What is Wrong with People???

Along with everything else going around, there appears to be an epidemic of rude behavior.

Pulling into the gas station yesterday, assessing there was no need to mask up, as I could see through the window only two customers roaming around inside, none at the counter, I entered maskless, stood at the counter, waited while the attendant set up pizza in the microwave.

He approached the counter, asked how he could help me but, before I could say $30 on No. 6, he began coughing.

Though he put his head down, did not cough towards my face, I nevertheless began taking steps backwards, away from him.

Whereupon, after done coughing, he took both hands and laughingly, with a backhand sweeping motion, began waving his germs towards me.

What is wrong with people!!!???

Needless to say, I was not amused.

I turned around, walked out but, if he thought he’d so offended me that I was leaving, he thought wrong.

I went to the car, dawned my mask, walked back in, requested $30 on No 6 to his now somber looking face.

He couldn’t see me laughing behind the mask at his discomfort at seeing me so pointedly exiting, returning all masked up, but maybe he could read the amusement in my eyes.

She who laughs last laughs best.

I feel for the customer that ordered that pizza.

Gas station pizza is precarious eating at best and totally dangerous eating when handled by a guy who’s not wearing gloves, switches to the cash register where he handles coins and dollar bills, thinks it’s funny to wave his germs at a customer and then returns to removing the pizza from the microwave.

Because Friday is the Day After Thanksgiving, the Office closed, the Community Room unavailable to us seniors, this week’s Bingo Friday has been moved to tomorrow ……… Monday.

Monday and bingo on the same day!!!! All I need to make the start of the week extra challenging is rain.

As Trainer is taking no days off for the Thanksgiving Holiday and my workout days (M W F) don’t fall on the actual holiday, after I get through tomorrow, the remainder of the week is a regular week for me …… except for a trip out of the area for the latest covid booster.

Don’t yell at me, but I’m late getting this shot because I wasn’t planning on getting vaccinated again because of problems I’ve had with skin rashes ever since I began with the vaccinations. However, wanting to get a look at the new baby next month, I’m taking the precaution.

Besides, with no help from the medical professionals, through trial/error I’ve discovered the cure for what had been plaguing me was organic castor oil and a homemade rice filled heating pad.

So, I'm not too worried about a reoccurrence, now that it's under control and can be handled so easily if necessary.

So anyway, looking at the news of holiday travel already in progress, I’m beyond happy not to be preparing for and facing that nerve racking drive to Long Beach this week.

I’ll be facing all that soon enough — next month, around Christmas.

Renewed and it Feels So Good

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He explained there was paperwork to be filled out.

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

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

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

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

DMV is now worse than my doctor’s office.

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

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

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

Redlands was booked up until late December!!!

Good grief!

I opted out of a backup appointment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity.

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

We were in Redlands.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cop Knock

We survived the weekend around here. No snow and it only rained for a little while Sunday night.

Though more rain is expected, the temperature is expected to jump from the 40°s to the 50°s, then the 60°s. So maybe sometime soon I’ll be able to bundle up, wear a pandemic mask to keep the icy air out of my throat, and log in some walking miles.

I felt comfortable that the sore throat, caused by having breathed in and/or swallowing icy air was responsible for my sore throat; the coughing to be my gut acting up but, to be on the safe side, used the In-Home Rapid Test the government had sent months ago.

All Clear.

If you’ve been watching the news, you know the mountain folks are still suffering, with more snow expected.

Though I did nothing, went nowhere over the weekend, I didn’t have to go or do to come up with interesting blog fodder because Red Light had some kind of a meltdown and posted it to Facebook.

In a 24-hour period, she posted a tirade of cryptic messages, in meme form, which seem to be directed at someone in particular.

My guess is she’s referring to the Talker, who was her BFF on the complex until they had a falling out back in September.

How one can become BFF with a neighbor — both within a few short months of moving in, is beyond me and not a good idea because, as I said before, there’s always drama when one gets too close to others. Which is why I opt to being friendly but keeping a wall around myself that few are allowed to gain entry beyond.

At any rate, Red Light’s passive aggressive manipulative "Hey look folks. I’m the victim here. Side with me" FB posts was my weekend entertainment.

Waking up yesterday morning, thinking this week looked to be quiet and uneventful, it was the unit underneath me that shook things up — figuratively and literally as the floor beneath my feet shook.

Long time readers will call the weird girl — the one I ignore, give her my dead eyes when we pass on the walkway because she was so cra cra and ugly back in 2017, when I tried to introduce myself, welcome her to the quad. Then subsequently showed just how cra cra she was by complaining to the office that I was disturbing her peace by bouncing a ball 3:30 A.M. most mornings when all I'm doing at that hour is sleeping.

At any rate, it was around 3:00 yesterday afternoon when I heard a loud banging on her door. "BAM! BAM! BAM!" so hard that the floor shook.

That didn’t sound like a welfare check knock. Sounded more like a knock intended to frighten the occupant inside, a cop knock.

Online at the time at the kitchen table, researching ways to get past the gross taste of greek yogurt because I read it’s good for helping to clear up my gut issues, I was up and at the kitchen window in a flash.

Couldn’t hear the voices, make out any conversations but, after a few minutes, I did hear the door close and saw a guy in an official looking uniform walk away with papers in his hands. He appeared to be accompanied by another big guy which I thought might be our Assistant Maintenance Guy, but wasn't sure as he appeared to also be in uniform, which our guys are generally not.

Did not specifically recognize either as a cop, but some kind of authority personnel.

Can only speculate as to what THAT was all about …… Banging meant to terrify, guys in uniforms, papers in hand …… could it be she’s being evicted?

Time will tell, but I hope not because I wouldn’t wish that on her.

Though she’s pissed me to not care for her — we’ll never be on friendly terms per se, she did thaw some of my coldness towards her when she turned over one of my packages that had been misdelivered to her lockbox a few weeks ago.

I guess my dead eyes and cold shoulder had frightened her to being too afraid to approach me directly. What she did was give to Next Door Neighbor, tell her to give to me and shared it’s not the first time she’d gotten my packages but that she had caught the error last time, while the mailman was still here, chased him down and made him put in the correct lockbox.

Appreciating her honesty, when our paths next crossed, instead of giving her the dead eyes/cold shoulder, I thanked her.

Since then, she smiles and says "Hi" to me.

I return the greeting, but reluctantly and continue to try to avoid her, because I don’t care how friendly she now wants to be, six years is too late. I’m not feeling it.

So now, I’m not only keeping an eye on the bad energy unit, I’m now also keeping eyes and ears on what’s going on in the unit beneath mine.

Trainer said I could write a book about neighbors here at the complex, and that each neighbor could be a chapter.

Plethora of Gnomes

Today was the wrong day to go to the craft store.

Running 40% and 60% off sales on Christmas items, the store was packed.

I think I’ll start back to wearing a face mask when out and about because, though I only saw three people wearing masks, two of the three coughed towards me which made me think what I could have been exposed to had they not been wearing masks, that I’d better do so just in case someone coughs my way who is NOT wearing one.

That’s how Twin 2 caught covid — some old biddy coughed directly in her face (on purpose I surmised) while Twin 2 was wearing a face shield but no mask.

I only had a few items to pick up today, but the store was so beautifully decorated, had so many cute things to see, that I roamed around looking and taking photos.

They had several checkout lanes, all looking to be a mile long and not moving because folks had so much in their carts.

After half an hour with no progress moving forward to the cashier, listening to Mariah Carey sing All I Want for Christmas is You, I abandoned my cart.

I’ll go back on Wednesday, when things have calmed down, because that coffee cup is calling me — even though I need another coffee cup like I need a hole in my head.

Mildred's Challenge today (Day 27) is "A song that breaks your heart".

There are two songs that never fail to turn, even those of us who have the hardest of hearts and/or no heart at all, into a crying sniveling mess.

One of which was Day 10’s John Michael Montgomery’s The Little Girl, covering the topics of drugs, alcohol, domestic violence and child neglect.

The other is The Christmas Shoes by a Christian group called New Song about a little boy counting out pennies at the counter to buy his mom a pair of shoes for Christmas. When the clerk tells him "Son, there's not enough here", the boy turns to the next person in line, asks if the shopper can help him buy the shoes because his mother had been sick for a while, there wasn’t much time, and he wanted her to look beautiful if she met Jesus that night.

This that I’m posting is not New Hope’s version, but a cover by an unknown singer because I like this singer’s voice better.

I’m meeting today’s challenge, but I caution that if you don’t want to be reduced into a crying sniveling puddle, best to pass on listening.

The 411

Topic of the rent increase was front and center at yesterday's bingo game.

We mostly laughed about the duplicity. Thought it hilarious that management finally did something nice for us, only to learn we were just being buttered up to make the rent increase a little more palatable.

It was ROFLMAO funny when some of the bingo players said they didn’t get notice of the increase attached to their doors the day after Summer Social, as I and others did. That, when they returned to their units AFTER the Social, the notice was waiting for them. Someone had snuck around, posted, while we were being distracted.

It's hilarious!

So anyway, as far as we can figure, the 411 is that … those of us who are not receiving aid have rent increases of $75 if we occupy a one bedroom, which is me, and $80 if in a two-bedroom unit.

Of those receiving aid (Section 8), not all have received rent increases. It’s unknown if they will be later notified or not receive increases at all.

Of those receiving aid (Section 8) that did receive notice — and we know of only one so far who copped to it, her increase is only $18 and, she says, not a hardship.

From the number of residents I saw going in/out of Assistant Manager’s Office while I was playing bingo, and who those residents were, I’m assuming they are the Section 8’s that received an increase for whom the increase will be a hardship.

They were probably in her office pleading their case.

Painted Rock Lady, who falls under the $80 increase because she gets no aid and has a two-bedroom, jokingly said she might have to find a Sugar Daddy to help her out.

At least I think she was joking but maybe not because, believe it or not, old gal in a walker with a breathing instrument has two male "friends" who frequently wine and dine her.

So, anyway, that’s the 411 on the rent increases.

By my calculations, I’ll be paying an additional $900 a year in rent. Which is not bad considering what’s happening elsewhere, so I’m not complaining.

One woman said, "We paid for that party".

She’s not wrong.

Whatever management paid out on that Summer Social for us is being recouped over and above.

Using that same logic, since I didn’t eat, I calculate I paid for these two Tiki Cups @$450 each.

You gotta laugh.

Today was my lucky day in bingo, even though I didn’t wear my lucky shirt.

Looking at the prize table, I’d spotted a little wallet that looked like a $100 bill and planned to go for if I won a game.

Won it on Game 3. 

Outside

Inside

The resident that used those cute buttons on her bingo cards is now using cute little rubberized hearts, flowers, stars.

Lastly ... What are the odds? Three of us turned up wearing animal print masks.

A Hard Pass

Trainer was making good natured fun of me yesterday. Calling me a human pincushion for having taken the Covid vaccinations and continuing to go masked in the studio. This is something he often does because he’s an anti-masker/anti-vaxxer.

When I said I had an appointment for the 2nd Booster this Saturday, he rolled his eyes, called me an addict and told me the story of how the grandmother of one of his clients is now experiencing ailments she never had before being vaxxed.

Trainer’s taunts and anti-point of view doesn’t bother or worry me. It takes all kinds to make a universe so, just like I tolerate my buddy Apache’s support of No. 45 — because I enjoy Apache as a person, I tolerate Trainer’s views because I like him, and his training is worth the risk of being in his non-vaxxed non-masked presence.

I humor him, continue to wear a mask, wipe down with disinfectant wipes at the end of the sessions and, yesterday, I poo pooed that grandmother story.

THEN, catching up on blogs last night I saw where Catalyst, over at Oddball Observations, experienced neuropathy after his 2nd Booster — which he described as “Severe nerve pain, coming/going in his feet leading to prolonged moaning and occasional screaming and cursing”.

That’s twice in one day. First the grandmother story and then Catalyst’s story.

Taking them as signs, I cancelled Saturday’s appointment.

I’m taking a hard pass on this 2nd Booster and any future vaccine shots. I'll take my chances on coming down with one of the variants, which doesn't appear to be as severe as Covid or vaccine side effects.

Speaking of cosmic signs, I’ve been dreaming quite a lot lately. My subconscious is working overtime.

I think I know what the dreams are alluding to, how they relate to what I’m experiencing in daily and family life — like that dream/nightmare I had a week or so ago about the dentist.

I’d surmised it was the result of being traumatized by that lying dentist, fearful now of future dental visits.

Wanting to verify I’d interpreted it correctly, I attempted to dig my dream manuals out of patio storage but, seeing that particular container of books is buried deep behind Christmas decorations and other heavy containers, I decided it wasn’t feasible until December — when Christmas decorations are moved out of the way for display.

When out of the area on Tuesday, passing a Barnes and Noble, I popped in, purchased 12,000 Dreams Interpreted. The book interprets it thusly: "To dream of a dentist working on your teeth suggests that you will doubt the sincerity and honor of someone you have dealings with".

BAM!

Pretty much what I thought that, because of Dr. C, I now have trust issues with dentists.

Last night’s dream/nightmare was a doozie.

It involved waking up to find that lamp, mentioned in the last post, had been moved from the window to right next to my bed so that, when I awoke, I bumped it, and it fell across me. No harm to me, but placed as it was to let me know someone had been there during the night.

My queen bed in real life was twin beds in the dream, with the lamp placed nearest to the bed I was sleeping in.

The dream continued with my grabbing a weapon, in case the intruder was still in the unit as I cautiously made my way to the front door and outside. Banging on Next Door Neighbor’s door, I had her call the police. They searched the unit, the closet, found no intruder but did see the patio door had been breached and shoe prints indicating someone had exited the unit through that area.

Would you believe that out of 12,000 Dreams Interpreted not one covers the topic of "intruder".

Seems I’ll have to wait until December, dig out my other manuals to figure that one out.

I’m also still waiting to see if those lottery tickets I purchased on double egg yolk day will pay off.

I had a Power, Mega, Super Lotto, paid $5.00 and won a whopping $5.00 back on two of the three.

Breaking even, I rolled the $5 into a scratch ticket which yielded nothing, but has been entered into the Second Chance Draw. So, there's still a slim chance the double yolks may yet pay off.

No sign of that Karen character since the day she saw me see her. Don't know if this is because I've not been fortunate enough to catch her when she's out, or whether she's not been out.

Maybe she's embarrassed at being seen scrounging for tree droppings.

President’s Day

No disrespect to Joe (it’s a tough job, somebody’s got to do it, but at least that somebody is no longer No. 45), but for me, it’s another Monday.

Woke up yesterday to find there were no eggs for breakfast in the refrigerator.

I was sure I'd restocked on my last trip and had plenty but, oh well, I made a quick run to the market and noticed the "mask required" signage has been removed. Now it’s just decal lettering next to the entry door saying masks are “suggested” if you’ve NOT been vaccinated.

I’m assuming the policy change is the result of the mask mandate having been rolled back to indicate those of us who are fully vaccinated are no longer required to mask up indoors.

Is it just me who now feels, with the wording of the policy change that, since I’m masked up, people assume I’m doing so because I’m NOT vaccinated?

It’s all so convoluted. No one knows who is vaxxed, who’s not, what’s safe, what’s not but no matter the mandate, it’s going to be masks and wipes for me until I get the all clear — however long that takes.

At least now, with the roll back, incidents of store employees enforcing the prior mask mandate being attacked will cease, but that won’t help the male and female Karens I’ve seen on TikTok and in the news who’ve already lost jobs, businesses, friends, put on a no-fly list, ruined their reputations and lives by acting the fool over being told to put a mask on.

Now that the Tyrant is gone, there’s chatter amongst the resident that there will be changes.

I doubt it because … what’s to change, except one thing different is that Head Maintenance Guy (HMG) is no longer locking and unlocking the mail center — a measure instituted by the Tyrant to put a halt to the constant break-ins.

After mail thieves managed to break in through every key lock, and other types of bars and locks installed as preventive measures, the only thing that worked was when HMG was given the duty to manually bar the security gate from the inside at 5:00 p.m. and manually unbar 9:00 a.m., Monday – Saturday.

I’m sure he got paid extra for it, and I’m equally sure his lazy arse didn’t like having the responsibility. There was even that bruhaha a few weeks ago when he failed to unlock, causing the mail carrier to turn around, leave without dropping mail off.

So, when on Friday, I ran into Next Door Neighbor and Church Lady complaining about having to once again use a key on the handle of the security gate, to gain entrance into the mail center, it didn’t come as much of a surprise that we’d gone back to what did not work before.

HMG probably did not even bother to ask No. 9 (the new manager) if he could no longer have to trouble himself with that responsibility.  My guess is he just stopped doing it.

Is it possible HMG is purposely setting No. 9 up for a fall?

She may not even be aware of all the prior break-ins and how the postal inspector people threatened to cease delivering to this property if management and Corporate didn't find a way to fix the problem.

After a few unsuccessful fixes, it got fixed, and now the fix is undone.

So long as the mail thieves don’t discover the change, we may not see this again.

But, if the mail thieves do come back and destroy the center again, No. 9 and HMG are gonna have a lot of splainin to do. Probably just No. 9, as HMG will throw her under the bus.

Free Stuff

Did you get your free N95 masks?

I popped into the drugstore after this morning’s workout and, while checking out, was asked, "Do you want your free three masks?"

I’d not paid much attention to the news that the government would be issuing N95’s for free distribution at various pharmacies, because I’m quite happy with my many bling masks, but thought why not, so I said yes.

I’ll keep them in the car for just-in-case situations.

I was thankful the clerk had asked because, in the short time I was at the register, their phone was ringing off the hook. It appeared to be people wanting to know if the masks were in.

Judging by the number of calls, their supply isn’t going to last long, nor will their patience at fending off phone calls.

I’d also registered, last week/week before, for the government’s free at-home testing thingies. Again, for a just-in-case situation.

Walking into the Pain Cave this morning, turned towards Trainer just inside the door, asking if he was okay — because he’d been in terrible pain on Wednesday due to a toothache, he said he was fine and then said, "Turn around".

Thinking I had something stuck to my back, I turned around, looked over my shoulder, asked what he saw, which was "Nothing. Turn around".

So, playing into whatever game he had going, I began turning full circle around and that’s when I saw it.

He’d relocated the treadmill for like the 6th or 7th time.

Running out of places to relocate the treadmill, he's now moving it around to where it once was. This time, where it was in July of last year, two moves ago — front of the studio, just inside the door.

From here ...

Overnight to here ...

It’s an okay position insofar as Feng Shui, because it faces the Wealth/Prosperity position, with the Family and Physical Health side to my left, and an open view to the outside on my right.

The move this time wasn’t just because he’s a Leo, moving things around because he can, but to get rid of the couch he’d located in this position — which couch seemed to encourage parents dropping their children off for the Kid Boxing Class to congregate on the couch, chitchat with each other, sometimes bring younger disruptive children with them.

Trainer’s thinking is no couch, no parents, no disruptive youngins — not to mention Omicron. So parents dropping off their children will now see a treadmill where the couch used to be and be encouraged to congregate elsewhere outside the studio.

Whether that works for him or not, after so many treadmill moves, I have no doubt there will be a 7th or 8th move. He can't help himself :-)

Persona Non Grata, Part 2

How do you like the new facemask I ordered?

I was inspired to purchase it when all was said and done with granddaughter, the baby shower, and her being cruel and disrespectful to Twin 2.

After granddaughter ran through the gamut of trying to justify her behavior towards Twin 2 through text messages to me, which messages I skimmed through, didn’t take seriously, chalked up as ravings of an I-have-to-be-right hormone raging pregnant woman and, thus, did not respond to; and after she conferred with her mom (Twin 1) who advised her to be the bigger person, granddaughter capitulated.

Twin 2 would be getting an invite to the baby shower, leaving me free to attend, open myself up to catching Omicron.

THEN later, she reversed that decision saying she feels Twin 2 is "controlling the narrative … manipulating you (me) to take her side".

Again, no reply from me because I’m not feeding the beast. However, if anyone is trying to manipulate me, it’s granddaughter herself.

Twin 2 is off licking her wounds, healing from her hurt, not texting or worrying or involving me further. While granddaughter is trying to bribe me with gifts.

First, it was that coffee cup. THEN, I received the most godawful looking tee.

First of all, it’s PINK and I don’t do pink.

Second of all, it’s not form fitting and I’m not interested in pimping it to fit, because it’s ugly and I don’t care for the assumed sentiment that I’d be so involved in her married life as to be spoiling her baby — sucked in by her baby.

I'm not a good liar, not good at faking it, so I had the devil of a time pretending to like it, be appreciative, so as to not hurt granddaughter’s feelings.

At any rate, it looks like the only one trying to manipulate me into taking sides is granddaughter.

The only "side" I’m taking is my own.

Everyone is grown now, so go …. live your lives and let me live what remains of mine in peace.

I don’t understand why granddaughter thinks that any mistakes Twin 2 might have made, when Twin 2 was there for her all those years her mom was not, warrant such disrespect. However, I do know that I myself had been around the block with granddaughter in the self-same way Twin 2 now is — vilified, back stabbed, burned near to ashes back when I relocated to Long Beach so she could finish school, keep her from being homeless when her mom was deep in her prodigal experience, had left granddaughter to fend for herself.

The way granddaughter talked to me, talked about me to others and treated me during that time broke my heart, took years to heal from, and though our relationship did eventually mend — because she sought for it to mend, it’s never been the same. Nowhere near as close as she thinks — me mostly going through the motions, doing my grandmotherly duties ... not because I necessarily wanted to, but because it was expected. I did a lot of people pleasing, pretending, being careful to not get sucked all the way in again.

So, when granddaughter texted about reversing her earlier decision, was back to NOT inviting Twin 2 and added, "If that upsets you and you don’t want to attend, I understand", I wasn’t upset at all. Instead, I felt free.

I don’t have to pretend any longer.

Most Dangerous Place

Help, I woke up to another Monday. That’s 2 down, 50 more Mondays to go this year.

As I’d predicted, things have been molasses slow around here. My activities are limited to cooking, cleaning, crafting, working out at the Pain Cave, grocery shopping. Good news is such limited contact with others reduces my risk of contracting what’s going around — except for the fact, it appears the market is the most dangerous place to be.

Week before, it was that guy on the phone in the market announcing, "I just tested positive for Covid".

A few days ago, it was a skinny meth head looking guy, no mask, coughing his guts out in the market.

I first observed him when he crossed in front of me and coughed as I was exiting an isle.

He was moving too fast, had a too intent a look on his face, and came across as a little too frantic when he looked this way, that way, as he passed the isle, craning his neck, looking for whatever it was he was looking for. It was his movements that led me to believe he was tweaking on some kind of drug.

He had tweaker skin as well — dressed normal, but skin greasy, grimy, blotchy AND coughing as he went along, with no mask and not the decency to cover his mouth when he coughed.

I froze before moving forward, when I should have backed up and exited elsewhere so as to not walk through his germs but, in retrospect, as I observed him coughing/super spreading his germs throughout the entire market as he went along, there was actually no place actually free of whatever he was spewing out.

Later, when I was in the checkout line, I heard him coughing in line behind me, but with enough other people for him to make sick between us that I didn’t have to worry about his coughing on me. Nevertheless, I turned and gave him a dirty look.

He noticed, but looked puzzled with his twitchy self — like do I know her? … why she looking at me?

Just completely oblivious to bringing attention to himself because he was being disgusting.

Noticing not one but two security guards on duty, wondering why they let the guy in like that — no mask AND coughing, when I got to the cashier I said, "That guy is coughing and has no mask. I thought they weren’t letting people in without masks".

She said something to the effect about a mask mandate not actually being in place, and they can’t make people wear them.

I replied, "Okay, but he’ll be coughing directly into your face pretty soon. So, good luck".

I’m seriously looking for a small spray disinfectant, something that would fit on my wrist, shoot out disinfectant like Spider Man shoots out his web.

When someone coughs anywhere near me in the market, I’ll hold up my wrist and pew pew disinfectant spray out before I move forward.

UPDATE: Just to make certain I was not mistaken, I drove by the market after this morning's workout to take a look, make sure "masks required" was posted.

Not only that but, off to the right, not in the photo, was the same message plastered to the market's window.

Monday Funday

It’s Monday again, but that’s okay this time around, because I need it to be Monday.

On Saturday, while driving to the booster shot location, I got an alert on the car that ALL tires were low, especially the rear driver side one.

Surprising, since I recently had the car serviced.

I suspect the mechanics did not rotate and check tires as requested.

Does no one do their job any longer?

Does no one these days care about work ethics?

I’m going to put fingernail polish on one of the tires so I can double-check they’ve been rotated next time, and have the tire pressure checked elsewhere to double check that as well.

So, anyway, the tire place was a hop skip jump from the vaccine location, so I pulled into the Air Check Section — hoping that’s all I needed … just air, and there wasn’t a slow leak problem in the rear driver side tire.

The kid pumping air said, "It’s probably just the cold weather".

"I’ll find out soon enough", said I. Thanked him for the service of bringing ALL tires up to 36 psi and said "Hopefully, I won’t be back soon".

No such luck because, after getting the booster, driving home, the car began telling me that left rear tire was already losing air.

Arriving back at the complex, I got online to set up an appointment to have the tire checked on Sunday, only to learn the place was closed Sunday. Which meant, I had to worry all the rest of the weekend that I’d have enough air in that tire to make it to this morning’s workout and the appointment I’d made at the tire place this afternoon.

For the first time, Monday couldn’t get here fast enough.

Going downstairs, checking the tire on Sunday, it was still at 35, so I was comfortable I’d make it to the tire place today. However, the car indicated the front driver side was also losing air.

How is this possible? Do I have two slow leaks?

I’ll find out as soon as I get to the tire place today.

Though I had stopped at the tire place on the way to the booster shot, I made it to the location right on the button 11:00 AM. Did not get my booster until 11:30, because it was a complete sh!t show, with a crush of people showing up for boosters. Some with appointments, some not.

And there was paperwork to be filled out because, even though paperwork had been submitted online, they’d been too busy to pull it up for those of us who had appointments.

Annoyed, I managed to remain cool calm collected in the midst of all the chaos, because I spent the time chatting with a Golden Retriever named Jonathan.

Jonathan was one of those who did not have an appointment, just showed up and was allowed to sign in. Jonathan also opted to pay out-of-pocket, which I overheard as $170.

WOW!

I had no idea these shots were costing that much.

Jonathan opted to pay because, as he put it — even though he has Medicare, he didn’t want to use it. That every time we use that card, instead of cash, we’re giving out information. That the government and other agencies track that information — learn what we like, where we go, what we do.

I said I didn’t mind that because all the government would see is me at home, working on my laptop, watching TV or crafting. LOL.

Jonathan said, wherever possible, he pays cash and keeps all his important information on his cell phone, including a digital vaccine record — which he showed me and instructed on how to get mine, so I don't have to rely on the paper version.

I made a joke that, if all his important information is on the phone, he’d better not lose that phone; but I’m pretty sure data on a phone can be tracked just as easily as a card.

Am I wrong?

I gathered Jonathan is financially comfortable, well off, because he said he’d opted to pay $400 cash for another procedure (I can’t remember which), instead of using his card.

When I expressed $400 was a lot of money, when he could have gotten the service free with his card, he brushed 400 off as "nothing", which is why I deduced he’s well off.

I know what you’re thinking ... that Jonathan was trying to impress or come onto me, but I didn’t get that at all. He was just this nerdy little Golden Retriever who seemed to sense I was open, he could talk to me, and I’d not think him weird or be judgmental of what he had to say.

What did strike me as strange is that he’s being super careful, to avoid being tracked, by not leaving footprints — doesn’t want what he does, where he goes out there in the open for prying governmental eyes. But then, he revealed to me, a complete stranger that could have been a spy, where he goes, what he does. 

His job is “fixing computers”, work that has him travelling all over the country. He doesn’t trust air travel, so he drives everywhere — his next stop being Hilton Head. He recently had a diabetes count of something like 170, which frightened him into changing his eating habits. He no longer eats bread, starchy foods, is mostly vegan and measured that day at 80.

He has an implant in his right arm, that allowed him to take out some little device, hold it to his arm, and check his level.

At any rate, it was an interesting chat while waiting for the booster.

Unlike Moderna 1 and 2, which shots made me weak, I've had no adverse reaction to the booster, other than itching and puffiness at the injection site. So, no problem working out this morning, then driving back to the tire company.

Last chance. Voting ends tomorrow.

Speaking of CNN and not leaving footprints ... how stupid was Chris Cuomo to leave a trail of emails that indicate he used his connections to gather information against his brother's accusers.

He's a news personality, or was until yesterday's firing, and thus, of ALL people, should have been aware of the past scandals discovered because email was used to transmit this that the other.

Every time his handsome face pops up on the news, with word of his firing, I shake my head.

Unbelievably Stupid!