Is My Face Red

Yesterday …… realizing I’d not received this month’s Activity Calendar, I headed for the office to pick one up, detouring by the big bin to toss trash.

Seems the car that parks near the dumpster – the one that had its windows smashed all to heck, was not out for repairs after all. Instead, the owner has replaced it/parking a little white car instead.

Not bringing the original vehicle back, now parking a different one, only deepens the mystery of why that particular car was targeted in the first place.

Kinda reminds me of when my girls were around 10-years old and we were living in an apartment in Compton. The next-door neighbor had a dispute with the landlord, decided not to pay rent.

The landlord did not serve her with eviction papers, did not take her to court. Instead, he had his "boys" sneak into the parking area one night, smash ALL the windows to her car out.

She couldn't prove landlord had anything to do with the vandalism, but we all knew their dispute was related and feeling unsafe, next-door neighbor promptly moved out.

Next time I run into the Talker, I’ll have to remember to ask what she knows about this current situation of windows smashed/different car.

So, anyway, there were two things I’d not realized before I stepped out of my unit, headed towards the office yesterday.

The first thing was that the time was 4:30 in the afternoon. The office closed at 4:00. The building was locked up tight.

The second thing I did not realize was that outside was 105◦, with a heat warning in effect.

So there I was, having trekked across the desert to a locked building.

Not wanting my suffering to have been in vain, I retreated, walked back through the gate, hung a right and a right again, headed for the mailroom to check mail.

Nothing but useless ads inside to be tossed; but something told me to stoop down look towards the back of the box.

Inside is a deep black hole built into the wall. I saw nothing.

Then something told me to stick my arm all the way to the back and feel around.

I did and touched something hard. Something that that felt like what a key to one of the parcel lockers would feel like.

After my rant about the mail carriers depositing parcel locker keys in the wrong mailbox, and residents lucking up on packages that don’t belong to them, you have a good idea where this discovery is heading.

My intention here was to post photos. Photos to show you how deep the mailbox is/how far back I had to reach into the cavern by posting a pic of how deep my arm had to reach in, and a photo of the box and its contents (the two sheets of scrapbook paper) that came out of the parcel locker; but Blogger be trippin. Won't let me post photos. And, for a split second this morning, Blogger would not let me reply to comments …… a message popped up that I needed to log into Google. So don't be surprised if my ability to reply to comments doesn't happen again, and for longer than a split second.

All in all, let me just say …… IS MY FACE RED.

The parcel locker key was there all along, pushed all the way to the back AND, it was the only key at the back of that deep dark cavern. Indicating all the other packages I’d miss had truly been misdirected and kept …… Fortunately for me, just not this shipment.

At any rate, I’m back to completing that layout.

Heading back to my unit, I ran into my next-door White-Haired Neighbor, returning from her son’s house, looking as drained from the excessive temp as I was.

She asked if I’d gotten a notice posted to my door about an Inspection this Friday.

I had …… on Tuesday, the day after I’d shampooed the carpets, which meant two or three people (the Maintenance Guys and Manager or Assistant Manager) would be dirtying up my freshly Monday-shampooed carpets on Friday.

Neighbor said she was worried about the inspection because, where she moved from, after 35 years, the manager hated her, retaliated against her because she’d reported him for animal cruelty. He would pull frequent inspections, go through her closets, open her cupboards, told her he can come in when he wants, go through whatever he wanted.

I told her not to worry. That management inspections here are a precursor to when the State and Federal inspectors come in. They just want to make sure the units are clean and everything is in working order, so they won’t get dinged by the agency inspectors.

She said she was on the County and that the County inspected where she lived before only every two years.

That surprised me … that she is on the County and, consequently, must have been placed here through the program and on the program the entire 35 years she lived at the other place.

How does someone get 35+ years of County assistance?

No judgment. I just really want to know as she seems so able-bodied, well put together, and mentally all there.

The conversation ended with my telling her that though management pre-inspects every unit, that the Federal and State inspections are random. Her unit might get inspected, might not, depends on what the agency inspectors want to do.

She said, "But I just moved in".

"Doesn’t matter", said I and told her that I had an agency inspection right after I moved in back in 2012 and did not get another agency inspection until last year. It’s all luck of the draw, and not to worry about Friday because management just wants to make sure the place is relatively clean, no hoarding, and everything works which, in the past has worked in our favor in getting management to make repairs we'd previously requested but they had been dicking around with, because they didn't want us to point the problem out to the agency inspector.

I don't know why she seemed so worried about Friday's inspection, but it makes me curious to one day get a look inside her unit.

I opened the door and showed her mine, which isn't all that fabulous. Maybe one day, she'll show me hers.

Make it Make Sense

Woke up this morning to this ……

A cool 75◦ with much needed rain.

But, and it’s a big BUT, tomorrow’s forecast is whiplashed back to 90◦, with temps rising to a hot 99◦ by Wednesday.

Make it make sense.

Also, under the topic of make it make sense, I’ve been waiting for two sheets of scrapbook paper I ordered as background, for the Creative Memories album's layout of the 5 or so grass skirt pics taken at the End of Summer event.

On August 25, I'd managed to snag the last two sheets of Reminisce - Hawaiian Palm on Wood.

Waiting patiently for and not finding the package the last few times I checked mail, I yesterday tracked and learned it was shipped August 29, "delivered to a parcel locker at 11:34 am on August 31".

Now, the key word here is "A parcel locker" because whatever mail slot the key to the locker was left in, it wasn’t mine cause I never got it.

Someone was so unscrupulous as to take advantage of the mail carrier’s mistake of placing the locker key in the wrong mail slot – and not the first time, and instead of walking over to me/the named recipient, chose to keep what they found inside … also not the first time.

It’s an epidemic around here, and what gets me is that the scrapbook supplies I’ve lost in the past, and currently, aren’t even items the hijacker can use or sell. So why keep it? Why add even more bad karma to your obviously already miserable existence. Just say you received in error, opened not realizing it wasn't his/hers.

That happened to me when I opened a package, saw a shower curtain I'd never ordered, checked the name on the package, saw it wasn't directed to me, walked it over to the resident with an oops that I get so many packages that I'd assumed it was one of mine without looking at the label.

My brain can’t compute the small mindedness of keeping something that isn't yours.

Unfortunately for me, those were the last two sheets the supplier had in stock; but all may not be loss. I’m not in a hurry to finish the layout, signed up to be notified if/when back in stock, will wait it out.

I’m just glad it was a small order this time, not as big a loss as previous orders.

Lastly, I saw the below on facebook this morning and was🤣.

But is it true …… did he really change the color of his hair? or is this A.I.

I Hope This is Personal

A bearable 86◦ this morning, I headed out to put in walking miles around the complex and saw this ……

I’m not wishing harm on anyone in hoping this is personal. I’m just hoping this doesn’t mean some kind of fresh hell for all of us that park in that area. Not some random someone walking around smashing out car windows, but rather some kind of personal animosity having to do with no one but the resident whose car was vandalized.

It did occur to me that perhaps the vandalism did not happen on our lot, but that the car’s owner was in the wrong place at the wrong time …… that this happened elsewhere. But noooooo, because there was glass on the ground, under and around the area of the window, indicating it happened here.

At any rate, fingers crossed this is a one-time thing for the vandalized car owner and for us.

Yesterday was also a bearable walking day at 89◦, but I opted to get marketing out of the way instead.

Listening to country/western station KFROG, as I drove to the branch of the market in the bad area/surrounded in bars like a prison that has the best produce because of the way the area is zoned, I burst out laughing when I heard radio host Kelli say, "It’s still hot, but Walmart is already selling Christmas decorations".

I’m still waiting for October 1/the First of Halloween but, at this rate, Valentine’s Day merchandise will be on sale before Halloween gets here.

This branch of the market I drove to is preferred, rather than the corner market, not only because produce seems fresher, but also because fun things seem to happen at the other branch. Like the young man telling me his friend said I was pretty, and the 62-year-old that called me chocolate ice cream and proposed marriage. This time it was a not bad looking slightly over middle-aged gentleman pushing his cart towards me, looking to pass on my left, head to produce as I was pushing my car out of that area. Just as he was about to pass, he said, "My God! You are so beautiful, so beautiful".

Believe you me, I was feeling nowhere near beautiful yesterday …… just so old, so tired, and so done that, though he was looking at me when he said it, I wasn’t all that sure he was actually talking about or to me. I even actually turned around as he passed to see if he was addressing someone behind me. There was no one else in the immediate area, so I can only assume the spontaneous utterance was addressed to me …… the Universe giving me the bump I needed to pull myself out of the blue funk I’ve been in off/on for months.

Still not totally convinced that I looked better than I felt, I took a selfie when I got back to the car …… the photo I’m now using as my profile pic.

My eyes …… free of eye makeup because I gave that up long ago, do not look well or happy.

Nevertheless, the bump seems to have worked …… temporarily motivated me up and out, because I pushed through this morning and logged in 1.01 miles, in 32:38 minutes at the snail slow pace of 32:15, 3,292 steps.

It’s a start. Hopefully, I can keep it up as the weather continues to cooperate by cooling down.

In other news, it’s been super quiet around here since last week’s End of Summer event. I’ve not seen nor spoken to any neighbors, so no news on the status of Hell on Wheels, Ankle Annie or the Feces Felon.

Bingo returns this Friday, after a month’s hiatus due to the organizers having to work around office hours and the Baker’s needing a break from whatever has been happening in bingo that upset her.

She had me do a sheet of Bingo Rules that includes the regular "Limit two wins until the ninth (blackout) game", adding "No arguments between players or you will be asked to leave".

That’s telling.

I wonder who was arguing, and what could they have been arguing about. It’s just bingo for God’s sake.

Also, "Keep the noise down so everyone can hear the numbers, please make sure you are listening".

That was especially aggravating when I used to attend bingo, and the main reason I stopped going. People could just not shut up, talked over the caller making it difficult to hear numbers being called AND, because they were talking instead of listening, would often interrupt the game asking "What were those last numbers you called" or "Did you call xyz?".

Lastly, "Lunch or snacks will be served after bingo for our bingo players".

I think this is because residents, not involved in bingo, would lurk around trying to time coming in just as refreshments were being served. You know, like the neighbor who just happens to stop by when dinner is being served.

I think it’s going to be hard to enforce this rule.

If I were the Baker, I’d order meal tickets that say, "Good for one meal", pass those tickets out to residents playing bingo AND, at the end of bingo, serve only those who present valid tickets.

In fact, I’m going to order said tickets, give to the Baker for bingo and other events where residents unceremoniously show up at dinner time.

Everyone Out of the Pool

I had no intentions of heading out in 104° weather for today’s End of Summer event. However, along about 11:00 — the time the event was to have started, not seeing anyone on the walkway heading that way, I became curious, threw on a top, shorts, grass skirt stepped out the door around 11:30 to see if anything was going on.

To say it was hot outside is an understatement. The word for today is ……

Seems everyone got the bitchferno memo, because the pool area was bare.

However, over in the distance, just outside the back door of the Community Room, I could see a covered kiosk where cooking seemed to be happening.

Detouring through the Mail Room to get out of the heat, I headed to the Community Room and found the event going on strong.

Seems, management did have the good sense, after all, to move the event inside.

Lu and Dream Lover were in attendance, sitting on opposite sides of the room, not speaking to each other, Dream Lover having declared to me that he’s learned his lesson about craping where he eats, and dressed for the occasion.

I’d recently seen him on the walkway heading towards Lu’s unit, but evidently his being in that area had nothing to do with her.

There was no update on the Feces Felon — whether he’s been caught or struck again, but I did get info on the woman wearing the ankle bracelet that saves me time and attention, limiting my checking ankles to a specific nationality.

BTW, we need a name for the Woman Wearing the Ankle Bracelet. No moniker is coming to mind, so what say you?

At any rate, turns out she’s not a resident per se but that, recently released from jail — unknown what her crime was, she’s living here with her mother.

Talker tells me the woman is "really rough", got "ugly and super aggressive" with Talker when Talker …… seeing her having a pool party with four other people and no resident with them, gave her a heads up that she’d get in trouble with the office for bringing in that many people and being a non-resident unaccompanied by a resident.

Instead of appreciating the warning, the woman with the ankle monitor became aggressive, argumentative, ended up calling her mom to the scene to back her up, put Talker in her place.

When her mom came over, saw Talker was involved, she told her daughter "Why you arguing with L …… She’s my friend", and made her take her people and get out of the pool.

So, it seems that though Woman with the Ankle Bracelet can't break the rule that a non-resident cannot use the pool without a resident accompanying them, she can wear an angle monitor in the pool without being electrocuted.

On the other hand, the internet tells me, "Most electronic monitoring devices are only water-resistant enough for brief exposures like a quick shower or getting caught in the rain. Full submersion in a swimming pool can damage the device and trigger a false tamper alert".

I don't know how she managed it, but where's there's a will, there's a way.

Repeat Performance

The cool down is over. The weather is heating up again, s0 I checked the forecast for next week’s End of Summer event in the pool area …… triple digits expected that day.

There’s been an unexpected buzz in the air about the event, folks are talking about it, telling others that didn’t know about it — even though signs are plastered everywhere. One resident …… the woman that used to sit in her car outside the Pain Cave to get a break from her husband, LOL, tells me she’s planning on wearing her swimsuit, bringing a pool floatie.

She doesn’t look that old, can still rock a revealing swimsuit.

I think the buzz is that folks are just so desperate for management to do something, anything that's not gonna cost us. So, the event might be a success.

Thing for me is the event is outdoors, in the area of the pool, during a week and on a day when triple digits are expected to hit, and I can't handle that.

So, unless something changes between now and then …… like the event being moved from the outdoor pool area to inside the Community Room and on the covered patio, I'm out, grass skirt and all.

In other news …… it was Tuesday when I blogged about Assistant Maintenance Guy going back/forth with inadequate equipment, cleaning up behind the Feces Felon (thanks for that title Bob). The very next day, yesterday, was Crafts Wednesday, so I went down to the Community Room.

Before I even got seated, Crafty Lady said manager had come in, told them, "It happened again". Between the time maintenance cleaned up on Tuesday, and this next morning, the Feces Felon had struck again.

Makes me think the felon is someone living in that area, whose unit allows them to watch the comings/goings as maintenance cleans up behind him, is getting a perverse pleasure from it.

If the cameras indicate it’s who Manager thinks it is, whether she feels she has enough to confront or not, she should confront. If all else fails, then test the DNA. Match it to who they think it is AND, if the felon refuses to give up his DNA to match, there are labs that can, from the DNA submitted, draw a picture of the felon, then follow ancestry techniques to name the exact person.

Me …… depending on the situation, I’m willing to risk a little bad karma by allowing my devious and vengeful side out to play. I’d terrorize the SOB, make him paranoid by mailing to the suspected felon’s unit or sneaking notes on his door saying, "I know who you are. I know what you’re doing".

So, anyway, I once again passed on participating in crafts, opted just to get the tea while taking photos, documenting for the residents' facebook page what the seniors created using the bottom of cans, the bottom of soda bottles, and the end of empty tissue rolls as tools for painting on canvas.

The Week that Was

We had a bit of a weather cooldown on Tuesday. It was still hot, but bearable, so I was able to log in a mile around the complex.

Saw that a unit, which had recently been vacated — the resident located elsewhere on the complex, has an obvious new resident. Obvious because the previous resident wasn’t this kind of decorative.

Elsewhere on the complex was this creatively decorated patio.

I'm guessing this is where those people relocated to.

While sitting on the patio, I’ve often grabbed the phone to take a pic of my favorite sight — my two elderly boys on the walkway but, slow walking as they are, I've not been able to get to the phone quick enough to capture a photo … that is until on my walk that day.

The boys, who look like they could be twins, do not live together. At the end of the walkway, one hangs a right, the other a left. So, I don’t know how they came to be such seemingly close friends …… always together.

I may have to one day come up with an excuse to approach, while the two are sitting outside the gate, engaged in their favorite activity of watching traffic go by, start a conversation, find out what their story is.

I bet drivers passing by, seeing not only the two boys but often other residents, sitting on walkers, with nothing better to do than watch traffic go by see it as sad.

I, on the other hand, think us residents to be content, at peace. Don't need a lot of what those driving by have and do to make us happy, feeling blessed just to be able to sit and watch the world roll by.

Wednesday was another day of bearable weather.

I’d planned to watch the eclipse that day, eclipse glasses at the ready.

Then learned, California would experience no visible eclipse activity as the path was restricted to far northern regions — Alaska, Canada. So, I decided instead to join the Usual Suspects in the Community Room for crafts but took the long way around …… twice around the complex to log in another mile.

Told myself this was doable …… that I could, at the very least get up and out, manage one mile a day, so long as the weather cooperated.

That motivation lasted about as long as you readers probably expected, as today is Saturday and I’ve not been out walking since Wednesday.

Oh well.

I didn’t participate in Wednesday’s craft session, just watched, took photos for the residents’ facebook page, as they made picture frames using stencils, plexiglass, cardboard.

As for what I’ve been doing locked in my unit, other than watching Korean and Chinese Dramas on TikTok and Facebook, lusting after the handsome young Asian men I see on the screen, I’ve been finishing up yet another scrapbook …… one I started in '23, which chronicles my own personal activities, got sidelined due to the birth of great grandkids, making books chronicling their activities.

Once my '23 book is finished, the plan is to do one more, that will cover my activities between then and now, which I sense will be the last chronicling my own personal activities.

The hardest part of scrapbooking is coming up with a title page. I've come up with a system where I sometimes make the title page look like magazine covers, like this one ……

Since this next book will be the last of my personal activities, I'm thinking of doing something with one of the few photos I have of my toddler years, titling it HOW IT STARTED.

In addition to scrapbooking, I've also been throwing together tropical wear for the Resident’s End of Summer Event.

Not finding, in storage, the grass skirt I’d previously made, I grabbed raffia when I was at the craft store purchasing that Venus Flytrap and, in between scrapbooking and lusting after young Asian men in K/Cdramas, building a skirt.

Also, while at the craft store, I looked for blocks and letters to arrange in 8647, but didn't find anything usable.

The fact is, I tried, LOL.

So, anyway, as I was saying …… in addition to scrapbooking supplies, there's currently grass-colored raffia everywhere.

Still not sure I’ll actually have the guts to wear the skirt … won’t know until the day of; but if I don’t wear it, it will turn into Skelly the Skeleton’s outfit for this year’s Halloween patio display.

Knock Knock Knock

Little Knock Knock was to have returned home day before yesterday/Monday but, when I walked into Arts and Crafts yesterday, there she was … decorating a jar.

She said she’d be leaving later that day, wanted to take a picture with me but wanted to wait until later, when Grandma Talker returns, have her take the pic.

So, when I returned to my unit, I didn’t immediately take off the bra, slip into comfortable clothing, but remained make-up on and ready for her knock on the door to go outside, take the pic.

That knock never came, so I guess Grandma Talker returned late, didn’t want to bother me, Knock Knock returned to her parents pictureless.

So, imagine my surprise, when a little after noon today, there was a knock knock knock on the door.

Though my face was together/makeup on, I’d not yet slipped out of my comfortable Bob Marley Sarong into daywear, was going to have to tell Knock Knock to wait until I got dressed.

Opening the door, sarong pulled tightly to not expose too much flesh, it wasn’t Knock Knock, it was my new neighbor, the White-Haired Neighbor (WHN).

She looked flustered, said no one was in the office, and she was having a problem with a leak in the bathroom from a pipe in the ceiling, hanging over back of the tub.

"I've been told it's supposed to leak as it's where the condensation from the A/C flows" said I, but that, over time, it creates a rust color along the walls and tub that I clear up with Zep Acidic Cleaner.

The A/C condenser pipe is probably not over the tub in other complexes and homes, but we're special here … different, like in having to pay for repairs.

She said okay, she wouldn’t worry about it, but that the heat was getting to her. That even with the A/C running and the blackout curtains she installed to keep the sun out, it was 88 degrees and intolerable in her unit. That sometimes the weather outside her unit is cooler than inside.

That’s true. I’ve experienced it myself when I step outside and find, hot as it is, it’s not as hot as inside my unit and can’t figure where the extra degrees are coming from. I’ve actually sometimes thought I’m not alone in this unit, that there are other invisible beings living here with me, their energy heating up the place. However, the fact that WHN is experiencing the same phenomena means either we both have invisible beings or it’s just a fluke that heat is rising from whatever is going on downstairs, giving us those extra degrees.

So, anyway, the weird thing about WHN knocking on my door this morning to vent is that, since she moved in, I've been having this recurring sense that she won’t be living her long, would end up moving.

She didn’t say she was already thinking about moving, possibly somewhere to a downstairs unit where it's cooler, just that she can't take the heat, has been spending most of her time at her son’s place; that where she was living previously for 34 years, never got this hot.

"Why, after 34 years, did you move?" asked I.

"I couldn’t get along with the manager".

"Well, I’m sorry you’re having such a time adjusting to how hot our units get, but it’s not going to get any better. I’ve told others that this is the hottest Summer I’ve experienced here, that it gets hotter every Summer so, with global warming, it’s just not going to get any better".

Our conversation ended with her looking just as frazzled as when the conversation began.

I heard her door open shortly after, heard her leave. Probably headed to her son’s place to escape the uncomfortableness in her unit.

When Crafty Lady, on Tuesday, told me that yesterday’s Crafts would be decorating glass jars, I decided to join in, do something different that I’d seen on the internet where, instead of decorating the outside of the jar, as the others did, to mod podged fabric to the inside of the jar.

I bet none of you can figure out which creation is mine 🤣🤣.

Our 88-year-old arrived late, so I didn’t get a pic of her completed jar but, the way she’s attaching pearls to the outside, I can tell the finished jar is going to be a masterpiece.

I'm going to have to catch her out and about, ask if I can come to her unit, get a pic of the finished project for the Residents' FB page.

Knock Knock's finished jar came out equally masterpiece fabulous.

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."

It’s Too Darn Hot!

Just stepping outside to dispose of trash, check mail be like ……

That is all.

Home Alone

Some of you will recall the now 19-year-old Great Granddaughter that I never knew I had until last year …… adopted away from my prodigal granddaughter at 2 months old, none of us even knowing of her birth, she last year found us through Twin 1’s social media.

Since finding us, she’s become an integral part of our dysfunctional family and texted on Thursday that she was spending a few days with the sister of her adopted mother here in the Inland Empire/San Bernardino.

Googling her location, finding she was a mere 3-1/2 miles away, I picked her up on Friday morning and we "hung out", if you can call it that as it was too cold to go anywhere, do anything.

Both of us run cold, so whereas I bundle up, suffer a little so as not to run up the heating bill, I didn’t want her to suffer. Consequently, the heater ran all day/all night.

I don’t even want to see the bill, not to mention I’ll get a harassing notice from the utility company indicating I’m using more therms than others in the area.

After dropping her back off to her adopted Auntie this morning, back to being Home Alone I reflected on the visit, realized I’m a boring person.

Friday being a bingo day, it would have been fun for her to play bingo with the seniors, but bingo had been cancelled due to so many of the Usual Suspects being ill.

The organizers wisely didn’t want to take the risk of exposing others to whatever was going around, cancelled bingo until the 23rd.

Had this been summer, we could have hung out at the pool — she swimming, me lounging in the jacuzzi OR we could have gone shopping at the mall OR basking in the sun, listening to music at the farmer’s market, she gorging on all the street food, me wishing I could.

As it was, both of us being quiet/reflective, there wasn’t a lot of conversation; mostly she on TikTok, me watching Food Network, then both of us, later that night, rating Queens on RuPaul's Drag Race — which her super religious adopted mom would have thoroughly disapproved of.

Probably why, to put it in her words, "I’m so happy to have met you guys". We’re dysfunctional, but we’re open, accepting, we look, we listen, and we do not judge.

As for what she’s been doing since graduating, with a goal of entering the nursing field, she currently working on getting certified in Ultrasound Technology, but took time out of her studies to participate in the Los Angeles protest against ICE.

When things turned violent …… the person she attended the protest with was hit by ICE with a rubber missile, she wisely opted out of the protest, went back home.

Inasmuch as ICE are a bunch of sickos that will aim for the eyes to maim, or end you for no good reason like Renee Good, going home seemed like a good move.

Sightings

Since first of the new year, I’ve been feeling cold, like a human popsicle, chilled to the bone even when wearing layers of clothing, running the heater off/on, but at least it finally stopped raining …… for the time being.

For a few hours yesterday, we actually caught a glimpse of the sun, which motivated me to leave the den, venture out to stock up on supplies, pick up prints at the drug store and treat myself to coffee from Starbucks.

Whoever is cleaning the windows at Starbucks, needs to switch to a streak-free product.

Inasmuch as every time I visit this particular Starbucks, I see that same Nat C Car, and no one inside Starbucks seems to fit, I’m pretty sure the driver is someone associated with the dental office next door.

There’s parking in the back for the dental office, but the driver is no fool. He or she always parks in front of Starbucks, where the vehicle is safe from vandalism, has eyes on it.

Before running errands, I decided to check into the Community Room, see what the seniors were up to and missed Ernie by a hair's breadth.

He was walking out the back door just as I was walking in through the front door, so I paused to duck behind a pillar should he happen to turn around. He didn’t so, once he was out of sight, I walked into the Community Room found a small cake party to wish long-time resident, the Other Wheelchair Lady, happy trails …… she’s moving to Norwalk to be closer to family.

That leaves us two down in our group of Usual Suspects … Hell on Wheels will never recover enough to return to the complex and now the Other Wheelchair Lady is moving.

I did see Manager out and about on the complex yesterday, so she’s back after a nearly six-month absence.

Inasmuch as things worked so well when she was gone, I’m surprised Corporate didn’t just eliminate the position. She’s obviously not needed, but oh well. We’ll see what’s in store for us now that she’s back.

I stuck around in the Community Room just long enough to take a few photos for the residents’ FB page, was preparing to head out to run those errands when I saw Ernie out on the walkway. I waited until I could slip away unnoticed by him, headed to the car and escaped.

A few weeks ago, before the weather turned cold, I happened to be walking by our Bird of Paradise area and caught a hummingbird in action.

Fascinating. I can’t believe he let me get that close. They usually fly off before I can capture a photo.