

I'm trying but you fight me at every turn.

Me too, Pooh.

Everyone is home safe and sound, just in time before the wind ripped the sky off and blew our brains out, leaving them to be diluted in puddles of torrential rain. I'm rarely afraid, listening to the wind, thanks to growing up in the land of hurricanes (Maritimes) and then living in the Prairies where the storms were as fierce as the flatness of the land. Here the big wild storms are somewhat muted in comparison, but this one was such a banger I yelled at Schuyler for not latching their gate, so I listened to it bang against the fence until at least four in the morning, when I finally fell asleep and I also counted the shingles on all the houses and garage and outbuildings this morning, as you just never know when a storm is going to result in a call to the insurance adjuster. Last time we got a new roof. This time all is well. I will check attics in a month or two, as is my seasonal routine. 

So I don't think it was the storm as much as it was my latent anxiety about everyone returning before the storm began. The plane was on time (a first) and the mood was tired and so everyone is sleeping in this morning. It's almost noon. Lochlan was just happy to be home, I think. Happy I didn't look to the devil for comfort or company and instead used Dalton and PJ like big brothers. I traded off orders to get food and we watched a ton of movies and gained weight and we caught up on the chores and some more spring cleaning and we're ready to roll, I think, or close to it. 

I'm having more tiny flashes of anxiety but it seems liveable. I think I am predisposed to suggestion and so when the doctor pointed out I can increase if shit goes south I instantly started waiting for that to happen. Has it? Maybe a bit. Or I am metabolizing it really quickly even though it's supposed to be an extended-release sort of medication. Either way they won't need to get the tranquilizer gun out for me but they should still put their shoes on and linger near the door, just in case. 

Jake laughs when I say that. He remembers this feeling well.

Gale.

Today is a quiet day. I'm working on sanding and painting a little cabinet with a glass door that I found at a junk shop. I'm painting it white and I'm going to keep my crystals in it. It's not actually little but it will still fit nicely on the shelf by the window going up the front staircase and it will keep things more secure. 

Ruth and her fiance came by on their way home from an appointment. They stayed for half an hour and played with the dog while they tried to cement their plans for the remainder of the day. I felt vaguely obtunded and dull. I didn't sleep well last night at all. I couldn't get warm. The dog wouldn't stay put. I've already added a blanket under my pillow that I can wrap up in if it happens tonight again. 

The rain is supposed to start in earnest in the next two hours. So excited for a dark stormy day. I'm going to finish Red Dot and maybe start the House of the Witch. Apparently it's leaving Netflix soon so I need to figure it out. 

Hanging out with the dog. By myself. Henry's asleep. Haven't see the Devil yet. Dalton is here keeping an eye and everyone else is out. The wind just picked up like crazy. I guess the storm arrived sooner than I thought it would. 

*Yawn*

Today I bought another gazebo and a privacy trellis for the guest garden suite so that if someone ventures outside they aren't in full view of the driveway since it wraps around now and then I let Daniel cut off all my hair for me into a cute little shaggy pixie that made me weirdly happy. I have very expressive features and a very small head and I grew out my hair over most of last year and hated it long even though I always say I'm going to grow it long it's such a hassle and it's thick and heavy and I wanted it just...off. Daniel did a great job and I gave him a huge tip too. Mostly I was stalling because I don't want to put the gazebo together at all and I just want to materialize but we will work on it next weekend maybe. That will be fun. 

In the meantime tomorrow is a rare day. We're supposed to have rain and wind and Dalton and I both drew the laundry card so we will fold the laundry and get it all done and returned to the right rooms and catch up. Nothing else needs to be done. We're way ahead overall for spring by many weeks. I even got my potato seedlings to plant in a few weeks. Normally I'm not even thinking of any of this until my birthday. 

Loch and Henry went out and picked up Japanese food for dinner. We had tofu yakisoba and gyoza and spicy chicken while we watched Moonfall. Gosh, it was so exciting and so pretty. I loved it. Would have watched it all night but tomorrow there are things to be done so everyone needs an early turn-in. The boys have a project (sadly not the other gazebo) and I am going to play ghosthunter. In my pajamas because I won't be going outside. 

But first, a good nights sleep.

Daydreaming about running away.

Found a house on Purplebricks tonight and it's only around eight hundred thousand pounds. It's in Bodmin, a four-hour drive west from London and it looks like a pretty place. I could be invisible anywhere, truth be told, as long as I know where to get things like..wait, nevermind. Watch batteries, vacuum belts and kids' snowsuits used to be the triple-threat, once I knew where to buy those things in a new city I had it all figured out. 

Now there's Amazon and forty other online places and the internet so it's not so hard to find what I need. 

This is a four-bedroom rural two-story with greenhouses and a sunroom and a kitchen with a very big aga stove and it looks bright and quiet and peaceful. It looks nice. No imposing historical architecture, no glaring modern twists, just a slightly shabby and light-filled home that is cheap, probably because of the location. It might be a little too invisible and so I will resume my search. I still think if I'm going to do this is should be an island so I can literally as well as metaphorically cut myself off from the world proper, misanthrope as I am, and live out my days knitting by the sea, death metal in my headphones, heartbreak in my bones. 

The Devil hovers, hungry as if for a bone, soaked by the blood of the past, baptized by the rain at present, unsure of a certain future. If I show him this house he'll just buy it and keep it, just in case. He's done that before. So I won't say too much about it and I'll come back to it in a few weeks and decide then.