Commitment Regret Part 2

Despite the forecast of good walking weather this morning, leaving me unable to get out of the commitment to walk with Younger Sister and another resident, I awoke to an ugly looking day. It was overcast and heavy fog during the night had left outdoors wet.

It wasn’t rain but close enough for me. So off I go at 10:00 to meet up with the women in the Community Room, so I could opt out of walking due to the “poor” weather.

Neither one showed up.

Inasmuch as I was the only person in the Community Room and it was nice and quiet, except for noise coming from the television, I decided to sit alone and meditate. It was an hour before other residents began to trickle in, another half hour before the other resident I was to walk with came rushing in, returning from a family emergency it turns out, and another half hour before Younger Sister showed up with no excuse for and not a word about not coming down at 10:00.

I wasn’t angry, of course, I was glad Younger Sister didn’t show up. But I did kick myself a little for not having known all along she wouldn’t, because that’s her thing – to talk about what she wants to do, needs to do, is going to do, but no follow through.

The family emergency for the other resident turned out to be her brother, who use to live here and was the boyfriend of my neighbor Debbie, who passed away. Brother’s health began to fail after Debbie passed, so his two sons moved him in with them. The resident -- whom I’ve not yet thought of a pseudonym for yet other than “the other resident I was to walk with”, didn’t show up this morning for the walk because brother was in hospital having a lung removed. She did say, however, “We are going to start walking. So if you want to join us, let me know.”

No thanks. I’m good on my own. And I’ll be very surprised if Younger Sister follows through with the plan to “start walking”.

On tap for today?

Making a big pot of African Chicken Soup, and watching all the activity as workers rush to prepare the vacant unit across the quad for the new Maintenance Supervisor. Carpet and tile are going in today, and I earlier watched and worried I might witness a horrible accident as the person cleaning the window opted to hang precariously out the window from inside to clean the outside, rather than use a ladder outside.