I forgot to mention that it was Mike’s mom’s birthday yesterday. Mike didn’t realize this until his grandmother called him around 7:30 or 8:00. He didn’t have time to buy her a gift.
el oh elz

Yesterday, Jaysen gave me a ride to the mall. No one was there yet so we just wandered around the mall and checked out EB. At Alladin’s Castle, we saw that white kid with the high socks that seemed to be a punk wannabe from Gable House. We ran away. Herbert, Hanah, and William showed up so we all wandered around. David, Mike, and Bradley (eh? maybe?) showed up and talked us into going to Fuddrucker’s. It was tasty. There was a one hundred word essay contest on the topic of “why your father is the greatest in the world” or something like that. I wrote about how the Supreme Commander is like a father to me, how much I loves him, and how he’s not crazy anymore now that he got back together with the hippie. Right? Right.

Harold should be off of our property within a week or two. I think he’ll put up a fight though. He’s trying to go into Sober Living (or something) so the story goes. Jamie (is that spelled right? and not my brother) goes to prison in a few days, but he’s done a lot of work on the wall so far. He’s going to start working on the roof as well. Homer’s been around, but I’m not sure what’s up with him. I think he’ll be leaving soon. He seems to group himself with Harold when they talk to me, but they don’t really get along anyways. Paco hasn’t been here in a few weeks. His daughter called the other day looking for him. She called him a different name, but I figured out who she wanted. When I told her that he hasn’t been here in a while and that I didn’t know when he was coming back, she said that that sounded just like him. Jamie’s mom would like to move into the back. Apparently, she’s had a steady job for years, has a car, and is pretty quiet. Hopefully, that’ll work out.
The wall has been rebuilt and is almost done being painted. The paint really doesn’t matter though. No one has begun work on the roof yet. Patty, Harold’s on-and-off girl friend, is going to work on the roof too. She’s done other work around here such as electrical and plumbing, and I know she’ll work if she says she will and will do a good job. However, that’s only if Harold’s still around and only if Harold and her are on good terms.
When my he got the license to do roof work, my dad had to talk to a city official. Apparently, the man was Greek, and they were friendly to each other. He said that the phone call about the roof was unofficial and that we have thirty days to fix the roof from the date we receive the letter saying we need to do so. We still haven’t received the letter. We’re unsure as to whether this is a normal delay or if the official is giving us time. I can’t make judgement because I wasn’t there to see if the man was actually treating my dad different than he treats anyone else.
We received the property tax bill yesterday. It was only the current one for the year, not the bill for the whole five years. And it says that if you don’t pay for five years, the state may take the house but not necessarily. Still, if he pays this one year, the unpaid bill will only be at four years, and we’ll be safe. I don’t know what he thinks will change in the future. He says that five years worth of the taxes will be about five thousand dollars. This year’s bill was five hundred and something. I wonder if his five year figure is incorrect or if there’s a lot of interest. In any case, he says he only has about two thousand free on credit and that he already has about six thousand, I think, on credit cards. I guess that would make his credit limit about eight thousand dollars, which is pretty low. I guess it’s high compared to the credit limits of the people he associates with.