Yesterday evening, when my mom brought me home., she wanted to look at a sign that had been on the empty house next to mine. So, we walked over there to look. I guess the sign is gone now.

While we were over there, the neighbor from across the road called out to us. My mom went over there to talk and I soon followed. The neighbor’s name is Lori. I met her a few years ago when she brought me over a homemade roast beef sandwich on a holiday that I was stuck at home on. I can’t remember if it was the 4th of July or Memorial Day. We talked briefly that day, but had not talked again until yesterday.

Turns out, Lori values beer as much as I do. She asked me to sit and have a beer. My mom left and Lori gave me a 25oz can of beer. And we sat and talked for a while, well, the best we could, anyway. I couldn’t hear hardly anything that was said to me. She did do a bit of writing in a notebook and I responded to that. But it made for pretty slow conversation.

I’m really not good at socializing and today I’m kicking myself over fact that I couldn’t hear her and how awkward I was. I also forgot to thank her for the beer, and that’s pretty damn rude in my book. But I have been wanting to get to know the neighbors and I hope this leads to more interactions. Lori seems to know the other neighbors quite well. I see them talking sometimes.

It really upsets me when the topic is Police Brutality and someone says “Don’t be a criminal and you won’t be hurt by police.”

That is so not true. Police hurt a lot of people who are not criminals. There are many stories to be found.

I have had experiences with the police that still haunt me. I used to walk to the store all the time. I rarely do anymore, and the very few times that I do, I’m thinking every step of the way that a cop is going to pull up and harass me about whether my disabilities are real or if I’m just on drugs and giving him an attitude.

And even so, I still have faith in the system and I continue to believe that most cops handle situations properly. But there are still far too many times when cops do not handle the situation properly. It’s those times that I’m talking about.

Okay, done for today. We got the frame down. I gave a blood sacrifice to the construction gods when I smashed my finger hammering a stake into the ground. A blood sacrifice is necessary for a healthy patio.

I guess the next step is to get sand in there..

Although I was previously looking to hire someone to do the patio, I don’t think I would appreciate the patio as much if someone else did it for me. I wanted to do the work myself, I just needed to work with someone who knows how to do it right. I’m glad my dad is able to work with me on it.

Today I ordered food from Maude’s Alabama BBQ, which is the restaurant my uncle Ron owns. My nephew Anthony works there now. He wrote on my bag.

My dad and I started working on the patio today. We just called it a day a little while ago.

I’m cooking ribs. After I get my patio back to its old size, I plan on getting a serious grill.

I wanted to get over to my mom and dad’s, but didn’t have a way. My dad came when he finished working on the chicken coop and we went to MD’s Sports Tavern to get food curbside pickup. MD’s makes damn good, well-stacked burgers, which is what I just finished eating.

My gift to my dad was a box of coffee.

I walked around to the backyard and startled this guy. He ran to the fence and couldn’t go any farther.