Well, Three if you count SWMBO coming home. Which I do. Always.

Second: The sun came out. It got up to 60+ degrees and was nice enough out for me to get out and sit in the sun for awhile after me and the Dog went for a walk. Felt almost nice enough for us to take off all our clothes and lay out. Almost.

Third: The Renters paid their February rent! No shit. So we had a bit of a talk about the noise after 2200 and how we have to get up at 0530, etc. etc. etc. You could tell that he wanted to ask if they could stay past the end of the month but was kind of afraid of the answer. And the answer right now would be NO. And I won’t believe his promise to pay the March rent until it’s in hand.

Other than that just not much going on around here. The usual chores. Made a run to the Post Office to get Netflix mailed off. Stopped and bought a tank of gas. (Man, the price of gas has gone up in the past week! WTF? We’re paying summer prices early this year.)

Oh, had my heart ripped out earlier also.  Heard “something’ at the front door and when I looked it was the Renter’s 2-year old daughter. When I opened the door she lifted her arms for me to pick her up. (I’d be willing to wager I’ve held her only twice before.) Just as I picked her up, her mother came around the end of the house calling for her. The daughter did not want to go back to her mommy! And as the renter took her daughter from me, the daughter had that scared look (you know, where the jowls tremble) on her face that just broke my heart. And she didn’t smile as usual when waving bye.

I’ll tell you; I don’t know if the kid coming up was just exploring or trying to escape. That last look on her face almost had me convinced she was trying to get away from mommy. But I don’t know; she could have thought she was in trouble for disappearing. I just don’t know. But I’ve been kinda shaky since that happened. Bothered me so much I tried calling SWMBO to see what she thought.

And the Renter’s do fight a lot. Last month both came up to apologize about not paying the rent and said that they’d decided to live together and “make it work.” (Her dad hates him and refuses to help with the rent as long as they’re together.) Then she spent the next three night screaming at him to “get the fuck out!” They fight a lot.

But there is no obvious proof of physical abuse of the kid. And I do keep my eyes and ears open. And I’m not afraid to call the cops. And at all other times the kids has appeared to be happy and healthy.

I just don’t know…