Well, Well, Well

Heading out for this morning’s blood pressure check, I heard someone yelling, “SHIRLEY! SHIRLEY! SHIRLEY!”

Looking around I saw Shadow outside the gate, on the street side, motioning for me to come over.

Though I’m uncomfortable with his all of a sudden, since Apache left, paying attention to me — going out of his way to speak, waving, curiosity got the best of me, so over to the fence I go.

He’s all hyped up, excited, saying “Guess who’s coming back, moving back in?”

Of course, I’m hopeful and say Apache, but no. Shadow tells me it’s Bourgeois, the woman who used to have a nail salon in the Community Room, the woman who moved out in February 2020 because we weren’t fancy enough for her.

Shadow went on to say, “She’s in the office right now. That’s her car over there (indicating a black car). She’s back because she has no husband. They split.”

WHAT?!

"I didn’t even know she had a husband”, said I …. and what kind of reason is that … back because she has no husband.

That reason may just be shadow’s take on how he sees it.

He went on to say we only have two openings — Sue’s old unit in my quad and one in his quad, left vacant by a woman lured away by an incentive at another complex.

Bourgeois is a very pretty lady, so I’m sure Shadow would love to have her in his quad. I wouldn’t mind having her in mine either. She and I got along because I didn’t judge her hoity toity ways, as some did. Not to mention, her talkative nature would give me some interesting blog fodder.

So, anyway, I thanked Shadow for the info, continued on to the car and, as I was exiting the gate, I saw Bourgeois on the lawn, chatting with Shadow, Big Friendly Guy, and two other residents.

Not one to pass up an opportunity, I rolled down the car window and said, “Hey girl hey”.

Bourgeois comes over to the open window and I say, “So you’re moving back?”

"Well, maybe. I’m just back from Arizona, had my check ready but now it’s kind of up in the air. They said I’m welcome to come back, but they want me to pay an additional $2500 over the move-in cost, for damage done from smoking.”

This is a no smoking complex, but many residents do violate the rule, smoke inside their units. Since it annoys, and is unhealthy for the non-smoking residents to have to deal with the smell wafting into their unit, it’s kinda great to know there are consequences other than getting a lease violation notice … money consequences if one wants to return.

Bourgeois went on to say the $2500 was to cover the cost management had to shell out in getting the smoke smell out of the unit, repainting. At that point, in her discussions with Assistant Manager, she said things got heated … “I got hot and said, there ain’t no paint that costs that much”.

LOL

She concluded, “It’s money they want for their self. Money that’s just gonna go in their pocket.”

I wouldn’t doubt that. They’re probably taking money under the table from the under 55’s getting units here.

Asking Bourgeois if she was going to pay it, she said, “I don’t know. I don’t want to pay it” and, with another car exiting, I had to end our conversation, drive off.

Even though $2500 seems excessive, she has no choice but to pay … if she wants to move back in, and she’d better do it quickly before someone else puts in an application for a unit and beats her out.

It was a wild ride at the medical center, but I ended up with a passing grade.

Upon arriving, I’d taken my pressure in the car. It was a respectable 132/49.

At the nurses’ station, doing Mike’s breathing thing, the nurse kept asking me questions — like how many times during the week I exercise, verifying what BP med I’m on, who my doctor is, telling me how young I look for my age, yada yada yada.

Though I look in the mirror and see every year of 77, it’s nice to hear others think I look young for that age but the time to hear it was not this time.

I was thinking Hey, lady, I’m trying to breathe here as she yacked on, asking me questions, complimenting me. I wonder though, how she could tell I looked younger than 77 when I was masked up and had sunglasses on.

No surprise that I registered up ... to 145, which the nurse grudgingly said was “okay”.

With her not interrupting the breathing thing during the second check, I registered 119.

So, with that monkey off my back, I headed back to the complex and there was Shadow, still outside the gate, but a little down the street to where the bus stop is.

I think he was hiding.

Hiding from the Seer because, two days in a row, I saw her walking towards him, coming across the parking lot from a direction nowhere near her unit, looking like the women I’d seen on television who went hunting for their man at his hangouts, telling him to come home. And just yesterday, heading to the Pain Cave, I saw that, as she reached him, he seemed agitated — turning his head, waiving her off.

Old people drama. More fun than watching television.