Worry Worry Toil and Trouble

Today’s Memorial Day BBQ went off without a hitch and was the success it usually is when it’s an event us residents set up for ourselves.

There was tons of food and about 35 residents in attendance.

I arrived early, took the table in a back corner where I could see everything, get up/down easily to take photos, and hoped I’d be mostly to myself.

Instead, I ended up feeling trapped and suffocating with too many people surrounding me, as my table filled up first.

MAGA chose to sit at my table and, for once, didn’t do or say anything that annoyed me. She performed just like a regular human, even spilled some interesting tea about residents I don’t know; information she’s gleaned from walking around with her dog, attaching herself to others like she’s been trying to do with Talker, in order to get all up in their business.

Dream Lover manned the BBQ and, when all the chicken and hotdog were done, came inside, sat first at one table then, when Lu came in later, ended up sitting next to Lu.

Lu didn’t handle him like she used to ……… hands possessively all over him. So, it wasn’t clear to me if they were just friends or back on again.

I couldn’t resist ……… at one point as I was passing that table, seeing Lu engaged in conversation with someone on the other side of her, I stopped, quickly leaned over Dream Lover, whispered in his ear "Are you two in love again?"

He shook his head a resounding "No".

I was quick, already moving to walk away when something, or someone at the table, alerted Lu to something going on between Dream Lover and I.

She quickly turned around, only saw me walking away, but I can imagine someone at the table will tell her about the whispering, and she'll wonder.

Let her wonder; I'm not worried about that, but I did do something at the BBQ that does have me worried.

Sometimes I can be abrupt to the extreme, and this was one of those times.

Crafty Lady brought her two grandsons to the BBQ.

I said before that I’m not good at guessing ages, so I can’t tell you how old the boys are, but maybe around 9 and 10.

The boys were playing games, starting with chess. I happened to be walking by when I saw they’d switched to checkers.

"I’ve not seen a checkerboard in eons", said I; whereupon, the elder boy asked, "Do you play?"

"I don’t know, it’s been a long long time, I don’t even remember how to start".

The younger said, "I’ll help you", so I sat down across from the older boy.

As the younger began instructing me on how the game is played, I looked up and found Crafty Lady removing the elder from his seat across from me, sitting her own self down to play against me.

Here’s where abrupt took over ……… "HEY! What’s going on? I’m playing with the boys. Get up. Give him his seat back".

She did, and disappeared to help with serving food to the seniors; but now I’m worried that I came across too strong, that she will have a delayed reaction, think about it and decide to be offended at the way I spoke to her, if she hasn't already.

I have no plans to apologize. I'll just worry that I did a wrong thing.

As for how the game played out, he won of course; but I had him on the ropes for a while, as the game moves began to come back to me.

I’m also worried about something else that happened today.

First was a message I received at 10:17 AM from a former co-worker friend, not in the habit of sending me messages …… "You've been on my mind all morning. Just sending you love through Instagram".

I replied, "Thanks! Insofar as I know I'm good, so don't know why you're picking me up".

She replied, "I'm not sure why either but it felt like I needed to tell you I was thinking of you. You are truly one of kind and I'm glad I know you".

I was getting eulogy vibes, pondered it for a bit, then pushed it out of my head.

THEN, at 5:24 PM, a message from Trainer arrived …… "What's up Shirley just checking in on you hope all is well".

So now I'm worried again but replied, "Still alive".

I don’t know what to make of the two telepathically picking me up. On the other hand, I do know, but ………………

The Day After

The Memorial Day BBQ went off without a hitch.

After working out that morning, I switched into the leggings I stitched up and painted with stars back in 2014.

A ton of residents packed into the patio area — some residents I knew, some I'd seen around, others I'd never seen before.

Of those I'd never seen before, some turned out to be the wives of guys I'd seen out and about, but thought were lonely old men because I'd never seen them with a female companion.

Made me think of Handmaiden's Tale ... are the wives not permitted to be out/about OR are the wives not all that social, happy to stay in their units like me.

Who knows, but an interesting discovery.

I was surprised to see Name Dropper — the resident that came to us in July and was quick to say her granddaughter is an actress, had a role with John Travolta when she was a child. I thought she'd moved to Texas.

"Not until the 30th" said she.

"Oh, so this is your Last Supper", said I, as I began scouring the scene asking her which resident she thought might be Judas.

Oddly enough, the main table was set up Last Supper style, with seats reserved for the organizers.

I should have counted to see if there were 13 seats.

At some point, I asked Talker if Trash Tosser was present.

She looked around and said "No".

"Is she likely to show up?"

"I hope not", said she.

Talker did not get her wish. Trash Tosser showed up a little later and was nothing like I’d imaged. She's attractive, personable, seemed to be getting along well.

It's not unusual to see new people come in, think they're important, are going to start making some changes, running things, beginning with complaining about neighbors, but tossing trash on a neighbor's doorstep is a new one.

When I first heard of the trash tossing incidents, I’d surmised it might be Dream Lover had hit on her and she didn’t appreciate it; after all, I see she is a nice-looking lady; but word now it might be a racial thing. She doesn’t like sheet people.

Whichever it is, it seems she’s ceased tossing. Either Manager told her she could be evicted, or she’s learned Dream Lover has a lot of friends, best not to antagonize.

It’s said, she’s approached Dream Lover, wanted to apologize but “he was 'weary' about that. Because it lasted a bit”, didn’t want to hear her apology.

Dream Lover was the grill master. Lu was present but, unlike when they were joined at the hip, she rubbing all over him, neither she nor Dream Lover paid much attention to each other.

Guess he grew weary of that as well.

That romance was over so quick and fast that I almost got whiplash from watching it start then so quickly end.

That's pretty much all the tea served at the event. Conversations seemed to be gripping about Manager, how "rude" she is, how much they "hate" her.

One guy said he went to Manager’s office and tried to talk to her, help her have better relations with residents. I forget what exactly he said he told her, but it was along the line of not looking down to and speaking down to residents, seeing others in a better light, essentially the Law of Attraction.

Her response was, "You don't know the kinds of people I deal with here".

WHOA!

A few residents complained about Manager not handling complaints and that when they do go to her office to complain, her reaction at seeing them at her door is, "WHAT NOW!".

GOOD LORD!

It’s still the Law of Attraction, only she’s got it working in reverse. She hates, so hate is coming back to her.

She doesn't talk to me like that. Probably because I keep a paper trail by communicating via email.

She probably yells, "WHAT NOW!" when she sees my name in an email, but at least I don't have her disrespecting me to my face.

I actually don’t get all the hate, because none of what residents complain of come near to how awful that mean Nurse Ratched, who managed the complex for three years, was.

That woman was a sociopath. She terrified the old folks, demonstrated jealously towards those of us who didn’t fit the mold, in her mind, of looking old enough; of those who challenged her, she lied, manipulated, called the police, did whatever to play the damsel in distress, afraid of the resident, in order to get them evicted.

The current Manager doesn’t even come close to the horror of Nurse Ratched, as I’ve repeatedly told those who complain, but whatever. Their reality is she's the worst.

Other conversations were about all the grifting and ruining of lives being done by 45/47.

I didn't get into the political conversations other than to say the only joy I get from the mess we're in is knowing those who voted for a convicted criminal not only screwed us, but screwed themselves as well.

There was lots to eat ... burgers, hot dogs, chips, dips, potato salad, pasta salads, fruit, mac and cheese, cakes, pies, etc.

Everybody was bringing something, everybody was eating what others brought which, not knowing how others live and maintain their units, I’m not too sure was wise, but not my risk.

One resident didn’t bring food. He instead brought the homeless guy who sometimes camps out front on the lawn.

The organizers were very upset because the ladies had asked the resident for help setting up and he fained his back hurt, then brought in a homeless gent who, while the ladies were making plates, serving residents, was at the food table loading up his own plate and piling it on.

Inasmuch as one of my complaints, about the Usual Suspects, is that they’ve not had my back when I’ve stood up, have wanted me to be mealymouthed like them, let bullies run all over me, like they let bullies do them, I was proud when Talker called bullshit, read the riot act to the homeless gent that, though he should not be there as he was not a resident, he was to remain seated, like everyone else, wait to be served. She then tore a new one in the resident that brought the homeless gent, saying "When we asked you to help set up, you said your back hurt, you couldn’t help, but look at all these ladies with physical issues helping, then you bring in a homeless person on top when you know homeless people are not to be brought onto the premises" yada yada yada.

My position was that if the resident wanted to feed his homeless buddy, he should have asked the ladies if he could make a plate for him, and taken it outside to him.

At any rate, Talker chopped him down to size, taught him not to think he could get all Henny Penny up in here ... not help, then take advantage of the organizing ladies, bring in others, because he’s a guy.

I was exhausted from not enough weekend, insufficient sleep from staying up way too late at night, into the early morning, watching Korean Dramas with English translations on the laptop, stayed just long enough to take 65 photos for the facebook page, went back to my unit and passed out on the couch for 3 hours.

Now for a PSA.

Whata Week

Reader’s Digest version … I fell out of lust, met the new neighbor, got some of the Lab work the doctor wanted done.

Unabridged version … Returning from this morning's workout, I ran into, introduced myself, and welcomed the new neighbor to the quad.

Learned, she’s not exactly new, but has been living on the opposite side of the complex for a year.

Management asked her to move over here, because the unit she’d been living in was designated a handicap unit …… no one who isn’t disabled should have been living there.

I didn’t know we had special units built for handicapped individuals which, I understand have "wider doorways, low cabinets, accessible bathrooms" etc., but if no one who is not handicapped should have been living there, then why did management lease the unit to her in the first place?

She says management told her she had to move because the unit had been requested by someone who is disabled, but my spidey sense is telling me management got caught when we had that last inspection.

At any rate, new neighbor said she's happy to move, because she didn’t like the low cabinets and that some of the features, she's accustomed to, were missing in order to make the unit accessible for people with disabilities.

I haven’t run into Silver Fox since the day he talked me out of being physically attracted to him, opened my eyes to what would be the side effects of ingesting yummy looking eye candy, so my jets have cooled. As Bob, put it …… "Not as pretty when it speaks." LOL.

As I was walking to check out the board in the Community Room the other day, I did see him driving, like a bat out of hell, back into the complex.

He was really gunning it, going way beyond the 10 mph speed limit, as he burned into the driveway, flew through the open gate, swooped into his parking spot.

He even drives angry, thought I, and reflected on what would have happened had someone been walking across the parking lot, as I hurriedly disappeared before he exited the car and saw me.

Everything about Silver Fox reads as angry which, in a way, is rather exciting. Made me think about how fun he must have been when younger …… a real Bad Boy, rough but fun. I also reflected on what the grapevine was saying about him before I became aware of who he was. That "He's really handsome, but sooo mean".

I can definitely see it now and ain't nobody got time for a moody, angry, aging Bad Boy.

On Thursday, I got the bloodwork portion of what the doctor wanted done, but the Lab gave me homework the doctor wanted me to submit for testing, within 1 to 2 hours after performing the homework.

It’s an impossible task, so she’ll have to be satisfied with the bloodwork which, if I’m reading correctly, indicates my Cholesterol is off the charts and may be the source of the high BP and dizzy spells.

Oh well.

Monday being Memorial Day, a 3-day weekend would be in order were I in the working world. I’m retired, but the Pain Cave workouts are like having a job with an employer that doesn’t recognize holidays, allows no days off.

Trainer will be working on Monday, so it will be a regular Monday for me; except, the bingo regulars are having a BBQ in the patio area later that afternoon.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, I plan to check it out for a bit.

Pizza Tuesday with a Side of Intel

This month’s Activity Calendar indicated "Social: Easter Celebration, 11:30 – 12:30" today.

A little early for Easter, thought I, inasmuch as Easter isn’t until Sunday the 20th ……… 420 Day.

How about that for a mashup.

The year started off with Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (WTF), and now the Day of Resurrection falls on the same day that smokers pay homage to the plant (420), with Earth Day following two days later.

As if this year couldn't get any weirder.

So anyway, I popped into the Community Room to not so much check on the Easter Celebration, more like to get intel as to what others are going to do about no longer having a drop off box to pay rent.

General consensus was "This is nonsense …… I’m not signing up for that thing (Rent Café) …… I don’t even have online …… She (Manager) just doesn’t want to do any work …… I’m walking my check into the office and, if they refuse to take it, I’ll take it back and rent not getting paid is on them".

I myself am still vacillating between opening a special bank account and mailing my rent check, but I’m leaning more towards mail because I’m a stubborn Capricorn …… the goat that doesn’t respond favorably to being forced to do something.

So, with me mailing, others walking into the office with their checks, we’ll see how next month goes …… what Manager comes up with to counter our resistance.

Dream Lover and Lu were both in the Community Room at the same time, but both were in motion; so I couldn’t tell if they were seated at the same table, but I assume they were.

No longer seeing the out in the open togetherness they once displayed, it’s hard to tell what their relationship status is. I didn’t sense any tension between the two, so status is a mystery at this point, but Dream Lover is back to giving me goo goo eyes, indicating he's ready to jump ship as soon as someone else comes along.

No tension between the two of them, but I did become aware of tension elsewhere in the room.

On the days I train at the Pain Cave, I’ve often seen a resident hanging out in her car on the lot.

I don’t know why she drives there, parks in front of the liquor store, sits (not drinking), sometimes chats with other people hanging around, but she does.

Let’s name her Car Dweller.

Two weeks ago, I saw Car Dweller having her car detailed by a homeless guy. Saying she pays him $40 to occasionally detail.

Okay, but why in front of the liquor store when the car wash is a block away.

She said the homeless guy drives her to the car wash, drives her back to the lot, does his detailing there.

I try not to judge others, but no way would I put myself in jeopardy by sitting in a car with a homeless individual, let alone have him drive me anywhere.

I'm cheap, run the jeep through the $2 coin wash, and thought $40 was a lot to pay for detailing but, when I pointed her getting her car detailed on the lot out to Trainer, he said the going rate is around $240.

So, $40 is a deal, and it’s helping the homeless guy out, so whatever.

What happened this morning was Car Dweller slid up to me and began venting …… "She’s grabbing pizzas, feeding the homeless".

"Who?", asked I.

"Her" she nodded towards Greedy Grabby.

Remember her, Greedy Grabby? …… the resident who acted as though rules did not apply to her, ran a crew of residents, all women from her home country, who catered to her, followed her lead.

They all got banned from the local senior center for stealing coffee/tea and Greedy herself made a complete fool of herself, caused a scene when she didn't get her way in a craft session.

She's still here, her followers have, through the years, gone elsewhere; her husband disappeared years ago — I think he passed away, but I've never cared enough to check on that. She now lives with a young man I assume is one of her sons or a relative, but could be a boyfriend for all I know, as I've never cared to ask about that either.

I don't know when her selfish self-centered arse became mother earth, feeding the homeless, but Car Dweller was in a rage that she, Car Dweller, was at the counter to get one of the few pizzas remaining, when Greedy Grabby, who’d already taken a pizza out to a homeless guy, came back to grab more to give away; saying, "She (meaning Greedy Grabby) had the nerve to ask me if I wanted one, like duh, I’m a resident, these are for residents".

I dunno. Car Dweller will pay a homeless guy $40 to detail her car, but gets upset, begrudges Greedy Grabby giving our free/donated pizzas to the homeless.

It was just yesterday when, headed for the other market, the prison looking one after working out, I saw a homeless guy gingerly stepping on hot concrete and hot asphalt, making his way down the street with no shoes on his feet.

It looked really painful.

I thought about giving him the flip flops I keep in the car, to wear for pedicures, but remembered I keep a pair of walking shoes in the trunk for when I’m out and about and the mood hits to do some walking. So, I pulled over, gave the guy the walking shoes.

The long and the short of it is, I can always buy another pair of shoes, and Car Dweller can afford to buy a pizza.

In other news, the Baker says she’s planning a Memorial Day BBQ. She and her family are providing the meat and potato salad, wants me to design a flyer and a signup sheet for who’s coming and what they will bring.

We have a lot of new people, so I’ll probably go to this event to find out who’s who.

Everyone is rushing things. Today was the Easter Celebration when Easter is a whole 12 days away, and now the Baker is planning 48 day ahead for Memorial Day.

I suppose the shops, stores, Activity Director will be planning for Halloween in July.

Memorial Day

Those are the flags flying on the patio of the No. 45 loving neighbor who lives around the corner. Evidently, she's retired Air Force.

Impressive woman.

Nice woman

Terrible taste in ex-presidents.

No three-day weekend for moi. In fact, it’s only a mere few hours into the day, the week, and I’m exhausted already.

After a peaceful restful weekend with no little knock knock, this morning started off well enough, but things went sideways halfway through this morning’s workout when I began to feel worn out, depleted of energy.

At the end of the session, when I told Trainer I was exhausted, he said, "You pulled 50 pounds".

SAY WHAT NOW?!

Instead of the usual High Cable Standing Row, Trainer repositioned the cable, had me perform a Low Cable Standing Row, which I thought nothing of as I'm adapt at the former. However, turns out pulling down on 50 pounds is a whole lot easier than pulling up on 50 pounds.

I survived ……… barely, and would have liked nothing better than to call it a day, head straight back to the complex for a rest. However, having run out of eggs, kale and a few other essentials, I had to drag my tired self to the market, where I expected a Memorial Day crush.

The creepy security guard that replaced the other creepy security guard back in March was at his station, only he’s no longer a bother as I’ve ignored him often enough for him to realize giving me leering eyes was a waste of his time ……… that this one (me) is not friendly.

He has no game insofar as I can see, but I’ve seen the leering work on two other probably desperate women.

Hope they don't catch an STD from him.

As for the crush, all hands were on deck, so I was in/out faster than on a regular marketing day, except I stopped to chat with a guy about the bird on his shoulder.

Meet Bubbles

Bubbles is not attached to anything, so can easily fly off, escape, which the owner says Bubbles has done a time or two.

"How do you catch him?" asked I.

"I chase and he eventually comes back".

Bubbles is five months old and, when the owner’s daughter went to pet him, the owner said, "Watch this".

The daughter had to quickly snatch her hand back as Bubbles tried to fend her off with a bite, which I attempted to capture, but the action was so fast that I caught the hand pulling back, but you can see by the way Bubbles is mad dogging her that he means business ……… "Do not touch me", LOL.

Speaking of looks, it later occurred to me the security guard was watching my interaction with the bird’s owner, possibly thinking I’m friendly after all and will test that theory when I next walk by his station with diasterous results ……… for him.

Memorial Day

I wasn’t ready, today came too soon, so the day was off to a slow start.

So slow that, by the time I stepped out of the tub, the clock was showing 10:32 AM already.

Holy Smokes! Where did the morning go?, thought I.

Needing to leave for the Pain Cave by 11:15, I had to rush painting my face and getting dressed in workout clothes.

Returning from the morning workout, I would have liked nothing better than to lay down on the couch, take a long nap but, detouring to pick up yesterday’s mail before I headed upstairs, I saw residents already setting up for the 3:00 barbeque.

No way, tired though I was, would I have missed a moment of the barbeque for multiple reasons.

One, I wanted to capture photos, start to finish, to post to the residents’ facebook page.

Two, I heard our Karen character had been invited and would be coming, bringing a dish.

Three and Four, I knew Karen’s Dream Lover — the guy she used to chase and send love notes to until he complained to the office about her stalking and harassing him, would be manning the grill so, I wanted to see how the two would interact. Would she chase after him again? Would he walk out when she walked in?

Five, I wanted to see how management would sabotage the event.

Today is management’s holiday off, which meant we had no access to the kitchen, would have to depend on the patio’s grill and what residents cooked up in their own kitchens, but I just had a feeling management would do something to make the grill unavailable to us — like once they didn’t clean the grill and another time the propane tank had been removed.

It was still early, so I went back/forth from my unit to check on progress of preparations, take photos as folks arrived.

Dream Lover didn’t appear to be having any problems with the grill, as the patio area began rapidly filling up and I snapped away capturing photos of attendees as they arrived.

I saw our former mean manager’s (Nurse Ratched) mom arrive.

That was a novelty as I’ve never seen her participate in any of our events before, not even when her horrible terrible daughter was managing the place. Seeing her up close, I was amazed at how much her daughter looks like her.

She probably didn’t feel it safe for her to join us back in the day, as so many hated her daughter. The two looking so much alike, she might have gotten caught up in a mistaken identity incident.

Even so, there was an incident I believe I blogged about.

She had to be moved from her downstairs unit to an upstairs after someone shattered her patio glass door by throwing a brick through it because, no doubt, it was revenge for something her daughter had done.

Once Corporate got rid of her daughter — not because she was terrible awful to us, but because they caught her embezzling, things cooled off, her mom moved back to that same downstairs unit and has been happily residing here ever since with no problems as no one has or had a beef with her, it was just her daughter.

Karen arrived. I thought I heard her say she’d brought a "stew". I wanted a photo of it, but didn’t see anything that looked like a stew when I took photos of the spread.

Once our Karen walked in, my head was on swivel from her to Dream Lover to capture the when Sally met Harry moment.

To add more drama, Dream Lover’s former girlfriend, now just a friend, was in attendance, sitting next to me and I’m sure she had her eyes on Karen as well.

Karen has been out and about lately, getting to know other residents so, she worked the patio, greeting those she knew and eventually made her way close to Dream Lover.

With his back to everyone, facing the grill, I don’t believe he noticed she’d entered the patio area until she positioned herself to stand at a table next to where he was.

She looked at him. He looked over, saw her, the grill spatula froze in midair.

If some bozo hadn’t stepped into the frame, I could have captured the moment, but I did see her smile at him give him a little wave, he waved back at her whereupon she took her hand and coyly flipped back some of her hair before turning away.

Is that a flirt movement? I’m not sure.

I later saw she had worked her way over to behind him at the grill. Then I caught them face to face.

Does Dream Lover look awkward to you, as though he’s puzzled or not much interested in what Karen has to say?

Dream Lover’s former girlfriend, now just a friend, must have seen the face-to-face interaction as well because, shortly after Karen walked away, the two of them (former girlfriend and Dream Lover) had their heads together.

My guess is former girlfriend was asking what Karen said. I couldn’t really read Dream Lover’s body language as to whether Karen had aggravated him or not, but former girlfriend was grinning the kind of grin I’ve seen when someone is being discussed and laughed at behind their back.

So, all the side dishes were on the table, people were just waiting for the burgers and hotdogs, THEN it happened.

The grill went out.

After Dream Lover and another guy inspected the grill, they declared it no longer functioning.

I read Dream Lover’s body language just fine that time … he was exasperated, fed up.

I don’t know if Karen started his exasperation and the grill going out was the last straw, but he sat down next to me and said "People are awful! People are just awful".

Story is, he'd asked management to fill up the tank in preparation for the event. Management said they would, but evidently lied, because the tank went dry.

"SABOTAGE! Just like when they tell us they’ve fixed a problem in our units, but then it’s still not fixed" said I.

That made him smile. He nodded affirmative on my take of SABOTAGE and high-fived me. His former girlfriend nodded and said, "Yes. I think so too".

No grill to finish the cook didn’t stop anything. A resident went to her unit, brought down the grill from her patio.

By then it was close to 4:00, my Judge Judy time, so I didn’t stay to see when hamburgers and hot dogs were served, but folks were already eating side dishes, so it was all good.

Long time reader Dkzody will remember these leggings I stitched up back in 2014, to wear at a 5K. Sadly/obviously, you can tell from today's photo that none of the inches I’ve lost has had a much-needed lessening of what I'm carrying north of the equator.

Like a Boss

It occurred to me yesterday that Red Light is rather bossy.

This epiphany is a delayed reaction to when, late Tuesday afternoon, she called to say she, Painted Rock Lady, Talker and a newer resident I’ve not yet assigned a name, are planning a Memorial Day Barbeque.

Okay?

"Can you make a flyer for us?"

Sure.

"How long do you think it will take you?"

Cue quite a lengthy pause as my mind processed what I knew she meant by "How long?"

Many years of working under unreasonable bosses has taught me what those words mean. Plus, based on instances with Red Light in the past, incidents I’ve overlooked, let slide, I knew she was expecting me to stop whatever I was doing and make the flyer NOW, putting pressure on me, giving me a deadline, get it done lickety split, speaking like a boss.

The first instance of showing herself to be impatient/pushy, was in the Community Room when they were serving hot dogs at the bingo break. I mentioned I don’t eat hot dogs, that I instead make carrot dogs.

She asked for the recipe.

Okay.

No sooner than I got back to my unit I get a text, "Did you forget to send me the recipe?"

Jesus F Christ!, thought I, but knocked the receipe out, sent it to her and, since she seemed to be in such a hurry, I asked a few days later how she liked the carrot dogs. She said she’d not made the them because she didn’t have all the ingredients.

Well, if you didn’t have all the ingredients — which I’d told you when you initially asked what a carrot dog was what the ingredients are, then why the rush for the recipe?

To date, I don’t believe she ever made them.

Then there was the time when the Baker and I restarted the residents facebook page and I began adding photos taken at bingo.

Red Light asked that I also send her the photos.

What she does with them I have no idea, don’t care but, not only did she ask me to send her what photos I’d taken, but followed through with "Don’t forget to send me the photos" as soon as I got back to my unit and continued to do so thereafter if she didn’t immediately get the photos until I began getting photos to her a priority — sometimes sending while still in the bingo room taking photos, just to get her off my back.

So there I was on Tuesday being asked how long it would take me to bang out a flyer and, looking out the patio window as Red Light was on the phone with me making the request, I saw she and the other ladies were standing around downstairs, looking up at my unit.

Thank the Lord I’m upstairs and most of them can’t climb stairs, thought I. Otherwise, I’d have had this HOA looking group of white ladies knocking at my door, barging in, hovering over me until the flyer was done.

At any rate, I thought fast, threw a decent looking flyer together, got dressed and walked it down to them.

It took me about half an hour to compose, design, print, with their mulling around downstairs the whole entire time.

In their hands, hot off the press, they scattered to post the flyers in strategic places, and walk around handing out.

In a way it’s nice that the group thought of me as capable of getting the job done and I don’t mind helping the ladies out but Damn! — short notice AND pressure.

Red Light can grate on one’s nerves, which is probably why she and Talker are no longer BFF’s, and I don’t have near as much contact with her as Talker did and I’m beginning to feel annoyed.

At any rate, I’ve put up long enough with how impatient and pushy and bossy Red Light has been. I’ll be putting the brakes on playing by her rules, starting with taking my own sweet time in getting bingo photos to her.

Red Light is not the boss of me.

Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked

I guess both Trainer and I are both wicked because neither of us is resting this Memorial Day Holiday. He’s working — the studio is open today, so I had my regular workout this Monday morning, even though I offered to not so he could be home with his family.

Heading to the Pain Cave this morning, I stopped by the dumpster to toss the trash and encountered a dumpster full to overflowing — a sign that someone has died, and their unit is being cleared out.

I don’t know if the unit being cleared is one of the three deaths Red Light told me of, or yet another, a fourth. But, either way, that’s a lot. We usually don’t see deaths until closer to the end of the year, when people decide they’re done, don’t want to see another year, and give up. To see so many deaths this time of year indicates to me that folks are giving up sooner because the world and everything in it is so screwed up.

At any rate, two residents were having a discussion at the dumpster. I heard one say, "What difference does it make? She’s dead. They have to clean out the unit". Let’s call him Man 1.

The other, Man 2, was saying something about "memorabilia" to which Man 1 replied, "They didn’t care about her. None of them ever visited her".

It was then I noticed Man 2 was holding a Creative Memories Photo Album. I stepped in and said, "That’s a Creative Memory Scrapbook".

Man 2 said he’d pulled it out of the trash, along with other photos.

Appalled, but not surprised that management would toss precious old photos — because they're ruthless, don't care, I offered to take what Man 2 had saved from destruction, see if I could research names mentioned in the album and on the back of photos, find a family member to send to. I also told Man 2 that I’d post to social media, see if anyone recognized their childhood photo.

Judging from what I’ve deduced so far, this is an old photo of the resident who passed away.

It's hard to tell how she might have looked more recently, but I don’t recognize seeing anyone who looked remotely similar.

Man 2 tells me her name is Bonita and, "She’s the woman who used to walk around with a little dog".

THAT describes three-quarters of the female population here. They mostly all walk around with little dogs.

I did find a document with her full name, researched that and found her Facebook page.

The page hasn't been active since 2018, but four friends are listed.

I sent all four the following message: "Hello. Bonita Jean Millard recently passed away. I see you are listed as a FB Friend. Management at the senior complex she was living in tossed family photo albums, photos, letters in the trash. Another neighbor and I retrieved those items from trash and are trying to locate a family member of hers that might want the memorabilia. Can you help. Do you know any of her people?"

It’s a start.

There are also letters I can go through, look for names and mailing addresses.

I’d post some of this stuff to Reddit, ask for help, but Reddit is too much technology for me. I’ll stick to Facebook.

Memorial Day

Normally, I’d have titled this post “Happy Memorial Day”. However, from the backlash VP Harris is getting for saying “enjoy”, I thought better of using an adjective. LOL.

Isn’t much of a Memorial Day around here but, looking back, it never really has been.

Last Memorial Day, we were in quarantine. Year before that, it was business as usual — a workout in the Pain Cave. Same with this year — I'll be heading out shortly for a workout. It may be the only workout this week, depending on how I feel after tomorrow’s second Moderna shot.

Inasmuch as Handsome Man said he'd experienced dizziness with his second shot, and Assistant Maintenance Guy experienced dizziness with his first, I thought it not a good idea to drive the 15 miles to where I’d gotten the first shot.

Mike had indicated I didn’t have to return to where I’d got the first shot, that I could get the second anywhere. I’d checked with the corner drug store and it was “Yes. That’s correct. Walk right in. No appointment necessary”.

However, when I’d called a few days ago to verify it was Moderna, it was “Yes, Moderna but day after a Holiday is going to be crazy. Schedule an appointment”. Only their appointment schedule is booked for weeks — that is unless I want to schedule a night appointment, which I do not ... not in this area. So, off I go to the place of origin tomorrow — hoping there will be no dizzy spells preventing me from safely driving myself back home.

Last week, I was telling Trainer about the secret camera identifying the duo who’d been breaking into the mail center, as “Two skinny White guys”.

Just like I’d equated skinny with meth heads, Trainer also immediately went to, “meth heads” and added they were more than likely coming from the trailer park.

"What trailer park?" asked I.

"There’s a trailer park behind Auto Zone", said he.

How interesting, I never knew that.

I’ve often heard mention of a trailer park with “dangerous people”. In fact, when Shadow came to live with us, it was said his last residence was that very same trailer park. That he’d gotten into some kind of altercation with residents and had to move out for his own safety.

I just didn’t realize the trailer park, everyone was always talking about, was a hop, skip, jump from here — other side of the vacant field where Tent Guy used to live.

But now, just as I’m typing this, something Shadow said to me, when he first came on board, is now making sense.

Looking back through the blog, it was March of 2018, when Shadow hit the blog as “The New Guy”.

When he learned photos taken at events were posted to the Residents’ Facebook page, he approached and said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t put me on Facebook. I’ve got enemies and I’d rather they didn’t know I’m here.”

The likelihood of his "enemies" locating him via the Residents' Facebook page was nil but, of course, I removed photos in which he appeared, all the while thinking “Enemies??? … Don’t want them to know I’m here???” … Who talks like that? … Is this guy a fugitive from justice maybe or someone in witness protection?

It all makes sense now. He was afraid of the people he'd angered at the trailer park.

What didn’t make sense was, shortly after having me remove his photos, he began hanging out in front of the complex, smoking, in full view of anyone walking or driving down the street.

Hiding in plain sight?

I’m also remembering that, after he hooked up with The Seer — back when she and I were still friends, she’d complain about him being out front getting into conversations with people, of a rough looking persuasion, walking down the street. In fact, shortly after he moved in, he invited one of those rough looking types to hang out with him inside the complex.

He introduced her to me as his "niece" and, not knowing who Shadow really was, at the time, I took him at his word.

The "niece" looked to be stoned out of her mind.

Other residents, spotting "niece" on the grounds, looking and acting suspiciously, immediately began to warn others to be careful and, wouldn't you know it, before the day was over, there was some kind of incident between "niece" and her "uncle" Shadow. The police were called and Shadow almost got himself evicted — all this within his first two/three months of moving in.

At any rate, Shadow still hangs out front of the building, chatting it up with rough looking types — which obviously, from what The Seer has told me in the past and her recently hunting him down, she's warned him about doing. But, far as I know, he’s learned his lesson about bringing them onto the premises.

Is it possible the "two skinny White guys" got drawn to our mail room because of an association with Shadow?

Hmmmmmm?

In other news, I believe I made a $1500 mistake in purchasing a new laptop. 

When the only four-year old Envy began loading slow, and some pages and game apps not loading at all, I thought it was the laptop — especially since I’d received a message about parts no longer being available for that model. However, when the new Envy started off loading slow, and some pages and games not loading at all, something whispered “modem”.

The tech came bright and early yesterday morning (They work on Sunday? Apparently they do), replaced the modem, and voilà — loading problem solved.

Even though I would eventually had to switch out laptops, it appears I could have gotten more life than a mere four years out of the old Envy. 

But , Oh Well … live and learn.