Much as I wanted 2016 to loop, 2017 never to come, it is in fact
2017.
It’s blistery outside, but not yet raining -- hopefully
will not and the sun is trying its best to shine, which is a good omen.
I’ve got the inside decorations all wrapped up ready to go back
into storage and, with a little luck, the patio decorations will dry out and I
can get everything into storage by end of day.
Would you believe I found yet another lost item?
Coming back from Starbucks yesterday, I spotted a key card lying
on the walkway – a key card used by residents to scan into the mechanism that
opens the gate to resident parking.
Mine has a sticker with my unit number on the back but, of
course, the one I found has no such marking, so I couldn’t walk it over to the
owner. It does have an identification number -- a number only the office can
associate with a resident and, inasmuch as the office is closed until Tuesday,
I can’t turn it in until then.
That means the owner of the key card was not able to get their
car back inside the gate to park if they left the building yesterday afternoon,
won’t be able to reenter today and tomorrow. They’ll have to wait for another
car to use their key card and follow that car in which, during daylight hours is
pretty frequent. Not so much at night, and there is no overnight parking
outside the gate.
It’s a $50 replacement fee for a new key card so, if I were the
owner, I’d be very happy to receive a call from the office, on Tuesday, to come pick up
their found card.
I don’t know what’s up with this finding things, but can’t wait
to see what I come across next.
Before management took off for the Holiday, they distributed
January’s Activity Calendar.
January 6, 1:00 – 2:00 Class: My 3 Health Goals
January 6, 3:00 – 4:00 Price is Right
January 13, 10:00 – 11:00: 52 Week Money Challenge
January 13, 11:00 – 2:00 Bingo
January 20, 4:00 – 5:00: Stress Less in 2017
January 27, 10:00 – 11:00: Bingo
January 27, 12:00 – 1:00 Hot Cocoa and Cookie Social
Since the folks have all been such downers lately, I’ve not been
hanging out with them much, so I doubt I’ll be participating in anything other
than the 52-Week Money Challenge session.
As for the Cookie Social, I still have those Trader Joe’s Gingerbread
Molasses bake and serve cookies to get rid of, so that’s a strong maybe.
I’m feeling torn today, this last day of 2016.
Inasmuch as I lost my Christmas Spirit well before the holiday
was over, and have been struggling all week to not prematurely pack up the
Christmas Decorations -- for fear of breaking tradition and thus bring bad luck
upon myself, I’m happy that tomorrow I can do so without repercussions.
On the other hand, I’m so not feeling 2017 is going to be a good
year with that orange fellow -- the Manchurian Candidate soon to be in charge
that I’m wishing today would never end. It would be like an episode of the
Twilight Zone or Groundhog Day, where today just repeats itself and 2017 never
comes.
I’m guessing I’m not alone in feeling reticent about the coming
year, because there just seems to be a pall not just over the complex -- with
the usual suspects not wanting to do anything, but a universal pall with so
many celebrities opting out of this life and the dreary weather.
This is what outside looks like this morning …
It’s wet, raining off/on -- not storming, but the homes on the hill are blanketed from view by layers of cold.
The craving for caffeine is strong, plus I need to put gas in
the car, so I’ll be bundling up against the cold and heading out soon.
I never did make it to the bank yesterday to drop off that found
ATM card, so I mailed it to the bank’s corporate office. Worried I’d not be
believed about finding the card, I started not to put a return address on the
envelope but then … I may be wrong but, some years ago, I believe a regulation
came into play that mail without return addresses would not be delivered. So I
took a chance and put my label in the return spot. Now I have thoughts of the
police and FBI knocking on my door, being informed the card was not lost but
stolen, and I the most likely suspect.
Hopefully, my paranoia is unfounded and comes from watching too
any crime shows, and though I'm glad for the card's owner that someone who would do the right thing found it, I'm not so thrilled at the involvement of that someone being me.
So anyway, unless I get my wish and 2016 loops itself tonight, I’ll
be ringing in the New Year not with alcohol, but by throwing clean eating out the window with my own particular brand
of intoxicant -- a pint of Ben and Jerry Cherry Garcia.
After having devoted Sunday afternoon, all day Monday, and all
Day Tuesday to AMC’s Breaking Bad Marathon, I came up for air this morning just
long enough to check email, facebook, a trip to Starbucks and a run by
the market.
I’ve been so out-of-touch with the outside world since the Breaking
Bad Marathon that this morning was the first I learned Carrie Fisher had passed
away. Last I heard, she was recovering in hospital, so her passing was a
complete surprise as I’m still processing George Michael having left this
plane of expression.
Once out and about, I picked up mail then headed to the market.
I always boot up PokémonGo and check the area upon arriving at a
location. Thus it was, I heard a little squeaky sound which I recognized
immediately as Pikachu inside Ralphs.
As I was holding my phone up, tracking it in the market,
preparing to capture, I guess the person behind me could see my screen because,
all of a sudden, I heard a woman’s voice exclaim, “OH! You’ve caught Pikachu! And
it’s the one with the hat!”
I turned, and there was a woman wearing a Pikachu shirt.
“Yes, he’s over by the baked goods,” I replied.
She was so excited and said, “Let me see if I can catch him too.”
This was news to me. I didn’t realize that if a player locates
and captures a pokémon, a nearby player can also capture that same pokémon. So I stood
by to watch, as she said it took her months -- and a long trip out-of-the-area before she ran
across her first and only Pikachu and that she’s never seen one with the hat
before.
Her first try at capture went bad … “Oh, he broke free” she says.
“You know”, said I, “I don’t take any chances when I run across
Pikachu. I pull out all my best game tools. First I throw a razz berry to keep
him in place, then I use a Big Ball rather than a Pokéball.”
She followed my advice, had a successful capture, and was
literally walking on air saying, “This game brings people together.”
I agreed, asked about the shirt – which she said was a Christmas
present from her husband, congratulated her on her capture and went on my way, but not before hearing her an isle away, calling her husband on the cell, excitedly saying something about having captured Pikachu with the hat.
After picking up coffee at Starbucks, just as I reached the car door, I
spotted something on the ground which, upon closer inspection, was someone’s
Visa Debit Card.
Must have dropped it after leaving the ATM.
My first instinct was to drive to the nearest Wells Fargo to
turn the card in, but I’d already been gone too long from Breaking Bad, and
decided to call into Customer Service instead.
They immediately cancelled the card and told me to toss it in
the trash.
I wasn’t comfortable with that. Someone might find it, try to
use it and, just in case this turns into one of those "No good deed goes unpunished" things, where something happens like the owner of the card is not notified it's been reported found and cancelled, she instead returns to the ATM and asks Starbucks to run their video, the video shows me picking it up, and I then end up accused of something.
Sounds far fetched, but having been on the receiving end of good deeds going bad in the past, it's not as far fetched as it seems, so I'm playing it safe.
I've reported the card and, when Breaking Bad ends on Friday, I’ll be making a run by the bank
for cash anyway, so I'll give them the card and let them take care of the rest.
See you end of the week, when the Marathon is over.
