Happy Easter

The plan for today was to head to the university to take advantage of PokémonGo’s “eggstravagnza”; which promised to be “A wider variety of Pokémon in eggs that require 2 kilometers of walking to hatch and additional candy to feed Pokémon than usual for hatching eggs”.

Instead, worn out by the week that was, I’m opting to focus on completing that medal board.

The email confirmations arrived Friday afternoon, and I’d driven to two different locations to pick up hardware yesterday. Actually, three different locations because, arriving at the second, I learned I had to drive miles out of my way to yet a third because I’d had the item shipped to the South Fontana store, rather than the much closer North Fontana store.

At any rate, when all was said and done, I arrived back at the complex, hardware in hand, ready to finish the medal board, only to realize I’m girlie girl creative (the decorative portion of the board looks great) but challenged insofar as the nuts, bolts, tool side of life.

You know that cordless drill I’d been trying to find a bit that fit, waiting for a bit that fit? After considerable trial, error, research, it finally hit me that it wasn’t working out because it is in fact a cordless screwdriver.

Live and learn.

I’m going to have to pick up an actual drill, maybe some screws and a wire cutter, use both the screwdriver and drill, figure out how to get er done.

Leaving the complex yesterday, headed out to pick up those items, I took a photo of that burned palm tree.

The two upstairs across the quad neighbors who’d informed me of the fire and heavy winds blowing embers onto the property, igniting the carport, believe it to be a deliberately set fire.

I on the other hand, believe it just too coincidental that a crew was digging trenches, laying cable along the stretch of road directly in front of the palm tree and, when they finished the job, poured asphalt and were done, the tree caught fire. Logic dictates that whatever machinery they used, to restore the roadway to normal, sent sparks that caused the palm to smolder, and the smoldering eventually worked itself into a blaze after the crew left.

At any rate, I had an aha moment shortly after posting I’d not heard a thing evening of the fire, and realized I did heard the commotion. I just didn’t know what I was hearing.

I recall the loud voices of the two neighbors, I recall hearing the sirens but, as it is not unusual to hear the two outside talking in the evening, I didn’t think anything of it. As far as the sirens, fire and rescue comes in/out of here so often to attend to seniors that I’ve become desensitized.

I also remember being annoyed one morning, because I’d washed the car the day before, and the car was now covered with muck. I had to wash the windows just to see to get out of the carport.

At the time, I’d blamed the landscapers, thinking they used a blower in the area. I now realize it must have been the morning after the fire and the muck on the car was ash.

I’ve often wondered, when residents inform me of different happenings, why it is I miss everything. Now I know. It’s not that I’ve missed, it’s that I wasn’t paying attention.

Lastly, I forgot to mention in the Spring BBQ post that Greedy Grabby was in attendance, but I was too busy taking photos, videos, chatting with my table mates to pay her any mind, even when she moved from a table at the opposite end of the Community Room to the table next to mine.

Remember the deeply religious elderly woman -- the one who said she would not be attending because of “lent … we’re not supposed to eat”, then became offended when I said I would be attending, that I was not catholic? Well, she also was in attendance … and she was eating … and it was Good Friday.

Just sayin.

The Aftermat

Apache sent me a photo of his completed shaving cream dyed eggs and they’re impressive.

However, I do wonder if he’d go through the mess again. For sure, I’ll go wooden eggs again, because they came out perfect and look great decorating the bookcase.

When Easter is over, I’ll mix them in with my rock collection.

My behavior towards Greedy Grabby at the coloring party is weighing on my mind.

I’m not a confrontational person, so my behaving so out-of-character was puzzling, until I remembered, besides her irritating actions on the two/three Pizza Days I proctored, there have been subsequent occasions.

One was Fat Tuesday, when I was passing out Mardi Gras beads.

I’d tossed her a string of beads, just like I did everyone else. She accepted, then reached into the beads I had in front of me, intended for others, saying, “I want this one and this one”, and walked off with two more strands.

I shrugged my shoulders and let it be.

Second occasion was end of last month, when we made Easter Wreaths at Arts & Crafts.

The Activity Director had us pose for a group photo after.

We, the group, decided we wanted two photos – one funny, with the wreaths around our faces, the second regular, just showing off our creations.

When the photos were developed, I noticed she'd posed the funny with the wreath not around her face.

Again, she had to do what she wanted.

And, again, I shrugged my shoulders, let it be, but now realize that subconsciously it must have been building up because, at the coloring party, when she manipulated her way into once again getting what she wanted, doing what she wanted, I couldn’t control my aggravation, disgust, decided I wasn’t shrugging it off any longer and said, “No, these are mine” when she reached and “I’m not giving you any” when she asked.

I’ll probably see her again at this coming Friday’s BBQ. The plan is to do my best to avoid, because I'm not done processing my negative emotions towards her, and I'm stuck at still not wanting to even look at her.

Hopefully, she won't try to engage but, if she does, I’m open to a sit down discussion. I just have to think of how to rephrase, “As a human, I find you irritating and disgusting”.