Happy Cinco de Mayo

We've had a lot of special days since first of the month — first there was Justin Timberlake Day (It’s gonna be Me/May), then May Day, followed by Star Wars Day (May the 4th) and now Cinco de Mayo.

But Wait … there’s more. Mother’s Day is coming, then Memorial Day.

I made ground turkey tamales week before last, still have a few in the freezer. So, after whipping up a quick Spanish Rice, I’m good to go on a meal appropriate for the day.

Due to driving all over town to pick up a prescription, this past weekend wasn’t much of a time off from the outside world.

Of course it rained on Sunday, the day I had to drive all the way to the Main Medical Center, and driving on the freeway in serious rain was terrifying. I equated it to driving through a giant car wash, even found myself singing a bar or two of that old song about working at the car wash from the movie Car Wash.

Once I arrived safe and sound at the exit, a few street miles from the medical center, I told myself no way was I taking the freeway back. So, after picking up the medication, I set the GPS to give turn-by-turn street directions home.

Of course there just had to be another glitch before I got hands on the medication … the pharmacy didn’t have the order.

After Saturday’s fiasco of driving from one end of town to another, finding pharmacies closed and now this, I began thinking …. is this all a warning? does the Universe not want me to take this medication?

I’d been at a level of discomfort for so long that I didn’t know how I could do without it, but turned out the missing order was not the work of the Universe blocking me. It was that the facility is so large that they have two pharmacies — the order went to the pharmacy in the hospital.

After I gave handsome pharmacy guy the sad tale of my previous day, he took pity on me. Instead of having to find my way to the pharmacy on the hospital side, pharmacy guy cancelled that order, had it processed where I was, and I was out and on my way within 10 minutes.

Taking the streets back, I ran into quite a lot of flashing yellow lights but was calm, patient, respected every one of them.

So, with the medication off my bucket list, I turned my attention to the high service fee, and sent an email to Manager asking that, because of the excessive nature of the fee, she consider reopening the rent drop box, as it’s convenient for us and less disruptive to office staff.

Bright and early this morning, she opened the email, replied having no awareness of the fee, would look into it, but that Corporate had ordered the removal of drop boxes at all of its properties.

The drop box is not coming back.

LATER: So. Manager’s investigation shows it’s something like what Scary Mary said, "If I pay with my credit card on the resident portal the fee is $38.00. But if I pay with my bank account the fee is only $3.89". Turns out the payment went to a credit card, thus the service fee of $29.14.

I did say registering for the online portal was way too complicated. Somehow, it’s connected to the card, instead of the account.

That tells you how complicated the portal is because, when I was in the working world, the secretaries and attorneys would call me to fix their computer problems before they called Tech Support.

I’ve a meeting with Manager tomorrow morning. She’s going to walk me through the process.

She thinks the fee is $3.89.

Pivot! Pivot!

Today is Cinco De Mayo and, btw, have you noticed we've had a lot of special days this week? First there was May Day, then Star Wars Day, now Cinco de Mayo.

This being a regular workout day and not a Bingo Friday, my plan for the day was, inasmuch as the car cube storage is half the distance walking from the Pain Cave than from the complex to, after this morning's workout, pick up the car, drive it back to its regular parking spot.

That plan changed when the Monthly Calendar attached to our doors indicated — just like Will Jay had commented "Expect this one-week project to take 10 days".

Project won’t be completed until end of day next Wednesday.

Pivot!

The new plan is to pick up next Friday. That is, if the project isn't pushed further off schedule because, looking at what little progress has been made because of the wet weather, the so few hours the crew puts in when the weather is dry and how much more needs to be done, I may have to pivot beyond next Friday.

I can’t tell you how many residents have caught me outside and asked, "Which side are we supposed to park today?"

"I don’t know" is my response, because I truly don’t know and try not to think about it because it makes my head hurt. I’m just waiting for it to be over.

I see Talker’s car is back on the premise and moving around.

She’d been gone for a few days.

If you will recall, on the day we were told not to park on the property, Talker said she was going visiting. It was a long visit, as she drove all the way to San Diego, spent a few days with the Little Stalker.

Didn’t bring her back with her though, but I did have a fright, went "Oh No!" when, out walking, I off in the distance saw a child coming from that area, relaxing when I realized it was a little boy — the grandson of the resident living next door to our Karen character.

It’s looking like Talker's clinging to Childhood Friend is not coming to pass. I don’t see the two of them out and about together and, when Talker showed up to last week’s bingo alone, I asked, "Where’s your friend?". Her response was kind of evasive ..... an "Oh, you know" and that was that.

I guess Childhood Friend has her own life — places to be, things to do or maybe it was like Debra of She Who Seeks commented (when I mentioned the development of  Talker spotting a new resident moving in who happened to be her Childhood Friend, and how this development was causing her to rethink moving to San Diego) that "Just because someone was a childhood friend doesn't mean you'll still get along or have a lot in common as adults. There's a lot of water under the bridge between then and now".

At any rate, Talker is walking around looking a bit sad, Next Door Neighbor is walking around looking as though she's mad at the world — which can't be healthy, and Painted Rock Lady is looking better. She’s got her color back, is once again out and about (on a walker) with her dogs.

PRL doesn’t have a car, though she did have an assigned parking spot directly in front of her unit, which was utilized by her gentlemen callers — an ex-husband with whom she's on friendly terms, and a side piece she says she's known for ages.

I say "did have" because management has dispensed with assigned parking. The new system, announced along with the paving project, is that you either pay for a carport, a garage, or hassle for parking in one of the free open parking spots.

Suffice it to say, PRL is not happy about this.

Looks like the new resident — the guy living in the bad energy unit, wanting not to worry about moving his car every day until this project is completed, also took off for a few days. I can tell he’s not just camping out in his unit, while his car is elsewhere, because the notice management posted to our doors a few days ago is still on his door.

That's all I've got on my very interesting neighbors as we go into the weekend.

This weekend is the Big Coronation. I’m taking a hard pass on that and will instead continue to binge watch the Sci Fi Cult Classic Fringe. (Mistress Maddie: You posted that you were watching a Sci Fi Cult Classic, which is why I guessed Fringe).

Fringe is a series about Parallel Universes, Shapeshifters, Watchers/Observers who travel to our world in the past to observe how we screwed up and led to their creation in the future.

The series has been running 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday last three weekends — a season each weekend. All toll, there are 5 seasons, 20 episodes per season. So two more weekends, forty episodes to go and I can tear myself away from the tube and get some sleep.

Cinco de Mayo

Can’t have Cinco de Mayo without tamales so, just before I left the unit for the Pain Cave yesterday, I set corn husks in the sink with hot water to soften.

Returning 45 minute later, I cleaned the husks, let them dry out a bit while I mixed the masa and inasmuch as tamales can be filled with just about anything (I once filled with black eyed peas) and they come out great, I filled these with refrigerator leftovers — turkey chili, jasmine rice, salsa.

I used to have a tamale pot, two pots to be exact — one large, one medium. However, inasmuch as I only make a handful of tamales at a time, the pots were overkill, not to mention I didn’t have space for them in my little unit. So, instant pot steaming it was.

Tamales are to be steamed upright but, once I add the steamer basket to the instant pot, there’s not room for upright. Slanted works just as well.

Thirty-five minutes later, I ended up with 14 tamales, at least seven meals out of refrigerator leftovers.

I ate two for dinner last night.

They were yummy.

I’ll probably eat two this morning for breakfast, with an egg AND, if I can control myself, I’ll freeze the remainder for my road trip on the 20th — the meditation retreat.

The hotel has a refrigerator and microwave — unusual for a 5-Star hotel, usually only found in residence inns but, inasmuch as I can’t take advantage of eateries in or around the hotel, these appliances will make life much easier for me. Pack a couple boiled eggs, tamales, I’ll be good to go.

If I can't control myself, I'll just have to make more for the trip — probably chicken filled.

One of these days I’m going to give a try at sweet tamales — pineapple maybe.

Looking at the news, I guess we have Will Smith to thank for the scary thing that happened to Dave Chappelle. Comedians will now have to be on guard for crazies storming the stage to do them harm.

In other news, it strikes me strange that the Supreme Court Justices are more concerned in discovering WHO  leaked that draft document than the fact THEY tried to slip the reversal through without our knowledge.

What else are they going to run through behind our backs — a reversal on gay marriages?

I was locked out of Instagram, considered age 13 until 7:00 last night when I received a message "It appears your account was suspended in error".

Ya think?

So, to answer your question Mitchell ... "How long do you have to wait to be over 13?", the answer is about 48 hours :-)

Cleaning House

After seven years of trying ─ annual eviction notices, cease and desist orders, intimidation, management finally achieved its goal .... My buddy Apache has left the premises, been evicted.

It’s not like management finally won ─ Apache has enough documentation that he could have fought this latest eviction notice and won yet again. It’s more that Apache just got tired of it all and decided to pack up his stuff and go.

He’s moved in with one of his sisters for the time being.

Management has been pretty busy with its cleaning house lately.

First they had the landscapers remove all the lush greenery and, thus far, replaced with starter plants (I can’t identify, because my knowledge of plants is limited), covering the dirt around them with something that looks like wood chips, and bringing in rocks.

Simultaneously, management took on the feral cats.

Inasmuch as the cat traps have been removed and I’ve seen no cats, I’m assuming management won that battle, cleared ‘em all out ─ but I can’t help but wonder that new feral cats will eventually find their way onto the property.

Also, management evicted Cat Lady. Because she was a danger to others, management didn’t even give her a notice. They just showed up with law enforcement, had her escorted out of her unit, put her out on the streets, tossed her belongings in the trash ─ that is after they took what they wanted for themselves.

Now they’ve evicted that thorn in their side, my buddy Apache.

Him, they went by the book ─ gave a 30-day notice because, expecting yet another court battle, they had to dot all the i’s cross the t’s.

It probably surprised management when Apache, instead of the usual fight, packed his belonging and moved out.

Going to be boring around here without Apache stirring up trouble for management.

Returning from the Pain Cave this morning, realizing today is Cinco de Mayo, I threw together yet another kale creation ─ Potato and Kale tamales.

That turned out to be a winning recipe. You can’t believe how tasty they were.

There are many many perks to living alone. My top two is that 1) I have control of the remote at all times; 2) When I go to the trouble of making tamales, I don’t have to share. I get to eat them all.

Everything’s Coming Up Virtual

Cinco de Mayo celebration passed me by yesterday and, because I can’t stand the smell of cheese, I didn’t even poke my head into the Community Room to see how the Nacho Social was going.

I did, however, pay homage to the day by having tacos for lunch -- that is, if you can call slapping leftover turkey chili into a gluten free corn tortilla shell, along with avocado, salsa and slaw a taco.

In addition, I had the same for dinner, except, I tried out a recipe for Coliflor Arroz Rojo, adding Mexican Cauliflower Rice to the meal.

The cauliflower rice was amazing. Had I not made it myself, I’d have thought I was eating one of those packages of Spanish Rice-A-Roni, that are so bad for you nutritionally speaking but which I was so fond of until angry gut changed my easy peasy pre-packaged lifestyle.

At any rate, that was my stress-free Cinco de Mayo, which may seem lonely and boring to others but surprisingly, the only times in my life when I felt lonely and/or bored has been in the company of others.

According to a flyer on the bulletin board, now that the Community Room television is back in business, in addition to bingo and the nacho social, the seniors were also scheduled to have a movie last night.

Content in my unit, plus I've seen it several times on television, I let Movie Night pass me by as well, but three events in one day … whew!

Gonna be some tired old folks walking around today.

Speaking of walking around …

I saw on Facebook this morning that Irvine California’s Great Donut Run 5K is offering a virtual this year.

Though it’s a party and always great fun to participate in person, it’s just not always feasible for me as I can’t hit the road at 4 a.m., drive a long distance AND participate that same morning. I need to rest. Consequently, I usually drive up the afternoon before and spend the night in a local hotel.

That’s fun too, but it was expensive, plus I got so tired of holding up medal ceremonies at races where everything was paused until the last runner/walker crossed the finished line and I was always the one to be last.

Even though I was 70, 71, 72 years of age at those times, and even though the other participants were supportive, standing around clapping me across the finish line, encouraging with “It’s not how fast you are, it’s that you finished”, and even though I was lucky and grateful to be able to accomplish such feats at my age, it was embarrassing, so I turned to virtuals.

Those virtuals seem to have caught on to where more and more of the races are now offering virtuals. Like last year’s Diva Run, Run Like a Diva, Black Girl’s Run and now this month’s Great Donut Run.

Everything's coming up virtual.

I’ve been out of commission on walking events since injuring my foot on uneven concrete, while participating with daughter at last year’s Mission Inn Run. I exacerbated the injury by ignoring the injury and participating with daughter in the Turkey Trot a few weeks later. The pain finally forced me to bow out of the Citrus Run and off walking events for the last six months. I kept active, however, by purchasing and putting together a Schwinn 130.

The foot feels ready to get off the bike and hit the concrete, so I registered as virtual for the May 21st Donut Run.

Looks like I get a t-shirt AND another cool medal for the board.

What I don’t get are donuts.

Those participating in person encounter donut stations along the course … Krispy Kreme no less.

Race organizers are also offering a Gluten Free Donut option -- “We will provide these specially formulated donuts … We've been testing these donuts all around town and we'll make sure they're as yummy as the rest of our donuts!"

There’s even a Donut Hole Zone near the half way point “where delicious donut holes will be passed out by our Donuteer Team!”

Sounds so fun that I was tempted to spring for a hotel and participate in person, but decided not to test my gut with gluten-free donuts and settled for a solo walk.

I’ve not been to the area of the local golf course for a while so, instead of the university campus, I’m envisioning a 3.12 mile route up a hill, down a hill and around perimeters of the golf course.

Clear

With not much on my to-do list, and nothing on the Monthly Activity Calendar to interest me this month of May, looks like I’m going to have a lot of down time on my hands, which means I can get back to the needlepoint project, catch up on recorded television programs, sit quietly and meditate, get my mind clear.

On the calendar this month is bingo, of course.

I’ll pass.

There’s the Cinco De Mayo Nacho Social on the 5th.

I don’t eat cheese, can’t even stand the smell of it, so I’m out.

Then there’s the Mother’s Day Brunch Potluck on the 12^th -- billed as “Pancakes and drinks will be provided. Please bring a side dish”. But that’s what the Activity Director said about last month’s Spring BBQ – “Hot dogs, hamburgers and drinks will be provided. Please bring side dishes”, then she showed up with nothing, disputing our even having thought we were having an event that day until she was shown her own calendar and own sign-up sheet.

Having overlooked so much and so many of her misses, I’m not sure I’m willing to trust her again, so I’m probably out.

The next Residents/Management Meeting is on the 18^th; however, having already declared after last month’s meeting I’d likely not attend another, because residents seem relatively happy with management and there is no new information coming out, my passing is a foregone conclusion -- and looks like I dodged a bullet. The notice indicates the Residents/Management meeting rolls over, at the end, into the Residents Volunteer Activity Association meeting.

Appears to be a set-up to me -- a way to capture folks and get them involved, and I’m done with being involved at the volunteering level around here.

There is to be a Suggestion Box, which I plan to drop in a suggestion that, inasmuch as they’re trying to bring back activities we once enjoyed, bring back the walking group and a weekly exercise class.

To make sure I don’t get sucked into, “It’s your suggestion, why don’t you handle that”, I’m going to type up, rather than write the suggestion and omit my name as the suggesting resident.

Last month feels like a blur. My mind was so cluttered by the chaos surrounding the school shooting, plus paperwork and eye wear drama, that I have no clear memory as to what I did with the month, what if anything was accomplished.

Looking back, I see very little was accomplished needlepoint wise, but I did make my own bib/medal board and, inept in the kitchen as I am, I had one successful cook -- that chicken curry with lentils, also I completed the 22.1 Mile Adventures of Sherlock Holmes indoor bike challenge.

Trying to get off the carbs, last night I tried Chicken Fried Cauliflower Rice which taste-wise was another success, except following recipe directions was a miss because it didn’t hit me until this morning that I forgot to add the eggs, a must ingredient in Asian fried rice.

If my gut hadn’t developed intolerance to so many different foods, I swear I’d eat out every meal.

At any rate, this month is my time to keep to myself and, except for an appointment this Thursday with the snobby, rude, dismissive optometrist and a Mother/Daughter Spa Day on the 13th, to sit quietly and get clear.