Too Little Too Late

Inasmuch as Walking Club was on the calendar as every other Tuesday, I was expecting to get up early, meet Activity Director by the pool.

Thank goodness April’s Activity Calendar was posted to our door yesterday, and showed Walking Club moved to next Tuesday, to make room for Activity Director’s "Holiday Social: Easter Celebration" this morning.

A little late, don’t you think.

I did get my walk on this morning, but instead of heading out at 8:40, I putzed around in the kitchen, tried a new recipe for breakfast — Fried Boiled Eggs, didn’t drag myself out until 10:30.

Fried Boiled Eggs are new to me. Have you heard of them before?

The recipe popped up in my feeds and I just had to try it out.

Recipe Photo

The recipe said one can either fry them whole or in halves, so I started off frying whole.

But then decided to split in half.

I think I pretty much nailed it.

As for taste ……… it wasn’t much different than a regular boiled egg. However, I’m no connoisseur of taste, so one can’t judge by my tasteless tastebuds.

As I was finishing my 4th loop around the complex, I decided to pop into the Community Room to see how the Easter Celebration was going.

It was dead, just a handful of the usual suspects, bunched up at two little tables, while Activity Director set out not the usual Easter spread of small bites, but fast-food burgers and little cups of peaches for dessert.

Crucifixion food 2024.

I’d finished my walk and turned into the Community Room in the nick of time, because no sooner did I step inside when, through the window, I saw Meat Man coming up the walkway, walking from where I’d just been before I turned off.

Highly unusual to think he was out walking — especially on the side of the complex my route had taken me, so I can only guess he’d seen me, left his unit and began walking behind me, but I’d disappeared before he could catch up, or before I realized he was not far behind and would have been in the position of walking along with him.

That would have been awkward ……… not because I judge him for being a cock hound, but because I wouldn’t want to be associated with or get caught up in his stuff.

People make assumptions and though I usually don’t care what people think, I can’t trust Meat Man not to beef up his reputation by being seen out walking with me.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, men have used me in that manner before.

The earliest I recall was when I was barely out of school, had just begun working, arrived home and was greeted by two FBI agents.

They were looking for a guy who’d went AWOL from the Navy and had been told by others in the neighborhood that I’d know where he was because I was his girlfriend.

They showed me a photo of who they were looking for. I recognized him from school, but had no contact, didn’t know his name, never even spoken to him.

That was when I realized the little weasel had been lying to others, passing me off as his girlfriend.

I was working as a clerical at the police department when the Feds approached and, because of my job, they believed me saying, "If you knew, you’d tell us". Plus, if you looked at his picture and then looked at me, it was a stretch to think I’d have sunk so low as to have been his girlfriend.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only time a guy used me to beef up his reputation, and it's always been some weasly little insecure guy. Like the temp coworker at the law firm I'd left after receiving a better offer to follow my then boss to the new law firm.

I'd heard the coworker had married one of the legal secretaries at the old firm, and felt sorry for her because I knew him to be using her, an older lady, someone to lean on, someone to support his barely working self.

Running into the two of them at a party, she walked her then drunk arse over to where I was seated, got in my face and warned me that she'd fight me for "her man".

I had no idea what she was talking about, didn't react because I just took her for not being able to hold her liquor, that is until I later heard from another person that the temp coworker had been telling others we were an item.

As expected, the woman who married him ended up financially supporting him. She became so desperate to lessen the load he'd placed on her shoulders, that she contacted me at my new job, asked if I could find a job for him there.

I don't recall what I said but, clearly, I wanted nothing to do with him or her. They were so nothing to me that it wasn't even worth it to confront either of them about his lies and her believing them.

Over the years, I've learned how to sidestep guys that don't come at me correct, guys my gut tells me are out to use me in one way or another.

So, anyway, had Meat Man caught up with me, I’m afraid I would have had to hurt his feelings ……… tell him I can’t be seen walking with him and why.

While in the Community Room, I saw the rumor was true ……… that a TV had been installed.

We used to have a TV, but management decided they didn’t want to pay for the cable service, removed the TV, along with the free morning coffee, and anything else they could take from us.

So now they’ve brought a TV back in ………… Why ???????

I don’t know what’s up with that, but it’s too little too late. Nobody cares, and it’s probably basically only for show anyway, because it’s got strange wires hanging down, which I’m told is management somehow bypassing paying for cable, wiring the set to connect upstairs to Head Maintenance Guy’s apartment, run off his equipment.

After chatting up the usual suspects in the room, I headed back to my unit; but for some reason, I took the route out the front office, outside the complex, then through the front gate, rather than out the back door, down the walkway inside the complex.

It’s a good thing I did because, as I turned into my walkway, there at the end, sitting right smack dab on the bench in the middle of the grassy knoll, was Meat Man, where he could see in every direction there was to see.

Waiting to see if I was still walking and he yet could holla at me?????

If I'm beginning to sound paranoid, what with complaining about the market's Security Guards, changing my route around the complex last time I walked, to avoid a guy leaning on his patio, and now this, remember "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you".

Fortunately, Meat Man was looking in the direction opposite to where I was coming up the walkway, so I simultaneously tried to capture a photo for you as I creeped down the walkway, trying to make it to the stairs and disappear before he saw me.

I made it inside without his seeing me, but in my haste, hit the wrong button and missed capturing a photo.

Dinner tonight will be the remaining two boiled eggs, fried Indian Andhra Style — cooked in a spicy tomato masala and served over rice.