Omens in Boxes

31^st December 2012

Dear Cassi,

What day has come when we find omens in boxes? Today Pickles had two Hammer Mill paper boxes sitting in the den and I asked where they had come from. Pickles said that Pony Girl had dropped them off. When I asked him why he said he couldn’t remember.

       

“It sounds to me as if you’re planning something and as it involves Pony Girl it can’t be good for me,” I said. I was using the real names of my siblings, but you know how I feel about that sort of thing.

       

Pickles then said that the inspector would come soon to look at the work that had been done by the contractor and that I had to make sure he could get into my lavatory. I told him that this was good to know and left it where it was for the day.

       

I took pains to get away from Pony Girl when she visited Pickles today. I decided to run out and buy root beer floats for all my homeless residents. This was a grueling thing to do on New Year’s Eve but I wanted to spend time.

       

Now I’ve got four cartons of Vanilla Bean Driers ice-cream and eight two liter bottles of root bear for my clients tonight. Let us hope I can bring joy even when I have none of my own.

Search your soul, Cassi,

Richard Leland Neal

Ghost Busters Lawn Gnomes 22 Mr. C and the Lamp

Ghost Busters Lawn Gnomes 21 Tracy in Love

Ghost Busters Lawn Gnomes 20 Tracy the Artist

Fuzzy Friday: Raccoon

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 19 Spencer and Tracy Listen to the Flowers

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 18 Simon de Canterville

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 17 Mr. C

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 16 Carola de Canterville

Ghost Busters Lawn Gnomes 15 Cong and the Ghost Disintegrator

Ghost Busters Lawn Gnomes 14 Tracy Gives Up

Fuzzy Friday: Surprised Cat

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 13 Spencer and the Rattle

Ghost Busters Lawn Gnomes 12 Adam at Lucy's Tomb

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 11 Tracy in the Graveyard

Ghost Busters Lawn Gnomes 10 Dr. Frankenstein

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 9 Tracy the Hypnotist

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 8 Maltese Monkey

Fuzzy Friday: Feed Me

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 7 Spencer Plays Mouse

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 6 Fat Man and Rabbit

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 5 Trace Ate the Fish

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 4 Kong

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 3 Trace the Gorillgnome

Ghost Buster Lawn Gnomes 2 Spencer and the Fish

Fuzzy Friday; Fabulous Cat

Ghost Busting Lawn Gnomes 1 Crest

Birthday Stink

4^th December 2012

Dear Cassi,

       

Today I have had more well wishes than ever before on the anniversary of my birth. They asked me why I came to work today and it never came to me to take the day off. After all, it would have been more hours at a different work but nothing in the way of leisure.

       

I clocked eleven hours today, as I was asked to work late to deal with a violent case. I have a knack, apparently, and I keep them from getting out of hand. So it was my lot in life to work late into the morning on my birthday, go home and sleep, then return to work again. This does give the gift of a larger paycheck, thus complaint is not my mean. At very least I feel needed, and that gives me some brightness to the dim.

       

My largest complaint is that the front shower at my work flooded soaking into the hall carpet and making a stench. All the restrooms open to clients are equipped with showers at my work. I arrived an hour and a half before shift to try and clean this mess and only managed to subdue it by half. The smell of mildew and rot is bearable if unpleasant.

       

This day is not without hope as my affairs are more in order today than they were yesterday. The carpets stand a hair cleaner and my bed is more comfortable. Today my life moved forward like a tall-masted ship first catching the wind in it sales.

Live better every day, little sister

Richard Leland Neal

The Five Thousand Project

Simply put, The Five Thousand Project is a condition where I read one hundred books before buying any more. Once I have done this I will read ninety nine books before buying one more. I will do this until I reach a total of five thousand books read or reach a ratio of one book to buy for everyone I read. I will make proof of my reading by reviewing every book.

The definition of ‘book’ can be interpreted here, but it is enough to say that first I will focus on books I own. As I believe myself to own far less than five thousand books but more than one thousand it should be of no extraordinary difficulty. As libraries exist, and the Gutenberg Project has now more than thirty thousand books online for free a person could spend most of their life reading and never buy a book.

It should be noted that this would be impossible for the student as they need to buy half a dozen books per semester. It would likely be impossible for the good father to adhere to the rules of this project as he would need to buy books for his children.

Thus, I can say that if ever I would be a student or father I need to complete or very nearly complete this project. Before I can take on these tasks I need correct the flaws in my damaged brain.

Any person having read five thousand books would be a person of skill. Even a centenarian would need to have read and average of fifty books a year for every year of their life to reach such a total. If in this pursuit I read a book every day it would still take nearly fourteen years to complete.

Thus we can say that this is a mammoth undertaking, but my lacking mental faculties require mammoth revision. This is the small work of a lifetime but I have a lifetime to work.