Something in the Air?

Checking on the paving project this morning, Shadow tells me tow trucks did arrive but didn’t tow anyone out.

I walked around, checked the work (which Shadow thinks isn’t great and will last maybe two years), and see the trucks couldn’t tow anyone out because the cars in the way of the project were trapped, roped in place — they couldn’t get out, the tow trucks couldn’t get in.

Once the workers left for the day, Head Maintenance Guy removed the barriers.

Being barred from moving one’s car for a portion of the day is better than being towed, so win for the residents.

Next Door Neighbor is having a crisis of sort.

A former State Commissioner, coming to us from North Carolina eight years ago, she’s struggled with not having the glamorous lifestyle she's accustomed to.

I thought she was doing better, had accepted where life has taken her but evidently the initial worry over the parking situation has pushed her over the edge. She’s regressed to the earlier years, saying how much she "hates" it here — our "Lack of community … Neighbors don’t know each other, don’t communicate with each other, there’s no coming together".

This from the woman who never comes to bingo or attends our other activities. The woman who cursed Red Light out, told her to "Don’t f___ing call me anymore", because Red Light caught her at a time she didn't feel communicative.

What she means by "lack of community, not knowing our neighbors" is what she had before — in/out of each other's unit, coffee/cake/a drink/conversations in each others unit, inviting others over to play a card game she calls bid whist. She even suggested that I myself could help bring the community together by sharing my crafting skills, inviting others into MY unit for crafting sessions.

The f___ing nerves!

I’m assuming this is a ploy, a subtle form of trying to manipulate me into getting more involved with her, teaching her how to needlepoint/scrapbook. Sit with her and listen to her continuous yammering on about things I have no interest in.

My response was to suggest she come down to bingo, get involved, meet some of the many new people, put out flyers and start a card game group in the Community Room.

Of course, she talked around it when I put the onus on HER, but that was her pattern in the past. She’d make all kinds of suggestions as to what should be done and, when she was asked to get it started, she became silent.

I think NDN is morphing into a bitter old broad. Even more bitter than when she first moved in.

There must be something in the air because, not only did I get stuck listening to NDN’s complaints, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got pitched to again by Handsome Guy.

We don't have a lot of eye candy around here, so I do like seeing Handsome Guy around now and then. I sometimes even enjoy talking to him, and our conversation started off lite enough with him commenting on management’s handling of the paving project, how "Lazy" Head Maintenance Guy is, that HMG is merely learning on the job. Then we got to discussing the passing of his former downstairs neighbor, The Seer.

He said he missed talking to her and how he felt Shadow did not treat her right, broke her heart, hastened her death. That she had started drinking and, in a drunken stupor fell and hurt herself.

The drinking was news to me, but I too had felt hooking up with Shadow had hastened The Seer’s death because of his bringing her down to his level and the mistreatment — not physical, but using her, his coldness, not caring as much as she did, dodging her at times.

Evidently Handsome Guy, like I, had seen the times Shadow hid on the property to smoke, get away from her and The Seer embarrassed herself by running around looking for him.

Somehow that conversation segued into why he and I should become an item.

"All men are not like him … I’m different (If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that one) … You’ve known me for seven years … Don’t you think it time …" yada yada yada yada yada.

Actually, I’ve seen him AROUND for seven years, but that doesn’t mean I KNOW him.

I think the Universe is testing me to make sure I’ve learned my lessons in how not to lose focus, be manipulated off the path, but the Universe need not worry. I won't say I can't be duped. It's just that I can't be duped by these two, NDN and Handsome Guy.

I didn't even acquiesce to Handsome Guy’s simple request, "At least give me your telephone number".