Vacancy

SIGNAL BOOST for Blogging Buddy Mary Kirkland of Dark Thoughts: Mary’s daughter Lizzie is currently hospitalized with double pneumonia, sepsis, has been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure, will be on oxygen for the foreseeable future and could really use some help with medical expenses.

If you would be so kind, Lizzie’s best friend Savanna has organized a GoFundMe for Lizzie HERE.

This is awful for Mary. My heart goes out to her and Lizzie.

Next Door Neighbor finally moved.

She’s gone, but that ugly assed tacky doormat remains.

Now askew from having been trampled on during the move.

I'm tempted, but don’t dare be so presumptuous as to toss the doormat in the trash myself. I’ll wait for management to discard. However, now that it's askew, I see there is an actual doormat under that red cover. So, if it looks like management is not going to toss it I will, under cover of darkness, make sure the red cover gets to the dumpster.

Why I say NDN "finally moved" is because, with a team of three/four male relatives (plus, when our downstairs neighbor’s son Compton …… the kid that wants to be my Boy Toy saw the move happening, he jumped in to help), it took 3 days, all day — morning, noon, night. Sometimes as late as 11:30 pm to complete the move.

I wasn’t annoyed by the noise during the day or late into the night; doubt any others in the quad made a stink about it. Instead, I was impressed with the dedication and amazed at their stamina — up/down the stairs to the U-Haul, load, drive 15 miles to the new place, unload, drive back to this complex, repeat.

I told NDN it was exhausting for me just to see how much work was going into the move.

Before leaving, she chastised me …… "You've never come to visit".

Yep. She went there.

Meaning, I never knocked on her door, hung out with her for coffee, conversation, play cards.

I wanted to say, "I've got better things to do than bore myself listening to your mundane conversations about things I have no interest in", but what I actually said was, "I'm not the visiting kind", to which she nodded affirmative, like she already knew that.

So, anyway, the days it took (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), with the number of people NDN had helping, brought back when I moved out of the apartment in Long Beach to this complex. As I recall, it only took a few hours with a team of two.

The difference is Next Door Neighbor has soooooooooo muuuuuch stuff — expensive, heavy, museum quality furniture, artwork, artifacts, memorabilia from when she travelled with her then military officer husband to countries where she had servants. Material objects that she says, though she can’t take it with her when she goes, she’s going to enjoy it while she’s here, let others worry about it when she’s gone.

I get it, and though I don’t have expensive museum quality stuff, I do have things that are hard for me to let go of — things that have no value, can’t be sold or donated after I’m gone; but things, like NDN, I enjoy surrounding myself with while I’m here.

I think I’ve done fairly well in decluttering the place, to not let the things I hold onto reach the level NDN has but, now looking around, I suddenly feel there’s still too much unnecessary stuff.

Time for me to do another decluttering/deep dive death cleaning.

On Saturday, when I walked into the bedroom to pull paperwork from a drawer, through that window I spied Talker sitting on the bench with a nice-looking guy.

Talker recently dyed the gray out of her hair to prepare for a blind date.

Seriously …… a friend is setting her up with a blind date.

What!? thought I when she told me.

A blind date????

At our age????

"Brave", I told her.

So, anyway, seeing her sitting there with that guy, I texted, "I’m looking out the window at you. Is that your blind date?"

I watched as she picked up her phone, looked at the text, bent over laughing, looked over, saw me waving from the window; whereupon, she called me on the phone, said, "No, it’s one of my granddaughter’s uncles. He’s a fireman".

I think I previously mentioned that Little Knock Knock has some eye candy looking uncles.

"He’s handsome", said I to which, listening to the telephone conversation, he responded, laughingly, "Thank you Miss Shirley".

I am so sure it’s not the first time that fireman has been complemented on his looks; and won't be the last time.

Talker is going to get good mileage on the retelling, to everyone she knows, possibly including the blind date when she gets to know him, that I was watching her through the window, getting all up in her business.

In other news, the seniors are throwing themselves an Easter Luncheon this Wednesday, April Fool's Day but no fooling.

There's likely to be a crowd.

I'm not yet ready for hanging with the folks. Taking a pass.