Damage Control

I usually awake around 7:00 but this morning inconveniently awoke shortly after 8:00, which had me rushing around to complete the morning ritual, get down to the community room by 10:00 to meet with Painted Rock Lady about the flyers she wants.

At 9:00, she called to say she couldn’t breathe.

That’s not unusual, as she’s in poor health, in/out of the hospital, walks around with a mobile breathing mechanism. All of which is another reason I wondered why she was getting herself involved in arranging Fun Games and teaching a class in CERT, which Mitchell commented stands for Community Emergency Response Team — like, due to her poor health, is she even capable of taking these projects on?

Ever since she’d requested the flyers, I’d been hoping she’d come to her senses, drop both ideas but nooooo. She’d been looking forward to our client meeting and, calling to say she can’t make it this morning, would be sitting on a nebulizer, asked that I rescheduled to Thursday, to which I agreed.

With this change in plans, I decided to be productive …… use the day for a run to the bank for spending cash and to Sprouts for supplies.

Today’s bank riddle: How does NASA organize a party?

Prior visit riddle that I'd not yet posted: Why could the bicycle not stand on its own?

As for damage control …… Yesterday afternoon, with nothing interesting on TV, I headed out for a stroll around the complex.

On the first loop around, nearing half a mile, totally unaware of my surroundings (not a good thing), lost in the music coming from the iPod, even though both ears were plugged with the listening device, I suddenly heard a sound that scared me to a standstill, hands immediately clutching at my heart.

Looking up, I see Ernie, whom I've not seen in months and months, appearing to be excited to see me — whooping, hollering, clapping his hands together.

He’d been sitting in the laundry room opposite side of the complex, had to have seen me when I made a hard right at a corner to loop around the grassy knoll in that area, and I assume it was the sound he’d made with clapping his hands together that had frightened me.

"You scared me", I said as he approached.

Seeing my hands still pressing at my heart, he said, "Well at least you now know you have a heart".

Hmmmmm????

Then not only did he wrap me in one of his bear hugs, he 2.0'd the hug with a kiss on my neck.

Hmmmmm????

I must have become desensitized to Ernie touching me, because I had no strong yes or no reaction to the kiss on the neck. It wasn't that I didn’t mind the hug or the kiss on the neck, more like I catalogued it happened and did not care.

So, anyway, I didn’t pause the walk to chat. After I said what I’d said, he said what he’d said, my heart rate returned to normal, so I moved to continue the walk; he then stepped back, moved to return to the laundry room.

I was sure Ernie was watching me through the laundry room window, as I left the area.

Second time around the complex, coming up on a little under a mile, same route (which is my usual), upon reaching that corner where I’d turned right to loop around the grassy knoll, pass by the laundry room where Ernie was, I instead looped left to bypass the area.

Ernie could still see me, but I wasn’t in hugging distance.

However, before I was out of Ernie’s line of sight, I heard someone calling my name.

It was Dream Lover.

I paused, he approached and I chatted with him just long enough to ask how he was doing, commenting that he looked like he was feeling better.

He said he was, made a joke about his situation, that I can’t recall except the word "drama" was used. Then I moved to continue heading to end the walk at my unit, he continued to wherever he was going.

It wasn’t but a few steps, when it hit me …… Drean Lover and I had been in full view of Ernie. He had to have seen me stop, Dream Lover trot on over, our brief exchange.

I empath, feel the emotions of others. So, knowing Ernie is crushing on me, knew he was probably overthinking what he'd seen, probably a little hurt, I felt bad and backtracked towards the laundry room.

Ernie hurried out to meet me before I arrived.

I quickly said, "Don’t be jealous".

Ernie did have a funny look on his face but said, "Don’t worry. I know you were just talking", hugged me again, 2.0'd my neck. After which I moved to finish the walk, he returned to the laundry room.

So, Dear Readers, that happened.

What do you make of my being concerned about Ernie’s feelings?

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't flattered at being crushed on at my age, but I don't think my actions were anything other than my not wanting to see his feelings hurt.

I long ago clocked Ernie as a sensitive soul — quick and easy to be hurt, so I was just being considerate, one human to another human.

How does NASA organize a party?

They plan it (planet).

Why could the bicycle not stand on its own?

Because it was too (two) tired.

Hibernating

Or at least I was until I received a notification of activity on my credit report.

It was down the rabbit hole after that … tracking the source of the activity, heading out to one bank to have a card cancelled, replaced with a new card.

Drive over to a different bank to start the process of getting an account I did not open closed and off my credit report.

Then two hours online talking to Customer Service, who talked to their fraud people, who communicated back who I needed to fax to get the mysterious account removed.

Fax? I haven’t faxed anything, wouldn’t know how to fax because I haven’t had access to a fax machine since I retired 15 years ago.

We have the internet … email. Do people really still fax things?

Given a snail mail address, tomorrow I’ll knock out a letter indicating what they told me to indicate and that should be that.

At least I got some good quizzes out of all that hassle.

One was from a few weeks ago that I didn’t get around to posting.

Why did the apple join the gym?

Todays was … What do snowmen eat for breakfast?

In other news, the rains are over for the time being, but now we’re having strong winds … street signs are down, trash cans are rolling down the street.

Made for some scary driving and, I must head out into the wind again tomorrow for a dental appointment.

Good thing I managed to get Christmas back in storage, otherwise decorations would have been blown to Kansas by now. The side table and patio’s faux grass are taking a beating, knocked about but still there.

Cable was knocked out for a few hours but, knock on wood, we’ve not had any power outages. With the price of groceries, what I have in the freezer costs way too much to be spoiled by a power outage.

Plan for tomorrow is to survive the wind to and from the dentist, after which I can return to hibernating mode, put in time on my new read that grabs the reader’s attention right out the gate from the Introduction and Dedication.

Why did the apple join the gym? To work on its core.

What do snowmen eat for breakfast? Frosted flakes.

Cash for Coins

After avoiding the heat by staying indoors Friday and Saturday, I had to venture out into it this morning, because the battery was too low for a reading on my little blood pressure monitor.

At the drugstore, the clerk asked if I had 4 cents, so she’d not have to give me 96 cents back from a bill, because they were short on change.

I would have liked to have helped them out but, unfortunately, my reply was “I don’t carry coins. All my coins are in jars at home”.

That’s when, what looked to be her supervisor, walked over and said, “If you want to get rid of those coins, we’ll buy them back from you”.

SAY WHAT!?

Didn’t sound like much of a buyback for, as she went on to say, “If you sell us $40 in change, we’ll give you back $41. However, it’s a much better offer than when I was last at the bank.

The bank offered no incentive whatsoever. In fact, the bank seemed to make the exchange too much trouble by requiring coins bundled in those little coin wrappers.

At any rate, I’ll hang onto the bulk of my plentiful coins just in case there’s a bidding war. LOL.

In the meantime, I’m going to go old school ─ start carrying a coin purse once again. Instead of tossing coins in jars, I’ll toss into the coin purse and help the stores out with exact purchase price, so they don’t have to depart with what little change they have.

IF the cashiers see my coin purse and asks if I want to exchange for cash, I’ll say “Make me an offer”.

Back at the complex, I saw I had a delivery at the door.

Thinking it was a pre-ordered book I’d been waiting for (not any of the new books about No. 45), I took it inside. Upon opening, I saw a shower curtain.

WHAT? I didn’t order this.

Checking the label, I saw it had been left at the wrong door ─ should have been delivered to the same address as mine, but in the F Building on the other side of the complex.

I wrote a note of apology ─ for having opened it ... because I thought it was mine, on the package, and back out into the heat I go to deliver to the correct door.

No one was home, so I left it at the door hoping the recipient isn’t a nut and my good deed doesn't end up biting me in the butt, because you just never know.

I once opened a file cabinet at the law firm and there, on the bottom was a credit card. I uttered out loud to my coworker, “There’s a credit card in here”.

When I read the name on it, she knew that as a temp who’d sat in that area, was still working jobs in the firm and said she’d give her a call to come pick it up.

When the girl came to pick it up, she gave me a look that would kill. She never said a word, but the way she looked at her credit card, then looked up at me, walked away, looked back at me, spoke volumes.

I told my coworker, “She thinks I stole it”.

Made no sense, but there you have it ─ ignorant people or people with mental issues that just don’t see things logically.

If I knew then, what I know now, upon finding that credit card, I’d have never said a word. Instead, I’d have run it through the shredder and gone about my business because that episode tainted me. It's still in me to do the right thing, but I try to be anonymous and always there's that worry it will somehow come back to bite me in the butt.

There was a thing on the news a couple years back, when a good guy found a cell phone and managed to contact the owner. The owner showed up to retrieve, accused the good guy of having stolen the phone and shot him dead.

I didn’t add my name to the apology for opening on the package, but the resident will know it was me because they had one of those little home spy cams set up in the window by the door.

Very creepy that. I just hope they’re okay people.

(Thanks Jan F. I’ve seen that one, and she’s still full of it.)

Carded

I got carded this morning.

Deciding I needed to run by the bank for emergency cash, I drove out of the area.

Passing Costco, I noticed there is no longer a line around the building. There was a short line near the front door, so it appears panic buying is over and the line was probably due to a limit of how many can be inside at one time.

Entering the bank, I saw they’d finally caught on and spaced the open tellers every other window, rather than side by side.

If you will recall, it freaked me out last time I did banking because, though we were spaced self-distance apart in the line to the teller, once at the teller I found myself sandwiched between a customer way too close to my left and another way too close to my right, which prompted me to tell the teller to pass on to his manager the suggestion the open windows be spaced out.

I don’t imagine MY suggestion had much merit, but someone evidently woke up and distanced the tellers.

At any rate, I learned there is now a limit as to how much cash can be requested through the pin machine. I’m not talking about the limit imposed on ATMs outside the bank, I’m talking about there’s now a limit on how much one can request inside, using the pin at the teller window.

I don’t know if this is everywhere, but this new restriction certainly surprised me. I don't see the logic.

The funds were there so I say to the teller, “Do you mean this is all I can take out?”.

“No. You can take out more, but not through the pin. I have to write out a withdrawal slip for you”.

And that’s what the teller did, but isn’t that what we did before the age of technology ─ fill out deposit and withdrawal slips? Are we now reverting to kicking it old school?

THEN he carded me ─ “Do you have a valid form of ID?”

Pre-pandemic, it sufficed that I entered the pin, but I guess this new request is due to our mask wearing.

I showed him my drivers’ license, got what I wanted and was outta there thinking to myself that the license couldn’t have been all that helpful because I was wearing a mask and he couldn’t be sure the faces matched, but whatever. It’s a new world out there.

I swung by the craft store on my way back to the freeway and noticed there is also no longer a 3-hour line around that building. Just a few folks in line along the front.

I didn’t join in. I’ll wait until things go back to when I can walk right in.

I guess the golf course is essential, because I saw a group playing on the greens. Couldn’t see if they were wearing masks.

Safely back at the complex, I checked my phone and saw this ....

Ooooh look John Gray, Walking Dead’s Darryl tweeted me goodnight.  LOL!