Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Should Have Known

There was no ulterior motive behind management arranging an ice cream social for us yesterday because there was no ice cream social.

Heading down to the Community Room at noon, I first ran into signs posted to entry doors indicating the social had been cancelled.

Continuing on to the Community Room, I found four residents sitting/chatting at a table.

"She’s not here" they said in unison.

The she they were speaking of is Activity Director who, it turns out, was hosting the event as part of her job responsibilities to provide occasional entertainment for us seniors — generally Arts & Crafts.

I should have known, thought I.

"Why am I not surprised" was my response to the ladies saying Activity Director was not here, the event cancelled because, as mentioned elsewhere in the blog over the last few years, that is her modus operandi.

Back in the good old days, she’d call the Baker and my buddy Apache, say she couldn’t make it and give them instructions to do her job for her — carry on with the event, tell them what to get, where to get it and have attendees sign in so she could submit a sheet showing she did her job even though she didn’t.

Apache is banned from the premises and the Baker long ago got fed up with being Activity Director’s stooge — because Activity Director was often rude and unappreciative, so thus it was no Pizza Tuesday distribution and no Ice Cream Social yesterday.

Heading down wasn’t a total waste of my time, as I did learn the identity of the pervert known as "Bill" who I was warned to be careful of because he walks the property at night, exposes himself to women who happen to be out and about.

Having previously been told he’s one of the guys who congregate out front, outside the gate smoking, and seeing just such a group, I asked, "Which one is the Bill I’m supposed to be careful of?"

All the ladies at the table knew who I was asking about. One had a run in with him.

They all chimed in on saying he wasn’t one of the guys on the lawn at that moment and went on to describe him as the "Tall thin guy who walks fast and lives around the corner from …"

Holy Smokes! I knew who that was. Had passed and greeted him many times. Once I’d received a package by mistake that was addressed to another resident. I’d walked it over to the correct unit and he’d opened the door. The package was meant for his wife.

It’s scary knowing I was that close to the pervert, had waived and exchanged pleasantries many a time. Fortunately, he’d always been respectful with me.

Hearing from the other ladies at the table about his nighttime activities — not being able to keep his zipper closed, asking one of them on a date, dealing in pills, all I have to say is, "His poor wife".

The new resident — the lady that got the downstairs unit across from the grassy knoll (let's call her Downstairs Lady), seems a busy little bee. Not only do I see her quickly moving down the walkway, on the go to wherever, but I spotted her early yesterday morning tossing water onto her patio and then cleaning the patio by sweeping the water off and later sweeping the area outside her door.

There was a time when residents could hose their patios off. However, when we had that drought back in 2015 and mean manager Nurse Ratched (Manager No. 2) was in charge, she didn’t trust us seniors to comply with the drought rules, so she ordered residents remove water hoses from patios and then had maintenance cut off the spigots to make sure we’d not be able to reattach hoses.

To this day that worries me there are no spigots, because it leaves us unable to protect ourselves in case of fire before the fire department arrives.

So anyway, there the Downstairs Lady was, being a busy little bee, and looking to be in better shape than I, while I later observed the resident that really needed the downstairs unit (let's call her Upstairs Lady) struggling to get her groceries up the stairs.

What she’s doing is to first push her cart/walker under the stairs, remove a grocery bag from the cart, reach up and place the bag high up on the stairs.


Next, she begins the trek up the stairs, reaches down, grabs the bag previously located halfway up, carries it up the remainder of the stairs.


Depending on how many bags she has to get up the stairs, she repeats the process, then lastly brings the grocery cart/walker up.

As you can see, I wasn’t exaggerating when I said she really needs a downstairs unit and should have gotten the one that opened up.

20 comments:

  1. I feel bad for Upstairs Lady. I hope she puts in an application for a downstairs suite and gets one soon.

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    1. If management had a heart, they'd see how she struggles and just give her a downstairs, but nooooo. She asked, provided a doctor's recommendation to be moved downstairs, yet she didn't get the unit.

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  2. That's so unkind. It hurts to watch. I guess saying your activity director is a jerk is an understatement.

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    1. It absolutely does hurt to watch. If someone happens to be walking by when she's trying to get things up the stairs, they will stop, help. How AD keeps her job is a mystery.

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  3. The poor soul, she should be first on the list for a downstairs unit.
    Do you have free grocery delivery available?

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    1. She, along with a few others, gets some kind of delivery during the week but she's not one to hold up in her unit like the others. It's a struggle, but she stays active, keeps moving which is probably a good thing. I was thinking about you this morning when I saw the floods on the news. Did you get spared this time from it?

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  4. Can you report management to the county or state that pays them the Section 8 lower income money about not assigning Upstairs Lady to a ground unit. I looked at such housing once, and saw that the lower floor was ADA compliant and only permitted for folks needing it.
    Okay, maybe your complex is made of concrete block walls, but relying on a patio hose to save your apartment in a fire isn't a good plan. Getting out of your apartment before it spreads IS a good plan. Get out please and call 911. We'd like to read your blog for many years! Linda in Kansas P.S. Use the cold garden hose on the pervert...jeepers what a creep.

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    1. Sure, I can report management but then my days would be numbered insofar as living here. Next door neighbor went to bat for Church Lady, who was having a hard time getting up the stairs for years. Church Lady finally just recently got downstairs, but now Next Door Neighbor is worried she'll now be targeted ... "get kicked out" were her words, like Apache did for speaking up.

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  5. That was sad to watch. Shame on management. Obviously, they're pretty cold and callus. Such is the world in 2022. I'm not holding my breath it'll get any better. Sounding like a Debbie Downer here....but.....
    Paranormal John

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    1. It's difficult NOT to become a Debbie Downer when we see how things have become so difficult all over for so many.

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  6. No floods around here right now. We are finally getting the lower level put back in order. Had the carpet and tile installed a week ago. I hired two students to haul the big furniture from the garage back downstairs. We lost about 4 pieces of furniture due to water damage but it was all extra stuff in an unused room. The good furniture survived. Well, we only had between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in depth but it was all over- 1,400 sq ft!
    I see our university ( WWU= Western WA) is offering a virtual 5 K. You have to walk between Aug 26th and Sept 11 th, it costs $25 and you get a long sleeved black tee shirt ( looks good in photo). I thought I should mention it. There are prizes too.

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    1. Seems it's heavy rains and floods everywhere except here. We've been getting flash flood warnings for three weeks, could use the rain but nothing so far. Glad to know you're not under water there. Thanks for the info on Viking 5K. I'm not currently doing virtuals, because it's a lonely walk. I'm getting noticed on all kinds of virtuals in my inbox, but waiting for the excitement and crowds of in-person walks that aren't too difficult to get to, but thanks for thinking of me.

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  7. I wish your activities director was a person who actually liked and did her job. And that poor woman trying to get groceries upstairs! But she worked out a cleaver way to make the job a little easier.

    By they way, it wasn't Bloggers who goofed up with posting a blog I wrote for September. I meant to schedule it ahead for when I won't be about to write after surgery but I screwed up. Just wanted to tell you so you wouldn't think I didn't want to publish your comment.

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    1. No worries, but that was pretty funny when I thought it was already September and I'd messed up. I think there's stuff going on in Activity Director's life that's turned her into a resentful slacker.

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  8. A shame the Activity Directors are getting paid for NOT doing their job and finding ways to shirk duties and stiff residents of the Activities that a Paid Staff Member should be providing for them. As for the Perv, has anyone filed formal charges? If he's a Sex Offender it could escalate and that is indeed scary stuff, he may already be a Registered Sex Offender and with that type of Criminal, it's not a matter of IF they will re-offend, just when.

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    1. If I knew the perv's last name, I could look him up, see if he's a registered perv, but it really wouldn't matter because he's not the first we've had living here. I looked up one before, saw he did time for a sex offense, but it seems that THEY HAVE RIGHTS. If they've served their time, they can't be refused housing. He still lives here. The other was an old guy whose wife had to follow him around, keep an eye on him, so he wouldn't get in trouble. That couple is long gone. As far as the current perv, the women just laugh it off. If they reported him to the office the office would just say "You can't prove it" or "It's not our problem" or "Call the police". So ladies are just warning other ladies to be careful around him.

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  9. That sucks for Upstairs Lady. Maybe Activity Director would like to help her with her groceries. Obviously, she's got nothing else to do.

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  10. That poor woman. It’s outrageous that she has to struggle that way.

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    1. I admire the way she doesn't let her condition get her down. She participates in events, rides the bus, even takes trips.

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