Sunday, December 25, 2016

Happy Merry Everything !!

So finally it’s here -- Christmas Day and, best of all, it’s not wet outside.

While you're all celebrating with your families, I'll be doing my loner thing.

The plan is to locate an area of town where there’s some activity, lots of people, isn’t closed down for the Holiday, so I can take advantage of the Pokémon Go Holiday event -- which is an increased chance of finding Eggs that hatch sought after pokémon at Stops.

I don’t want to go back to the University, because I bundled up and headed to the campus yesterday with two intentions: 1) Walk 3.12 miles 2) Capture some good pokémon.

I only managed 1.20 miles before having to rush back to the car because rain drops began falling on my head and, though there were plenty pokémon to catch, they were the boring same old same old, so I need a better hunting ground for today.

Formerly estranged daughter drove granddaughters’ two besties down from Long Beach yesterday, to spend the Holiday with granddaughter. She also dropped off a boat load of cooked food for the crew – turkey, dressing, gravy, whipped potatoes, potato salad, greens, candied yams, handmade dinner rolls, peach cobbler, sweet potato pie.

Both my girls are amazing cooks.

Didn’t learn it from me.

Learned from my mom.

Except for sous chef duties, Mom would never let me into her kitchen, didn’t teach me a blessed thing, but to my girls she passed on her cooking skills.

Having not seen Daughter No. 2 since 2009, because of my hurt feelings which I recently let go of, I went over to make a plate and say hello. (Actually, five minutes older than her twin, she's technically Daughter No. 1).

Partaking of dishes that included wheat (gluten) and high fructose corn syrup, I thought I’d be paying the price today with terrible stomach pains, but I woke up feeling normal, which is great because there are leftovers in the fridge I plan not to let go to waste.

And so that is.

I met my new neighbor yesterday morning.

That’s right … the older woman I saw viewing the unit across the quad, just a day or so ago, has already moved in.

As I stepped out the door, on my way to the University, I encountered her on the pathway, introduced myself, and told her she’d love it here.

She said her son (the gray-haired gentleman I saw with her that day) moved her in last night, and that she doesn’t even have furniture yet -- just the bare essentials.

Asking me for directions to the Community Room, but not seeming to understand, I walked her over as she bombarded me with questions:

“Is the Community Room open on days like this?”

She means weekends when the office is closed, and the answer is Yes.

“Does it have WiFi?”

Yes.

“Does it require a password?”

Yes.

“What’s the password?”

That I don’t know.

In between the questions, I learned she lived 20 years in Nevada, relocated to Sacramento and is now here.

After reaching our destination, I showed her how to get in/out when office is closed, and waited while she tried to log into the internet.

No automatic sign-on, which we assumed meant we had to have the password.

“Let me call a friend who’s up on everything around here”, said I.

I called Apache who informed, “Yes, there is a password, but management shut WiFi down.”

“They did … Why?”

“It wasn’t working properly.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to manage without a computer until after the Holiday, when everything gets set up in my unit”, said new neighbor.

Sounds like my kind of person … a teckie.

There being more than one way to skin a cat, I asked new neighbor if she drove.

She did.

So I directed her to the nearest Starbucks and off I went to the University.

When rain drops derailed my goal of 3.12 miles, I headed home, with a stop by Starbucks, and there was new neighbor … laptop open, cellphone to her ear, smiling and waving at me.

We’re off to a good neighborly start.

2 comments:

  1. Your neighbor sounds like a good fit for your complex. Nice way to start the new year, with new friends.

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    Replies
    1. Yes. We're all filled up in this quad again. Us girls were hoping for a good-looking single guy, but we're satisfied with how things worked out.

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