One of These Things is Not Like the Other

It wasn’t until I returned from running errands on Saturday, and kicked off my shoes, that I noticed something was wrong with the outfit I’d been out and about in that day.

Do you see it?

Hopefully my bright red lipstick detracted folks from looking down at my footwear.

These senior moments are coming more frequently. I had two such moments on Saturday. First was wearing mismatched shoes then, later that day, I found myself searching the unit for my keys, with no success. Something told me to check the front door.

Sure enough, there they were, just waiting for someone to come along, enter while I’m asleep, pillage and plunder or drive off with the Jeep or both.

I guess the lesson that day was to slow my thinking down, pay attention to what I’m doing, stay in the moment.

Linda in Kansas aka DrumMajor was interested in the recipe I used a few days ago for Mini Monkey Bread which, unlike the last time I tried to make Monkey Bread, was a success.

That last time was back in 2015, when I followed the Pioneer Woman’s recipe to take Pull Apart Monkey Bread as my dish for the Valentine’s Day Potluck.

It was an epic fail — the dish came out soggy, not cooked all the way through, so I was forced to contribute Girl Scout Cookies to the potluck instead.

Since then, with my food allergies — which have plagued me since age 18, becoming increasingly worse to where my system can now not tolerate whole wheat and high-fiber flours, Monkey Bread has been off the menu. That is, until I recently came across a recipe for Monkey Bread made with white rice flour.

I gave it a try, but instead of baking in a bundt or loaf pan, as the Frugal Farm Wife’s recipe calls for, I made Minis by baking in a cupcake pan.

Into the muffin tins I dropped teaspoons of dough, followed by drops of filling and continued layering dough/filling until dough and filling were depleted.

Soft on the inside, with pockets of filling throughout, sugary and crispy on the outside, snackalicious with a cup of coffee.

Around 5:00 today, about the time I figured Kendrick Lamar would be performing at the Superbowl, I quickly switched channels, checked in to see if it was Halftime yet.

It wasn’t, but I did see the score and it looked like the Chiefs were getting their arses kicked.

I tuned in about 45 minutes later, just in time to catch the Halftime Show, which was great — I liked the red, white, blue theme, could have done without Samuel L. Jackson, and I’m sure some of Kendrick's songs ruffled the correct feathers, not to mention the patriotic colors.

(I guess Kendrick did indeed ruffle feathers, because the pundits are saying "worst halftime ever". No, that would be Rihanna's snoozefest back in '23.)

According to the score I saw, before I went back to my regularly scheduled programs, the Chiefs were getting creamed.

Now flipping channels, seeing the game is over, and Kansas City was slaughtered, I’m wondering if Kelce would like to eat his words that it would be "pretty cool" and "a great honor" if the Orange Menace were in attendance, because it looks like the Menace brought the team bad luck, not to mention he doesn’t like what he calls "losers".

My Box Runneth Over

My mailbox that is.

I’ve been stewing for over a week because the post office's Informed Delivery Notification system showed a red top I’d ordered had been delivered, but I never received it.

Jumping to the conclusion the postal carrier had messed up, placed my package in the wrong box and the resident receiving had decided to keep rather than turn over (it’s happened more than twice here), I decided I’d had enough of dishonest people and planned to keep an eye out for someone on the property wearing my top.

I visualized myself approaching the individual, say "Nice top, but you do know it’s stolen". Ask if they are the one that received all the other misdelivered items.

I wouldn’t want the top back. Just to embarrass the culprit, let the person know I was onto her.

Along with stewing over the missing top, I began obsessing that the postal carrier might misdeliver my Luigi Mangione candle, due to arrive any day.

Informed Delivery notification indicated today is the day Luigi would arrive. So, after this morning’s workout, I headed straight for the mail box and found the box filled to the brim, stuffed and spilling over.

When was the last time you checked mail? I thought to myself and figured it to have been December 27.

The holidays really messed me up. There was just too much going on during, shortly after, then came the outages. So somehow, I just totally forgot to pick up mail.

So anyway, Luigi arrived safe and sound.

Also in the box was that red top Informed Delivery indicated had been delivered, but I was stewing over having not received. It had been sitting in the mailbox all along.

Tax info in the box reminded me it’s tax season, so I’ve got that to take care of and fortunately, my utilities are automatic payments, so I wasn’t in danger of any shutoffs because I didn’t see the bill in the mailbox. (That too has happened. My renter’s insurance got cancelled because, even though I did pull the bill from the mailbox, I put it aside and forgot. Oh well).

Also in the mail I picked up today was a nice surprise gift from blog friends Dawn and Princess T.

Thanks Ladies!

Today is no bingo Friday, so I won’t see any residents to find out if they saw Bicycle Boy on the property yesterday.

However, heading to this morning’s workout I caught a quick glimpse of a favorite couple of mine, driving in traffic on their motorized wheelchairs, headed to the bus stop.

Winds now gone, safe to drive on the freeway, I'm off to the tire place tomorrow to check on a slow leak. Then See's Candy to medicate myself into an I Don't Care frame of mind to get me through knowing that not only one, but two of my favorite country western music favorites (Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts) have gone over to the dark side, will be performing at the inauguration.

I won't be watching, but just knowing they've sold out, put money and getting in with the ruling class over personal integrity, is disappointing.

My Dysfunctional Family

Trainer and I had an argument this morning.

I don’t recall what we were talking about, but the argument started when he said something about today being Friday.

"Today is not Friday, it’s Monday", said I.

"No it’s not. Today is Friday".

"No it’s not", I insisted.

"Yes it is", he insisted.

We went back and forth until I told him to "Stop trying to confuse me!". Whereupon he asked the fighters in the other room to come in for a moment.

With all three standing at attention, waiting to see what their Coach had to say, he asked "What day is today?".

All three responded "Friday".

"She thought I was messing with her when I told her today was not Monday".

They all got a good laugh as I conceded, today must be Friday.

Senior moment number nine hundred ninety-nine.

I don’t know about you, but I will be so glad with the holidays are over and I go back to my regular routine, which I pretty much know by rote.

There seems to be some interest in how I ended up with an 18 year old great granddaughter I never knew I had.

The story of how the trip to Disneyland with granddaughter and the great grandbabies, and the Christmas Eve trip to tour Mission Inn’s Festival of Lights, again with granddaughter and the great grandbabies, also included a newly acquired 18 year old great granddaughter, goes like this ………

Granddaughter has a sister, a granddaughter to me who was lost to the world at an early age. Family members are not in actual contact with her, but word has reached us over the years that she gave birth to a son and because of her "issues" that son, against her wishes, was adopted away from her.

Trust me when I say, it was in the best interest of the child.

I never heard that she later also gave birth to a daughter, who was also taken from her, adopted out.

I became aware of the new great granddaughter back in August, when granddaughter contacted me to say she’d been contacted by her sister's daughter (news to her as well that she had a niece).

I’m not clear on whether the new great granddaughter knew she was adopted. However, after I met her, asked how she found us, I concluded she must have at some point learned she’d been adopted.

Again, I'm not clear on whether she was looking, or it just happened that she ran across paperwork with Twin 1’s name.

She researched Twin 1’s name, found her on social media.

Seeing the resemblance, she was hesitant to contact, find out for sure if related and how when she saw Twin 1 was quite famous due to her work for the homeless.

Telling me she thought to herself Twin 1 "Has so many followers, she’ll never pay attention to a message from me", she took a chance, posted something on Twin 1’s social media page.

Twin 1 responded, confirmed the relationship (grandmother), gave new great granddaughter the names of us all, put new great granddaughter in contact with granddaughter (aunt) and she has since met the boys (uncles) Twin 2 (great aunt) me.

New great granddaughter even researched and found her father, met and spent time with her mom (the extra special dysfunctional one in our dysfunctional family), which turned out to be a mistake new great granddaughter likely won’t repeat.

The rest of us appears to be a breath of fresh air for new great granddaughter, because the woman who adopted her is "Super religious", which has somewhat stifled new great granddaughter's normal natural propensities.

"Super religious" in that, when new great granddaughter began to show an interest in the spirit world and occult sciences, which is as natural as breathing to the rest of us, the super religious lady took her to the hospital, thought she’d become psychotic. ROFLMAO, but not really funny to make that child think something was wrong with her.

It was the same for me growing up. Mom and other family members thought something was wrong with me because I didn't think like they thought.

I wasted a lot of years trying to conform, was miserably unhappy until, in my early 20's I had a revelation ……… there's nothing wrong with me, they are the ones who are crazy and completely turned my miserable existence around by turning off the noise coming from others in the family as to what I should do, how I should act, began making my own decisions.

New great granddaughter tells me that when she was led to Tarot Cards, began collecting, realized she could read them, actually became a reader for those who requested, the super religious one saw it as devil’s work and tossed the cards in the trash.

New great granddaughter obtained new cards and hides them.

This dysfunctional side of the family has embraced new great granddaughter.

When she told me the super religious one had taken her in for psychotic care because she doesn't think like her adopted family thinks, I said, "Aint nothing wrong with you girl. It’s in the blood" and asked her to give me a reading, which she did very well.

For Christmas, her great aunt (Twin 2) gifted her with a set of Tarot Cards, which she undoubtedly will have to hide from the super religious one.

When asking about how her life has been, it’s been okay, normal, no complaints other than having to stifle her spiritual occult side because she lives with super religious church people.

She just graduated from high school and wants to go into nursing.

On the 12th Day of Christmas

I’m beginning to worry about me because, since last Friday, I’ve had three senior moments.

First was when, cleaning out the car at the coin car wash, I tossed the second pair of trekking poles that turned out to be useless.

The first sets I purchased wouldn’t tighten. Returned ‘em.

The second set tightened, but kept coming loose and collapsing. I made ‘em work by using crazy glue, but the glue didn’t hold for long.

The third set were keepers — got me through the rough terrain of the Mission Inn 5K. So, cleaning out the car at the coin wash on Friday, seeing the useless second set still in the car, I tossed them in the trash, went on my way.

A day later, when I went to use one pole from the third set, because I felt a little unsteady on my feet, I realized I’d toss the wrong ones — the third set of poles instead of the useless second set.

Next senior moment was when I addressed the Talker by another resident’s name.

Third senior moment was when I arrived at the dentist this morning for my 10:00 cleaning, only to learn my appointment is for 10:00 Thursday not today, Tuesday.

Luckily for me the 10:00 cancelled, so they were able to take me in her place.

I caught a break and it worked out for me but, with three senior moments so close together, I’m thinking I need to slow down. I’m closing in on 80 years of age and need things to slow down.

A meditation retreat would be appreciated — not like at that cold dreary location where a session was held last year, but something at the beach, like was held back in 2018.

I'm not holding out hope for such a session, as the seers/gurus/spiritual teachers have passed on. So, meditation retreats are now as rare as in-person live 5Ks are becoming.

Things will slow down tomorrow, as that’s the day we have a power outage for maintenance. However, Trainer’s Wife tells me they had the planned outage at their place last Wednesday, and 8:00 to 11:00 am turned out to be 8:00 to 3:00 pm.

So, with no TV and TikTok to distract me after tomorrow’s workout, I may be able to finally finish reading The In-Between get started on The Old Gays.

Though I really hate having to go to the dentist, the fact that Umbrella Alley is at the backside of the office made me feel a little better about having to go.

I offered to take a photo for the couple and they accepted, so that’s my good deed for the day.

Happy Columbus or Indigenous People’s Day

My trust and belief is in the Native American version of who discovered what but either way, it’s still a Monday.

No tea to report coming out of Friday’s bingo because I got my days mixed up. Bingo isn’t until this coming Friday.

I’ve been doing that a lot lately … getting my days mixed up. Which confusion can easily be avoided by checking my daily planner but, thinking I know what I’m doing, I forget to check it.

Oh well, there being no bingo this past Friday was a gift because, after that morning’s workout, I was so stiff and sore that I probably would not have made it down to the Community Room.

Trainer not only continued with incline training that day but had me doing pull ups for a full body workout in between sets.

It’s not as easy as it looks and, when I say full body, I mean FULL BODY. The movement is designed to reach and tone everything everywhere — ergo, stiff and sore.

Trainer has also warned me to not expect the treadmill to be in the same location when I show up this morning.

I’ve lost track of how many times the treadmill has been relocated, but whatever.

Over the weekend, I spotted Karen out gleaning the grassy knoll for tree droppings.

I didn’t see her cat, which means she’s complying with management having pointed out complaints and possibility of a lease violation for allowing her cat out without a leash.

I did notice she’s dyed her hair black.

Big mistake.

The dark color makes her look like the witch she is.

After more years of being dormant than I can remember, it appears my metabolism has mysteriously returned to life.

It was a few weeks ago, seeing my leggings sagging a little in the butt area, I decided to get on the scale. Lo and behold, I was down pounds and inches when I took my measurements. This morning’s scale check indicates weight is continuing to fall off.

However, looking at the down to skin and bones condition of my legs, I’m wondering if I’m losing too much weight.

But seriously, I was planning to wear skeleton leggings to the upcoming 5K. However, this purchase was misleading — they are not leggings, they are stockings and arrived with a run in them, so I’ll be returning these and participating costume less unless I can get skeleton leggings elsewhere, quick fast in a hurry.

Waste Not Want Not

Senior moment alert. I got my activity days mixed up.

Activity Director’s bingo is not until next Tuesday. Today was Pizza Tuesday.

I didn’t discover my confusion until I went down to pick up mail, began walking through the office area and saw Activity Director sitting in one of the offices.

Continuing on to the Community Room, I saw it was empty, rechecked the calendar and learned this is the Tuesday tables should have been laden with pizzas — only the tables were bare.

So long story short, Bingo is not until next week, and I’ve no idea why there were no pizzas for the seniors today.

Sucks for them, but it just so happened I’d picked up supplies at the market yesterday to try a recipe for a pizza crust made from brown rice flour which, though labeled the deadly five-letter word my gut can't handle — flour, is not that kind of flour and should be safe for me (it was).

After rolling out the dough onto the pan, I had a tad bid of extra dough. Waste not want not ran through my head, so I used it to make a mini pizza.

Both are topped with cherry tomatoes, kale, jalapenos, red bell peppers and leftover BBQ chicken.

It’ll be pizza for lunch and dinner today, breakfast (with an egg), lunch, dinner tomorrow.

Wild Animal Kingdom

Last Monday started off with a gas leak. This Monday started off with chaos of another sort.

First off, the weekend went by so fast that I didn’t even realize it was over. Waking up around 6:15 this morning, I carried on as I would on a typical Sunday — screw around, do nothing, read blogs, only to hear the alarm on the phone go off at 7:00.

Why is the alarm going off on a Sunday, thought I.

I only set the alarm to go off on Monday, Wednesday, Friday as a reminder it’s a workout day.

Good thing I do because the alarm caused me to rethink what day it was. I suddenly realized Oh Nooooo! Today is Monday, not Sunday, I’d better get going — make the bed, run bath water, start breakfast, tune into Good Morning America.

Having sorted all that out I went about my business until I spotted a lizard (geico) sunbathing on the edge of my patio.

As previously posted, the lizard population around here is out of control. They’re lining the walkways and rarely can be motivated to move out of the way when I approach, prompting me to turn around, walk in a different direction.

On day, walking back up the stairs, I was startled into almost falling backwards by a lizard relaxing on the steps.

Those tiny little dinosaurs are hideously ugly and not a creature I appreciate being all over the place.

Over the last two days, I’ve twice seen a lizard on the wall by Next Door Neighbor’s patio, making its way to the roof and, around 9:00 this morning, I spotted one relaxing on my patio wall.

Can’t have that. Far too close to slipping inside, so I tried to encourage it to leave by banging on the wall.

It didn’t budge.

Grabbing a water bottle, I tried to spritz water to encourage it into leaving.

That noise you heard was the patio screen being knocked off its hinges as I tried to quickly slam the screen shut so the lizard couldn't get inside. It’s down, a plant got tipped over, but at least the lizard is no longer on the patio ledge. He’s on the roof somewhere.

Damn lizards, terrorizing me.

My attempts at getting the screen back on its tracks have failed so, no fresh air for me — with the patio window open, but the screen letting in air while blocking outside pests, unless and until I can get the maintenance guys to fix it for me.

I walked down and put in a work order with Assistant Manager but, a downed patio screen is not the level of emergency a gas leak taking down the building was, so I'm thinking I'll be old and gray before maintenance gets around to fixing it.

I took the long way around heading back to my unit, so I could check on that black box/lock.

It's still there, but someone has paid a visit to the unit since last I checked, because the blinds are now completely closed.

Senior Moment

Putting the Santa Claus doormat back in storage New Year’s Day, pulling out my regular Kokopelli mat, I saw it was looking ratty.

What with wind, rain, direct sunlight, doormats don’t look pretty for very long, and a ratty looking entry way is bad chi, so I went searching for a new one.

I would have liked another Kokopelli, but it was no longer available, so I ordered a mat called Pueblo Choir, because it had a lot of red in it, and a red doormat is good chi.

Then, a few days ago, looking at the Kokopelli door mat, it occurred to me that I needed to get rid of it, purchase a new one. So, I went searching — completely spazzing out on having already done so until the Pueblo Choir mat arrived late Monday night.

I even actually came close to ordering the exact same Pueblo Choir when I went looking for a mat that second time, but ended up ordering Black Boots.

Not much red in it, but enough.

Once I realized I’d double-ordered, I tried to cancel the boots mat, but the cancellation window had closed. I can either return it in-store when it arrives or put it away until I next need a new doormat.

It might not be available next time I need to order, so I think I’ll put it in storage, stockpile for later.

Heading for the trash bin yesterday, with the ratty doormat, I ran into Church Lady.

I'd seen her heading down the walkway a few days ago, so stooped over as to almost be bent in half, and became worried about her.

Church Lady and I are the same age, our birthdays just days apart.

Not sure if her stoop is the result of continuous bad posture, or carrying the weight of all the no no’s and thou shall not's she lugs around on her shoulders, or a spinal thing, I’d wondered if I should inquire next time I ran into her outside, ask if she was seeing a doctor, but then decided not.

I don’t need any more people in my life to worry about.

So, chatting with her, I avoided the subject of her health, just listened to her talk about this that the other.

It was Pizza Tuesday, but she said Pizza was cancelled because, as the Tyrant told her, "Omicron is running rampant through the complex".

Being as how I see so few wearing masks, I’m not surprised.

She also warned me to be careful because “a strange man had been pounding on D’s (the assault victim) door late one night”.

If that’s the lie D is trying to sell — that she didn't know who the guy was, well then sure, okay. I’ll play along.

Church lady also said her "unit is falling apart". I didn’t ask details but assume the Tyrant is not fixing things — same as with me. Difference is, I badger until it gets done; but most here are frightened, too intimidated to complain for fear of being kicked out.

It’s terrible to be old, living in fear, but that seems to be the general demeanor among residents — don’t make waves, don’t complain.

I don’t want to get kicked out either, because the cheap rent is such a gift, but that doesn’t stop me from pushing for days, weeks, months, in some case years (that formerly malfunctioning smoke detector), until it gets done.

At any rate, when Church Lady said she was headed over to Jan’s unit to sit for a while, and I said I was taking the doormat to the dumpster, she asked what was wrong with it.

"Tired looking and worn" said I, to which she said looked good to her and asked to have it.

Fine by me. It’s infused with my good energy, so maybe it will bring her luck.

Veteran’s Day

The realization that today is Veteran’s Day made me think of the vets we have here on the property, and it hit me that one is missing.

The vet I’m thinking of — whose wife I’ve never seen, because she’s an invalid, generally can be seen out walking his German Shepherd.

Now realizing, I’ve not seen him since around July is giving me pause.

I’ll have to catch up with one of the guys, ask if he moved.

Word on the grapevine is that the bank on the corner, across from the market, was robbed on Tuesday by someone welding a shotgun. “Got away clean …. Cops everywhere”.

I didn’t leave the unit on Tuesday, and heard no sirens.

Curious as to details, I’ve searched local news and there’s nothing, but I did see on the bank’s website, that it was “Temporarily Closed” and, checking the site this morning, is still temporarily closed.

Trainer said he actually saw the aftermath — all the cops, but was not in the studio during the time of the robbery.

Can you imagine how desperate someone has to be to walk into a bank with a shotgun and rob the place?

Fortunately, as far as I know, no one was harmed.

My mom was once inside a bank when it was being robbed.

I don’t remember all the details, whether customers were told to hit the ground or ordered to stay in place, but I do recall my mom saying she kept her hands up in the air and had blurted out, “Oh lordy, I’m so scared”. ROFLMAO!

Sorry, not something to laugh at, but the idea of my mom blurting out that line just cracks me up.

Rather than drive out of the area and return to the location I’d gotten Shot 1 and Shot 2, just in case I had a bad reaction, I had plans to get my Booster at the corner drugstore — where I could just walk back home.

Scheduled for tomorrow, or so I thought, I’d had to jump through hoops to schedule the appointment — fill out multiple online forms, answer all kinds of health and vaccine questions, provide doctor information, but I got ‘er done.

THEN, granddaughter called this morning to see if the only reason I’d declined her mom’s invitation to Thanksgiving was because her brothers are not vaccinated.

You read that right, the grandsons are NOT vaccinated.

Why not? , you ask.

Because they’re jackasses and, like I’ve said before, egotistical, think what they think, what they feel, what they want and that’s that.

At any rate, long story short, granddaughter is hosting Thanksgiving at the home she and hubby just closed on and, thinking about the safety of her unborn son, thinking about my not coming because of the boys’ non-vaccinated status, and the safety of others invited, the boys have been told they are not invited to Thanksgiving.

They gone be mad, but it's time they learned the world does not revolve around them.

So looks like I’ve another road trip, hotel stay, and meal planning session coming up, because I have to be so careful about what I eat.

It will also be my first time meeting the in-laws.

So, anyway, after that conversation with granddaughter, something urged me to check my Booster appointment.

I learned I’d had a senior moment and somehow not booked for tomorrow, but for a Friday in December.

The drugstore had no appointments for November.

So, maybe it wasn't my fault. Maybe I'd assumed I was booking in November, when the site actually had me in December.

No matter, I cancelled and scheduled for Saturday out-of-the area, at the location I’d had my other shots, and didn't have to go through the hoops required for the drugstore appointment.

Hopefully, I’ll not have a bad reaction and can drive myself back.

Young People Everywhere

Waking up this morning, laboring under the assumption today was Saturday, I saw Robin and George were hosting Good Morning America. There was a moment when I thought Odd, they don’t usually host weekends, but then went on with my morning ritual.

Since it was Saturday, and the weather looked good for walking, I suited up and headed to the college campus to put in a few miles.

Seeing what looked to be students walking towards the campus, and more cars than usual on the road headed that way, Must be something special going on, ran through my head. Should be a good day for taking photos of whatever it is.

Coming up on the entrance, seeing the parking lot full of cars, it suddenly dawned on me  — today is not Saturday ... it's only Tuesday ... classes are in session.

Oh well, I’m here, said I to myself. So, I pulled into where I usually park on Saturdays, checked around to see if anyone looked like they were putting tickets on cars that did not have a parking sticker.

Not seeing parking enforcement, I figured I could do a quick mile and a half, be back before parking enforcement got around to my car — if parking enforcement still existed, which it did before the pandemic.

Walking a loop that logged in at 1:39 miles, 3,583 steps (way short of 10,000, Mike), I arrived back at the car — no ticket.

This thinking today was Saturday turned out to be a fortuitous error. Now that I know I can walk the campus during the week, when class is in session, lots of people around, no safety worries, I’ll be doing weekday walks more often, while this good weather holds up  — Tuesdays and Thursdays at least, relax at home on Saturdays.

Kale for Breakfast

Running across a recipe for a breakfast dish of kale, egg, bacon — when I wasn’t even searching for such, but thinking it a great idea, I gave it a try this morning.

A                                   B

Delicious, satisfying, but which photo do you think is the one from the recipe, which breakfast salad is the one I made? 

Two more days before I’m Back in the Pain Cave — today and tomorrow, and I’m making the most of these days.

First errand of the day was to the mall, where I returned a pair of leggings that were not what I’d expected them to be, lucked up on a pair that suited me better — even though the last thing I need to add to my wardrobe are more leggings.

At any rate, pulling up to curbside parking, I gathered my quarters for the meter, walked up to the meter, but couldn’t find the coin slot. Took me a second to realize coins are out, credit cards are in.

I’ve never seen such a thing before. Have you?

I wasn’t about to risk my credit card, so I did a U-turn and parked in the free lot, in front of the Halloween store.

Walking past the Halloween store, I caught movement out the corner of my eye, looked over and ....

Scared the bejesus out of me, but honestly … if I lived in a house, I’d put it on the porch as a surprise for trick-or-treaters. Maybe put the candy in a bucket in front of creepy guy, to see who's brave enough to go for it.

The next window was a desk with books. Curious to know what ghosts and goblins read, I was trying to read the book titles when GASP!

Do you see it? (You may have to click twice to get the two above videos to play)

Moving on to take care of what I’d come to do — return an item, the young woman at the desk opened the packet, informed me I was at the wrong store.

Of course, the correct store was in a different mall, so off I drive a few miles to the indoor mall — where I made the return, saw the leggings that suited me better, bought those then, inasmuch as I was indoors, where it was cool, decided to test out my walking legs.

Discovered my waking legs are in poor shape.

Having not trained in over a year has had an impact.

After about a mile and a half, my knees began to hurt and my legs felt wobbly, which tells me it was probably a good idea that, over the weekend, I came to the conclusion the hotel stay in Redondo Beach, in order to participate in a 5K, was not a good idea. I cancelled the hotel, ate the 5K registration fee and opted not to register for the virtual.

When the weather cools down, I may have to risk the crazies and get back to walking the neighborhood, and the University grounds, to get my walking legs back.

If all goes as planned, tomorrow’s errand is the Jeep’s annual service — the third annual service since purchasing in February of 2018, with only 12,000 miles to date — which breaks down to about 4,000 miles a year.

I need to get out more often, but don’t want to.

Also, over the weekend, I finally caught a glimpse of the new neighbor that moved across the quad into Sue’s old unit.

It’s been seventy-five days since she moved in, and though I never caught sight of her until Saturday, I figured we had something in common when I saw she’d decorated the ledge of her patio with two wooden Thai figurines similar to the two I inherited from the Pain Cave, when Trainer’s partner sold the business.

Similar to these two

It wasn’t a good idea to place those figurines on the ledge, because it was just a matter of time before the wind blew them off and away, not to mention we’re not allowed to place items on the ledge, but I figured she’d learn the hard way.

I didn’t get around to taking a photo of the figurines on the ledge, because I didn’t think it important at the time; but now, since the figurines disappeared shortly after management performed our annual inspection on Wednesday, I wish I had. The guys probably advised her against the placement.

At any rate, coming back from Sprouts on Saturday, I saw a resident I’d not seen before get out of a car with a little girl and a man. I assumed the man was the resident’s son, the child her granddaughter.

The woman gave me a shy waive, as though she knew me.

From her vantage view, she’s probably seen me coming/going while I’d not set sight on her.

I waived back and, when the trio began walking towards my walkway, I figured that was the illusive new neighbor.

By the time I’d grabbed my items from the car and headed up the walkway, the trio was up the stairs, going into Sue’s old unit.

Definitely the new neighbor.

Can’t wait to catch her outside, introduce myself, ask her about her figurines, show her a photo of mine.

So while the world is falling apart, chaos all around, with The End feeling Nearer every second, I’ve been fortunate to thus far be experiencing business as usual.

2 Lies/1 Truth ala Anne Marie

Happy Pride Day to my LGBTQ readers.

Hope you had an enjoyable month, an enjoyable day.

I came close to being too exhausted to blog today, show off the tee that finally arrived — too late for this year, nice and early for next year’s Pride Month.

Actually, I like the old tee better — the one I made for myself, posted a few days ago. So who knows which I’ll be sporting next year.

As for why I was so exhausted today. Well, for one, I had yet another Senior Moment yesterday — forgot to take my BP pill.

I caught up today and, as of a few hours ago, the reading was 111/51, so I survived, but woke up dragging a bit. And, while catching up, there was the excessive heat to deal with, working out this morning in the Pain Cave in spite of the excessive heat, shopping for groceries right after working out, lugging groceries from the car to my unit in the heat, then checking the mail box and dropping off the rent check in this excessive heat.

By the time all was said and done, I sat down on the couch to rest for a second and ended up falling asleep, sitting up, for two/three hours.

Earlier in the day, while heading out to the Pain Cave, I noticed Jan had added to the now very decorative pathway.

Twist, Bunny Hop, Line Dancing, Mash Potato, Fox Trot, Swing

So cute, she’s got a dance theme going. 

Channeling Anne Marie in Philly’s segment where she announced 2 Truths/1 Lie, facts about her and readers were to guess which one was a lie, let’s play … but with 2 Lies/1 Truth.

(1) I’ve done every dance.

(2) I’ve done all but one dance.

(3) I’ve done all but two dances.

Which one is the truth?

Heading back from the mail box, and dropping off next month’s rent check — and by the way, today was the first day the office was open to walking in, dropping off the check in the rent box, instead of mailing, I ran into Church Lady.

She was sitting on the bench outside the Laundry Room, which area of the Laundry Room is another location where Jan has set up a painted rock garden.

Stopping for a sec to ask Church Lady how she was enjoying the rocks, she said the messages uplifted her. That she’s taken quite a few to put on her window sill to ward off evil spirits, and even has one in her shoe for good luck.

Long time readers might recall Church Lady, once before, long ago, mentioned demons and evil spirits inhabiting her unit.

I didn’t laugh then, I didn’t laugh now — who knows and, if the painted rocks make her feel protected, then well fine and good. Though I do wonder how she manages to walk with a rock in her shoe.

I’m also beginning to see why the old guy who lives upstairs across the quad, who was Church Lady’s "friend" for a hot minute, dumped her so quickly. Her talking like that probably scared him, not to mention her being so prissy, so uptight. It’s also probably why her family won’t have anything to do with her and why she can’t keep a friend.

Evidently even the church no longer wants Church Lady because she tells me she’s just found a new church. That the church she was previously involved with — one nearby where quite a few of the residents are members, including The Seer and Shadow, had asked her to leave in a hurtful way.

There was a gift exchange and her gift was a towel that was personalized with the words "Stay Home".

In all fairness, "Stay Home" might have been pandemic related, but Church Lady didn't think so because everyone began treating her differently, along about the time The Seer began dating Shadow, bringing him to church.

She said something to the effect that how could the pastor allow it.

"Allow what?" asked I.

"Allow a man and a woman in who weren’t married to each other”.

Oh My Holy God, thought I. If she'd voiced this to the pastor, and others in the church, there's no wonder as to why they began treating her differently.

This time I did laugh, and said something to the effect that, “It's not hurting anyone”.

I don’t know who Church Lady thinks I am that I can be as uptight as she, but she quickly let that thread of conversation go when she realized I didn’t think anything wrong about a man and a woman being in an unmarried relationship.

Still in my workout clothes, while having this conversation, Lord knows what Church Lady would have had to say had she seen me in the old #ally top I’d been wearing the whole of Pride Month.

I have a feeling, she’d have pretended not to see, not to know I was an ally and later would have prayed for my soul in private.

LOL.