The situation with mom and daddy hasn't changed: that is, daddy has turned into a recluse (he won't even go to the bar to join his beer-drinkin' buddies), and mom continues to be a pain in my ass.  She won't leave me alone for a second: she continues to drill me with question after question after question.

Grandma Ethel is still with us, but I'm afraid those days are numbered: she has taken to wandering around the neighborhood; twice we've had to call the police to help us look for her.  I think she's still looking for her husband, who died over 40 years ago.  I think her mind is just about gone: she hardly recognizes anybody, even us.  It's heartbreaking!

I do believe placement in a nursing home for her might be in order sooner than we realize ... her incessant wanderings are beginning to worry us more and more as is her fading mind ...

Joe Breen, only the most popular guy in my grade, continues to spend time with me and talks to me as if he's known me all my life.  I think he's starting to get the hots for me.  It's really embarrassing: I'm really not ready to have a steady relationship with a boy just yet; I'm only 16 1/2 years old!  I'm too young for that sort of responsibility!

The cicadas have decided to make a return engagement to our area this year.  They nestle among the leaves of the trees, making their noisy insect-song, starting at the first crack of dawn until eveningtide.  Their constant droning is starting to drive me mad!

I wonder if they have anything to do with all the weird events that have taken (or are taking) place in my life and in the lives of my immediate family.  I have no other explanation for it.  

I don't know if I can take any more strange occurrances; things have already gone helter-skelter as it is in my world!

~To be continued.~