Fake Day

Also known as Leap Day and the last day to wear my Colors ...... the Black History Month tops I purchased last year.

Long Sleeved Sweatshirt for Cold Days

Short Sleeved Tee for Moderate Days

Because I art myself through makeup and clothing, tomorrow I'll be painting my nails green, pull from the closet my four-leaf clover tee and locate that tube of green lipstick.

Coming back from yesterday’s workout, I got a good look at the damage done to the carport area by that tow truck driver.

Tow Guy chewed up the wood pretty good, but it doesn’t appear to be enough damage to bring down the carport.

I imagine significant scraping damage was done to the paint job on the jeep, maybe even an indentation.

Curious to know if the jeep’s owner can sue the tow company for damage, I asked Google.

The answer was yes "A towing company must use reasonable care when towing and storing your car. If it fails to act as a reasonably prudent towing company in the same and similar circumstances and damages your car or your property inside it, you may be able to sue for negligence".

Inasmuch as management has a contract with the tow company, I imagine there's some liability on the part of management. However, inasmuch as the jeep's owner, and his gaggle of guys weren't to be living here, I don't see the resident housing them allowing anyone to make a big deal of the jeep's damage for fear of eviction in retaliation.

Worst case scenario, and I wouldn't put it past management, is to have the damaged wood repaired and bill the resident.

And Then the Cops Showed Up

Hearing a car horn blaring non-stop around one o’clock this afternoon, unable to decipher if it was my alarm, I talked myself out of going outside to check, figuring someone would call and let me know if it was mine.

After a time, the blaring stopped, but then the blaring proceeded to go on/off for so long that I finally roused myself to take out the trash so I could check whether or not it was my car.

It wasn’t.

I was a jeep parked in the visitor spot going off in an effort to warn its owner a tow truck driver was in the process of carting it off.

After tossing the trash into the dumpster, I headed back to my unit, nuked my coffee and went out onto the patio to watch the show.

Seeing Next Door Neighbor on her patio, also watching the show, I said, "It’s sad when the only entertainment we have around here is watching a car being towed away".

As we watched the show, I observed what looked to be the Jeep’s owner answer the SOS call the jeep had been blaring out.

He opened the jeep, did something inside to turn the alarm off, then began removing personal items from inside and from the trunk area.

At one point, the owner got into a conversation with the tow truck driver.

I couldn’t hear what was being said, but body language indicated it was getting heated as tow truck driver continued to try to hook up the jeep.

As tow truck driver began to pull the jeep from the visitor spot, it looked like he’d gotten too close to the carport structure and was about to not only bring down the structure but damage the jeep in the process. Whereupon, the owner jumped in the jeep, refused to exit.

When I saw the owner’s backup arrive — other young men, expecting things to go sideways, I thought to run back inside, grab my phone, begin recording.

By the time I was in position, Head Maintenance Guy, who it looked like had been called to the scene by tow truck driver had, in turn, summoned manager.

Manager and HMG were standing by watching as tow truck driver argued with owner, still seated in the Jeep.

The resident from whose unit all these young men exited eventually came down.

It looked like manager got all in her face blaming her for the incident. Perhaps asking why she had so many "visitors" in her unit. Probably suspecting the guys were living there.

If manager suspects that, she’d be correct, as I’ve seen one of the guys coming/going on a daily basis for some time.

With manager on the scene blaming resident, owner and his posse backed down.

Owner exited the Jeep, tow truck driver got in, drove the car out of the visitor spot, to where he could tie it up, haul it away without further damage to the carport structure and the Jeep.

And then the cops showed up.

Nobody went to jail, but it didn’t look like manager was happy about the damage tow truck driver had done to the structure.

I can only image what damage was done to the Jeep.

We'll probably get notices posted to our doors about "ghost tenants", young people living here with parents and/or family friends, and a reminder that visitors need parking pass approval from the office to stay overnight.

Fingernails on the Chalkboard Effect

My head began screaming OMG! when booting up the laptop this morning and the first thing to pop up was Taylor Swift and Jason Kelce.

Gag me with a spoon.

I am so done with seeing them individually and as a couple.

It used to be I’d get up in the morning hoping, begging, pleading not to see Inmate No. P01135809 on the news. Not see his face, not hear his name mentioned.

Now the hoping, begging, pleading is to not see/hear mention of Swift, Kelce, Tay or Trav.

The two are everywhere, every day, all day — in the news, in print, on TV, social media, and it’s just too much, even pushing the dreaded No. 45 to the side.

It's like fingernails on a chalkboard annoying.

I’ve been a fan of Taylor’s since she was a teen and came out with the Tim McGraw song, but this current oversaturation is turning me into not a fan.

Still, I like her music and I’m not throwing any shade on her when I say that, the other night, while watching Drag Race, I suddenly realized how much Plane Jane’s drag resembles Taylor.

Plane Jane                                       Taylor

I don’t think it’s intentional, it just is.

Plane can easily make a career as a Taylor Swift, much like Chad Michaels is doing as Cher.

So that rant off my chest, I’m not feeling a winner this season, though if I absolutely had to choose, I’d go with Sapphira.

Other than that, I’d like to see Mhi'ya put out of her misery, because it’s so painful to watch her try so hard and get such harsh, but justified, criticism from the judges.

I don't think she was ready for the show in more ways than one, not the least of which was not learning how to sew.

Going on Drag Race without having taken even a basic sewing class is like going on Survivor and not knowing how to swim.

Around 9:00 this morning, I heard a loud familiar voice exiting Next Door Neighbor’s unit.

It was Oversexed.

Me thinks Neighbor had invited her over for morning coffee with a side of tea.

It’s probably a mistake for an elegant lady like Neighbor to get that friendly with Oversexed, who is more from and on the rougher side of life because look how Oversexed is treating her good and close friend Meat Man.

He's confiding his secrets to her, and she's so easily and gleefully telling us, and others on the complex, what those secrets are.

Not that Meat Man doesn't deserve being found out and stabbed in the back by a friend ...... life is about choices, and he chose her to confide in. But what it says is Oversexed is not one to get close to around here.

We'll see how it goes with Neighbor allowing Oversexed into her space, but if Neighbor goes out of town and her place ends up being broken into, I won't be calling the cops.

After leaving Neighbor’s unit, Oversexed went right over to TinTin’s place.

The plot thickens.

The Tea Spilleth Over

This break in the rain has residents out and about. Not only did I today run into Next Door Neighbor, Oversexed and the resident who married the man her mother used to be caretaker to, but also Talker and, at long last, Meat Man himself.

The morning started with my heading out for this morning’s workout, only to get trapped on the landing by a baby lizard on the stairs.

Stomping didn’t make it skedaddle so, putting my gear down, I went back into the unit, retrieved the patio broom from the outside storage area to sweep the creature away. Only, when I returned, it was gone.

Or so I thought because, after picking up my gear, heading for the stairs again, I spotted it — no longer on the stairs, but on the wall by the stairs.

The lizard was about to make me late for the Pain Cave, so I psyched myself up that I could do this. I could get down the stairs by walking sideways, away from the wall.

I gave it a go.

Midway the lizard tried to give me a heart attack by moving. It skedaddled from the wall to underneath a stair.

Arriving at the Pain Cave, I saw a resident in the lot that’s been keeping a low profile ever since she married the man she’d passed off as someone her mother used to be caretaker for and who she took over as caretaker when her mom passed away.

I’d bought it, but then she got religion, married the guy because she felt guilty about "living in sin" having passed the relationship off as caretaker.

I didn’t see the necessity to have lied about the relationship all those years, but whatever.

She tells me they’re in the process of moving to a "Mobile Home Park".

That translates to me as "Trailer Park".

She says she knows people there, so I wish them well.

Is that where everyone's been going that's moving out? Is that less expensive?

As for why she’s moving … her husband can no longer handle stairs, she needs a downstairs unit, but has been unable to get one here.

After working out and a stop by the grocery store, I returned to the complex and armed myself with that stylish walking stick from the car — the one I’d purchased for protection February of last year that has a sharp tool on the tip, just in case the lizard, or one of its relatives, was on the stairs or near my door.

Not to kill lizards, but to knock then off the stairs.

Fortunately, for both the creatures and myself, the stairs were clear; but I’ll be carrying that stick with me from now on … just in case.

Walking from the car to the stairs with gear and some of the groceries, I passed Next Door Neighbor and Oversexed — the resident that produced that naughty cupcake a while back and whose conversation seems to always turn to that three-letter word. The two were deep in spilling the tea about someone.

I just said "hey" and kept going.

I had to go back for the remaining groceries and, as I was crossing the parking lot, here comes Meat Man driving out of the complex.

He pulled up alongside, blew me a kiss and wished me a Happy New Year, because we’d not seen each other since Christmas.

Asking where he’d been all these many months, he said he’s been going back and forth taking care of his mom, who I know has one of those nice homes over near the College Campus ……… "She’s 86 now and needs help".

If he only knew …… having failed at making a pass at me some time ago, that he’d been coming on to a woman only six years younger than his mom.

So, anyway, after we did some catching up and he moved on, Oversexed said something to Next Door Neighbor, pointed in Meat Man’s direction and Next-Door Neighbor’s mouth flew open and, had she been wearing pearls, she would have clutched them.

"You two gossiping about H?" asked I.

Both doubled over in laughter, then Oversexed began spilling all of Meat Man’s tea.

Asking Oversexed if he’d made a play for her, her reply was "Who hasn’t he made a play for" and began naming names, like the Voice.

The Voice was the resident once mentioned in the blog because of her beautiful singing voice; also, because she was one of three millionaires living on the complex.

She’d come from a well-heeled prominent family; plus had a boyfriend who passed away, leaving her a Cadillac and his fortune.

She'd sold the Cadillac, pocketed that cash and, when the Voice unexpectedly passed away overnight in October ‘21, she was waiting for her portion of a $7 million inheritance that was in probate.

Oversexed said she’d see Meat Man, going in and out of the Voice’s unit. Hed go in at night, wouldn’t come out until the next morning.

Simultaneously, he had ……… and still has a well-off fiancé. The fiancé wants to get married, but he says he doesn't want to marry her, because she’s "too bossy".

I asked if the fiancé knows he’s a player, but Oversexed didn’t know the answer to that.

She also named the resident who lives across the quad, next door to Upstairs Lady — let’s call her The Fool because Oversexed says that resident is "So in love with him that she’s always cooking and taking meals to him".

Meat Man is rewarding Fool’s devotion by telling Oversexed to "Stay away from her. She’s crazy".

More like he doesn’t want Oversexed to tell Fool about the fiancé, and all his other dalliances on the complex.

Fool is also the resident Meat Man himself once disparaged to me ……… we’d actually gotten into it because he was on his high horse, deacon of the church persona, opining how others should live, and I wasn't having it.

It was the day he shot his shot, came onto me with, "I’m looking for a good woman" line. Since I wasn’t interested in being that woman, I deflected by pointing out other single women he might consider. Little did I know back then that he was already hooked up with several, but I’d suggested Next Door Neighbor and the one I’ve dubbed Fool.

He’d given me an unequivocal NO! to Next Door Neighbor, with whom he’d had dinner twice, and went off on a tirade about Fool cooking and sharing those dinners with an old army vet living here with an invalid wife.

My position was they could just be friends. His position was "HE’S MARRIED. WHAT THEY’RE DOING IS WRONG!".

Knowing what I know now, perhaps the old hypocrite was jealous.

The old vet moved out when the wife died, so now Fool is in love with and cooking for Meat Man.

He doesn’t seem to have a problem, finds nothing wrong with stringing Fool along, while having a fiancé, and trying to add others to his stable.

Oversexed didn’t seem to know about Meat Man failing with Homegirl, but she did say he recently was turned down by a new resident I’m not familiar with. The woman was said to have told him no, that she was happily married.

After being so judgmental about the old vet, did Meat Man know this new resident was married? I don’t know.

Oversexed went on to say the woman’s husband is a "Fine young brother with dreadlocks".

I don’t know how Meat Man, if he did know she was married, thought he could compete with a young man, and one so good looking as to be referred to as "fine", but being a dog, I guess Meat Man has to chase.

It seems Meat Man is oblivious to the fact his doggish behavior is being talked about, or he just doesn’t care.

Oversexed is evidently a confident of Meat Man — birds of a feather, water seeks its own level kind of thing I’m guessing. She knows all the tea, goes to the same church as he, where she says all the woman have crushes on him because he presents so well. If they only knew he’s the devil in disguise.

At any rate, Meat Man’s body count around here — successes and failures are piling up.

Oversexed ended the conversation with "Oh, and he’s waiting for his mother to die so he can move into her house".

While all this tea was being poured, TinTin had come out of her unit, whereupon Oversexed said to her, "I’ll be over in a minute".

TinTin replied, "Just knock on the door when you’re done".

THEY’RE FRIENDS!

I don’t know if old friends or new friends, but water seeking its own level again.

Heading back to my unit, I ran into Talker who asked about the stick.

After telling her it was to protect myself from lizards on the stairs, she said she’s not afraid of them, to call her next time and she’ll remove it.

If my stick can’t handle it, you can bet I’ll call her.

Signs of Life

I was expecting to have to brave the elements to make it to this morning’s workout.

Luckily, a break in the rain negated that need to swim.

The break is "supposed" to last until next Monday, but it’s looking kinda gloomy outside, so I don’t know if we have that long before the next rainstorm hits the area.

The break not only allowed me to get to/from the Pain Cave without getting wet, it allowed me to see signs of life on the complex, with residents once again venturing outside.

First sighting was Red Light. She was waiting for her son to pick her up, drive her to Yucaipa (wherever that is) to look at a new 55 and over complex that takes Section 8.

I don’t want to count my eggs before they hatch, but it’s looking like I may not need those big girl panties after all because, if Red Light is serious about moving, and it’s looking like she is, then bingo goes with her.

Driving out of the complex, I spied what translates to me as desperation.

I did mention, in a previous post, that the $500 rent increase resulted in a lot of residents moving out.

Even though it seems new residents are quickly moving in, I can only guess the sign means the waiting list has been depleted, and management is now desperate enough to advertise vacancies.

That’s pretty shocking.

Even when things were really bad — back when Nurse Ratched was so horrible that long-time residents were moving out in droves, leaving entire quads with empty units, there was no need to advertise as the wait list was long with new unsuspecting victims clamoring to get a unit here. But now management is advertising vacancies on the streets for the first time ever.

Is Corporate's greed turning around and biting management in the butt?

Is the County no longer placing their clients here ... finding less expensive accomodations for those on its role?

Next, management may be offering move in discount specials. Maybe even offering incentives to all of us not to leave.

I'll know when my increase comes up in June/July.

Returning to the complex, I spotted TinTin standing outside the gate — appearing to be waiting for someone to pick her up.

I would have liked to capture a photo for you, but I didn’t want to stall and end up having to engage with her.

I kept my eyes straight ahead and got through the gate as quickly as I could without looking her way.

Later this afternoon, as I was catching up on recorded episodes of Ghosts, out the corner of my eye I spotted movement on the walkway.

Looking over, I saw it was a woman riding a bike.

I went to the patio window to see where she was going and saw her park her bike, take a breather on the bench beneath my bedroom window.

She appeared to be one of the unhoused.

You will recall, I can’t see through the bedroom window because it’s covered with bubble wrap.

Wanting to keep an eye on her, see what she was up to, I removed a panel so I could see out.

She looked harmless enough, so I went back to the TV — nice bike though. I bet she has to fight to keep others from taking it from her.

Back watching Ghosts, I finally learned it was Heddy’s son Thomas, who unalived Alberta, turned her into a ghost — because he wanted to continue his secret relationship with Alberta’s boyfriend.

Scoundrel!

But a more exciting reason to be turned into a ghost than Roxy, in that old show Dead Like Me. Roxy invented leg warmers and was strangled to death by a roommate, with a pair of leg warmers, who wanted to benefit as the inventor.

Next episode, one of the ghosts got sucked up into heaven.

Jay — the alive husband, was hoping the missing ghost was No Pants Trevor. I was hoping it was Thor.

Turns out, it was Flower — my absolute favorite ghost.

I couldn’t believe the show’s producers had gotten rid of Flower, so I logged onto Google to find out WHY.

Guess I wasn't the only one wanting an explanation, because look what happened when all I typed in was "Why did f".

I didn’t even have to type in Flower’s name.

At any rate, the rationale given was that the actress playing Flower was pregnant in real life, around the time filming started for this Season 3.

I’m hoping maybe Flower will get kicked out of heaven and brought back Season 4, but I doubt it because the reason given for her leaving ended with "pregnancy was just one factor".

Ghosts won’t be as enjoyable without her.

Later, I once again spotted movement on the walkway.

It was the unhoused woman, back on her bike, heading out the way she came in.

Now that she knows this is a safe place to rest, will be interesting if I see her here again.

After sprinkling water on the bubble wrap panel I’d removed, it went back in place no problem.

So ends another episode of Tales of the Complex, and that's the tea.

Never Say Never

Another Rainy Monday

Not loving having to leave my cocoon, head out on a Monday … in the rain to work out, but I’m glad someone is enjoying the wet weather.

Today is also President’s Day.

Hang in there Papa Joe

Plan for the weekend was to try out a recipe for gluten free Fastnacht's (also known as donut holes), but the recipe looked to be too much work. Not to mention that, when I picked up the can of baking powder — that I recently used in a recipe for gluten free blueberry cupcakes, oat flour pancakes, et al., I happened to notice the Best if Used by date.

May 11, 2022

I’m not wasting anything by tossing this long-ago expired product, because I found it all used up, empty.

I'd like to blame my lack of baking skills on having used an expired ingredient, but fact is cooking and baking in general are just not my thing. I do so only because my sensitive gut requires it.

So, morning workout over and done with, it's back into my cocoon until Wednesday, which btw, the weather people predict it will still be raining.

Tale of Two Thieves

The corner market is redlining us again — providing shoppers in this area with the least freshest fruit, vegetables and eggs soon to expire .... sometimes set to expire the very next day.

So, after this morning’s workout, I drove to the market in the chain that’s not taking advantage of shoppers, the one that had a Find the Hometown Elf named Elfonzo.

While in line to check out, I saw a little girl, around 6/7 years of age, grab a candy bar, look back to make sure her mom wasn’t looking, shove it under her jacket at the waist level.

As she was holding onto her jacket to make sure the candy bar was secure, she looked up, saw me staring at her. I shook my head like no, don’t do it.

She smiled at me.

Guess she thought she was being cute. I didn’t.

At one point, mom took her attention away from putting groceries on the belt, looked to see where her daughter was, saw me staring at daughter and asked her, "What are you doing?"

"Shoplifting" said I, even though I wasn’t the one being asked.

The kid was still holding the spot where she'd stashed her ill-gotten gains, so mom had no problem finding, removing and putting back on the shelf.

Once they were gone and it was my turn at the register, the casher found she had not enough money to make change.

Calling a manager over, telling him "I don’t have any money" she asked me to step to the side while she helped the next customer who’d said "I’m using a card. I won’t need change".

No problem, I stepped to the side and watched as that card using customer completed her transaction and an old lady was next to step to the cashier.

As the cashier rang up her purchases, I noticed the old lady had 10 cans of cat food still in her cart (I counted them).

The cashier could not see from her vantage point that there were items still in the cart.

From the way the old lady was dressed and purchases she was making, she didn’t seem like the sort that needed to do what I assumed she was doing.

If she had looked like she couldn’t afford to feed herself AND her pet, I would have offered to pay for the cat food. So, it was on my mind to ask the casher if she knew the items were there, but then I thought ….. snitches get stitches, I’m not the police or security so, after ratting out the little girl, chose to mind my business on this one.

I watched the girl bagging the old lady’s groceries drop the bagged items in the cart, right next to the cans of cat food.

As the Bagger put the last bag in the cart, and the cashier was finishing the transaction, with me thinking the old lady was going to make a clean getaway, the Bagger grabbed one of the cans, held it up to the cashier, asked if she’d rung them up.

Cashier froze, looked at the can, looked at the old lady, leaned over her station to look into the old lady’s cart, looked back up at the old lady with a look on her face that was a combination of amazement, disappointment and what the hell.

The old lady went "Oh" like she’d forgotten those items were there.

That very possibly could have been true, but I doubt it.

Interesting time at the market it was.

Thank God it's Friday. I can cocoon up in my little unit, not have to see or deal with another human being, young or old, until Monday rolls around.

A Handful of Sugar

Walking out the door yesterday, heading for the morning’s workout, what did I see but management’s latest posting attached to the door.

Not a notice this time. Instead, it was a cute little candy filled Valentine’s Day card.

"Never look a gift horse in the mouth" it is said, but my first thought was this has something to do with that $500 rent increase that has so many moving out.

Every single day I’m seeing folks moving out in other quads — thus far, it’s been no one I know personally; but I can’t say for sure because, with no contact with others via bingo and no access to the view of the courtyard area, due to that window being covered with bubble wrap, I’m out of the loop.

However, in my comings and goings, I’ve observed that just as quickly as someone moves out, just as quickly new people move in.

It’s becoming like a residential inn around here. We no longer know who our neighbor are.

So anyway, to some degree, residents probably appreciate this gesture from management. However, inasmuchas the rent increase is essentially funding it — giving Corporate extra money to spend, I'm sure residents would have rather no increase in rent instead.

After that morning’s workout, I dutifully checked the ingredients in the packet of sugary candies and found, sure enough, not edible as they contained three of the many ingredients my sensitive gut cannot handle — corn syrup, modified food starch, cornstarch.

Waste not Want not, so rationalizing it was just a handful, I took a chance and turned the handful into lunch with a cup of coffee.

No problems after, so it’s good to know the rare sugary cheat won’t hurt me, but I’d never buy jelly beans or gummies for anything other than gingerbread house decorations anyway, because I prefer chocolates.

I hope this sugary treat isn’t management setting us up for something else coming — leading us lambs to the slaughter so to speak.

Time will tell. It always does.

Shame about what happened in Kansas City Chiefs' parade.

Guess no place is safe — even with snipers on the roof and a kazillion cops on the ground; and to think, we'd just had that conversation about people carrying, unbeknownst to those around them.

Valentine’s Day

It’s that time again … the day I dredge up the gif which expresses how I feel about today's hoopla.

Not only is Miley Cyrus still singing my anthem — Flowers, she’s singing it with a Grammy for Record of the Year.

It Ain’t Pretty

This is what the bedroom window looks like from the outside.

It ain’t pretty, but the bubble wrap is doing its job, seems to be effective in keeping the cold air out of the bedroom at night.

I did not have to run the heater last night, and woke up without sniffles and feeling chilled to the bone.

Because the outside view isn’t all that pretty, I did look into a window installation kit, as suggested by DrumMajor (Thanks friend) and liked that it was touted as "crystal clear", but was turned off by the mixed reviews ……… some purchasers liked it, others complained it did not live up to "crystal clear", tape didn’t hold, and the panels are not reusable when taken down.

Under the theory of "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it", now that I see bubble wrap is doing the job, I’m gonna stick with it.

Pun intended, LOL.

Besides, the shrink wrap touted a 30/35% reduction in heating bill. Bubble wrap is estimating a 50% reduction.

As for the aesthetics, I’m good with losing my view and the window looking unappealing through the Winter months.

I had errands to run after this morning’s workout.

The weather was perfect for a drive, so out of the area I went — looking for new pokémon characters at each stop.

Bass Pro Shop was crawling with pokémons, but nothing I needed in my deck.

They did however have a sign at the entrance that one does not see every day.

I asked the young lady at the desk if people actually come in with weapons on them. She replied in the affirmative, adding that it scares her when the weapons are placed in her hands.

I’ll bet, but that lets me know there are perfectly normal looking people walking around armed to the teeth with more than just pepper spray.

So, no pokémons at Bass Pro, but they did have a fun looking poke stop, where I snagged game tools.

The next stop was my reward for having worked so hard cleaning up the place over the weekend.

After a stop at Sprouts, for items I can’t purchase locally, finding no interesting pokémon, it was off to the hardware store to replenish cleaning supplies.

In the parking lot, I captured one I did not already have in my deck — a Frogadier.

I think this is where I also captured a problem because, just moments after jumping on the freeway, heading home, bells and whistles went off on the car's instrument panel, indicating the left rear passenger side tire was down to 28 psi.

Panic … Fright … and it had been such a nice day up until then.

The good news ……… I was in the right area — the tire place was just down the street from where I’d just been at the hardware store.

Getting off at the next exit, holding my breath I’d make it before the tire gave out, I jumped back on the freeway, headed to where I’d been, passed the hardware store, made it a mile further to the tire place.

They found a rather large nail, said it’d be like a 2-hour wait, because it was a busy day, did I want to wait and be serviced.

I said no, I did not, but had no choice.

More good news ………… the tire was fixable, and no charge.

Good news because I’d spent most of my cash and, had the nail been embedded in an area where the tire was not patchable (that has happened to me in the past), I'd have been SOL because I'd left my credit card at home.

It's a blessing to have a car, not rely on public transportation; but it's also a headache as so much can go wrong, at any time.

I'm still not over the terror of the blowout I had a few months ago, and now this.

So, that was the agony and ecstasy of my day. More like ecstasy then agony.

Chocolate was intended for days like this. Fortunately, I’d just stocked up.

I did not watch yesterday’s game, but had timed it just right to tune in and catch halftime.

It was okay. At least Usher’s performance didn’t lull me to sleep like Rihanna's did last year.

My only criticism …… half time was just too short. It felt to me like Usher had been cheated on allotted time, compared to other halftime shows I’ve seen.

Worth a Try

Seems we’re out of the woods insofar as rainstorms. Weather folks predict a few sprinkles Thursday and Saturday of next week, but the worst is over and done with.

Other than the annoying sound of water continuously falling from the sky, I didn’t mind the wet weather all that much. It’s the chill factor before the rain, after the rain, in fact this whole season, that’s causing difficulties for me.

In order not to catch pneumonia, I’ve been running central air heating during the day.

At night, even though I’ve tripled up on clothing — wear two night shirts, my camo onesie pajamas and the bed is covered with two quilts, I’m freezing. Consequently, I’ve been running a little bedroom heater at night.

All these measures to survive the Winter season has caused a jump in heating bill to $188 — double what it usually is this time of year.

I don’t know how you people who live in cold climates manage … how you can afford to stay warm.

At any rate, in between sit down squats last week, I was complaining about the high bill to Trainer, saying that I had to find a way to lower it.

The Universe was once again listening, manifesting my thoughts into things, because, having a moment to read this week’s Woman’s World magazine yesterday, what did I see but an article entitled "Easy Ways to slash your heating bill".

Here we go again with that superpower working for me, or finding myself in the 4th dimensional pocket where thoughts become reality, but why does the Universe not listen in when the conversation is about my desire to win millions in the Powerball, Mega or SuperLotto????

The only suggestion applicable to me, in the article, was to insulate the windows with bubble wrap.

"Bubble wrap creates a barrier between the glass and the warm air in your home, helping you retain 50% more heat … Simply cut a piece of wrap the same size of your window, spray water on the bubbly side and place it against the glass".

It just so happens that I have bubble wrap on hand, so worth a try.

I don’t recall seeing the part that said to wet the bubble side until I just now typed those instructions into this post. So, even though I screwed up and wet the smooth side, the wrap went up easy peasy.

So we’ll see how it goes until it looks like I may have to reverse sides.

It’s still a mystery as to why TinTin has that strip of tinfoil in her window. The article did say heat rises, that you can insulate your attic with foil and save $1000 on your heating bill, but said nothing about a strip of foil on a window.

As for me, should a neighbor inquire, I've a good explanation as to why I’ve bubble wrapped my bedroom window.

Once word gets around, more than a few will begin bubble wrapping their windows because more than a few have commented on how the cold cuts straight through at night.

We once had a Complex Manager that liked working with old people, was nice to us, tried to make living here better for us.

She was looking into getting double pane windows installed to protect us from the Winter cold/Summer heat.

It got her fired.

Corporate wants its managers to collect as much as they can, spend as little as possible. They didn't like that she was spending money on bettering our living situation with activities, events, repairs and when she wanted to spend even more money on double pane windows, they summarily dismissed her.

Corporate greed.

So, I double dog dare them to do an inspection and complain about the bubble wrapped window.

Go bother TinTin about her aluminum and the dresser drawer still on her patio, even though that "friendly reminder" was included in this month's calendar.

My friend Q posted a meme from a site called Modern Art last night that sent me down a rabbit hole. The artist puts an unusual spin on artwork and everyday photos. Lots of his work to enjoy, but these are the two that made me laugh the loudest.