Dreams

 Last night I had a dream that I believe was inspired by a book I'm reading - Black Widows by Cate Quinn.

 

In the book a man named Blake Nelson is part of the Latter Day Saints and believes polygamy is not only allowed, but expected.  In the book, Blake has been killed and the police believe one of his wives killed him.

 

In my dream, Blake is still very much alive.  In fact, he's trying to recruit me to be one of his wives.  He's promised me that I can be the "head wife" if I marry him.  I'm not interested in being one of many wives but the police believe he has done some bad things so they want me to play along to try to get some dirt on him they can use against him.  But they tell me to be very careful because if he realizes what I'm doing, he will kill me.

 

I also get warned that if I string him along and then reject him and people know I've rejected him, he could also kill me for that.  Real incentive type stuff to make me want to go along with their plans, right?  Uh, NO!

 

But along comes another woman who desperately wants to become one of Blake's wives and she's trying to persuade me to use my influence on him to marry her as well.  She's not interested in being the head wife or anything, just one of the many.  I try to explain I don't really have any influence over him but she keeps begging me so I tell her I'll do what I can, just to get rid of her.

Meanwhile, I get word that the other sister wives are upset that Blake has promised me the role of head wife if I agree to marry him.  They're plotting my murder in case I agree to marry him and take that role.

The police have promised to place me in a witness relocation program if I go along with them but I'm worried how safe I will be with so many people plotting my death.

As I'm thinking about all of this, another male from the Latter Day Saints approaches me.  He's intrigued that I might not want to marry Blake, who he has on a pedestal.  To him, that makes me all the more appealing.  He asks if I don't agree to marry Blake, will I consider marrying him?  I would be his first wife so that would make me the head wife, should he decide to take other wives in the future.  I'm not interested but I don't want to say that outright so I just say I'll consider it and walk away.

All this was weighing on me and I woke up.

So, the book is a bit intense and apparently carried over to my dreams, in a very weird way.  But it's interesting too.  I'd say more about it but it likely will be my book pick for our next book review club meeting, which I think is next week! 

Off to read more of the book so I have something to review!  😉

Security Measures

 A week or two ago I went to take Oreo for a walk.  We go out through the garage when we walk, this is our routine.

 

When I opened the door into the garage, the garage door was open.  This was kind of alarming to me because the last time I'd gone through it had been about eighteen hours before, meaning it was likely open overnight.  My last garage door opener would randomly open the garage door.  I'd come home from work and it would be open.  I'd get up in the morning, it would be open.  My dogs would run to the door to greet me when they heard the garage door open.  One night I was sitting in the living room and suddenly the garage door opened and the dogs perked up, looked at me, then each other and decided to run to the door - even though I was home - because apparently we were having an unexpected guest.  After that incident, I would shut off the power to the garage door opener when I was home.  (My new garage door opener has a battery back up so I don't think that would help in this situation.)

 

Then two years ago it wouldn't close and started smoking so I replaced it.  The guy who installed the new one said when the engine goes out, that's what happens - it will open randomly.  So there is a part of me that worries that's what happened recently (a few days later I went to close it and it stopped halfway through and opened up again).  The day this happened though, I can see where I would've been distracted and forgotten to close the garage door and my hope is that's all it was.

 

But here's the deal:

 

The door hinges to the door leading to the garage are on the garage side of the door.  This has actually come in handy before, when I've locked myself out of the house (more than a few times, unfortunately).  So that's always a concern when the garage door is left open.  But, because I have locked myself out so many times, I started keeping a key in my garage.  It was in plain view of the door.  If someone had decided to try to get in, the key was right there. 

But it gets even better.  The door wasn't even locked!  All anyone had to do was walk into my garage and walk right into my house.

What I'm saying here is, it's lucky I guess I'm still alive! It's not the opportunity wasn't there for someone!  Ha!

Garage Sale

The other day I was walking Oreo and saw that someone in my neighborhood was advertising for a garage sale to occur this past Saturday.  I made a mental note that I wanted to stop by and check it out and then promptly forgot about.

 

Then Saturday I was walking Oreo again and we had taken a path that took us right by that house.  As I walked by, aside from a pair of gorgeous high heel shoes, nothing jumped out at me.  I don't wear heels anymore so I didn't even slow down my walk.  

 

But someone called out to me and asked me to stop by, so I did.  They were talking fast and really trying to sell me some stuff.  

 

They got my attention when they said they had a bike.  I've been considering buying a bike to ride around the neighborhood.  I can't remember if I asked or if she just told me what they were asking but it was higher than I thought a garage sale bike should sell for.  (It's worth noting that a look online after I got home proved that I could buy a new bike for only slightly more than they were asking for a used one.)

Then she said she had a stationary bike.  Again, something I've considered buying myself.  They were only asking $10 less than the bike but wanted to be sure I knew, the part of the stationary bike that times you, clocks how far and how fast you're pedaling was broken.  Hard pass on that one!

She showed me some "cabinets" that were basically painted boxes with drawers.  Not what I was looking for.

Next, she offered me a flat screen TV.  It doesn't work but she suggested I could sell it for parts.  Seriously?  Why would I buy something from her just so I could sell it? And for parts, no less.  She pointed out what she said were laptops (by this point I was just trying to get away so I didn't really look to confirm what they were).  She said they all worked - except for the monitors.  Really?

But the thing that took the cake for me was when she offered to sell me a used dog bone for Oreo.  A used dog bone!  Not a toy.  One of those chew bones.

Wow.  Just wow!

I left without being interested in anything but the shoes I wouldn't wear and annoyed that they were doing such a hard sales pitch on items that were broken or would only be good if I could sell them for parts.  Oh, and she actually had shoes out that only had one of the shoes available.  I thought I was only seeing one shoe on a few pairs but I hadn't looked that hard but she told me some were missing the pair - if I were interested, they'd try to find its match!

But after I thought about it, the fact that they were selling things that were literally of no value to anyone on the planet (not even them) and doing so so "enthusiastically", I have to wonder if they are experiencing financial hardships.  Times are tough right now for everyone and sometimes you just have to do things you wouldn't normally otherwise do.  It made me want to go back and make some sort of donation to their cause.  

No, I didn't go back but they said things that suggested they may be holding the sale for an extended period of time so it's possible I could still buy something.  I could always get those gorgeous shoes and keep them with other pairs I have, that I also never wear.  They were that pretty.

Buying a new car

My next door neighbor moved in roughly fifteen years ago.  Over the years she's driven a few different cars.  In the past, when it's come up in conversation I've found that she's swapped cars with a family member - she's rarely in her own car, which my understanding has been what her mother drives.  They each make payments on the vehicle they own but they drive each other's car.  It's weird.  She's also driven her sister's cars at times.

 

Anyway, a month or two ago (who knows what day it is anymore?) I noticed she had been driving a new car again.  Not sure if it was another family member's car or not, I asked if she had gotten a new car.  She said she had.  (It wasn't a Bentley, I just like this picture but if I ever have the single winning lottery ticket paying out a billion or more dollars, I will own one!) 

She tells me that her engine died or something to that effect and says they wanted something like $9,000 to repair the car.  Now mind you, I don't know if her car died or if it was the car she was driving (which was her mother's) that died but she got a new car out of it.  And I have to say, with that costly of repairs looking at me, I probably would do the same thing.

But then she tells me her boyfriend also bought a new car recently.  I knew this because her boyfriend lives right down the street from us and I had noticed him driving a different car.  I didn't ask about him and I didn't ask why he got a new car but she offered the information anyway.  Are you ready for this?

His battery died and he didn't want to replace it!  I'm not even kidding!  Who buys a whole new car when their battery dies?  Seriously, I want names because that's just NUTS!

But after having some time to think about this, I realize that it really has nothing to do with his battery dying.  I think it has to do with his girlfriend getting a new car and him being too macho to drive in a vehicle older than hers.  I seriously believe that because, in my opinion, anyone who would buy a new car just because the battery died is someone who is too stupid to have a driver's license, much less drive a car.

Am I wrong? 

Robert Redford

 The other day my cable box was having an issue so I was forced to have a cable man out to my house to fix the problem.

 

He decided that my cable box needed to be replaced (turned out he was wrong) and he apparently reset my cloud recordings.  I lost over 100 shows (mostly movies) and the remaining shows and movies now have a very short shelf life, so I have been watching movies before they disappear forever (didn't start soon enough and lost some more anyway 😒).

 

Among the movies I've watched were Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Candidate, both star Robert Redford.  And both were made when he was in his early to mid-thirties - young.  Thing is, he didn't look as young as he was.  

 

This is a photo from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (where they're on the cliff about to jump to get away from the posse that's after them).  He was 32 or 33 when this came out.  To me he looks much older than that.  Paul Newman was ten years older than Redford but Redford looked older than Newman.  I kept scrutinizing his face to see if I could imagine he was in his early 30s and I couldn't.  I believe it was this film he took his shirt off though and his physique fit a man in his early 30s but his face didn't.  

 

In fact, I felt like he looked like someone then that I could date now without drawing any attention to the huge age differences even though he's old enough to be my father!  And I don't feel like he's aged well either.  I feel like Paul Newman looked younger than he was up until he got sick with cancer.

 

Don't get me wrong, I like Robert Redford and think he's a talented actor.  It's just . . . I wonder, did he ever look young?