Who Knew?

It would be an understatement to say not a lot is going on around here, because absolutely nothing is happening as us residents just try to make it through the Summer heat.

Complicating our making it through are various outages — heat related I assume.

One day it was the cable that went out, then it was cable and internet together.

Fortunately, power was restored within an hour both times. Except for the day my A/C went out on a day when no staff was on premise. Both the office workers and maintenance guys were away for meetings with Corporate, and inside my unit hit 95 degrees.

Head Maintenance Guy was quick to respond to the work order first thing the very next day, and able to repair what went wrong within minutes. It was already 90 when he showed up at 8:30 that morning, said because everything in the unit was now hot — the walls, the rugs, said it would take time to cool down and suggested it would be economical and comfortable for me to set the A/C to automatically run all day every day to stay safe.

Not a problem, thought I, because it’s hot all day every day.

So now that I’m doing that, I’m getting messages from the utility company that I’m trending towards a high bill.

You don't say Sherlock, but what can I do but run the A/C and pay up, if I don’t want to pass out from heat stroke.

This is far and away the worst Summer I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.

Then the garbage disposal malfunctioned and water in the sink backed up.

Assistant Maintenance Guy was quick to respond, said that if the disposal had to be replaced, I would be charged for the new disposal.

WTF!!!

Am I leasing this unit or am I in a rent to own situation?

If these fools think I was going to pay to replace a garbage disposal, which research tells me is between $200 and $500, they were going to have a war on their hands.

I already defied them once — didn’t pay, when told to "Take a check down to the office when you get a chance" to pay $15 for the ceiling light because I thought it ridiculous to charge me for a high/dangerous fixture that falls under their purview and which, I later learned, is illegal for the landlord to charge tenants in the State of California. So, if I defied them for a mere $15, you can imagine what hell they were going to go through to get "between $200 and $500" out of me.

So, I was already planning for a war, as Assistant Maintenance Guy worked on the disposal, saying I’d have to pay if a new unit was required.

Fortunately for Management and myself, it was a simple blockage which I thought to be the result of a change in water pressure that I'd reported. Instead of water flowing from the faucet, water now more or less trickles, which I thought wasn’t enough flow to push through the pipes whatever was in the disposal.

What Assistant Maintenance Guy found in the blockage was tiny bits of kale, carrots and eggshells.

"Here’s your problem", said he. "You can’t put eggshells down the disposal".

I took issue with that, thought he was gaslighting me because I’ve done so all my life, and for the 14 years I’ve lived here. I chalked the blockage up to lack of water pressure and cheap ass equipment.

That is until I later googled, "can egg shells go in the garbage disposal" and learned "No, you should not put egg shells in your garbage disposal. They do not break down into safe mush; instead, they create a sand-like grit that settles in your pipes, and their sticky inner membranes can wrap around the disposal parts and catch other waste to cause bad clogs".

Who knew?

So now I no longer put eggshells in the disposal, but I still think it's the lack of water pressure as there was never a problem until the issue with flow appeared; and now not trusting the water pressure pushing whatever through the pipes, I build up the water pressure by letting the sink fill sufficiently with water, then run the disposal.

I don’t imagine anything will be done about the recent change in water pressure unless and until an outside Inspector flags it.

The heat keeping me out of circulation around here, I figured I’d pop into this morning’s Kesha Tuesday — which, per the calendar was Crafts, to demonstrate proof of life, that I’m still breathing.

Not much of a surprise that Crafts turned out to be Kesha bringing in a bunch of artificial flowers …… that’s it …… artificial flowers …… no plan, no tools to do anything with them, no vases, no paints, just artificial flowers.

Crafty Lady was disgusted, went to her unit, brought down wires and tools and cardboard, showed the ladies what to do with the artificial flowers …… they made centerpieces.

Di was in the room, delegated to a table off to herself.

The ladies do Di wrong …… kinda sorta turn their backs on her, push her out of the circle because they have no patience with her, are done with her trials and travails which they say are caused by herself.

To me, Di is like the little Peanuts character Pig-Pen. Not that she's dirty, but that she constantly attracts clouds of despair.

I sat with her, listened as she told me someone had stolen her walker from its perch under the stairs by her unit and how she’s fearful for her life because of being instrumental in sending two women to prison, back in the day, for unaliving an individual.

Both got life, but one is being released.

I’ve never understood that … how a person can be sentenced to life and be out in 25 years.

Di is worried because the one being released threatened, if ever released, to unalive her in retaliation for testifying.

She showed me the letter from Department of Corrections, asked my advice as to how it pertained to her — should she respond. I suggested yes …… fill in the Witness portion, mention the threat, mail it back because it might make a difference is keeping the person locked up.

Will she do so? My guess is no; but if anything happens to her, I’ll know where to point the finger.

So, anyway, I told Di "You’ve had an interesting life" and praised her for having the courage to do the right thing — testify, even though she’d been threatened not to, had even gotten beat up and hospitalized over plans to testify, but still did what was right.

"There are eight million stories in the naked city, this has been one of them."

4 years, 4 months, 3,391 Hours Later

Not yet tired of carrot soup for dinner, I had my third batch cooking in the crockpot yesterday afternoon when the power went out.

We’re having way too many power outages lately, and all the power company can tell us is "analyzing problem".

Luckily, it was only out from 6:00 to 8:30, instead of all night, but the timing of the outage was inconvenient as not only did I have to give up the idea of soup for dinner, switch to kale salad, but I was also in the middle of putting the last few stitches in that never ending needlepoint project when the craft lamp went out.

Retrieving the portable power station from patio storage, I was able to hook up the craft light, get sufficient light to finish.

4 years, 4 months, 3,391 Hours Later.

All that’s left to do is to wash the piece, iron, frame, post the great reveal in a few days.

Tomorrow is Halloween Bingo. When asked if I was attending by Painted Rock Lady, I did say yes but, as time has gone on, I’ve retreated further and further from the Usual Suspects, not so sure I wanted to go back to mingling.

Delivering November flyers to The Baker the other day, she asked, "You’re coming Friday, aren’t you?" So, I guess I’m going.

Billed as bingo, with a Halloween twist, it might turn out not to be as boring as I imagine.

I’ll be in costume, not wearing my "Look but don’t touch" tee, so hopefully Crafty Lady won’t give me any grief by trying to hug me ……… Cause me to create a scene by rudely backing away should it look like she's coming in for a hug or request a hug, like she did last time.

Wish me luck.

Outage

I was on the laptop yesterday, around 1:30 in the afternoon, watching a reborn to revenge kDrama entitled "My stepsister killed me, so I stole her billionaire boyfriend".

Don’t judge by the silly name, those kDramas are addictively good.

I was just at an on the edge of my seat part where both the reborn heroine and the billionaire boyfriend were in serious jeopardy when the movie shut down because the internet went out.

BLACKOUT!!!

Fortunately, it wasn’t a complete power outage — power in the unit was still on, but the internet and television were mysteriously unavailable remainder of the day.

Waking up this morning, I saw service to both had been restored, but I’ve not yet had time to get back to the movie.

The blackout turned out to have been "area wide", with no explanation as to what had occurred.

The outage made for a quiet day, as I worked on making a mini drawstring bag for the Alert device.

Took four 30-minute tries before I successfully created a workable pouch to match my kente cloth buff headband.

Now knowing what I’m doing, it only took 20 minutes this morning to knock out a pouch that matches a pair of leggings.

When I remember where I stored the camo and denim fabric, I’ll make pouches to match corresponding outfits. I’ll probably also make a black pouch for when I need a neutral look to match what I’m wearing.

Now, I just have to find a gold chain long enough and strong enough to support the device, so I can get rid of that unglamorous rope.

All in all, even enclosed, the device seems a little too noticeable, since I'm not wearing a boho skirt which would make the colorful bag make sense. Consequently, there will be times — especially if I notice a good-looking man checking me out, when I’ll tuck the covered device, so all he sees is the gold chain I’ll eventually be adding to replace the cord.

Time got away from me on Pizza Tuesday, so I never made it down to the Community Room to babysit the seniors for Kesha, but I’m sure that by now she’s got the hang of things and has the seniors falling in line.

After two sessions of bingo were shut down due to that covid scare, bingo is back on tomorrow. Lu tells me it’s a combination of bingo and a birthday party for the Baker.

I don’t have the energy to deal with the seniors tomorrow, so I’ll pass on attending.

BTW, some weird stuff is going on with blogger .... Settings is set to "not allow search engines", buy somehow "Google search entities found" keeps popping up when I blog AND, even though I hit "Dismiss", Google is still crawling, indexing, and screwing with my readership — causing it to rise from a few hundred to thousands. I’m not comfortable with that. Are you also all of a sudden getting the "Google search entities foumd" message?

Armageddon, Part 2

Not 10 minutes after posting yesterday about it possibly being the end of days, because I’d awaken to not knowing the cause of a power outage and the sound of sirens racing down the street, did the earth begin to move, glassware began to rattle.

It was another earthquake.

They are coming faster, closer together, but yesterday’s 3.5 did not last as long, did not cause near the same level of shaking, rattling, rolling, did not frighten me as much as last Thursday’s quake did, even though this one registered higher.

Later yesterday, I saw news on facebook, from friends that live in the area, that there had been another quake 2 hours after the earlier 3.5.

Yipes! Two in one day.

I actually did feel that second one, but took it as an aftershock, because it was so mild and so soon after the first quake.

They’re coming even faster than I could have imagined because, when I later checked online for the stats on the second quake, I learned "San Bernardino has had: (M1.5 or greater) 4 earthquakes in the past 24 hours; 17 earthquakes in the past 7 days; 52 earthquakes in the past 30 days".

GOOD LORD! WE’RE DOOMED!

Seems, even when unaware, we are living on quaking ground, still standing by the Grace of God, but for how long is anyone’s guess.

We are not the one’s causing world chaos, so why pick on us? The quakes should be happening in DC, under 1600 freaking Pennsylvania Avenue.

So anyway, power is on today, I'm hearing no sirens racing down the street, so today has thus far been okay.

In responding to Mitchell’s comment to yesterday’s post, I responded I was "taking with a grain of salt" that I’m getting signs of being appreciated. Some of you seemed to enjoy when I provide the history of old phrases … what The Misadventures of Widowhood calls "word and phase histories", so I looked this latest idiom up.

"The idiom likely originated from Pliny the Elder, who mentioned that a certain antidote was to be taken with a 'grain of salt', suggesting it should be consumed with a degree of skepticism or caution … It could also be related to the ancient belief that salt could counteract poison, implying that the information should be handled with caution".

As for Pliny the Elder, "Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 – 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder was a Roman author, naturalist, scientist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (Natural History), a comprehensive thirty-seven-volume work covering a vast array of topics on human knowledge and the natural world, which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field".

Class dismissed 🍎.

Armageddon

8:30 last night, long past visiting hours, a time when I was still dressed, makeup on, but bra off, there was a knock knock knock on the door.

No way could that possibly be Little Knock Knock that late, so I was careful.

Having seen enough crime dramas to know not to open the door, not to look through the peephole because, if it’s a trick, they can pew pew you through the eye when they see you looking through the peephole, I went to the kitchen, looked through the blinds.

It was indeed, Little KK.

I asked what she was doing out so late and, not seeing the Talker at the bottom of the stairs, became concerned that she was out by herself.

She wasn’t. Talker was chatting with neighbors at the end of the walkway and later told me Little KK said she wanted to visit her friend. "What friend", asked Talker and Litle KK said, "You know" and pointed to my unit.

Nice but, like I said, it was way past visiting hours and I was watching a Chinese Drama, so I gave Little KK a hug and sent her on her way.

I should be grateful that my beingness is attracting good signs, like Little KK of the Talker’s family knocking on my door, wanting to spend time with me, and now Aunt H — Talker’s sister, giving me a gift, but Talker has a very handsome nephew. Why not him?

Just saying.

So, anyway, waking up around 7:30 this morning, I went to turn the TV on for background noise while I performed my morning rituals, but the TV did not turn on.

I thought it might be a problem with the remote, but then noticed all the lights on the box were off.

I then thought, POWER OUTAGE.

Sure enough, the lights in the unit were off, microwave was dead, as was the A/C.

In this unbearably hot weather, this is not a convenient time for a power outage. To top it off, I kept hearing sirens racing down the street.

First the earthquake, now a power outage with the sound of sirens back-to-back racing down the street, Armageddon came to mind; and here I was with no way to determine what was going on. Was there a fire on Little Mountain again, did Donnie Two Doll push the button and we are now under attack, do I shelter in place or evacuate? What to do?

There’s always that annoying announcement popping up on TV instructing that "in case of an emergency bla bla bla", but I guess they didn’t consider that source of information doesn’t work when the power is out — no TV, no way of knowing what’s going on.

I did eventually get a power outage alert on the phone — “Outage Reason: analyzing problem, Estimated Start 5:08 am, Estimated End 3:30 pm".

I began formulating a plan to survive the day. 1) I could get that banking issue off the to-do list, then hang out at Starbucks or a mall to escape the heat or 2) I could drag the portable tower fan from the bedroom, attach it to the portable solar generator I purchased when we had that weeklong outage back in January, and cool the room down to where I could work on that never ending needlepoint project.

Deciding on the former, I began preparing for outside, starting with face makeup — but it was melting from the heat as quickly as I got it on. All of a sudden, the power kicked in. It was 9:30.

Whew!

Relieved, I puttered around doing nothing of any significance until along around 11:30, when I remembered today is Pizza Tuesday and the advent of a new Activity Director. So, I headed for the Community Room.

First person to greet me as I entered the room was Upstairs Lady who, you might recall, is invisible to me, no longer exists in my awareness. So, I made a point not to see her, not to hear her greeting and, during the time I was in the room, when she pushed her walker anywhere near to where I was, I moved to the opposite side of the room.

Was that unforgiving of me, childish, petty?

Yes.

And?

The new hire, named Kesha, seems nice; and the name "Kesha" tells you all you need to know about her culture, which we don’t see a lot of in this Corporate structure.

In fact, in all my years here, I’ve only seen two. One was a maintenance man here, who got pushed out by that mean Nurse Ratched when she was managing the complex. The other was a big shot from Corporate, who’d come down, do inspections from time to time. I don’t know how she got to be a big shot in this Corporate structure, but she did, until she too one day suddenly was no longer an employee.

I’m hoping Kesha can survive, hang with whatever, stick with us for a while.

While us Usual Suspects were welcoming Kesha, the woman (Christine) who was our popular Activity Director two/three years ago walked through the doors.

Surprised to see her, I gave her a big hug, asked which complex she was working at, to which she replied, "I’m a supervisor now".

"WHAT?! … You’re Kesha’s boss? … The HBIC?"

She laughed, answered,"Yes".

Now knowing Christine is the "new boss" that our last Activity Director accused of treating her so badly that she quit, I'm thinking there's a lot more to that story about the "new boss" being mean to her.

Christine had her moments when she served here as Activity Director, but nothing we couldn't roll with … snapped once when she felt infringred upon that seniors, thinking they were helping, distributed pizzas before she was ready, didn't take any crap when having to deal with seniors that tried to jump the line, take more than their share, didn't think they needed to follow the rules, but was otherwise good to us, well liked.

The Activity Director that quit must have had underlining issues … couldn't handle Christine strong nature, was maybe a little princess that was accustomed to being handled with kid gloves, had a problem with Christine on a personal level, or a problem with authority in general.

As for why Christine was here, she came to support Kesha — make sure Kesha was received well by us (she was) and generally just pave the way for a smooth transition.

Little Knock Knock made an appearance in the room. She’s going back to San Diego for school tomorrow.

Feeling bad for brushing her off last night, I drove to Starbucks, picked up two cake pops for her.

I'd better turn off all the lights in my unit tonight, and make myself scarce tomorrow, just in case Little KK gets to thinking of making a farewell stop by my unit.

Before heading back upstairs, I received another gift — a Mary Kay makeup/mirror case from the new resident Jo, who sometimes spearheads craft sessions for us.

I also was approached by Di (Apache’s old friend, the resident that had been involved with Meat Man’s son — he in his mid to late 20’s, she her 60’s), who said "We’ve never been close friends, but I’ve watched you for years" and something to the effect that she "can see" and could tell I’ve gone through a lot in life, has observed my strength, my kindness, generosity, yada yada yada, that I'm not doing high school like many others are, that some of us are meant to be students, others teachers, some to serve as examples, that she sees me in the example category, has so much respect for me, that I "shine".

Well, damn!

Knock Knock, Aunt H, the gifts, Di’s comments to me, Twin 1 continuing to call to make sure I’m still alive (LOL), it's getting to be a lot.

Are these signs I’m not long for this world?

I see the doctor on Thursday, so I’m prepared, won’t be surprise if she has something serious to tell me.

What Could Go Wrong?

It was so annoying this morning when, watching a program where the cops had the serial killer in the interrogation room, gotten him to confess to unaliving three women and he was about to tell the investigators what he’d done with the bodies that the power, without any prior notice, no warning, went out.

Unless and until I catch a repeat of whatever program that was, I’ll never know where the bodies were hidden.

The previous day had been such a warm day that I’d had to run the A/C and, just before the power went out, I was planning to run the A/C again because the unit was hot from my having used the oven to cook breakfast and the heat of the sun coming in through the patio window.

With now no TV to watch and working on that never ending needlepoint project out of the question in an uncomfortably hot unit, no A/C, I began thinking of options to get away until power was restored.

I could head to the mall — walk/train for an upcoming 5K, pop into Macy’s to replenish my Estee Lauder Cinnabar perfume and stop by See’s Candy to replace the candy I’d lost during those last outages, one a weeklong outage.

Another option was to walk around the complex or drive to the University, walk/train there for that upcoming 5K.

My last option was, inasmuch as I’d removed the polish from my nails earlier that morning, saw that my nails could do with professional conditioning, I could drive to that nail salon that takes walk-ins, get a manicure/pedicure.

Not wanting anyone to see my unconditioned, no polish nails, I decided against the Mall, passed on training, headed to the nail salon.

This would be the nail salon that did such a terrible polish job back in April.

That salon had done a satisfactory job on shaping and conditioning but, heading back to the complex I’d noticed the polish already coming off the tip of the thumb nail, the child-like polish job around the bed of every single nail as well with polish painted over onto my skin ……… nails and toes.

I really would have liked to have called Nora at the other salon in the area. However, Nora does gel and her prices, though worth her good work, are too costly, so I decided to give the bad paint job salon a second try. Only this time, I’d request no-polish, just a $38 trim, shape, cuticle trimming, condition, sea salt exfoliation.

What could go wrong?

There were no other clients when I walked into what looked like Senior Citizen’s Day. The receptionist and the five nail technicians all looked to be in their 60’s and over.

What could go wrong?

Well for one, the two old ladies that worked simultaneously on the mani/pedi, both nicked me with their instruments …… more than once. I’d wince, say "Ouch, be careful" and am now wisely treating the areas with antiseptics.

Also, when all was said and done, $38 ended up $60 — not unusual, though I never can figure out how these places always quote one price and, once the work is done, it’s never the price quoted; plus, I always tip $10 to manicurist $10 to pedicurist because work is work, even when it's a bad job or you've hurt me with your instruments; so $80 total.

And, lastly ……

I actually am surprised this salon is still in business. Senior nail technicians are heavy handed …… give good pedicure, and the pedicure, except for geting nicked a time or two was fine, it’s just that senior techicians are not good at manicures.

Next time, I’ll call Nora, pay whatever the cost if she can give me a regular mani/pedi, no gel.

At least power had been restored by the time I returned to the complex.

Where’s George?

It’s a freezing cold and rainy day here in the Inland Empire, but no complaints because the power is on.

Fortunately, when I was out and about yesterday, I stopped by the market. Didn’t get much, basically shopping for two days at a time these days, as I’m still not ready to trust the power to stay on.

Any rate, I’m not so desperate for anything that I have to head out in the rain today, but tomorrow is a workout day and who knows what we’re in store for.

So, snug as a bug in a rug today, I’m avoiding depressing news, catching up on recorded TV programs and working on that never ending needlepoint project.

Please tell me I’m not the only one to remember how, back in the day, we’d track dollar bills by serial number, as the bills circulated across the country through a site called Where’s George.

If this doesn't sound familiar to you .... In the late 90s early 2000s, when the internet was fairly new, Where's George was a game that involved dollars stamped with the message "currency tracking project/track me at WheresGeorge".

If and when one of those stamped bills came into our possession, we’d go to Where’s George, check to see if the serial number on the bill was listed and, if listed, we’d input where in the country we’d found it, then send it back into circulation to travel elsewhere, be found by someone else.

It was just a fun thing to see how far the bill would travel.

Although the game started with tracking the trail of dollar bills with the specific message "currency tracking project/track me at WheresGeorge", it caught on and people began writing other messages on the bills — none of which I can recall, except it became something like the message in a bottle craze.

Thinking back, I'm not at all certain it was legal to write on/deface money, but it was done.

Looks like it's still being done because, when I went to pull cash out of my fanny pack to pay for groceries yesterday, I found a bill with a message.

We love you Mac

It's a $20, rather than a $1 bill, but I nevertheless looked for the old Where's George site, found it's still up.

Not only is the site still up, it appears to be active with stats showing where and under what circumstances the bills listed came into the finder’s possession, like "I got it the Brookdale Dollar General, Got in a McDonald’s as change, A gift for a holiday in a card, Arcade Bar in Lincoln Nebraska, Received in change at a gas station in Vermont", so on and so forth.

So, anyway, the $20 I’d gotten as change somewhere in my goings was, of course, not listed as only $1 bills are, but Where’s George looks like a fun thing to bring back in these troubling times.

Maybe I should log in my $1 bills, write on them messages — such as "Have faith" …… "This too shall pass" and other such messages of hope, send into circulation with instructions to "track me at WheresGeorge", see where they land.

As for whoever this Mac guy is, my guess is he's not worthy because, if someone had written such a message to me, I'd have treasured the bill, framed it even.

Trippin

The power company is tripping.

Power did indeed go out again last night, with an estimate of off from 9:30 to 7:00 this morning.

Seven a.m. came and went with no power but, as of 8:30 this morning, not 7:00, we’re good, power on.

This drip drip drip, power off/power on, is beginning to annoy.

I guess I shouldn’t complain, be grateful instead because, according to the power company, many in other areas haven’t had their power restored since that initial outage.

At any rate, with not the restored Tik Tok available on my phone last night, I gave Red Note another try and take back everything I said about not liking it.

A lot of the content creators I followed on Tik Tok are now on Red Note, so it’s beginning to feel like business as usual. Plus, the algorism is beginning to grasp what I like to see.

An additional plus are the language teachers that are not only welcoming us to the platform but, in an effort to get followers, are giving language lessons.

So far, I’ve only learned how to say hello in Mandarin (Ni hao), but it’s a start.

I can't believe I'm saying this, thinking this, feeling this but, after spending my entire life in California, I'm about ready to get the hell out of here.

The power outages, the constant threat of fire on Little Mountain, a recent maintenance issue that is traumatizing me, continuing family dramas, and other issues, are pushing me to relocate, get away from everything and everyone.

I've actually been searching, but inasmuch as I'm in that financial gray area ... too far over income to lease a unit in another income restricted complex, but not enough income to afford the high rents in other senior complexes I've researched in surrounding California cities, I'm ready to consider another state.

Quickie

Just as I got out of the car to head inside the Pain Cave for this morning’s workout, I got a phone alert that power in the area was out.

There was enough sunlight streaming in through the windows that the front room of the cave was workable for classes. However, the personal training area is in a back room, no sunlight.

So, with no electricity for the equipment I work on, no light in the area, no music, I just said hello/goodbye to Trainer, "I’ll see you on Wednesday …… If power restored".

Knowing soup was needed to get through this outage, but all out of vegetables, I headed across the street to the market.

Cashier was telling me they do have a generator, but it doesn’t kick in until needed to save the frozen items.

There is a shield that comes into play to keep frozen and cold items frozen/cold until the generator kicks in, and you can see one of those shields in the above video. Otherwise, the store generally has a few hours before that generator kicks in, lights turn on.

In the interim, everything else works, but in the dark.

So, anyway, I was rocking and rolling with the outage as I returned to the complex, prepared for no TV, burners but no oven to bake the salmon I'd planned for the day, that I'd have to pan fry it.

Meat Man was driving out of the complex, as I was crossing the parking lot. He pulled up, wished me Happy MLK Day, gave me a pep talk about you know who's second term, saying "We've survived worse" …… he's right, and "God is in control" …… right again.

While rewarming my morning coffee in a pot on the stove, I heard a clicking noise.

Checking around the unit to locate the noise, I noticed it was the printer rebooting.

That only happens when the power has been turned off and, because the printer is attached to a cord in a wall outlet, it automatically reboots when power is restored.

I checked further and, sure enough, TV and laptop powered up. Power was back at 12 noon, had only been off for an hour.

Thinking this might be some kind of a trick, I'm now online posting this quickie before power goes out again, which I expect will be in any second as the winds are still howling.

As far as this business about today's event being moved inside because of the cold, I'm not buying it.

I'm not watching any news today, so I don't know if the news channels are showing what's going on outside the area, but I find I have temporary access to Tik Tok on my laptop (not my phone) and the following is what I'm seeing.

Thousands protesting (not millions as I previously commented). They don't seem to mind the cold weather.

Before the power company kicks me offline, I'll leave you with this ……

Public Safety Power Shutoff All-Clear

I got the all clear at 8:20 pm yesterday evening.

Trainer got it much earlier. A message hit his phone about halfway through my workout yesterday morning.

Trusting the all-clear Trainer received, I thought it safe enough to head to the market after to replace the freezer items I'd lost during the outage.

Turning into the lot, who did I see but Bicycle Boy lounging on his bike, across the street from the Pain Cave, just outside the market's parking lot.

Bicycle Boy is the resident who bullied other residents since before I arrived on the complex, would leave spittle on Big Linda’s truck, keyed Big Linda’s truck, physically fought with my old buddy Apache, destroyed the shrine set up for Shadow after Shadow passed away, and had in August "gotten into it" with a new resident who wanted no parts of him, asked to be moved to an upstairs unit, away from the ground floor, because the ground floor made it too easy for Bicycle Boy to harm him.

That resident was granted his move and BB was finally, after all these years, served with eviction papers back in September.

For a while after the eviction, residents lived in fear Bicycle Boy would come back and "do something" in retaliation.

He was observed biking through the complex once, shortly after that eviction. Now here he is lurking in the area.

Hmmmmmm?

He’d disappeared by the time I’d exited the store and I’ll bet dollars to donuts he bicycled his way through the complex just to unnerve residents, let them know he’s not forgotten us.

Severe Weather and Power Restoration Update

The high winds continue to plague the area, and though the power company continues to issue Public Safety Power Shutoff Warning, we’re still up and running.

Looking at all the devastation in the Los Angeles and Palisades area, seeing how some homeowners refused to evacuate, stayed behind to fight the fire with water hoses, brought back to mind we here don’t have that option because, back in 2015 that mean Nurse Ratched — Complex Manager at the time, issued a notice "Due to the drought, we will be eliminating the water spigot in the patios".

That’ right. Nurse Ratched, in her insane wisdom of making sure the drought restrictions, officially put in place at that time were complied with, had ordered the then maintenance guys to cut off all the water spigots because she didn’t trust residents to not attach hoses to water patio plants during the drought.

To this day I don’t know if Corporate even knows she damaged the property doing that, if there’s some fire code making it illegal to have deprived residents of a way to protect themselves in a fire emergency until the Fire Department arrives, and whether or not this lack of spigots is a hindrance to the Fire Department’s fighting a fire should they need an additional water source.

I don’t even know if our current Manager even knows we have no spigots, they’ve been cut off and cemented over.

I do know that, back in 2017, after Nurse Ratched was fired for embezzling, the Manager we had that year did notice.

She voiced how strange there were no spigots and, fortunately, I just happened to be present when she questioned it and informed her it was her predecessor’s bright idea, which predecessor I described to her as a terrible human, only I used the word "b _ _ ch".

At that time, I asked if spigots could or would be reinstalled, but never heard back on that topic.

Maybe because that Manager was fired for being too nice to us before she got around to looking into the issue.

So, anyway, today was the first day I was able to workout in the Pain Cave since last Monday.

Trainer informed me that, because all the electronic precautions he had set up to prevent another break-in were down during the outage, he slept in the studio.

That had to be cold, dark, rough. Plus, he said he got no sleep because he had to stay awake, be attentative as to who was on the lot at night and why.

He had me laughing at how it was that when he’d see someone walking around on the lot 2:30/3:00 in the morning, he’d confront them with "Who are you, why are you here?".

At least now, if there is another outage, and if it was someone casing the joint to take advantage of the outage to break in, destroy the expensive glass window, tear holds in the walls, like before, to get to the liquor store again, they now know Trainer is onto them, and won’t even bother coming around with bad intent next time.

After telling him about the solar generator I just bought, he indicated he’ll probably do the same just in case we do get shut down again this week.

He won’t be able to keep the studio open with a little generator, but at least he can run a heater and a coffee pot …… keep warm during his mall cop hours.

Nope

Hearing a second outage is on the horizon, it’s been challenging to decide what food products to bring back in, especially almond milk and eggs that I sorely need.

Then, I remembered that in the past, when I’d go to family eating events, I would use a Portable Electric Cooler Bag to transport meals I cooked for myself.

If When the refrigerator goes out again, the bag will be perfect to keep eggs and milk and other food items cold, so I pulled it out of storage.

Thing is, the bag needs a source of power so, after much searching, I found a portable solar generator that I can pick up in a day or two — plenty of time before spoilage sets in if power goes out today.

So that worked out, plan for today was to head to Sprouts for supplies. However, when I got in the car, saw how strong the wind was, it was NOPE ……… I’m not getting on the freeway, drive out of the area scared out of my wits the wind will blow the car over or a truck will fall on me — like the terror I felt last time I braved the wind.

I pivoted, drove to the corner market, settled for store brand products.

Pulling into the lot, ready to park, I saw this happen ………

My bad. I saw it coming and should have honked to get their attention, but didn't think fast enough.

It appears to have been just a tap.

The old lady’s car wasn’t damaged, and though I didn’t see any damage to young blood’s car, you know how young men are about their vehicles. He saw damage.

At any rate, it was all very civil as they exchanged insurance information and didn’t feel the need to involve me as a witness, which might be a mistake on the old lady's part.

Both were equally at fault and, if young blood wants to make an insurance issue out of it, a witness would have been helpful. Especially a witness with a drive cam.

In the last post, I’d replied to Mistress Maddie’s comment about candles, saying that I wanted to add the Luigi Mangione candle to my collection.

"Is there one?", Mistress asked.

There are literally dozens being offered online, from sellers I'm not familiar with. However, I've found a seller that’s done right by me in the past. The seller offers two Luigi's ……

Tempted to order both, because of that million dollar smile, I opted for the first one.

More Off Than On

The Power Company did say that, due to the fire danger imposed by heavy winds, we should expect power outages off/on.

They did not say it would be more off than on.

We had that outage on Tuesday that sent me down to the Community Room for respite. Power was restored in the late afternoon, long enough to power up the cellphone, little portable power station and post about the vision boards.

It was just seconds after posting that everything went dark. So, dark that I couldn’t see my hands in front of my face.

It pays to be organized.

I knew exactly where the matches were located, carefully felt my way through the dark to the drawer, struck a match to light my way to the candles.

I decided to sacrifice Tiger Joe.

So, between Joe Exotica, and the flashlight I dug out of its drawer, I made it through the night.

I awoke the next morning, Wednesday, to still no power and a message from Trainer that the studio, and the entire mini mall was shut down due to lack of power.

As the day went on, I learned every apartment building, shop, store, business in a three-mile area, was closed due to the outage.

Street lights were out and even the market was shut down that first day, as was the gas station, but both were up and running the next day.

The guy at the market, I later spoke to, said something about they got a generator or the generator kicked in. I’m not sure which.

So long story short, we’ve been without power since Tuesday.

Fortunately, I have a gas stove. The oven was inoperable but I was able to get fire from the burners with a match — make coffee with my 20+ years old percolator.

Again, it pays to be organized. I knew exactly where it was.

I also managed to survive by making soup, oatmeal, eggs ……… That is until the eggs went bad and had to be tossed, along with a lot of other product.

Speaking of eggs, make it make sense that I paid $9 for a dozen Eggland’s Best at the market, but a carton of eighteen organics at Sprouts went for $6.10.

No matter, half of the Eggland’s and all eighteen Sprouts had to be tossed because they were not safe to eat with no refrigeration for days.

The outage wasn’t all bad, as Friday’s bingo got cancelled, and there was enough sunlight streaming in during the day that I was able to work on that never ending needlepoint project.

When the light dimmed, I used a booklight to get some reading done, and I was able to entertain myself late night by watching TikTok on the cellphone — sound silenced with Beats by Dr. Dre Bluetooth earbuds so as not to disturb my downstairs neighbor.

The worst was all the product from the fridge I had to toss, no garbage disposal, no paper shredder, no vacuum, too cold and windy to put in any walking miles.

We received notice power would not be restored until Monday …… something about having to check every wire.

I emailed back, "Check faster".

The powers that be must have heard me, because power restored, and I’m back online as of 3:30 this afternoon, blogging and furiously charging everything that needs to be charged just in case we’re off again.

All in all, it was an interesting adventure and good practice for when you know who starts a war with Greenland or Canada or Panama or Mexico, or all four, and the power grid is attacked/gets taken out, resulting in no power for any of us in the Americas.

Fifth of Halloween Outage

Today got off to a rough start.

The maintenance power outage that was postponed a few weeks ago, because of all the fires in the area and triple digit heat, was rescheduled for 9:00 pm last night.

We’re once again experiencing triple digit heat, the line fire is amazingly only 79% contained — still not the opportune time for a power outage, but I figured it would be cooler at night, I could manage without a fan or A/C until power was restored at 4 am this morning.

Except ………… when I awoke up at 6 am, power had not been restored; and, as the weather began edging to the estimated 102° predicted for today, the heat in my unit became unbearable, as the power company extended the end first to 5 am (it was already 6, so obviously that estimate had passed), then to 8 am, then 9 am, then 10.

By that time, I couldn't breathe, felt faint and worse of all, the makeup was melting from my face, so I evacuated the premises.

Outside was a lot more manageable than inside. So, I sat in the car, got a nice cross breeze by opening the windows, and there I meditated and then watched a few more episodes of Bridgerton on the cell phone.

The next alert indicated power would be restored at 12 noon.

Of course, I didn’t believe it, continued living in the car until, at 12:08, I received the power restored alert.

Those few hours I was inconvenienced gave me a deeper understanding of what people who have lost power for weeks/months, due to varying disasters, go through.

It wasn’t fun.

Can’t have been too much fun for Trainer and Liquor Store Owner either because, when the power went out at 9 pm last night, the area was in total darkness. I mean pitch black. No lights, no electronics working ……… that included security cameras.

The guys figured the lack of security cameras and total darkness would be an opportune time for the bad guys to return for another break-in, so they slept in their businesses.

I’ll find out, at Monday’s workout, how they enjoyed sleeping over, and how disruptive it was that the 4 am restoration time was not met.

On another note, my bloody Halloween workout tee arrived.

No sleeves, and the stretchy cotton/polyester blend is perfect for this weather.