So far, so good. After a couple of weeks basically under the radar with everyone I know, I finally talked with my mom about the financial hole I dug myself with my ex-wife. I basically figured out a way to convert one short-term loan from CashApp into a different kind of short-term loan through them and bought myself another month.

Thankfully, by now I'd revised my argument to the point that not taking out the loan for her would have been the more expensive option overall, given the extra stop at a friend's place by the airport to pick up my gaming rig that he never ended up using. And throwing the cherry on that was "it was an expensive lesson, but with other things going on, it led me to realize this is simply who she's been for the past 17 years, and I can't hope for her to ever change."

And then pointed out we have a couple of weeks before it's due, as interest is assessed at the time of the loan, so early repayment is pointless.

So, Arizona planning that was supposed to happen a couple of weeks ago when I lost it on her was able to proceed apace, and she had more info about her plans (only one, compared with the smorgasbord she'd been planning and thus irritating the fuck out of me with). Sounds more like the trip I'd agreed to than what she'd been trying to turn it into. The hotel in Phoenix is going to be about three miles from the house I grew up in, which in the Valley is basically next door, and that's the mountain where we're spreading his ashes.

No fresh hell has come my way, and we're actually going to get the elusive week Texas never provides: Highs in the mid-80s, lows in the mid-60s, sunny, low humidity. Basically Christmas in Phoenix. Oh, and I get to avoid the stupidity of randomly changing the clock by an hour as I'll be in Arizona for the switch to standard time.