Hermits have no peer-pressure

In little over an hour I met four of my neighbors (4 households) and three cats. I had volunteered to do a survey for the neighborhood committee; they are looking at parking permits because the local student population is horribly disrespectful to the residence. This act of kindness has had the non-too surprising effect of putting me off people. Oh, I’m sure they are perfectly nice creatures; like seagulls or Africanized bees, but still I think I’ll pass. I have decided to become a hermit. My husband is exempt from this of course, and maybe a few of my friends, but on the whole people are out. I’ll be nice to you at work and hope that you don’t kill me on the road, but that’s it. I’ll even ignore most of you at church or the grocery store as Jo Ann says, “Don’t make eye contact”.

Though… the nice young man who stopped and carried in the evil bucket of mud is cool. There I was trying to get 65+ pounds of drywall mud to work – all by myself in a place where they make you park in outer darkness, because Heaven forbid I interfere with Woodbury Corp.’s profit margins because of my need for heath and safety – when a young man … I’d say about 17-19 years old actually pulled over and carried it in for me. So, Justin Diamond you are exempt from the “ban on people”. I hope he has a cool girlfriend and that he gets a scholarship to the college of his choice.

The walls are still not done at work. I have still not heard from Springville library. And I am still depressed.

In this fog of darkness, however, is a small bright spot and his name is Guy, or Malcolm…or quite possibly Steve. He is a $40 beta. Yes, he is a genuine purebred fish. He has lovely orange skin with a hint of purple on the tail. He’s quite taken with his Rubbermaid bowl and place of prominence on the mantel. The 10-gallon tank he came in, complete with water, gravel, decoration and filters will be home to my guppies and tetras soon. I don’t think he minds at all though. He’ll have a new privet “bowl” that’s shaped like a martini glass…maybe I’ll call him Olive