I've been saying two phrases a lot lately. One is, "Honestly...!" when something is kind of ridiculous, stupid or I can't believe that Katie needs to jump up on me and scratch the hell out of my arm when she gets excited when I come home. It's part of my effort to clean up my mouth. I used to say, "Fuck!" or "Oh, come on, what's THIS shit?"

The second phrase is "8 years." I use it when things are taking an inordinate amount of time to complete. Such as, "It's taking me 8 years to hear back on approval for that article" or "Malcolm, this is taking 8 years" (whenever Malcolm does anything--he is the slowest dog I have ever seen). I just started using the number 8 for some reason one day, and I recently noticed I am consistent with it. Not sure why 8 years became the benchmark for anything, but it seems to have happened, so I am accepting this development in my subconscious and moving on.

So I have to take down my windchime. I got a letter from the HOA that they have changed their rules, and now windchimes are not allowed on anyone's porches or property. I want to know why. It's not like you hear a din of windchimes when you walk through this place; what's wrong with a small, tinkling little chime in the breeze? I don't get it. I have until May 12 to fall into compliance with the new rule, and I'm waiting until the morning of the 12th to take my shit down. I happen to enjoy my windchime alot. And we have had a lot of windy and breezy weather lately, and it has been a nice sound to hear outside my window. My windchime is small, unobtrusive and very pleasant, overall. Who are these nasty, mean, horrible people without souls who have a problem with little chimes? Did they all suffer unspeakable tragedies and/or acts of depravity conducted by a windchime at some point in their life? Was a current windchime somewhere in this complex doing something terrible in its off-hours... was a chime peeking in at some lady as she got dressed, or was it dripping acidic poison down onto some passing-by children or something? Are they evil incarnate? Do their bells herald in creatures from the deepest levels of Hell? Are they disasters lying in wait? What the fuck is the problem with chimes? It's just something I want to know. I mean, honestly.