A Funny Thing Happened …

... On the Way to the trash receptacle yesterday.

I saw the illusive unfriendly strange downstairs neighbor, the one who doesn’t want anything to do with any of us because, as she puts it, “I don’t like people!” She was parking her car.

I wave at neighbors, whether they’re friendly or not so, like I’ve done twice before when I happened to see her sitting in her car, I smiled and waved.

Those other two times, she just glared at me all mean faced.

This time she smiled back.

What?!

Then she rolled down her window and said “Hey girl, how are you?”

What?!! What?!!

“I’m fine. How are you?”

“Okay, but let me ask you something. What are you doing between 3:00 and 5:00 in the morning?”

“Sleeping, why?”

“I have insomnia. It’s hard for me to go to sleep and that noise you’re making at 3:00 in the morning is disturbing my rest. I’ve complained many times to the office about it and keep asking if and when they’re going to talk to you. Have they talked to you?”

“No, and I’m not making any noise during those hours because I’m in bed asleep.”

“Well something up there is making a sound like you’re rolling something around. I’m glad I caught you to ask about it because I was thinking of knocking on your door.”

If the weird one had knocked on my door, day or night, I would not have answered and probably would have called for backup because it was obvious, from that first hello/welcome, that something is just not right with her.

So anyway, as we went back and forth -- she accusing me of making a noise, I saying no noise, I’m asleep, it suddenly occurred to me.

Remember when I blogged about being awakened at 3:30 in the morning because someone was doing laundry? It turned out, I could hear it because we now have new high-powered washers and dryers and, when the world is quiet that time of morning, I get the faint sound of water running into the washers and the whirling of the dryers. Deaf in one ear, I can easily roll over, not hear the sound and, most of the time, go back to sleep, but I’d blogged about feeling sorry for the weird lady downstairs because her bedroom is right next to the Laundry Room.

Again, I said, “I’m asleep at 3:00”, then added “But I’ve been awakened two or three times by someone doing laundry and, since your bedroom is next to the Laundry Room, that's what you're hearing.”

“That’s not it. The Laundry Room is closed. I went by there one day and it’s posted that it closes at 10:00”.

“It’s also posted there is to be no smoking, but people smoke.”

“That’s true.”

“People also do laundry past 10:00.”

“But it’s locked. How do they get in?”

“They use their key.”

“But it’s locked!”

“Not on a timer. The door opens with a key, and there are people who like doing their laundry at 3:00 in the morning. You need to go down, find out who it is, take a picture, let management know.”

Apache is one of those people, but we have three Laundry Rooms and he uses the one over by his quad.

Finally, the lightbulb went on in weird lady’s head and she got it. Understood it wasn’t me, it was the Laundry Room, and said, “I am so sorry, I’ve been blaming you all this time, but I’m not going down there at 3:00 in the morning. They need to move me”.

I’m down with that, but it’ll be the same problem for whoever else moves into that unit.

Later, in the Community Room signing up to bring Starbucks to the Community Breakfast, I ran into Community Manager and told her I’d just been told, by the woman underneath my unit, that she’d been complaining about the noise I was making, that I wasn’t making any noise, that it was the Laundry Room.

Community Manager said, “You’ll notice I never approached you about the complaints because I figured you were sleeping during the hours she complained about.”

“So, did you think she was hearing things? Did you think she was crazy?”

“No, not crazy. I know she has issues, and I’m trying to work with her issues.”

Issues/Crazy … Potato/Potahto.

“She keeps to herself and only talks to people she knows and are comfortable with,” said Community Manager. “But I’m glad she talked to you about it.”

“I’m glad too because, if she’s not wrapped too tight, she could have gone ballistic and done something awful.” (Weird neighbor did say, she yelled for me to stop making that noise a couple times. Of course, I didn’t hear her because I was asleep).

“No. She’d not harm you. Her issue isn’t like that”.

Discussing the whole thing later with The Baker and The Seer, I learned weird lady is the product of a new program management has worked out with the county. They reminded me about the twenty units that, some two years ago, had been set aside for hospice people. An office had even been prepared for hospice workers, then nothing. The units were otherwise leased, the office went vacant and is now where the Nail Salon resident locks up her supplies.

The corporation that owns this complex, being in the business of making money for its shareholders, has worked out a new deal with the county. For tax credits, and the fact they can get double what we pay in rent from the county, twenty units have been set aside for the “mentally challenged”.

It’s all becoming clear … why I’m seeing residents I’ve never seen before and why we’re now experiencing people who are obviously sick in the head, like the pervert at the mail box and now a naked guy running around. Management is turning the complex into a mental institution.

It’s not looking good. 

One side of me is saying the end may be near, that management doesn't care about its senior residents when they can get double for housing the troubled souls sent over by the county; but I’ve got it too sweet here to cut and run, so I’ll hold on, see how the atmosphere progresses, stay paranoid and prepared.