The Red Invitation

On Wednesday, I got through the last of the hard parts and finished the book written by the Great Granddaughter I never knew I had.

Available on Amazon

It ended on a high note, with her doing great things … a non-profit, podcasts, a goal of connecting with other adoptees/foster youths, create safe spaces.

How was I depicted in the book you ask?

"My GG (great grandma) does voodoo". LOL.

She’s not entirely correct, but she’s not entirely wrong.

Also on Wednesday, through the kitchen window, I noticed something red posted to White-Haired Neighbors' door.

If she had something posted to her door, it was likely I also had something. Opened the door, checked and sure enough … it was an invitation from management to attend "Let’s Give Thanks – join us for a Thanksgiving Lunch, Tuesday November 24th".

WHAT!? Now I’m getting scared.

First, management threw that Halloween Party on the 30th of last month, and now they’re hosting a Thanksgiving event just weeks later????. Like, why are they suddenly being so good to us?

No question, I won’t be attending because it’s a purely eating event, and I can’t eat anything they are likely to serve. Plus, and too, there’s likely to be that annoying bullshite ceremony where they go around the room, everyone says what they are thankful for.

That's a little too hokey for me. So, if photos are to be taken for posting to the Residents’ facebook page, one of the Usual Suspects will have to take them, forward to me for posting.

I had been considering heading to Long Beach for the Thanksgiving Holiday but then, I remembered how boring Long Beach had been during a former Thanksgiving visit. Not to mention, reviews on my favorite hotel in the downtown area, with a view of the Queen Mary, seems to indicate the hotel and area have gone down considerably, because the area has been taken over by the unhoused.

Confirming with granddaughter, she tells me it has gotten bad, for that reason … you can’t even safely walk in the area, the noxious smells, sidewalks littered with animal and human feces.

So, if I go, I’ll have to switch to a hotel she suggested that’s near the airport.

There’s also to consider that, if I go for Thanksgiving, I’m likely to run into White Grandma (whom the great grandbabies call "Pink Grandma" as opposed to Twin 1, whom they referred to as "Brown Grandma"). I’m just "GG", no color assigned, LOL.

I’m thinking, I’ll save the visit for closer to Christmas when I can do "Breakfast with Santa" with the toddlers at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

Lastly, on Wednesday … the day when she who shall henceforth remain nameless on this here blog because she told me there would no longer be crafts on Wednesdays, those days supposedly reserved for doctor appointments and then proceeded to have sessions nevertheless, leaving me out of the notification process, the seniors had crafts. They made decorative plates.

The Game's Afoot

Outside yesterday was perfect walking weather, so I went three times around the complex for a mile and a half in thirty-seven minutes.

Nowhere near fast enough for a 5K, but not bad for my age.

Looking for Halloween decorations, as I walked along, I saw my Little Hispanic Friend has her patio decorated.

Doesn’t look much like Halloween, to me -- more like Fall, but okay … it’s something to see.

Today was a little warm, but walkable. So, I suited up. However, because it was warm, I only managed a mile in thirty minutes and spotted this ……

Lovely. Definitely Halloween.

Earlier in the day, I’d received a message from the Talker, asking that I post to the Residents’ Facebook page, photos taken at today’s Crafts session.

WHAT????

I posted the photos, but did not express my surprise to Talker that Crafty Lady had hosted Crafts today, because Crafty Lady had told me Crafts was suspended for the remaining Wednesdays of this month due to doctor appointments.

If you will recall … Crafty Lady cancelled the previous two weeks of Crafts Wednesday -- the first time for heart palpitations, the second time for a swollen knee; and not only did she say the remaining Wednesdays of this month were doctor appointments, but that Crafts might be switched to another day in future …… she’d let me know.

She said all this in a text message so, if the sh!t later hits the fan, which it may very well do down the road, she cannot deny saying it or write it off as a miscommunication/misunderstanding, as I've got the receipt.

Now there are a few ways I can take what Crafty Lady did today. One, she is a simple flip flopper. Two, for some very very very misguided reason, maybe because of her Deputy Sheriff days of being a bully and Di no longer around to screw with, Crafty Lady is trying me.

I think it's the latter …… deliberately done.

In my mind’s eye, I can see a smug manipulative look on her face, as she waits for a text message from me asking why she didn’t tell me Crafts was on today and/or expecting me to chase her down about next Wednesday.

She’s not as important as she thinks she is …… at least not to me. So, I’m going to chill …… erase her.

I can and have done that before with people who needed erasing. It starts with, whenever the person touches my mind, I say, "Erase, erase, erase".

If you do that long enough/often enough, the person no longer comes to mind. You forget them, forget even their name.

In addition, as soon as I can figure out how to do it, I’m going to block her from my phone contacts.

I want to unfriend her on Facebook but, if I do that, she might lose access to the Residents’ Facebook page, not see the photos; so I’ll leave that alone and, instead … I forgot what you call it, but there’s a way to suspend her posts from appearing on my page.

People like Crafty Lady don’t like not being paid attention to … not chased. So, my guess is she’ll eventually try to contact me out of guilt, find herself blocked, panic and try not to exactly smooth things over about not letting me know about Crafts today, but pretend it didn’t happen, just go on as before.

There is and will be no before. She’s erased.

Inasmuch as she won't be able to contact me, I doubt she’ll see me until Management’s Halloween Party, where I fully intend to avoid/not see her, because she’s erased.

BTW, the photos Talker sent show the Baker attended Crafts. She’s brave/strong, handling the loss of her husband well …… at least in public.

What’s in the Closet?

Crafts this morning was a drag. The Usual Suspects were all either really sick, not feeling well or injured from falls in their units -- one with a broken clavicle.

Despite the nearly empty session, a bit of tea was served. The most surprising of which was learning Meat Man, formerly Handsome Man, moved out.

He had hinted at doing so, when we last spoke at an event, saying he was done with the rent increases, but I scoffed that he’d not find anything better, financially speaking.

Lo and Behold, he whisked himself away. Scuddle butt is his mom passed away, he moved into her house in the hills overlooking the University; but I won’t know that for sure unless I happen to run into him, or the resident that goes to same church as he, verify details for myself.

I also learned why this time, during the pre-inspection, management opened closet doors to inspect what was inside.

They somehow caught wind of and were looking for items residents hide … like portable mini washing machines residents are not allowed to have.

I’d never heard of mini washing machines until Scary Mary over at Dark Thoughts, said she had one and management told her she’d have to get rid of it. Had I known there was such a thing, for sure I’d have been caught with one hidden in the closet, LOL.

Who knows … now that I know of this time-saving device, I might get one and hide in the car during inspections.

I don’t know if management found any washing machines, but I do know that, when they opened the closet door of the downstairs neighbor around the corner of my building, two little dogs popped out.

That neighbor was hiding two dogs she’d not registered with the office.

I was also surprised to learn Di is in trouble again.

Some of us residents, when they have usable items, will place those items on the table in the Community Room where we usually place canned food, boxed food, appliances, clear containers et al for the taking.

Word is that pre-inspection of Di’s unit found many of those free items in her unit … too many.

Evidently, she doesn’t even use or need what she’s been taking, but takes nonetheless because it’s there for the taking.

After having gotten in trouble over hoarding in the past, made to clear up or clear out, Di is back to hoarding to a degree that management is once again on her case about clearing out her unit and have also banned her from the Community Room, planning to once again lock up our refrigerator, because Di has been, on camera, caught grocery shopping in the Community fridge – taking bottled water Kesha has stored in the fridge for her Tuesday appearances and other items.

So, I guess I won’t be seeing Di again, unless and until it’s when we happen to run into each other on a walkway.

The discussion of Medical Plans came up and, when asked if I had one, I answered "Yes and No" because, though I have been a member of the highly touted "integrated managed care consortium that combines health insurance coverage and medical services into a single coordinated system", since I was in my 20’s, and it was great until doctors were limited on how much time they could spend on patients and Care Teams came into being, mucking it all up to where I can’t get service in a timely manner, it's "Yes and No" because I now opt instead to walk down the street to a neighborhood clinic.

I am so frustrated with the integrated medical care consortium that every time I see their ad run on social media, and it runs a lot, I curse at it, call them "lying liars", but don’t change because I figure I’m old, can’t last much longer, so why bother when medical care is broken all over.

Crafty Lady said that when Kesha brought a group in that promised one-stop shopping at a lesser fee on prescriptions they would bill to insurance providers, she signed up.

All of a sudden, she’s getting monthly notifications of $189 being billed to her insurance for prescriptions she’s never ordered and is getting the runaround on getting it cleared up.

Seems the group that Kesha brought in was a total scam. No telling how many seniors they are currently taking advantage of that might not even understand they’re being scammed.

Crafty Lady has informed Kesha and her insurance of the fraud, as she also continuously tries to contact that one-stop group she signed up with.

Good luck finding anyone who cares. My thinking is the only way to stop it is for her insurer to kick back, refuse to pay the bill and, if they do, it will free Crafty Lady from the scam, but what about the many other seniors, at this and at other senior facilities, that fell into the trap.

My final word on medical care was, "Well even though I hate and complain about the integrated managed care consortium being of no help to me, at least they’re not stealing from me".

So, though Crafty Lady didn’t have a plan this morning and there was only she and our 89-year-old to nuke out a project, while Dream Lover and I watched, our 89-year-old pieced scraps together into a card, while Crafty Lady made a snowflake out of paper bags.

Yesterday was Kesha Tuesday. I’m told she never showed up, so Crafty Lady and our 89-year-old spent the time decorating a few tiles.

And That's the Tea

Crafty Lady called yesterday to say that, after a two-week hiatus, for reasons not known to me, she’d be hosting a Crafts session today.

I headed down this morning and, once again, not seeing anything that I wanted to further clutter up my unit with, I did not participate, just took pics for the Residents’ Facebook page, gathered tea.

The State Inspector is here today and, from the Community Room, I could see the Inspector, Head Maintenance Guy and Manager out on the walkway, heading into units.

The Inspector is not the usual short fat older nitpicking guy I’ve previously observed, but a young handsome guy.

One of our newer residents – 81-year-old Miss Jackie, said her unit had already been inspected and that this Inspector was quick, and seemed easy going, saying "Don’t worry about this, don’t worry about that".

Returning to my unit after crafts, I saw the trio heading up my walkway BUT, they didn’t bother myself or White-Haired Neighbor. They walked into the unit of the weird girl downstairs, underneath my unit, at 12:32 pm, per time on the security camera and exited at precisely 12:34.

Two fricking minutes.

I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but it sure shows the difference in how older workers perform vs. younger ones.

I appreciate the Eye Candy, but I’d rather have no eye candy and a worker that doesn’t just rush through whatever he's been tasked with.

It’s a two-day inspection so, if he doesn’t rush through the job and get it all done today, there’s still a possibility he’s not finished with this building yet.

While the Usual Suspects were working on Fall Crafts, I learned that Ankle Annie has vanished. It’s unknown if her mom kicked her out because she got involved in illicit substances – as she freely expressed to her neighbor Dream Lover that she was going somewhere across the street to do that, or whether she moved on her own or, as Talker suggested …… "Maybe she got locked back up".

I also learned that cameras on the property have caught kids from the multifamily complex next door, coming onto the property at night, vandalizing cars – smashing the windows out, looking for things to take.

So now we know how and why that car I’d blogged about, a few days ago, ended up with the window smashed out.

Since then, two more cars in that same area, which is where I also park, have been vandalized …… one being the downstairs neighbor across the quad who parks one car over from mine.

Fortunately, I’ve thus far been spared from the vandalism, but I’m not counting on the reprieve being forever and should probably prepare myself …… look into nearby car window repair shops.

If it happens, perhaps I should consider replacing, whichever window is broken, with a break-in resistant window.

Our newest member of the Usual Suspects – Miss Jackie that I spoke of above, sang a gospel song she made up on the spot that I think only I appreciated because her voice reminded me of Patsy Cline. She tells me that she written gospel songs before, got a bit famous, for a time, from several appearances on the old Gong Show.

I couldn’t verify that online, but I totally believe her.

Crafty Lady kinda sorta had a hissy fit when three of the Usual Suspects, who happen to be event organizers, finished their projects, went out onto the patio area to discuss a Thanksgiving event.

When Crafty Lady learned what they were doing, she got her panties in a bunch, tensed up, said "I guess I’m not invited to that!".

I’ve been told before that she’s sensitive that way, paranoid even …… Once got upset because Talker and someone else were in deep discussion in the room, began acting "funny" towards the two after.

Talker is very intuitive, very much intune, felt the chill, noticed the change in Crafty Lady, went up to her, asked "what's wrong"; whereupon Crafty Lady accused the two of "talking about" her.

Talker had to stroke her …… assure her she's loved, appreciated, everyone likes her, she was not being talked about. Crafty Lady went back to normal, but who in their right mind thinks people are talking about them just because they are not involved in the conversation?

At any rate, though Crafty Lady was busy running Crafts, it was obvious to me she did not appreciate the other organizers excusing themselves, seated on the patio planning Thanksgiving without her because not only did she get snarky with, "I guess I'm not invited to that", she all of sudden began packing things away, rushed us out.

I’m assuming so that she could head to the patio, invite herself to that planning session.

The crafts were mostly finished anyway, so no biggie. We just didn’t get the usual group photo of folks with their crafts, just the individual pics I'd taken.

And that's the tea.

Repeat Performance

The cool down is over. The weather is heating up again, s0 I checked the forecast for next week’s End of Summer event in the pool area …… triple digits expected that day.

There’s been an unexpected buzz in the air about the event, folks are talking about it, telling others that didn’t know about it — even though signs are plastered everywhere. One resident …… the woman that used to sit in her car outside the Pain Cave to get a break from her husband, LOL, tells me she’s planning on wearing her swimsuit, bringing a pool floatie.

She doesn’t look that old, can still rock a revealing swimsuit.

I think the buzz is that folks are just so desperate for management to do something, anything that's not gonna cost us. So, the event might be a success.

Thing for me is the event is outdoors, in the area of the pool, during a week and on a day when triple digits are expected to hit, and I can't handle that.

So, unless something changes between now and then …… like the event being moved from the outdoor pool area to inside the Community Room and on the covered patio, I'm out, grass skirt and all.

In other news …… it was Tuesday when I blogged about Assistant Maintenance Guy going back/forth with inadequate equipment, cleaning up behind the Feces Felon (thanks for that title Bob). The very next day, yesterday, was Crafts Wednesday, so I went down to the Community Room.

Before I even got seated, Crafty Lady said manager had come in, told them, "It happened again". Between the time maintenance cleaned up on Tuesday, and this next morning, the Feces Felon had struck again.

Makes me think the felon is someone living in that area, whose unit allows them to watch the comings/goings as maintenance cleans up behind him, is getting a perverse pleasure from it.

If the cameras indicate it’s who Manager thinks it is, whether she feels she has enough to confront or not, she should confront. If all else fails, then test the DNA. Match it to who they think it is AND, if the felon refuses to give up his DNA to match, there are labs that can, from the DNA submitted, draw a picture of the felon, then follow ancestry techniques to name the exact person.

Me …… depending on the situation, I’m willing to risk a little bad karma by allowing my devious and vengeful side out to play. I’d terrorize the SOB, make him paranoid by mailing to the suspected felon’s unit or sneaking notes on his door saying, "I know who you are. I know what you’re doing".

So, anyway, I once again passed on participating in crafts, opted just to get the tea while taking photos, documenting for the residents' facebook page what the seniors created using the bottom of cans, the bottom of soda bottles, and the end of empty tissue rolls as tools for painting on canvas.

Knock Knock Knock

Little Knock Knock was to have returned home day before yesterday/Monday but, when I walked into Arts and Crafts yesterday, there she was … decorating a jar.

She said she’d be leaving later that day, wanted to take a picture with me but wanted to wait until later, when Grandma Talker returns, have her take the pic.

So, when I returned to my unit, I didn’t immediately take off the bra, slip into comfortable clothing, but remained make-up on and ready for her knock on the door to go outside, take the pic.

That knock never came, so I guess Grandma Talker returned late, didn’t want to bother me, Knock Knock returned to her parents pictureless.

So, imagine my surprise, when a little after noon today, there was a knock knock knock on the door.

Though my face was together/makeup on, I’d not yet slipped out of my comfortable Bob Marley Sarong into daywear, was going to have to tell Knock Knock to wait until I got dressed.

Opening the door, sarong pulled tightly to not expose too much flesh, it wasn’t Knock Knock, it was my new neighbor, the White-Haired Neighbor (WHN).

She looked flustered, said no one was in the office, and she was having a problem with a leak in the bathroom from a pipe in the ceiling, hanging over back of the tub.

"I've been told it's supposed to leak as it's where the condensation from the A/C flows" said I, but that, over time, it creates a rust color along the walls and tub that I clear up with Zep Acidic Cleaner.

The A/C condenser pipe is probably not over the tub in other complexes and homes, but we're special here … different, like in having to pay for repairs.

She said okay, she wouldn’t worry about it, but that the heat was getting to her. That even with the A/C running and the blackout curtains she installed to keep the sun out, it was 88 degrees and intolerable in her unit. That sometimes the weather outside her unit is cooler than inside.

That’s true. I’ve experienced it myself when I step outside and find, hot as it is, it’s not as hot as inside my unit and can’t figure where the extra degrees are coming from. I’ve actually sometimes thought I’m not alone in this unit, that there are other invisible beings living here with me, their energy heating up the place. However, the fact that WHN is experiencing the same phenomena means either we both have invisible beings or it’s just a fluke that heat is rising from whatever is going on downstairs, giving us those extra degrees.

So, anyway, the weird thing about WHN knocking on my door this morning to vent is that, since she moved in, I've been having this recurring sense that she won’t be living her long, would end up moving.

She didn’t say she was already thinking about moving, possibly somewhere to a downstairs unit where it's cooler, just that she can't take the heat, has been spending most of her time at her son’s place; that where she was living previously for 34 years, never got this hot.

"Why, after 34 years, did you move?" asked I.

"I couldn’t get along with the manager".

"Well, I’m sorry you’re having such a time adjusting to how hot our units get, but it’s not going to get any better. I’ve told others that this is the hottest Summer I’ve experienced here, that it gets hotter every Summer so, with global warming, it’s just not going to get any better".

Our conversation ended with her looking just as frazzled as when the conversation began.

I heard her door open shortly after, heard her leave. Probably headed to her son’s place to escape the uncomfortableness in her unit.

When Crafty Lady, on Tuesday, told me that yesterday’s Crafts would be decorating glass jars, I decided to join in, do something different that I’d seen on the internet where, instead of decorating the outside of the jar, as the others did, to mod podged fabric to the inside of the jar.

I bet none of you can figure out which creation is mine 🤣🤣.

Our 88-year-old arrived late, so I didn’t get a pic of her completed jar but, the way she’s attaching pearls to the outside, I can tell the finished jar is going to be a masterpiece.

I'm going to have to catch her out and about, ask if I can come to her unit, get a pic of the finished project for the Residents' FB page.

Knock Knock's finished jar came out equally masterpiece fabulous.

Who Knew?

It would be an understatement to say not a lot is going on around here, because absolutely nothing is happening as us residents just try to make it through the Summer heat.

Complicating our making it through are various outages — heat related I assume.

One day it was the cable that went out, then it was cable and internet together.

Fortunately, power was restored within an hour both times. Except for the day my A/C went out on a day when no staff was on premise. Both the office workers and maintenance guys were away for meetings with Corporate, and inside my unit hit 95 degrees.

Head Maintenance Guy was quick to respond to the work order first thing the very next day, and able to repair what went wrong within minutes. It was already 90 when he showed up at 8:30 that morning, said because everything in the unit was now hot — the walls, the rugs, said it would take time to cool down and suggested it would be economical and comfortable for me to set the A/C to automatically run all day every day to stay safe.

Not a problem, thought I, because it’s hot all day every day.

So now that I’m doing that, I’m getting messages from the utility company that I’m trending towards a high bill.

You don't say Sherlock, but what can I do but run the A/C and pay up, if I don’t want to pass out from heat stroke.

This is far and away the worst Summer I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.

Then the garbage disposal malfunctioned and water in the sink backed up.

Assistant Maintenance Guy was quick to respond, said that if the disposal had to be replaced, I would be charged for the new disposal.

WTF!!!

Am I leasing this unit or am I in a rent to own situation?

If these fools think I was going to pay to replace a garbage disposal, which research tells me is between $200 and $500, they were going to have a war on their hands.

I already defied them once — didn’t pay, when told to "Take a check down to the office when you get a chance" to pay $15 for the ceiling light because I thought it ridiculous to charge me for a high/dangerous fixture that falls under their purview and which, I later learned, is illegal for the landlord to charge tenants in the State of California. So, if I defied them for a mere $15, you can imagine what hell they were going to go through to get "between $200 and $500" out of me.

So, I was already planning for a war, as Assistant Maintenance Guy worked on the disposal, saying I’d have to pay if a new unit was required.

Fortunately for Management and myself, it was a simple blockage which I thought to be the result of a change in water pressure that I'd reported. Instead of water flowing from the faucet, water now more or less trickles, which I thought wasn’t enough flow to push through the pipes whatever was in the disposal.

What Assistant Maintenance Guy found in the blockage was tiny bits of kale, carrots and eggshells.

"Here’s your problem", said he. "You can’t put eggshells down the disposal".

I took issue with that, thought he was gaslighting me because I’ve done so all my life, and for the 14 years I’ve lived here. I chalked the blockage up to lack of water pressure and cheap ass equipment.

That is until I later googled, "can egg shells go in the garbage disposal" and learned "No, you should not put egg shells in your garbage disposal. They do not break down into safe mush; instead, they create a sand-like grit that settles in your pipes, and their sticky inner membranes can wrap around the disposal parts and catch other waste to cause bad clogs".

Who knew?

So now I no longer put eggshells in the disposal, but I still think it's the lack of water pressure as there was never a problem until the issue with flow appeared; and now not trusting the water pressure pushing whatever through the pipes, I build up the water pressure by letting the sink fill sufficiently with water, then run the disposal.

I don’t imagine anything will be done about the recent change in water pressure unless and until an outside Inspector flags it.

The heat keeping me out of circulation around here, I figured I’d pop into this morning’s Kesha Tuesday — which, per the calendar was Crafts, to demonstrate proof of life, that I’m still breathing.

Not much of a surprise that Crafts turned out to be Kesha bringing in a bunch of artificial flowers …… that’s it …… artificial flowers …… no plan, no tools to do anything with them, no vases, no paints, just artificial flowers.

Crafty Lady was disgusted, went to her unit, brought down wires and tools and cardboard, showed the ladies what to do with the artificial flowers …… they made centerpieces.

Di was in the room, delegated to a table off to herself.

The ladies do Di wrong …… kinda sorta turn their backs on her, push her out of the circle because they have no patience with her, are done with her trials and travails which they say are caused by herself.

To me, Di is like the little Peanuts character Pig-Pen. Not that she's dirty, but that she constantly attracts clouds of despair.

I sat with her, listened as she told me someone had stolen her walker from its perch under the stairs by her unit and how she’s fearful for her life because of being instrumental in sending two women to prison, back in the day, for unaliving an individual.

Both got life, but one is being released.

I’ve never understood that … how a person can be sentenced to life and be out in 25 years.

Di is worried because the one being released threatened, if ever released, to unalive her in retaliation for testifying.

She showed me the letter from Department of Corrections, asked my advice as to how it pertained to her — should she respond. I suggested yes …… fill in the Witness portion, mention the threat, mail it back because it might make a difference is keeping the person locked up.

Will she do so? My guess is no; but if anything happens to her, I’ll know where to point the finger.

So, anyway, I told Di "You’ve had an interesting life" and praised her for having the courage to do the right thing — testify, even though she’d been threatened not to, had even gotten beat up and hospitalized over plans to testify, but still did what was right.

"There are eight million stories in the naked city, this has been one of them."

Here's Your Sign

The no parking signs appeared yesterday afternoon.

I moved the jeep to Painted Rock Lady’s carport and went on with my life.

Heading down to the Community Room this morning, to take photos of today’s craft session for the residents’ facebook page, I saw the painters power washing the carport area, with one car still parked.

Some days are better than others, and I was struggling this morning. So, thinking that car belonged to the neighbor that moved into the upstairs across the quad cursed unit, I had the urge to backtrack, walk up the stairs, alert him to move his car, but my body wasn’t up to it.

I kept going, arrived in the Community Room to find the craft today was Ceramic Tile Art.

I usually just watch the girls work, take photos, because I don’t want a collection of self-made arts and crafts thingies cluttering up my unit. However, tile art looked like something I could actually utilize … in the kitchen as a spoon et. al. holder, even though the tile is not curved for a spoon, so I joined in.

Looking at the blank tile, what came to mind was a southwest desert theme.

While some of the ladies used stencils, I freehanded and created a scene that I like; except, instead of cacti in the desert, I’m seeing more like wooden tombstones in the desert, a cemetery.

Oh well, cacti or wooden tombstones, I’m going to modge podge it and soldier on.

Here’s a pic of what we all created.

Di was in attendance and, when I asked if Kesha had helped her get her utilities turned back on, she gave me an are you serious look, said Kesha is only good for distributing potato chips (she’s not wrong), and that she herself had managed to figure it all out, paid the $1400 arrears from her savings.

Thinking if she had savings, that she must have a bank account, I suggested it might be a good idea to set up automatic payments.

She didn’t seem too keen on that, used the excuse "I don’t have a phone".

"Why don't you have a phone", asked I because people come in here and give free phones to residents …… actual free cellphones to those of extremely limited income.

"I have a phone, but it doesn't work", she countered

Truth be known, she doesn’t need a phone because, just like she went where she went, paid the $1400, she could go there, or to the bank, and set up automatic payments in person; but I didn’t pin her into a corner by saying that. I dropped suggesting anything further to prevent future problems, said no more about it, because she obviously didn't want to hear it. But I’m beginning to think the girls were right when they said, "She creates her own problems".

After the craft session, heading back to my unit, I saw the painters were hard at work on the carport, with that lone care still parked, and they’d not bothered to at least cover it.

Having had coffee and conversation with the girls, my body was now amenable to knocking on neighbor in the curse unit’s door, alerting him.

Turns out it wasn’t his car … he’d moved his car the night before, like I did and said it was probably the car belonging to the downstairs neighbor, next to where Red Light used to live.

I knocked on her door …… it was hers; she quick fast flew out of her unit to the carport, moved it.

My good deed done for the day, I ran an errand to pick up water, modge podge, dirt for the skeleton planter, and a replacement adapter for my Beats Flex Wireless Earphones, cause I somehow returned from the stay in Hollywood without the adapter.

Target is going through a massive store remodeling …… currently no gardening section for dirt, no modge podge.

I walked out with the adapter and three impulse purchases …… a pair of summer shorts and two wicker baskets.

Did not remember the water until I was halfway back home.

I hate when that happens.

Rain Sticks

Yesterday was chaotic.

Along around 10:15, Painted Rock Lady telephoned, asked "Are we meeting this morning?" (to discuss the flyers she wants).

I said, "Thursday at 11:00".

"Today is Thursday, and I’m already down here waiting for you".

"Oh crap!", said I. "Let me throw on some clothes and I’ll be right down".

It’s not unusual for me to get my days mixed up, so I accepted yesterday was Thursday and I’d somehow missed a day … Wednesday.

Arriving at the Community Room she was looking at her phone. Said, "I just checked the date and today IS Wednesday, not Thursday".

So not only did she call me down on the wrong day, it was also the wrong time; but whatever. I was there, so we worked out designs for her flyers.

While the two of us were in the room, Crafty Lady (having a momentary retrieve from her heart issues) and some of the Usual Suspects set up a table to work on Rain Sticks, which turns out to be closing off the end of a paper towel tube, inserting rice, closing off the other end of the tube, embellishing the tube and Voilà … rain sticks.

I didn’t make one, just stuck around to take photos for the seniors’ Facebook page, listen to the latest tea, which was that the last two Usual Suspects who moved away are now sorry.

Both moved to be closer to family. One is installed in a box style senior building — rows of rooms, hotel corridor set up, everyone in their own little space, walls paper thin, not the open areas to roam around like here, all of which she says is making it difficult to make friends, not to mention she’s not getting the care and closeness with family she’d expected.

The other moved out of state to be with family, and now says it was a mistake to leave the community, that she can’t get along with her daughter.

I’ve seen that happen a lot over the years I’ve lived here. Some former residents move back, others try but, for one reason or another, management won’t allow them back.

Red Light comes to mind. She was immediately regretful of moving, kept coming back to visit/involve herself in our activities, until she was told "You're no longer a resident. Not allowed to participate".

Whereupon she had a hissy fit. Made harassing telephone calls, sent harassing text messages.

I was worried she'd apply for a unit and return but, due to the harassment, she's blown any chance of returning.

Though the community and management would welcome the other two back with open arms, I doubt I’ll see either of the other two return, even if they wanted to. One is not healthy enough to handle another move, the other is in Texas; the logistics of moving back to California would be too difficult.

No way will my former Next Door Neighbor regret moving. She never liked it here and is now in a community that meets the bougie vibe she craved.

I sat with the ladies in the Community Room until their crafts were completed and they tried out their rain sticks.

Kinda reminds me of the Shake Weights that Suzanne Somers was hawking back in the day, LOL.

At any rate, the rain sticks fortunately did not work. Today, April 30th, is a sunny 81°.

Tomorrow ….