On the 20th Day of Christmas ………

I received a surprise present from Red Light.

Nice, but excuse me if I feel no compunction to give her a gift in return.

I spend a lot of hours editing and posting event photos, have often responded to Red Light’s request for cash donations to get what was needed for events, and though I was not expecting anything in return for doing those things, I’m considering this gift a Thank You, no need to reciprocate.

On this 20th Day of Christmas, I also won the glass table decoration at this afternoon’s Annual Holiday Celebration, hosted by the new Activity Director.

I say "hosted by the new Activity Director" but my introduction to how she's going to work out was observing her leaning against a wall, playing with her phone, while the Complex Manager, Assistant Manager and the two Maintenance Guys ran the show, did all the work.

So, it remains to be seen how she'll work out when I attend her next activity on the 27th — Bingo.

And before you think how nice it is that management has been doing so much for us lately, I who have been suspicious all along, find us residents are pretty much paying for everything with rent increases.

In addition to the increase we received in July, after the Tiki Party, I learned that as residents currently reup, a $100 rent increase is being levied.

I reup for my 11th year here in February and fortunately can handle the additional $100.

Red Light is reupping now, got the $100 increase, but said she's not worried because the county pays her rent.

With all this extra money coming in, there were drawings for quite a few pizes at today's event.

I had my eyes on the Starbucks’ Gift Card, but Jenne of the naughty cookies won it, gave it to Painted Rock Lady who, in turn, flaunted it, LOL.

Once all the prizes had been awarded, management began raffling off the table decorations, which is how I ended up with the glass centerpiece.

The response to the event was tremendous. Residents showed up in droves — new residents, old residents who’ve never attended events before, residents returning to events, deciding to reintegrate with the rest of us, necessitating management having to set up two more tables.

The Baker’s husband, whose ill health prohibited him from joining in events, made his way down.

Big Friendly Guy and Shadow, who mostly keep to themselves, were also in attendance.

Even Next-Door Neighbor (NDN) showed up.

Out of bitterness, NDN hasn’t attended an event since 2017 when she was impeached as President of the Residents’ then Activity Committee.

Also present was Nice Old Guy (NOG) — upstairs across the quad, who stopped attending events in 2019 when, after asking Church Lady to be "his friend", she became jealous and demanding.

With Church Lady being as uptight as she is, and barley able to get around without a walker, and him also struggling to get around on a walker, I was never certain what being "his friend" entailed or why she thought that meant she owned him.

At any rate, NOG wasn't having it. He broke up with her, stayed away from activities to avoid her since and showed up today looking all spiffy in a Sean Jean tee.

As for Church Lady, she moved from an upstairs unit — about a year ago, to a downstairs unit on the other side of the complex, and we don’t see her around much any longer.

Also, on this 20th Day of Christmas, I saw the missing neighbor — downstairs unit beneath Next Door Neighbor, the unit inhabited by the Ghosts for over a month.

SHE’S ALIVE!! returned to her unit and was sweeping leaves from the walkway.

Over the weekend I did notice the Ghosts’ SUV no longer parked in guest parking, also that missing neighbor’s car, after having not been moved for over a month, was also missing from its parking spot.

Busy hunting the Elf and building Gingerbread Houses, I didn’t pay too much attention. Just made a mental note of the changes and assumed the Ghosts were out/about and missing neighbor’s car had probably been towed.

Looking back, it must have been that the Ghosts had resolved their housing issue, moved on and missing neighbor had reclaimed her domain, was out and about.

Thus, that episode of The Boots & Braids Mysteries (Thanks Mitchell for that tagline) has come to an unclimactic close. No humans having been harmed in the episode.

As for the Smoker, Red Light reports that, after Smoker did not respond to the visiting nurse, the police were called. Once the police verified she was at least alive in the unit, that was that, as she declined whatever assistance was being offered.

Red Light also reports that, a few days after that, she saw Smoker open the door to accept a grocery store delivery. So, we know she’s at least eating.

We all know this is going to end badly — with yet another unit in the quad needing a sage ritual to cleanse it of bad energy, but it is what it is.