Friday the 13th

I didn’t realize today was Friday the 13th until I checked my calendar, to make certain I’d not had a senior moment and planned for the Community Meeting on the wrong day.

Nope. I got it right, 11:oo today.

The meeting was a snoozefest.

No one brought up Bill. The closest we got may have been when manager said, "It’s getting pretty bad on some things", that people are telling her things but don’t want to name names, don't want to say who.

Like I said, namby pamby.

Most of the meeting was manager complaining about being yelled at and harassed. That "I’m an employee getting blamed for things that are beyond my control" and "That’s not okay".

She used that phrase a lot as she went through her list of grievances — "It's not okay" to take furniture out of the dumpster. It's in the dumpster for a reason and could bring critters into units. "It's not okay" to get friendly with and feed the homeless passing by, it's definitely "not okay" to let them into the complex.

"If you let them in, they will come back".

She said one resident was caught opening the pool for a homeless individual.

She said she’s been nice (that’s not what I’ve heard), but is going to start cracking down on lease violators (it’s about damn time).

Some residents complained about maintenance work orders not being handled expeditiously.

Management’s excuse being overworked due to so many residents moving in and out. That they can’t keep up because "We have twice as many apartments moving out than moving in".

Management might want to think about why the turnover rate is so high, do something about it, give residents a reason to stay.

If management wants to keep this locking the refrigerator, taking out the coffee machine, no-frills living and residents continue to move out as quickly as others move in, the workload would be an easy fix by not burdening the maintenance guys with cleaning duties. Hire an apartment cleaning service.

The meeting wasn’t a complete waste of my time, as I learned something I never knew …… this is a pet free complex. That what dogs there are on the premises are authorized by a Companion Animal Agreement. "It’s not okay" to have pets without prior authorization, "it’s not okay" to have pets off leash, and "it’s not okay" to not scoop your poop.

I’m pretty sure TinTin did not get prior approval for the dogs brought in by her unauthorized roommates.

I also learned there have been several garage fires, due to residents storing flammables — the garages are for cars, "it’s not okay" to use the garages for storage.

All in all, my time would have been better served skipping the meeting, keeping my workout schedule. Except, the meeting allowed me to get up close and personal with the famous Hubba Hubba Awooga Silver Fox.

Readers might remember him as the resident — moved in August of last year, that the women were all gaga about. Described as mixed with First Nation Indian Blood and some other blood type, wore a ponytail, which blood mixture and ponytail made him "too handsome for words" but "He’s antisocial — doesn’t like people knocking on his door, and he’s really mean".

"Antisocial and mean", I later learned was because thirsty women around here were bothering him, and he’d expressed that he’s "sick and tired of women always chasing" him.

I myself have seen the Silver Fox around a few times, waved as I always do with residents, actually once walked close enough by him to assess for myself if he was all Hubba Hubba Awooga and thought him nice enough looking, but not all that special.

I did not see First Nation at all. Instead, I saw Louisiana Geechee, Creole, light skinned Black, but he does have lovely silver hair.

At any rate, I was seated away from the cluster of residents — for viral safety reasons, at the back of the room. Silver Fox sat right next to me, away from the cluster for a different reason that later became clear.

He leaned over, asked how Community Meetings work.

I said we’d not had one since 2020, and it’s usually a gripe fest.

He said he was wondering, as he’d not lived here very long, and had been "bum rushed" when he first moved in.

I played dumb — like I didn’t know how he was received and his response to how he was received, asked what he meant by being "bum rushed".

"Women showing up at my door with cakes, cookies, meals, asking questions about where I’m from, what I do" whereby he "Ruffled a few feathers, most of them are in here right now".

His reason for sitting far far away from the cluster.

He went on to share the women might not have been all that eager to get involved with him if they knew he’d been married three times.

"Yes" said I. "That’s not a good resume".

After a good laugh, he introduced himself, we shook hands, did the nice to meet you thing.

As the meeting droned on and on, began to go beyond the allotted hour, I got sleepy and bored, leaned over, told Silver Fox, "I’ve had enough of this. I’m leaving".

"Me too" said he.

On the way back to my unit, I stopped by the mail room.

He came in shortly after to pick up his mail, then began walking with me as we headed for our units, him saying that was his first and last Community Meeting, "It was nice to meet you Shirley. I hope to see you again".

This is probably the last time I’ll attend another boring Community Meeting — rearrange my schedule. As for hoping to see me again, not my type.

Boosted

Vaccine booster is off my bucket list.

At the pharmacy bright and early, I signed in and, following Mike’s suggestion, made sure it was the "latest" vaccine.

It was.

Then I thought it wouldn’t hurt to see if I could switch from cash to Medicare — Karen’s suggestion.

I could but, just as I surmised, it would have been a headache — as is everything when my provider is involved, because they’d have to contact my provider for approval for medicare.

"No thanks", said I. "I’d rather pay cash".

I was about 15 minutes early, so I browsed the plentiful Christmas isles, located right next to the scarce Halloween row, where I saw this cute little pillow.

I was tempted to purchase, but made a commitment to myself some time ago to stop buying things based on being cute, only purchase that which serves a purpose.

Not only was this store, and others, offering Christmas wares when we’ve not yet had Halloween, there was Christmas music.

The pharmacist giving the injection said she was shocked and commented how sad it was my health care provider was not serving its members ………… that I was the third person to come in that morning from the provider.

It was early, so many more probably came in for the vaccine before the day was over.

My provider’s bad reputation is getting around, but at least I’m not reliant on them for much, lean towards holistic care because I can’t rely on them, so there’s no point trying to find a better health care provider, if there even is such an animal, at this stage of the game.

On the way out, I walked by a woman who spotted my bandage, asked, "Did you just get the vaccine?".

"Yes".

"I got it yesterday and my arm is still sore", said she.

Oh, goodie. Something unpleasant to look forward to, and thanks for sharing that which I did not need to hear.

Tomorrow is the meeting with management.

I’ve already decided that if none of the ladies who have a beef with Bill (Di, Lu, Homegirl, the Baker, the little new resident that wants to do great bodily harm to Bill, and numerous others I don’t personally know) …… If they don’t speak up about him, I am not going to bring it up for them.

I am done with sticking my neck out for weak namby-pamby people who don’t have the guts to stand up for themselves and don't have my back in return.

I’m still sore about the time the Black Witch was bullying residents at bingo, and how no one had my back when she got around to me, and I stood up to her.

Not only did the ladies not have my back, they also tried to make me be namby-pamby like them.

When the Black Witch came for me and I told her "I am not the one. You have picked the wrong one today", she called me the B word.

I retorted with a spell to cast out whatever demon was possessing her ("I rebuke you demon. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ. Out out evil spirit"), whereupon the Baker and Red Light tried to silence me, told me to not "argue" with her. The others in the room stuck their heads in the sand, tried to make themselves invisible.

I lost a lot of respect for the Baker, Red Light, et. al., that day. So, if they don’t speak up for themselves, and I myself have had no problems from Bill, then whatever happens henceforth is on them.

The excessive head seems to be cooling down. It was only 90 yesterday, and 82 today. So, when I headed for the car this morning, I ran into one of the newer residents taking advantage of the cooler weather, out on an exercise walk.

We greeted each other and she asked, "Would you like a little Jesus?"

I had no idea what she meant, but I was down for what I imagined would be some kind of blessing.

She reached into her pocket and gave me this ………

Little Jesus

Cute, but not the Jesus I know, so I fixed him.

Little Black Jesus

Bad Penny

Clearer heads must have prevailed, because that planned power outage never materialized.

Considering the heat, our needing A/C almost 24/7 — to sleep during the night, exist during the day, I thought it a dumb bureaucratic idea in the first place.

Someone in authority must have agreed with me.

I was scheduled for the vaccine booster today, but then thought …… it’s only Tuesday. If I have a bad reaction, or don’t feel well, that will make it difficult to get through this week’s workouts.

I rescheduled to Thursday, thinking I’ll be able to push through Friday’s workout and have the weekend to recover.

It’s a good thing I rescheduled because, since I was free today, I went down to the Community Room for Arts and Crafts, and found the proverbial bad penny had turned up …… Red Light was seated at the table.

Though not necessarily a "bad" penny, maybe a little tarnished in that she’s a good person with a tendency to stir shiz up, I nevertheless thought Why is she here? Better yet, inasmuch as she doesn’t drive, how did she get here?

The how is via a curb-to-curb Americans with Disabilities transportation service.

The why is to deliver birthday presents to Upstairs Lady (the resident who has problems with her legs and should have gotten that downstairs unit) and to our Boebert character.

Thing is though ……… I may have manifested her.

Hearing water drop planes and helicopters during most of the night/early morning hours, heading towards the out-of-control, 0% contained as of last Thursday Line Fire, prompted me to check the updates this morning ……… Only "5% contained as of today and current weather conditions causing very erratic behaviour" it’s shifting towards Yucaipa.

Yucaipa is where Red Light moved to.

Wondering if Red Light is under orders to evacuate, I called the Baker — whom I know is in constant contact with her, asked if she had any info on how Red Light is fairing.

"She’s located in a more populated area, in the city, so seems to be okay", said the Baker, but then I joked Red Light might be ready to move back just the same.

And just like that abracadabra…hocus-pocus…expecto patronum, that penny turned up.

Red Light indicated, though she does live in the city area, she did received a pre-evacuation warning.

So, I ask again, why is she here? With current conditions in her area, and a pre warning, she should be standing by.

According to her, she's been here a couple times, because she likes the people here but said she has no plans to ever move back ……… she doesn’t like our units.

I can’t blame her for that since she’s now living in the lap of luxury, complete with washer/dryer in her unit, but fire changes direction/moves quickly. Visiting now is running the risk of getting stuck out here, can’t get transportation back to her luxurious apartment.

At any rate, not seeming concerned about any of it, Red Light joined our lively group in Arts and Crafts.

Keeping in mind that painting is not my strong suit, I think this latest project, though amateurish/not Grandma Moses quality, is far better than the sucky job I did on that pumpkin a few weeks back.

Before

After

Of course, tea was spilled while we worked on our pojects ………

Evicted Bicycle Boy has been seen riding his bike through the premises. Lu thinks he relocated just down the street and is afraid he’s planning some kind of revenge on the property.

I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s that kind of insane being.

We're losing two of our usual suspects — Boebert and Homegirl.

Boebert is moving to a brand new complex, I forget where, because she can no longer handle rule breakers smoking in their units, the smell of cigarette smoke seeping into her unit.

Homegirl is having medical issues, moving to Sacramento to be closer to family.

Several women at the table, including the Baker, complained about our resident pervert — Bill.

Bill who, on more than one occasion, has exposed himself to female residents, has escalated his behavior to knocking on doors, asking for sex.

I kid you not.

Bill’s latest is that he knocked on Di’s door (the 60 something who was in a relationship with Meat Man’s 20 something son until the son got rough, demanding and police were called).

Bill asked to use Di's bathroom.

He has his own unit. Not only does he have a bathroom in his unit, he also has a wife in it, who is battling cancer.

Di, like a fool, let him in.

Bill could have harmed her right then and there. Instead, he used the bathroom, then came out with his you-know-what in his hand.

The way it was described to me, the way Di described it to the ladies who were telling me, is that Bill twirled it around and asked Di, "Do you want some of this?"

Seriously. I kid you not.

This place is turning into a mad house.

With as many women as there are now complaining about Bill, management has to be aware. So why is Bill still here ……… and why is there not a restraining order on Bicycle Boy?

Things are out of control.

The ship is sinking and there's no one at the helm.

We're having a Community Meeting this Friday, the first we've had since 2020.

The timing conflicts with Friday's workout, but I'm thinking I'd better call off on working out, attend the meeting.

The natives are angry. The meeting is going to be wild.

And that's the tea.

Excessive Heat, Earthquake and More

Not only did we have a heat advisory for all of last week, today we had Flash Flood Warnings along with yet another earthquake and a planned power outage scheduled for later this evening.

Online at the time of the quake, feeling the worktable shake rattle roll at 10:34 a.m., I logged onto earthquake information, learned the actual 3.5 quake happened a half hour earlier — 10:05 AM, 3.7 miles away in Ontario. What I felt was a strong aftershock.

I have been thinking about, worried for those astronauts lost in space. However, now I’m thinking that, what with excessive heat, earthquakes, flashfloods, this may be the end of planet earth and those two astronauts will find themselves, with no planet to return to, in the position of being Adam and Eve 2.0.

Earlier in the week I’d been invited by granddaughter and grandson-in-law to spend time with them, and the toddlers, apple picking on a farm in Oak Glen.

I’d have loved to spend time with the great grandbabies, but not out in the hot sun, so I passed.

Turned out I’d made a wise choice as apples were picked, but not for long. The heat was overbearing, so it was decided a visit to great granny was the more comfortable fun day out.

Somebody really loved playing with my exercise ball.

The sound she makes when laughing is hilarious. Sounds like a little cricket.

Somebody else preferred listening to classical music on his little player.

All in all, a very nice visit — not too long, not too short, an opportunity to kiss all over the grands.

Next up in the planned power outage, supposedly 1 am to 9 am. Going to be rough with no A/C cooling the bedroom tonight, but hopefully power is restored before the excessive heat fires up tomorrow.

Trifecta

I hit the trifecta at the medical center this morning.

At the center early, to get the doctor-ordered fasting blood work off my bucket list, I saw a sign for flu shots.

Didn’t realize it was time for that already but, since I was there, I went back to the desk, registered for and got my flu shot taken care of; after which, I thought I’d get ahead of having to come back for a doctor ordered blood pressure reading.

So off I go to the desk for a third time, registered for a BP test, got that taken care of.

The nurse calling those of us there for BP test, greeted with "Happy Friday Eve".

Never ever thought of Thursday like that before, and I’ve never ever heard the saying before.

Have you?

If the medical center offered the latest Moderna booster, I could have hit the Superfecta — gotten the latest covid booster, as I saw they had a vaccine station.

I keep getting notices to get the vaccine, but my provider only offers Johnson, and I do Moderna.

I have plans to go off-site for Moderna, as I did last time, but have yet to get around to it because I've been dreading the headache of fighting with member services.

Some readers might recall how it was, when last I heeded the call to get a booster, member services refused to give approval for the vaccine when the off-site center called for authorization. I paid out of pocket, then filed a complaint with the medical center because ……… what am I supposed to do when you don’t offer Moderna.

I got a reimbursement.

Before leaving the center this morning, I checked with the covid vaccine station nurse, just on the off chance Moderna might now be available.

No such luck, and she tells me, member services will no longer reimburse those of us who go off-site for Moderna.

WHAT?! …… You text message harass me to get the vaccine, but won’t approve/pay unless I go to your facility, take what you offer.

Cheap bastids.

It’s not worth the time and effort to hassle with member services. The vaccine is only $139.99, so I’ll go off-site, eat the cost.

After leaving the medical center, I stopped by a craft store for needlepoint floss that wasn’t available when I last made a run by the local craft store, and found a Halloween outfit for my patio skeleton Skelly.

I think Skelly is going to love being a witch, complete with boom, this year.

I had the cashier at the craft store in stitches. When I saw she was struggling to get the broom into a bag, I said, "Oh, don't worry about bagging that. I'll just fly it on out of here".

I could hear her still laughing as I exited the store.

Fall Luncheon Social

The new Activity Director is a very pretty lady — I’m guessing mid to late 30’s, who comes across as sweet, anxious to do a good job, but please tell me what does yesterday’s session, "Ethics in the Workplace and Fall Luncheon Social" have to do with us seniors.

The Fall Luncheon Social part, yes.

Ethics in the Workplace, huh? We don’t work, we’re retirees.

Discovering around 12:15 that this month’s activity calendar had been posted to our doors, seeing the above-titled session scheduled for 12:30, I quickly thew something on, went down to check the spread out, grab a few photos for our residents’ facebook page.

The workplace ethics was a handout — read at one’s leisure.

It was a very poor showing. Only six residents in attendance.

Usually, the mention of food motivates residents to head to the Community Room. This poor showing may be because not many realized the calendar had been posted to their door, or they’d not yet read it to see mention of a luncheon, or residents simply didn’t care to attend.

I stayed just long enough to say hi, listen to my friend Jenne complain about the lack of activities, our Boebert character moan how much she misses Red Light (for that same reason — lack of activities) grab a photo of the six and the food offerings — sub sandwiches, deli fried chicken, potato salad, Hostess cupcakes, to post to our facebook page, then headed back to my unit.

As for the lack of activities, my last post mentioned that activities pretty much ended when resident Red Light moved out of the complex — purportedly because she couldn’t get along with Manager and had a maintenance issue in her unit she said, "I can’t live with it", so no surprised the usual suspects are complaining about the lack of activities.

I replied to Jenne's complaint with something to the effect that what little management does for us is better than nothing and assuming that, since Red Light was no longer a thorn in Manager’s side, the lock was now off the refrigerator — because part of the reason for the lock was Manager making it difficult for Red Light to host food events for us, I replied to Boebert’s complaints with, "Well, at least the lock is off the refrigerator now".

"Take another look" said Boebert (so named that in the blog because she was disruptive ……… talked during bingo).

I took another look and gasp — though all the notes telling us to not even think about using the refrigerator to store food and drinks for our own initiated events, because management was taking it over for their lunches …… the notes were gone, but the locks remain.

Whatever.

Property owners of the strip mall came through for the liquor store guy.

When I arrived for Monday’s workout, there was a noticeable change to front of the business.

Yep! The Property Owners got the memo and, sometime over the weekend, set up bollards.

This will prevent the bad guys from backing a truck into the storefront — mangling the metal security gate, shattering the floor-to-ceiling window; but now Trainer has to worry the determined bad guys will go back to old school break-ins ……… manually rip through the window, bars and walls of the Pain Cave to get to the liquor store yet and still.

After the last time the bad guys broke into his studio, Trainer upgraded his security system. So, hopefully, the system will do its job of notifying him before damage is done, so he can take action, because he says, if hit again, he cannot recover, cannot financially come back from another break-in.

Labor Day? It’s Still Monday

It’s been dead as a doornail here on the complex, and I don’t think it merely seems so just because I’ve morphed into a recluse, and thus out of the loop, but is an actuality.

Nothing interesting even popping up on the window cam, except I did see Gandalf showing up earlier in the week, performing that "this far and no further" ritual of walking to the edge of the walkway by the stairs, looking to his left then returning to the unit. However, strangely, he showed up just that one time.

So, is he still living down there with his mom or not? Who knows for sure, but I surmise so.

His brother Compton is no longer parking on the property, so I guess Manager got what she wanted — him gone …… or thinks she got what she wanted because he’s still on camera heading to/from work, but it’s during hours when the office is closed, no management personnel around to know any different.

He must be parking/hiding his car nearby.

All in all, it appears Ms. Neighbor's two sons are on the downlow, keeping a low profile, staying away from prying eyes and out of the crosshairs of management.

With the resident known as Red Light having moved and no one willing to take over her self-motivated job of planning BBQs for us residents, it’s not going to look much like a holiday around here today, except for the absence of staff.

For me, it’s just another Monday anyway — a workout this morning and a grocery run after.

I did however manage to have a three-day weekend, because Trainer rescheduled me beastmode last week (back-to-back workouts Wednesday and Thursday), so he and his team could travel out-of-town Friday for a weekend Muay Thai fighting event.

Unmotivated, and the weather still too hot, I did not leave the unit, train for a 5K that might be coming up at the University. Instead, it was three days of needlepoint and prison break. In addition to which, a great deal of time was devoted to putting out fires, as I received notification sensitive data had made it to the Dark Web.

Back in May, when I returned from Pride Week in Long Beach, I received a fraud alert on my credit card, which alert necessitated cancelling the card. This latest breach seems to have stemmed from that incident, and I have a sense it was a bank employee, the one that assisted me in cancelled the card, who leaked/sold other even more sensitive data he collected during that conversation.

At any rate, all I could do this time was to put a lock on everything it was possible to lock, change passwords, and cross my fingers the scammers will find I'm not financially worth the effort.

It boggles my mind that there are people whose job it is to run phishing scams, find ways and means to defraud/take advantage of others.

If the scammers plan to use the information to file next year’s taxes in my name, reap the reward, they’re in for a surprise — find themselves liable for a bill to pay rather than a return, LOL.

Speaking of jobs, this Labor Day also marks the 14th year of my sliding the chute, or close enough as I officially retired on September 7.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again ……… Time flies when one is not having to deal, on a daily basis, with functionally insane employers, various forms of racism and abuse of authority.

Though the flashbacks and trauma lives on, I consider myself one of the lucky ones to have gotten out alive, as I once thought I’d be like the 60-year-old Wells Fargo employee who was recently found dead at her desk, four days after she’d last clocked in.

I fully expected to be a little old lady keeling over dying at my desk, but would have hoped my death would have been noticed before people were alerted by the smell, as was the case with this employee.

A worse fate would have been coworkers trying to get rid of me by taking me on a hike and leaving me behind, as was the case for the insurance underwriter on a work retreat, who also made the news this weekend — rescued after a night stuck on 14,230 foot Mt. Shavano during a freezing rainstorm after being left behind by his 14 coworkers.

If I understand the story correctly, those coworkers did not report him missing for 8 hours, which was after the guy miraculously survived the night, managed to get a cell signal and call for help his own darn self.

Just goes to show, though the struggle to retirement is real, and leaves one with lingering trauma, it's better than dying at one's desk or being downsized out by coworkers.