Slouching Off

Plan for today was to shampoo the carpet and get started on decluttering the outside storage area.

With the temperature predicted to be 113 degrees, the carpet would have dried instantly.

That was the plan, and the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak.

My body literally screamed, “NO WAY!”, when I woke up not wanting to even get out of bed this morning and, when I did, found I could barely lift my feet from the floor.

But for the fact I used up the last of the eggs at breakfast, and had once again run out of tomatoes, I’d have stayed in my bed clothes, lying on the couch the whole entire day.

Eggs and tomatoes are the two things that go so fast that I can never keep enough on hand.

Eggs, because they’re my main source of protein — I’m not much of a meat eater. And yes, I know too many eggs are a source of high cholesterol but ever since I was no longer poor, was out of my mother’s house, had a job, could afford to buy my own groceries, I’ve averaged 24 eggs a week.

That’s a lot of eggs, over a lot of years and, warned by the doctor, I’ve tried to cut down by scrambling two eggs with one white, but it still somehow averages out to 24 eggs a week, because I use eggs in other dishes.

I can never keep tomatoes because, if I want salsa, I have to make it myself; and salsa to me is a seasoning, like salt and pepper. I eat salsa at breakfast with eggs, snack on with chips during the day, add to Mexican dishes I make and eat with dishes not usually accompanied by salsa. Like I said, it’s a condiment and it gets used up just as fast as I make it.

At any rate, nothing productive got done today — like decluttering and shampooing the carpet but, desperate for eggs and tomatoes, I did make it to the other market.

Not my favorite market. I’ve been there before and blogged about having to listen to the guy in line behind me having a private conversation in public on his ear piece. However, as he passed me on the way out of the market – still talking on that ear piece, I noticed he didn’t have an ear piece or a cell phone.

For some reason, I don’t see that at the corner market, but it seems a normal regular occurrence at this market, across from Starbucks.

And yes, it was so today, but the two guys I saw acting weird, talking to themselves, were in the market but not in line behind me.

And guess what … I’ll be back, because I'd rather deal with the mentally damaged and druggies, than with that security guard who makes me uncomfortable with his being too friendly, looking at me when he should be scanning the place for shoplifters. Besides, this market had packaged butter lettuce, which I normally have to drive all the way to Sprouts for AND they had frozen peeled russet potatoes, which I hate having to peel potatoes, but do so because I can no longer eat the skins. It's a win win.

Once back at the complex, after putting groceries away, and before I changed into comfortable slouching on couch clothing, I took the bag of excess product I’d found while decluttering down to the Community Room.

I haven’t seen the inside of the Community Room since middle of March 2020, when we all went into lockdown.

Now that the room has reopened, the A/C is the best in the building and there’s a television, I was surprised to see no residents — especially the woman I used to refer to, in the blog, as “The woman that owns the room”.

She’s still here. I’ve seen her. We’ve greeted and congratulated each other for living through this pandemic mess ... thus far.

As for how she earned that title, her habit was to come to the Community Room as soon as management unlocked the doors in the morning. She’d sit all day at the same table, in the same chair in the corner, where she’d work on her adult coloring books with the television set to a country music station – and no one dare to ever sit in her spot, turn off her music and she would know and says something about it when she’d find the chairs at her table switched around.

She’d rarely have to take a food break, because there was usually some snack on the counter or donation or potluck. She never contributed, but would help herself to whatever was around.

At any rate, I’m guessing her not having returned to her pre-pandemic schedule of sitting in front of the television is because the Tyrant has taken control of the remote.

I’ll have to ask around, find out if there are now rules as to when the Community Room television can be accessed and by whom.

So, anyway, off my bucket list is putting what I had to give on the counter with a note “Giveaways, Brand-new, Unopened, Help Yourself”, and I am now in slouching off mode.

Hopefully the seniors can get to what's on the counter before the Tyrant comes up with a reason to toss in the trash.