Renewed and it Feels So Good

After two days and DMV offices in two cities, I got through the gauntlet that is renewing one’s drivers' license.

In conversations with others at the two offices, the general consensus is that the system, though fairly quick and relatively uncomplicated in the past, is now neither quick nor uncomplicated.

Walking through the doors about 20 minutes early for my appointment at the local office yesterday, seeing a gaggle of people packed like sardines, not trusting the atmosphere, I immediately masked up.

I was the only masked up person in the place but didn’t care about the stares. There’s just too much stuff going around to risk it.

Walking up to a clerk, saying I have an appointment, I was asked for a "code".

Saying I knew nothing of a code, I was unceremoniously told, without further ado by a little Gen Zer who looked like she resented having to work for a living, to "stand over there" ...... "over there" being a line of about 20 people leaning up against the wall.

My appointment time came and went, without the "over there" line moving an inch, so I walked over to a different clerk, questioned if I was in the correct spot inasmuch as I had an appointment.

He explained there was paperwork to be filled out.

It seems I had the option to fill out said paperwork online at home, which paperwork would have generated a code that supposedly would have moved me up the line ─ from "over there" to speedy appointment status.

The little bitch Gen Zer, sitting there doing nothing but staring into space, couldn’t take a moment out of her resentment to tell me that?

At any rate, I decided not to waste hours of my life in a line that wasn’t moving ─ walked out, went home, filled out the paperwork online, went to reschedule to another day, but learned the nearest appointment available was a month away — mid December!

So what happens if, in mid-December, I don’t pass on the first try? Do I have to reschedule again? Come back in yet another month, by which time my license would have expired?

DMV is now worse than my doctor’s office.

Every time something comes up that I need to schedule an appointment with her, I get a message she’s booked up, not available to schedule for three months. In which case, I research holistic methods of healing what ails me— usually the writings of The Sleeping Prophet Edgar Cayce, with sometimes remarkable results.

I’m actually better off healing myself anyway, because the doctors at the medical center just don’t seem all that swift. They never solve problems, just prescribe medication without delving into what exactly the problem is, and there is no follow up.

So, anyway, I booked the mid-December appointment but then thought, since it would take another 30 days to book an appointment should I not pass, I logged in to schedule a backup appointment at the Redlands office.

Redlands was booked up until late December!!!

Good grief!

I opted out of a backup appointment.

But then thinking it best to have that second appointment just-in-case, I went to book it, found an opening for this morning had popped up at Redlands, cancelled this morning’s workout, and jumped on it.

Arriving 30 minutes early for my appointment, I could not find parking on the small parking lot and found signs on the lots of nearby businesses that indicated "no DMV parking" and threats of tows. Consequently, I parked about half mile away at Citrus Plaza, in front of Target, switched from sandals to walking shoes, and hiked to the office.

There was a line for appointments, a line for without appointments and angry people, rolling eyes, in both because the idiot checking us in was an obvious fool.

So annoying the idiot was that the guy in line ahead of me told me he wanted to do him physical harm.

I cautioned my line mate to "Be calm. Don’t turn into a male Karen".

He maintained, and we both eventually got through the gauntlet with tickets issued by the idiot, only to sit where told to and sit and sit and sit.

While waiting, I added two new pokémon to my poke deck.

While I was killing time playing Pokémon GO, my line mate was getting antsy, got up, sought out a supervisor.

All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity.

The supervisor came over and began checking the numbers on everyone’s tickets (about 20+ of us), saying the idiot had logged is in as waiting for service at the Riverside office.

We were in Redlands.

Things went pretty quick after that, as it was all hands-on deck; clerks at every window stepping in to service us.

I passed the visual, which I wasn't sure I would because of eyestrain caused by close needle work.

There was a quickly handled minor problem with the camera when I stood for a new photo, which prompted me to say to the clerk, "What else can go wrong?"

Fortunately, the what else wasn’t failing the written — I passed by the skin of my teeth (missed the maximum allowed 5) because of questions like how many feet between cars parallel parked … how many feet between a car and motorcycle, yada yada yada.

It was a difficult test. One woman failed by missing 8. Another missed 11.

The what else that could go wrong was ……… it started raining and here I was a half mile from my car.

A nice lady, waiting for her test results, said she and her husband would drive me to my car but, after 3 hours, I was ready to get out of there.

So here I am back in my unit telling the tale, not drenched enough to get ill I hope, renewed and it feels so good not to have to face that again for another 5 years.

Keeping Up with the Seniors

Returning from today’s workout in the Pain Cave, I headed for the mailbox, detouring through the Community Room where I found the seniors gearing up for bingo.

That’s their favorite activity around here ─ that and potlucks.

Seeing my buddy Apache in the room, I asked, “You still here … you behaving yourself?”

If you will recall, he was told to cease and desist harassing management at the risk of being evicted.

He laughingly said he was “somewhat” behaving himself, but mostly just hiding because the maintenance guys had been following him, keeping an eye on who he talks to, in an effort to catch him stirring up trouble, and a bigwig from Corporate was on the property, had been for two days ─ which indicated to him that something was up, so he’d been hiding because he didn’t want to risk being seen.

So much intrigue.

The saga continues.

I’ll probably get an ear full on Saturday when I attend the egg coloring party.

Leaving the Community Room, continuing on to the mailbox, I passed the Maintenance Office, glanced over and saw something weird on the desk.

Do you see it?

I'll give you a hint ……………..

Yep, that's Chewbacca. Maybe it’s a disguise for when the guys are out spying on Apache. ROFLMAO!

Walking from the mailbox to my unit. I came across another interesting sight.

Two birds (love birds?) chillin and relaxing on the railing.

I began walking softly so as not to frighten them as I photographed and got up pretty close before they spotted me, then really close as they determined I might be a danger, turned and flew away.

Last thing I observed was when I turned at my walkway and saw, at end of the walkway, in the parking area, a resident’s car appeared to be leaning.

Curious, thinking it might be a flat tire, I walked closer and saw no, not a flat tire. The resident had parked with the left rear tire up against and on the curb.

Did he or she not feel something was amiss when they rolled up on the curb? How about when they exited the vehicle?

Oh well, senior drivers – the ones who cause the rest of us to have to take a driving test after a certain age.

Second Time’s the Charm

The good news is my DMV license is renewed. They won’t be bothering me for another five years.

Even better news is I did not have to take a behind the wheel test.

I’ll be 79 next renewal period, so it’ll probably be both at that time.

Walking into the DMV was an experience. I arrived 9:55 for my 10:00 appointment and, by 10:11, I had a raging headache.

DMV was very well organized and everything moved quickly, it was just so much. So many people, so many different anxious energies.

Even though I had an appointment, there’s this new thing where you have to fill out a computerized application as to what you’re there for.

Some people have never used a computer, don’t know how to type on a computer, fear computers (There’s a woman her in the complex who checks all those boxes. Even though her daughters have encouraged her to try).

DMV Staff helped those not acquainted with computers, but the fear, tension, uncertainty generated, added to the so muchness that was stressing me out.

After the computer, it was wait in the lobby for your number to be called.

Once called, it was a good thing I had the notice to renew with me because the clerk could not find in the computer that a renewal notice had been sent.

After that was cleared up, it was pay a $34 fee, sign some paperwork, give a thumbprint, take an eye exam.

I thought needlepoint would cause me problems on the eye test. It didn’t. Passed with flying colors, even though I can't read labels at home without a magnifying glass.

Then it was picture time.

Hate the photo I’m going to have to live with for the next five years.

Previously, my photos were taken with eyeglasses on. Knowing that, I didn’t put on eye makeup this morning.

Big mistake because this time it was “Take your glasses off”.

Oh Wait! said I. I didn't put on eye makeup this morning.

You look fine said she. It'll be beautiful.

It wasn't because, in addition to no eye makeup, I forgot to stick my tongue against the roof of my mouth, which gives the illusion of a tight under the chin line. Having forgotten to do so, the photo came out with a pronounced under the chin waddle AND my face looks fat.

Bleh!

Then came the written exam. It felt tough, even though I'd been taking online tests, studying for months.

Bad news is study did not help -- I did not pass. Eighteen question, allowed to miss three, I missed four.

I was given the option to immediately retest, but opted to take a break, get grocery shopping out of the way, then sit in the car, clear my head and review the questions I thought I might have missed in the handbook.

Couldn’t figure out what I’d missed, except “Bridges and overpasses tend to freeze before the rest of the road does”.

I’d totally guessed “after” on that one because, who knows, who cares, and guessed wrong.

Another I missed was a trick question on evading a police officer. 

Could not figure out what the other two were, but think I misread illegal as legal and/or vice versa.

At any rate, I initially planned to return tomorrow for retest. But then I thought the test would be an entirely new one, and I was confident I knew all the correct answers to today’s test. So, after grocery shopping, clearing my head in the car, I went back two hours later for the retest.

It still was an entirely new test, but felt easy peasy as compared to the first.

I passed.

Now too exhausted to do anything worthwhile today, I’m just going to veg out on the couch and handle errands tomorrow.

Granddaughter has decided to do next week’s Halloween 5K with me, going as Walking Dead Character Negan. I want to run by Party City and pick up a foam replica of Negan’s Bat Lucille and a faux leather jacket. She already has the gloves and red scarf.

For those of you unfamiliar with Walking Dead ... This is Negan and how females are adopting his look for cosplay.

Candles and Flashlight Batteries

The Santa Ana Winds rolled in like a giant freight train last night.

Along with the Santa Anas came an emergency message from the power company that they’re exploring options for a potential public safety power shutoff in this area.

What the heck?!

To prevent the spread of wildfires, I suppose, but how inconvenient.

I’d better stock up on candles and flashlight batteries.

As far as shutting off power for public safety, this is an area where to do so would have the opposite effect. It would be like that movie Purge, where the bad guys see darkness as an opportunity for mayhem.

Speaking of which, there was that issue of damage done to mailboxes when, under cover of darkness, someone broke into the boxes middle of August.

Management did a temporary fix to keep the metal from harming anyone, then pushed it all into position, kept in place by use of  duct tape.

And in that condition the mailboxes remained for weeks and weeks and weeks until Apache, the unofficial mayor of the complex, began bugging management to fix it so residents effected by the damaged boxes, could begin receiving delivery again.

Management blew Apache off so, in mid-September,  he called his contacts at the County who came out, assessed the damage, gave management an October 6th deadline to get repairs done.

They missed the deadline, so Apache promptly turned management in.

A representative from the County came back on October 9th to verify repairs had not been made.

In addition, Apache contacted Corporate, even tough Corporate had long ago have their lawyers send Apache a cease and desist notice to stop bugging them.

That notice meant nothing to Apache. Once he has a cause, he’ll take it all the way to the Supreme Court ─ joke that the Supreme now is.

At any rate, the fact that Apache contacted Corporate, got him and the new Community Manager into a heated discussion. Which, Apache also doesn’t care, but which spurred the new Community Manager to assign the two maintenance guys to the task.

The guys began repairs last Thursday -- two days after the County returned to prove they meant business, at which time Apache texted me urging I come down as it was quite the comical scene to see the guys struggle to, as his text titled, “How can you get a square object in a square space”, photo included.

Though I did not go down, I heard the guys struggled for most of the day on Thursday into the night around 8:00.

Yesterday, when I went down for mail and to check out last week's work, the installation looked done, but not quite, because the area around the boxes hasn’t yet been concreted in, just held together with duct tape still. Looks like management did just enough to get the County off their back.

They’d better get onto finishing quick, before Apache calls in his contacts again. Plus, if repairs are not completed before the power company cuts power, conditions will be perfect for the mail thief when he comes back for another go.

And I’ve no doubt he’ll come back, especially since it appears management did nothing to capture the thief or relocate the mail center to a more secure location inside the building.

On the other hand, inasmuch as this damage caused Head Maintenance Guy so much extra work, lazy boy that he is, maybe he will be more likely to do something when next he hears someone breaking into the boxes, which I’m sure he had to have heard as he lives right over that area.

On tap for today is my last chance to practice with online DMV tests, because my written renewal test is tomorrow.

I’m not feeling confident.

I know what to do on the road, but my brain scrambles on written exams, written scenarios, especially when the DMV throws in trick questions.

The notice to renew indicated one could renew online but, when I tried to go that route, it said I was not eligible. Inasmuch as my driving record is clean as a whistle, I’m assuming my ineligibility is age discrimination.

I’m hoping DMV doesn’t further age discriminate against me by requesting a behind the wheel test.

Size Doesn’t Matter

I was puzzled by comments made by the neighbor who parks to the right of me in the carport and drives a big old gas guzzler.

“What happened to your car?” she asked the day before yesterday when she caught me exiting the Jeep.

“It’s over there (indicating Guest Parking where I’d put the Saturn until I could turn over to grandbaby). I’m giving it to my granddaughter”.

“So, you bought this? Why so small? You want to have something you’re comfortable in”.

What does that mean?

Was she trying to throw shade, dis my horse, trying to infer it’s more like my little pony instead?

My first choice was the four-door Wrangler but, seeing it in person on the lot was terrifying. It’s HUGE and the thought of driving something that big scared me. The two-door was too small but, when daughter and I spotted the Trailhawk, the size looked just right, manageable and, on the test drive, I felt comfortable and anxiety free.

I didn’t realize the Trailhawk was smaller than the Saturn until I turned into my parking spot and saw it positioned in the carport but, it’s not as small as neighbor was inferring.

“There’s plenty room in the front. It’s a little tight in the back, but how often do I have a back-seat passenger (that would be never). Besides, I’m older now and need less” I replied to justify the purchase.

“Well, it’s cute”, she gave me.

One of the bonuses of the Trailhawk is that it looks so much like the Saturn that I thought it being a new car would not be noticed.

How naïve was I.

It’s being noticed.

At any rate, talk about driving scared, waking up this morning to pouring down rain, facing an hour and a half drive to Newport Beach to deliver the Saturn to granddaughter, I began begging the Universe to please stop the rain because the long drive was bad enough without having to worry about how people drive so carelessly in the rain.

The Universe heard my plea and the rain stopped around 8:00.

Very first time in the Newport Beach area and, since the drive was so long, would have liked to rest a bit, check things out. Instead, it was a quick turnaround. I pulled up to granddaughter’s place, she jumped in the driver’s seat, drove us an hour and a half back to my area for an appointment with Redlands DMV, where I signed the pink slip, she registered the Saturn, dropped me off back at the complex, and went on with her life.

Granddaughter driving me around was surreal, not just because she drives fast and a little crazy, weaving in and out of lanes, but because of all those years with me driving her around, here she was, as all grown up, driving a car, with me as her passenger.

 

I made the doll sitting next to her.

Surreal.

And because of how she drives, the one and only time I’ll be passenger in a vehicle with her behind the wheel.

Do Not Touch

Yesterday ended up not being my free day after all, as a last-minute errand came up that took me out of the area.

Upon returning to the complex, I cut through the Community Room, on the way to the mailbox, and saw an announcement for a celebration of life scheduled for today for one of our long-time residents.

Her passing was a complete surprise to all of us, as she’d just a few weeks ago celebrated her 95^th Birthday.

I’m not exactly sure what transpired after that, but it all seemed to have happened in rapid succession in the span of two weeks … one day she was in the Community Room chatting, having fun, watching television, next thing an ambulance picked her up and took her to the hospital. Then her daughter put her in a care facility and began cleaning out her unit -- inviting residents to come to the unit this past Saturday to take anything they’d like saying our long-time resident would not be coming back. When residents arrived at the unit Saturday, the daughter announced our long-time resident had passed that morning.

Once they leave the community and all their friends, they just don’t seem to have the will to go on.

Asked to post information about the celebration of life on our facebook page, I headed upstairs, located a photo I’d taken of our long-time resident, posted the photo and announcement with the title “We say goodbye to a Dear Friend”.

I won’t be attending as the service is out of the area, we weren’t that close that I feel compelled to attend, plus I’d made arrangements to meet up with daughter, while she's in the area at the nail salon, to hand over the blankets for what she calls her “outside neighbors” -- which is a nice way of describing the homeless people in her area.

I’m kinda amazed that both my girls are devoting time and energy to serving outside neighbors – one cooks and takes meals and clothing to those living in a nearby park, the other is involved with an organization that weekly takes food, clothing, essentials to those living in the Skid Row area.

That’s a worry because Skid Row, if you’ve never seen it, driven through there, is worse than anyone can image -- filthy to the umpteenth degree, highly volatile, dangerous. In fact, just this last week, daughter returned to her car after providing for those outside neighbors only to find an ungrateful outside neighbor in that area had poured milk all over her car.

It could have been worse.

At any rate, after turning the blankets over to the daughter serving outside neighbors in the park, I’m off to get the car smog tested, with the hope today will be a slow day with folks focused on plans for New Year’s Eve, rather than getting their autos smog checked, so I can be in an out quickly.

We shall see.

While I was out yesterday, I ran into the resident who, like me, had been blessed with a windfall from a job she’d long since left behind. Unlike me, however, there was a question as to whether she could remain a resident because she was living in a unit as caretaker to the resident on the lease – technically not a resident herself and the windfall made her ineligible to become a resident now that she can afford her own unit.

Long-time readers will recall this was the woman whose only income was from living here with and caring for her mother. When the sister took mother away and placed mom in a care facility, the woman lost her income. Gripped with fear as to how she’d survive, she ended up in hospital with bowel obstructions … twice.

No surprise there … cause and effect, gripping fear = bowel obstruction.

With the help of her son, the woman was able to remain in that unit for a little while but, when that played out, she signed on as live-in caregiver to an older lady in the complex.

Suffice it to say, the woman has been through a lot in the last few years, supplementing what little she derived as caretaker by dumpster diving here on the complex, and I’ve often run into her dumpster diving at the University when I was there hunting Pokémon.

This windfall was a much-needed miracle for her.

At any rate, she was telling me yesterday that she’s outa here -- she bought a truck and, instead of the trailer she’d planned to buy, she’d found a little house not too far away.

I’m really happy for her, said so and felt a hug coming on – an urge rising up in me to hug her, sensing her moving in to hug me, at which time I quickly turned away, wished her well and took off.

Why?

Her name came up in the Community Room this past Tuesday. Maybe folks were jealous of her good fortune and wanted to say something to bring her down, maybe it was the Universe giving me a do not touch warning, but it was said that management had gotten on the woman about dumpster diving because those activities had brought bed bugs and roaches to the unit she was occupying with the resident on the lease. That the unit had been treated twice, but still had an infestation.

Thank the Lord, that unit is far away from my building.

I don’t know. She looks clean to me, but just the thought she might have cooties … well, you know. I had to resist the urge to hug and back away.

If At First You Don’t Succeed

Haven’t gotten in as much walking as I’d like -- only 12.66 miles since February 1, due to errands and household projects.

I did manage to squeeze in a mile while getting that smog check, as I opted to explore the area rather than sit in the waiting room. While exploring, I spotted a Home Depot, so I popped in and crossed another of that day’s tasks off the list – wasps spray and Formula 409 for the kitchen linoleum floor.

We have a wasps situation.

I’ve occasionally seen the one or two or three resting on the overhang top of the stairs, but thing is … I didn’t know they were wasps. Just another outdoor creature that, so long as they were resting, not bothering me, I’d not bother them.

That is until the other day, when I was heading out to take granddaughter to run her errands.

I walked out the door, she ahead of me, turned to lock the door and heard her say, “Be careful grandma. There’s a wasp flying over your head.”

So, of course, I panicked.

Resting motionless on the overhang is one thing; flying over my head another and then there was that word “wasp”.

I keep a little jogger’s mace on the key chain (for dogs and perverts) and began to spray at the little bugger.

“Don’t make him angry, grandma”.

That only panicked me more. I emptied the can on that one wasp and, in the process, sent granddaughter flying down the stairs and darn near killed myself, because we were downwind, swallowing fumes. She, of course, being farther away, halfway down the stairs to begin with, didn’t get much of a mouthful. I, on the other hand, being mere inches from the wasp, began to gag and choke before the wasp flew off … seemingly unaffected by the pepper spray, which is what brought about adding Home Depot to my task list for wasp spray.

I had an opportunity to use that spray yesterday, as there were two on the porch when I carefully opened the door and looked out first before heading out to the market.

That’s about all I did outside yesterday – kill two wasps and grocery shopping, as the remainder of the day, into the evening, was devoted to trying Formula 409 and other methods found online for cleaning linoleum.

Getting that linoleum clean has been an ongoing saga.

It already has the look of marble, but sometimes I’d look at the floor and wasn’t sure if I was seeing design or dirt. After getting on my hands and knees, trying various scrubbing tools, various products over time, I’ve never been able to get the linoleum to look spic and span.

I even tried “Spic and Span”.

Did you know stores no longer sell that product, not even Home Depot or Lowes?

Wonder what that’s about.

I had to order from Amazon.

No matter, it didn’t work. Neither did Formula 409 or Dawn Dish Soap with baking soda or other wacky methods others suggested on the internet -- including scrubbing cleaning product into the linoleum with bounce fabric sheets or cleaning product with Kirkland wipes.

After all day trial and error, I was down to the wackiest suggestion of all -- Hydrogen Peroxide poured directly onto linoleum, sprinkle baking soda, scrub like your life depends on it. I gave it a shot and what do you know … the marbled linoleum finally began to look spic and span.

Can you see the difference in the bottom squares I’d cleaned using that method, and upper areas yet to be gotten to?

Finishing up was first on my list this morning. Once done with the linoleum, remainder of the day will be devoted to shampooing the carpet.

Times like this, I can see why it is so many seniors fail to keep their units as spotless as others. It's a lot of hard work.

Fortunately for me, I'm a bit of a neat freak and see all the hard work as not exactly fun, but necessary and exercise.

Tomorrow I should be back to actual fun things, like walking and needlepoint.

Little Foxes

Not much was accomplished yesterday, yet it was an exhausting day.

By the time I’d helped Granddaughter take care of her Costco grocery shopping, I had no energy left to do my banking or Home Depot errands and returned to the complex with body aches.

I think the drastic change in weather got to me … the heat.

With today mapped out to take care of what I had to skip yesterday, I got online last night to take care of that pesky Vehicle Registration the DMV sends every year, only to find Smog Certification is required.

That verse in Song of Solomon about the little foxes that spoil the vine came to mind.

My little foxes are that very same annual vehicle registration, especially when smog certification is factored in, having to renew my driver’s license – no matter it is years between being required to do so, having to take care of taxes – though TurboTax makes it a breeze and I always get a return, and when I get called for jury duty.

In the grand scheme, there are far worse things to spoil the flow in people’s lives, but those are the little foxes that kink up my flow.

Looking online, I found the facility I go to for smog checks doesn’t take appointments and, of course, it’s a few cities over in the opposite direction to where I’d planned to be today; but everything happens for a reason. So annoyed as I am, I’m up early this morning, putting my personal flow aside, going with the universal flow, hoping to get in line before a crowd forms.