changes

I'm not a fan of change. I like everything to stay the same (except when it's bad - then I really want it to change). It seems sometimes that changes come all at once. The neighbors in the townhouse attached to my villa moved out on Saturday, taking their three barking pit bulls with them. I won't miss those dogs, but the people themselves were mostly quiet, which I really appreciated, although they were somewhat slovenly (at least from the things I witnessed in their front yard). Now the place is up for rent, and who knows who will move in next door. I don't have the best of luck when it comes to neighbors. I have never been able to afford to live in nice, decent neighborhoods, so I live with people who don't have the same value system as I do, e.g., people who think playing their music mega-loud or throwing things like dead chickens with feathers, dirty socks, cigarette butts, empty water bottles, and candy wrappers on the ground is somehow okay. My neighbor on the other side (who lives in a villa like me) is putting up a six-foot high white plastic fence between his property and mine. Our front doors face each other, so now we won't have to see each other when we accidentally come out at the same time. (He's not talking to me because I objected to him playing an electric guitar plugged into an amp outside, just a few feet from my house, late at night.) This is one change I am happy about!

The other changes are at work. My boss, whom I really like, has been promoted and he'll be leaving our library at the end of July. That means a new boss with new ways and new rules. From what I hear, the new supervisor is a nice man, kinda easy-going. We'll see. I have also applied (once again) for a full-time job at the library. Soon it will be interview time with a three-person panel. I am not an excellent interviewee at all. I wish I could be like Samantha in "Bewitched" and just twinkle my nose and everything I want would happen, just like that. If I do get the job, though, I'll need to move (again) because from where I live now, it's a long and nasty morning commute to downtown Tampa.

And one more change -- my youngest cat Denali is missing (again). This time, so far, it has been five days. I have looked everywhere, called him, listened for him, asked some people in the neighborhood about him, searched animal rescue sites. Nothing. There is a 17-acre jungle beyond my backyard. If he came across an animal in there that attacked him, there is no way I will ever find him in there. It is too wild and too overgrown. Denali regularly runs away, but it's usually for 24-36 hours. (In December he disappeared for 16 days; when he finally came home, he had several healed bite marks and a limp. Where he was and who fed him the entire time I have no idea.) So, I guess it's time for flyers around the neighborhood. But for now, it's just me and my four senior citizen cats. Just us old folks hanging around . . . .