Public Safety Power Shutoff All-Clear

I got the all clear at 8:20 pm yesterday evening.

Trainer got it much earlier. A message hit his phone about halfway through my workout yesterday morning.

Trusting the all-clear Trainer received, I thought it safe enough to head to the market after to replace the freezer items I'd lost during the outage.

Turning into the lot, who did I see but Bicycle Boy lounging on his bike, across the street from the Pain Cave, just outside the market's parking lot.

Bicycle Boy is the resident who bullied other residents since before I arrived on the complex, would leave spittle on Big Linda’s truck, keyed Big Linda’s truck, physically fought with my old buddy Apache, destroyed the shrine set up for Shadow after Shadow passed away, and had in August "gotten into it" with a new resident who wanted no parts of him, asked to be moved to an upstairs unit, away from the ground floor, because the ground floor made it too easy for Bicycle Boy to harm him.

That resident was granted his move and BB was finally, after all these years, served with eviction papers back in September.

For a while after the eviction, residents lived in fear Bicycle Boy would come back and "do something" in retaliation.

He was observed biking through the complex once, shortly after that eviction. Now here he is lurking in the area.

Hmmmmmm?

He’d disappeared by the time I’d exited the store and I’ll bet dollars to donuts he bicycled his way through the complex just to unnerve residents, let them know he’s not forgotten us.

Severe Weather and Power Restoration Update

The high winds continue to plague the area, and though the power company continues to issue Public Safety Power Shutoff Warning, we’re still up and running.

Looking at all the devastation in the Los Angeles and Palisades area, seeing how some homeowners refused to evacuate, stayed behind to fight the fire with water hoses, brought back to mind we here don’t have that option because, back in 2015 that mean Nurse Ratched — Complex Manager at the time, issued a notice "Due to the drought, we will be eliminating the water spigot in the patios".

That’ right. Nurse Ratched, in her insane wisdom of making sure the drought restrictions, officially put in place at that time were complied with, had ordered the then maintenance guys to cut off all the water spigots because she didn’t trust residents to not attach hoses to water patio plants during the drought.

To this day I don’t know if Corporate even knows she damaged the property doing that, if there’s some fire code making it illegal to have deprived residents of a way to protect themselves in a fire emergency until the Fire Department arrives, and whether or not this lack of spigots is a hindrance to the Fire Department’s fighting a fire should they need an additional water source.

I don’t even know if our current Manager even knows we have no spigots, they’ve been cut off and cemented over.

I do know that, back in 2017, after Nurse Ratched was fired for embezzling, the Manager we had that year did notice.

She voiced how strange there were no spigots and, fortunately, I just happened to be present when she questioned it and informed her it was her predecessor’s bright idea, which predecessor I described to her as a terrible human, only I used the word "b _ _ ch".

At that time, I asked if spigots could or would be reinstalled, but never heard back on that topic.

Maybe because that Manager was fired for being too nice to us before she got around to looking into the issue.

So, anyway, today was the first day I was able to workout in the Pain Cave since last Monday.

Trainer informed me that, because all the electronic precautions he had set up to prevent another break-in were down during the outage, he slept in the studio.

That had to be cold, dark, rough. Plus, he said he got no sleep because he had to stay awake, be attentative as to who was on the lot at night and why.

He had me laughing at how it was that when he’d see someone walking around on the lot 2:30/3:00 in the morning, he’d confront them with "Who are you, why are you here?".

At least now, if there is another outage, and if it was someone casing the joint to take advantage of the outage to break in, destroy the expensive glass window, tear holds in the walls, like before, to get to the liquor store again, they now know Trainer is onto them, and won’t even bother coming around with bad intent next time.

After telling him about the solar generator I just bought, he indicated he’ll probably do the same just in case we do get shut down again this week.

He won’t be able to keep the studio open with a little generator, but at least he can run a heater and a coffee pot …… keep warm during his mall cop hours.

Nope

Hearing a second outage is on the horizon, it’s been challenging to decide what food products to bring back in, especially almond milk and eggs that I sorely need.

Then, I remembered that in the past, when I’d go to family eating events, I would use a Portable Electric Cooler Bag to transport meals I cooked for myself.

If When the refrigerator goes out again, the bag will be perfect to keep eggs and milk and other food items cold, so I pulled it out of storage.

Thing is, the bag needs a source of power so, after much searching, I found a portable solar generator that I can pick up in a day or two — plenty of time before spoilage sets in if power goes out today.

So that worked out, plan for today was to head to Sprouts for supplies. However, when I got in the car, saw how strong the wind was, it was NOPE ……… I’m not getting on the freeway, drive out of the area scared out of my wits the wind will blow the car over or a truck will fall on me — like the terror I felt last time I braved the wind.

I pivoted, drove to the corner market, settled for store brand products.

Pulling into the lot, ready to park, I saw this happen ………

My bad. I saw it coming and should have honked to get their attention, but didn't think fast enough.

It appears to have been just a tap.

The old lady’s car wasn’t damaged, and though I didn’t see any damage to young blood’s car, you know how young men are about their vehicles. He saw damage.

At any rate, it was all very civil as they exchanged insurance information and didn’t feel the need to involve me as a witness, which might be a mistake on the old lady's part.

Both were equally at fault and, if young blood wants to make an insurance issue out of it, a witness would have been helpful. Especially a witness with a drive cam.

In the last post, I’d replied to Mistress Maddie’s comment about candles, saying that I wanted to add the Luigi Mangione candle to my collection.

"Is there one?", Mistress asked.

There are literally dozens being offered online, from sellers I'm not familiar with. However, I've found a seller that’s done right by me in the past. The seller offers two Luigi's ……

Tempted to order both, because of that million dollar smile, I opted for the first one.

More Off Than On

The Power Company did say that, due to the fire danger imposed by heavy winds, we should expect power outages off/on.

They did not say it would be more off than on.

We had that outage on Tuesday that sent me down to the Community Room for respite. Power was restored in the late afternoon, long enough to power up the cellphone, little portable power station and post about the vision boards.

It was just seconds after posting that everything went dark. So, dark that I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face.

It pays to be organized.

I knew exactly where the matches were located, carefully felt my way through the dark to the drawer, struck a match to light my way to the candles.

I decided to sacrifice Tiger Joe.

So, between Joe Exotica, and the flashlight I dug out of its drawer, I made it through the night.

I awoke the next morning, Wednesday, to still no power and a message from Trainer that the studio, and the entire mini mall was shut down due to lack of power.

As the day went on, I learned every apartment building, shop, store, business in a three-mile area, was closed due to the outage.

Street lights were out and even the market was shut down that first day, as was the gas station, but both were up and running the next day.

The guy at the market, I later spoke to, said something about they got a generator or the generator kicked in. I’m not sure which.

So long story short, we’ve been without power since Tuesday.

Fortunately, I have a gas stove. The oven was inoperable but I was able to get fire from the burners with a match — make coffee with my 20+ years old percolator.

Again, it pays to be organized. I knew exactly where it was.

I also managed to survive by making soup, oatmeal, eggs ……… That is until the eggs went bad and had to be tossed, along with a lot of other product.

Speaking of eggs, make it make sense that I paid $9 for a dozen Eggland’s Best at the market, but a carton of eighteen organics at Sprouts went for $6.10.

No matter, half of the Eggland’s and all eighteen Sprouts had to be tossed because they were not safe to eat with no refrigeration for days.

The outage wasn’t all bad, as Friday’s bingo got cancelled, and there was enough sunlight streaming in during the day that I was able to work on that never ending needlepoint project.

When the light dimmed, I used a booklight to get some reading done, and I was able to entertain myself late night by watching TikTok on the cellphone — sound silenced with Beats by Dr. Dre Bluetooth earbuds so as not to disturb my downstairs neighbor.

The worst was all the product from the fridge I had to toss, no garbage disposal, no paper shredder, no vacuum, too cold and windy to put in any walking miles.

We received notice power would not be restored until Monday …… something about having to check every wire.

I emailed back, "Check faster".

The powers that be must have heard me, because power restored, and I’m back online as of 3:30 this afternoon, blogging and furiously charging everything that needs to be charged just in case we’re off again.

All in all, it was an interesting adventure and good practice for when you know who starts a war with Greenland or Canada or Panama or Mexico, or all four, and the power grid is attacked/gets taken out, resulting in no power for any of us in the Americas.

Extreme Weather

The South has snow, we’ve got wind.

The wind made the out of the area drive this morning, to get a smog check, difficult and, when I returned, the street lights in the area were out and all the power in my unit was off, as the power company had declared a Public Safety Power Shutoff — purported to last off/on through Thursday.

I’ll still take the wind over a blizzard.

With only a little over 20,000 miles of driving, since purchasing in 2019, the jeep easily passed inspection. However, I’m sus because the guy at the test station took my key, said the test would take 30 minutes, I sat down, opened a book, and ten minutes later saw the jeep being returned. Test over.

I’m not mad at it — it was too cold and windy to be out for long. I’m just sus that they even actually put the jeep on the machine, just gave me a pass because a test didn’t seem necessary.

The Baker got her hands on this month’s Calendar, texted me a copy and I saw Activity Director was hosting Vision Boards at 11:00.

It was 11:15 when I returned to no lights, no TV, no internet, and my unit was freezing cold. So knowing the office had an auxiliary source of power, would have lights and heat, I went down to the Community Room to check out the vision boards.

Seeing only two residents in the room (Hell on Wheels and that mean Little Linda), I asked Activity Director about the vision boards.

"There’s no one here" said she.

I guess she was waiting for residents to show up.

I told her the residents probably don’t know she’s here today, because we’re no longer being given the calendar showing events. Whereupon she said the Baker had called her, asked if she was coming, informed her of no calendar, so she texted one to the Baker.

So, that’s how the Baker got her hands on one.

Manager better not find out. She’ll pitch a fit, yell at Activity Director, maybe even try to get her fired if she finds out Activity Director is giving us access to Calendars, because she (Manager) wants us to have to sign up for Rent Café to get one.

We are not going to open up our accounts to a third-party, and an additional fee, so she’d just better get over it.

Even Activity Director didn’t see the logic of what Manager is doing. Saying, that she doubted many of the seniors have access to the technology necessary or were afraid of the technology and that might be a good thing because scammers are so clever now, the technology might open the seniors up for being scammed.

She’d better not let Manager hear her expressing that kind of logic. Manager wouldn’t like her not agreeing with her tactics.

So, anyway, Activity Director asked if I wanted to do a vision board.

"No. I just came down to see what others are doing. At my age, my only vision is death", said I.

She then turned to Hell on Wheels, Little Linda and Dream Lover, who had just walked in, asked "Do you want to do a vision board".

I kid you not, one and all asked, "What’s a vision board".

These seniors never fail to show me how small their worlds are, how out of touch, how little they seem to have experienced in life.

Year of the Snake

The holidays are over, Christmas decorations are back in storage and, as far as I know, nothing new is happening around here.

Knock Knock, stopped by once last week, to show me her newly pierced ears and again today just to let me know she was around …… but I’m sure she was expecting I’d have a treat for her, which I did not.

I didn’t have a treat for last week either, so maybe she’ll take this as a sign to stop knocking on my door.

It’s not meant that way at all, but I won’t be mad if it's taken that way, turns into a situation like a cat …… If you don’t feed the cat, the cat stops coming by.

This is the Feng Shui Year of the Snake, a time for reflection and spiritual growth in the midst of turmoil, so my mind has been so preoccupied with detaching from appearances, getting clarity so as to see behind the scenes ……… the what and whys of it, listening, that buying something to prepare for Knock Knock next visit never crossed my mind. I even forgot my girls birthday, failed to send them a text on the day of.

I’ve also been too busy with my crafts and further efforts at getting rid of clutter to nose around, ferret out what the seniors are up to.

Not receiving the usual Monthly Calendar is helping me to detach from the happenings.

It’s not meant to aid in my detaching, instead it’s meant as a weapon by management to get me to sign up for the Rent Café.

It’s not personal. No one on the complex received the Monthly Calendar, advising us of events, rule changes, maintenance notes, office hours, etc, because Manager last month announced the Monthly Calendar would go paperless first of this year.

For last two years, management has been pushing for us to pay rent via the Rent Café.

Rent Café is some kind of third-party portal, designed to make work life easier for management.

It seems to me Manager’s work life is already too easy, as she has time to sit in her office, spy on us via her video equipment. So, if signing up for Rent Café to pay rent online makes less paperwork for her, more free time, I’m not interested.

In addition, it’s not free — an additional $3.00 a month.

Not a lot of money, but the nerves ……… you want us to make work life easier for management and pay for the privilege?

I don’t think so.

I’m good with issuing a monthly check.

I’m guessing other residents feel the same way, because management is always coming up with creative measures to try to lure us over to Rent Café.

They’ve offered a gift card lottery for us to sign up, offered to dispense with the $3.00 a month fee ……… but just for the initial signing up month and just generally tried to cajole us into signing up by stressing how easy it is to have rent automatically deducted from our accounts.

Not getting the response they wanted thus far, just last year management dispensed with the paper form we’d fill out for work orders and tied it into Rent Café …… making it necessary for us to join Rent Café in order to submit work orders online.

Management is failing to take into consideration, it's not just that some of us don't trust them or their third-party portal, want nothing to do with it, but that not many here have computers or smart phones to access the portal even if they wanted to.

Consequently, I don’t know what everyone else is doing to bypass that roadblock — maybe just walk into the office and verbally request repairs be taken care of, maybe catch one of the guys out on the property, request service. I myself keep a paper trail by emailing the office when I need something in the unit fixed.

At any rate, the Monthly Calendar is the latest ploy to force our signing up for Rent Café — no more paper calendar posted to our doors. Calendars can be accessed through Rent Café.

Again, I don’t know how others are working around this, but I don’t care if I get a Calendar or not; plus, I can visualize this backfiring, causing more work for management, rather than less.

Say tree trimmers are scheduled to be on site, or another paving project comes up. Inasmuch as I and others have not signed up for Rent Café, management is going to have to notify us to move our cars out of the way …… probably by some sort of paper notice posted to our doors.

Likewise when an inspection or Community Meeting is scheduled …… If they want us to show up, some sort of notification is in order.

No matter how one looks at it — if it’s important, management will have to notify us regardless of our not being signed up for Rent Café; if it’s not important, and we get no notification because we're not on Rent Café, all the better to not know, clutter my mind.