My mother and I have been living in makeshift housing made out of a tool shed since September 2025 (with my dad in a separate one). We've basically had no running water, a lack of insulation, and hand me down appliances from my sister, and a port-a-potty. We FINALLY have a little update on our housing situation which means we may be getting a house soon! Of course that doesn't mean we can live in it...
See, we've been in the process of getting a modular home since we sold our old house. The problem? There's a lot more to it than my mom thought at first and we didn't exactly have a way to get everything done. There's so much to placing one of these houses in our area including: specific roof pitch height, 20 ft deck on the front, sqft requirements, and of course the perc test to place the sewage system properly. These requirements have pretty much blown out our budget so we've been surviving with a garage heater all winter.
Anyways, we have the perc test done, which gives us the ok to put a septic tank in. We have the plans for the house, a budget model that is cheaper to customize with the roofing and area requirements than buying a much bigger place. With those house plans we need to survey the area to figure out exactly what we need to landscape to bring the house in. And even when we get the house in we can't get a certificate of occupancy without setting up the sewage, water, power, etc. which all cost money for meters and tanks. But the great news is that we actually have a plan moving forward!
Luckily, we were able to rent two sheds which means I didn't have to live/sleep in the same space as my father. If you've kept up with my other updates you know we don't have the best relationship due to his abuse and treatment of myself and my mom. Since we live next to my sister it's also been a comfort that I'm not completely alone out here. Still, his "tantrums" and treatment of eveyone around him makes it exausting especially since I'm autistic and get overwhelmed with loud noises and arguing.
In other news:
Riley, Gen, and I have started a playthrough of Borderlands 2 together! It's one of my favorite games and we've started playing once a week. Next game will be The Pre Sequel which Riley knows very well. The Community Patches for both games are well worth it. I even attempted patching Borderlands 3 Which now can actually run on my computer without the bullshit VFX and Denuvo. Don't get me wrong, it's still poorly optimized and should run a lot better than it does (even having issues on high end pcs) but I'm just glad I can see my girl Ellie. Of course I don't plan on getting Borderlands 4 due to these issues (and with Gearbox and Pitchford themselves) but I am glad to see my girl Ellie getting spotlight in the new DLC.
Another thing Riley and I have been doing is watching through Invincible Season 4. I absolutely LOVE the series and have been happy to see more character development than the comics. Sorry, I'm not a big fan of the comic! No shade to the creators, it's just not my thing. I'm going to be sad when this seasons over and I have to wait for further episodes, but I suppose we could replace our weekly watch with One Piece Live Action Season 2.
Glad everyone reading this made it to the new year. I know things are stressful, but it means a lot that we're still sticking around.
I'm not the type of person to do "new years resolutions" but I'll list out some things I want to do not have to do.
Let's be kind to ourselves this year no matter what happens.
~Cyber
The last week has pretty much been hell for me. Last Monday I lost my cat Gracie, my dainty little calico. The best we're told is that it was a heart issue she's had since birth. I had some similar issues with another cat of mine, Nomad, who Gracie actually helped me deal with the death of. Unlike with Nomad's death this depression is more of a numb feeling rather than intense sadness. I've been crying off and on but otherwise all my emotions are muted.
I'm writing this today because I'm feeling better and I had the fortune of meeting a new friend, a grey and white tuxedo boy I've named Domino adopted from the local rescue for Christmas. Things still hurt but it's slowly becoming easier to take care of myself and my hygiene with him around. I become very attached to my pets so if anything happens to them everything becomes so much harder for me.
Besides my cats, things are still tense. We moved into a shed next to my sisters months ago. It has wifi and other things but no running water or insulation. It's been a struggle for everyone to adjust especially since the price estimate for our modular home was much higher than we were expecting when selling our old house. So showering, cooking, even staying warm is much more of a challenge down here.
My dad's held up for most of the time but now he's throwing a tantrum because my sisters way of celebrating Christmas isn't the way he celebrates. So yeah, gotta deal with a grown ass toddler of a man in these conditions.
I'm trying not to let any of this ruin my Christmas but it's very difficult. I just hope I can spend time with my family without my dad throwing things and yelling. I'm still hanging in there.
~ Cyber
Thank you Zonelets for making this so easy! :)
Just writing some basic information here since this is just a test.
I have King of the Hill on while I'm coding. The Animal Control episode sucks. Sorry John Goodman, you cannot carry this ep no matter how charismatic you are.