“I didn’t notice when ‘he lives close by’ became one of my greatest comforts—only when it might no longer be true.”

Badger woke up early and made us breakfast.
Biscuits, gravy, and sausage, and she remembered to set my apple butter out.
I really appreciated her.

I was a little bit lazy and slept until 7:30 a.m.
I try to be up before then so that I don't disturb Cowboy.
He got to bed at 4 a.m. this morning.

I woke up to breakfast.
Badger usually shoves an instant breakfast drink at me, but today it was a full breakfast.
That was a nice surprise.

She and I ate.
I got Cowboy's tablet set up and then I told her we'd take a walk.
I just needed to settle my stomach.

So we walked down to the Creek Church, but their parking lot was full.
We turned around, took the route that led us behind Pappaw's house, and decided to risk the dogs.
We went on up Pappaw's hill and home that way.

We made it back at 10:30 a.m. 
Cowboy and Heron were eating breakfast together.

To be honest, I had a quick potty break. 
Look at my age, you don't take super long walks after a cup of coffee and a breakfast drink.
As Badger says, there aren't any public restrooms around.
Or private bushes either, if you wish to go that far.

Then she and I headed down to the wooded field.
There was a whole power line full of baby swallows being fed by their moms or dads.
Badger took a ton of pictures. 
It was pretty fascinating to watch.

By the time we headed back up to the house, Cowboy was done eating, so we tackled his monthly test.

I have a huge huge complaint.
Management gets this fancy, voiced by a Hollywood actor, movie quality anime style film to watch.
And one, mind you, test question a penguin could answer.
Holy crap, for like four years now I've been taking Cowboy's test for him.
The plant workers get this hour-long, and that is not an exaggeration, crappy AI cartoon, crappy AI-voiced film to watch.
And then it's a good thirty questions to answer.
I wish I was telling a tall tale.
If his tests continue like the one today, I'm going to be a happy camper.

Then Cowboy went back to sleep. 
I headed to my computer, of course.
Badger headed to the she-shed and Heron went into work.
They had him going in much later today.

Out of habit more than anything I checked the bank. 
Cowboy's work check went through today.
So he won't get another check until the 8th or 9th of July, possibly the 10th of July.
He's supposed to be paid on Friday now.
As usual, the webpage is down that tells when the checks come out again.
Peacock was trying to help set us up on Sunday and he blew his cork at how terrible the webpage was.

It looks like a nice increase in pay until you realize that has to last you for two full weeks.
Peacock told me, well now you learn to budget.
I hate to tell him this, but I've been budgeting since 1990. 
I've just always had a weekly check.
I think I'm probably going to have to channel Aunt GG, get me a ledger, and write down every little bit of expenses we have and when they come out.

Badger came in at 1 pm to start dinner. 
Today it was pizza.
We ate later than normal, at 2:30 p.m.
That's when Cowboy woke up. 
He didn't eat until 3 pm, though.
He had to go take care of his chickens.

After he finished eating he handed me his phone. 
He had a voice message or so it said.
So I clicked the link, it looked authentic.
A dang giant fish popped up and it said something like you've been company authorized phished.
Dadnabbit, he just watched a training video and test about phishing and scams.
Here I go clicking on what I shouldn't have.
Oh well, the man is nearly 70, what do they expect?

Then I headed back to my TV. 
Badger and I watched TV until Cowboy went to work.

After Cowboy left, Badger and I went in the kitchen to take a quick inventory before we went to the store tomorrow.
Luckily, I've been slowly stocking up so we don't need a lot of groceries this week.

About 7:30 p.m. we started hearing what sounded more like gunshots go off.
A lot of them.
Then it got louder and louder and louder.
This went on for a good half hour.

I asked on the town Facebook page and someone said the church was having fireworks.
Well, OK, it wasn't even dark yet so they couldn't see any of them, and they could have easily just put up on the Facebook town page that they were going to do this.

My pets were absolutely terrified. 
Usually if we're setting off fireworks ourselves we lock the cats in the laundry room with a very noisy fan.
The dogs we'll put in the bedroom with the TV on loud and my extra loud fan going.

At one point it sounded like World War III out there.
A little warning would have been appreciated.

Of course, I come off looking like a Karen.

The dogs finally got to go pee at 8 p.m. 
Thank goodness we didn't have them outside when the fireworks started.
I'm not sure how Lady would have reacted.

We took the trail cam down to the garden and set it up.
There were deer hooves all up and down the rows between Cowboy's corn and squash.
Hopefully, we catch one.

Then Badger and I settled down, watched TV until about 10 pm.

I'm actually on my tablet in the bedroom at the moment.

Badger got super cranky with me and I'm not in the mood to deal with someone being cranky.

I left her Duffy so she's not alone.

I think sometimes we just need to be off in our own corners.
We're together 24/7.
There is no privacy in this house.
She's an adult, but she's never away from me or Cowboy.
That's enough to make anyone cranky.

Heron wandered up about 10:30 p.m. and sat on my bed to talk, something he almost never does these days.

If all goes as planned, and the fact that he's still living in my backyard four years later proves that things rarely do, the plan right now is for him to move to Newport before Christmas.

If the stars line up just right and Tinkerbelle shakes enough fairy dust off, he’ll tear up the RV, sell it as scrap, and be gone.

From the sounds of it, and it sounds like a very strange relationship, but who am I to talk, he and his girlfriend will move into a giant metal barn, his words. 
He’ll have an apartment upstairs and she’ll have an apartment downstairs.

Right now she and her mother share a shipping container house, but her mom is moving to Montana or Colorado, I can’t remember which, by Christmas.

The plan has always been for Heron to move to Newport and for them to have a small cluster of homes on the same property, his girlfriend, her mom, and him each nearby but with their own space.

The original plan was for him to be gone in a year. 
That hasn’t worked out.

Things happen, life happens, plans go sideways.

As it is right now, I guess it's really just wait and see.

I’d hate to lose him. 
I’ve gotten used to him being here, hearing his weird podcasts as he takes showers, bringing him supper on Thursdays.

If his RV wasn’t falling apart so fast, and if I had an extra room, I’d tell him to just stay.

He’s headed back to his RV, and I’ll close this up and finish the part of the book I’m reading.