New Year's Day

Much as I wanted 2016 to loop, 2017 never to come, it is in fact 2017.

It’s blistery outside, but not yet raining -- hopefully will not and the sun is trying its best to shine, which is a good omen.

I’ve got the inside decorations all wrapped up ready to go back into storage and, with a little luck, the patio decorations will dry out and I can get everything into storage by end of day.

Would you believe I found yet another lost item?

Coming back from Starbucks yesterday, I spotted a key card lying on the walkway – a key card used by residents to scan into the mechanism that opens the gate to resident parking.

Mine has a sticker with my unit number on the back but, of course, the one I found has no such marking, so I couldn’t walk it over to the owner. It does have an identification number -- a number only the office can associate with a resident and, inasmuch as the office is closed until Tuesday, I can’t turn it in until then.

That means the owner of the key card was not able to get their car back inside the gate to park if they left the building yesterday afternoon, won’t be able to reenter today and tomorrow. They’ll have to wait for another car to use their key card and follow that car in which, during daylight hours is pretty frequent. Not so much at night, and there is no overnight parking outside the gate.

It’s a $50 replacement fee for a new key card so, if I were the owner, I’d be very happy to receive a call from the office, on Tuesday, to come pick up their found card.

I don’t know what’s up with this finding things, but can’t wait to see what I come across next.

Before management took off for the Holiday, they distributed January’s Activity Calendar.

January 6, 1:00 – 2:00 Class: My 3 Health Goals
January 6, 3:00 – 4:00 Price is Right

January 13, 10:00 – 11:00: 52 Week Money Challenge
January 13, 11:00 – 2:00 Bingo

January 20, 4:00 – 5:00: Stress Less in 2017

January 27, 10:00 – 11:00: Bingo
January 27, 12:00 – 1:00 Hot Cocoa and Cookie Social

Since the folks have all been such downers lately, I’ve not been hanging out with them much, so I doubt I’ll be participating in anything other than the 52-Week Money Challenge session.

As for the Cookie Social, I still have those Trader Joe’s Gingerbread Molasses bake and serve cookies to get rid of, so that’s a strong maybe.

New Year's Eve

I’m feeling torn today, this last day of 2016.

Inasmuch as I lost my Christmas Spirit well before the holiday was over, and have been struggling all week to not prematurely pack up the Christmas Decorations -- for fear of breaking tradition and thus bring bad luck upon myself, I’m happy that tomorrow I can do so without repercussions.

On the other hand, I’m so not feeling 2017 is going to be a good year with that orange fellow -- the Manchurian Candidate soon to be in charge that I’m wishing today would never end. It would be like an episode of the Twilight Zone or Groundhog Day, where today just repeats itself and 2017 never comes.

I’m guessing I’m not alone in feeling reticent about the coming year, because there just seems to be a pall not just over the complex -- with the usual suspects not wanting to do anything, but a universal pall with so many celebrities opting out of this life and the dreary weather.

This is what outside looks like this morning …

It’s wet, raining off/on -- not storming, but the homes on the hill are blanketed from view by layers of cold.

The craving for caffeine is strong, plus I need to put gas in the car, so I’ll be bundling up against the cold and heading out soon.

I never did make it to the bank yesterday to drop off that found ATM card, so I mailed it to the bank’s corporate office. Worried I’d not be believed about finding the card, I started not to put a return address on the envelope but then … I may be wrong but, some years ago, I believe a regulation came into play that mail without return addresses would not be delivered. So I took a chance and put my label in the return spot. Now I have thoughts of the police and FBI knocking on my door, being informed the card was not lost but stolen, and I the most likely suspect.

Hopefully, my paranoia is unfounded and comes from watching too any crime shows, and though I'm glad for the card's owner that someone who would do the right thing found it, I'm not so thrilled at the involvement of that someone being me.

So anyway, unless I get my wish and 2016 loops itself tonight, I’ll be ringing in the New Year not with alcohol, but by throwing clean eating out the window with my own particular brand of intoxicant -- a pint of Ben and Jerry Cherry Garcia.

Up for Air

After having devoted Sunday afternoon, all day Monday, and all Day Tuesday to AMC’s Breaking Bad Marathon, I came up for air this morning just long enough to check email, facebook, a trip to Starbucks and a run by the market.

I’ve been so out-of-touch with the outside world since the Breaking Bad Marathon that this morning was the first I learned Carrie Fisher had passed away. Last I heard, she was recovering in hospital, so her passing was a complete surprise as I’m still processing George Michael having left this plane of expression.

Once out and about, I picked up mail then headed to the market.

I always boot up PokémonGo and check the area upon arriving at a location. Thus it was, I heard a little squeaky sound which I recognized immediately as Pikachu inside Ralphs.

As I was holding my phone up, tracking it in the market, preparing to capture, I guess the person behind me could see my screen because, all of a sudden, I heard a woman’s voice exclaim, “OH! You’ve caught Pikachu! And it’s the one with the hat!”

I turned, and there was a woman wearing a Pikachu shirt.

“Yes, he’s over by the baked goods,” I replied.

She was so excited and said, “Let me see if I can catch him too.”

This was news to me. I didn’t realize that if a player locates and captures a pokémon, a nearby player can also capture that same pokémon. So I stood by to watch, as she said it took her months -- and a long trip out-of-the-area before she ran across her first and only Pikachu and that she’s never seen one with the hat before.

Her first try at capture went bad … “Oh, he broke free” she says.

“You know”, said I, “I don’t take any chances when I run across Pikachu. I pull out all my best game tools. First I throw a razz berry to keep him in place, then I use a Big Ball rather than a Pokéball.”

She followed my advice, had a successful capture, and was literally walking on air saying, “This game brings people together.”

I agreed, asked about the shirt – which she said was a Christmas present from her husband, congratulated her on her capture and went on my way, but not before hearing her an isle away, calling her husband on the cell, excitedly saying something about having captured Pikachu with the hat.

After picking up coffee at Starbucks, just as I reached the car door, I spotted something on the ground which, upon closer inspection, was someone’s Visa Debit Card.

Must have dropped it after leaving the ATM.

My first instinct was to drive to the nearest Wells Fargo to turn the card in, but I’d already been gone too long from Breaking Bad, and decided to call into Customer Service instead.

They immediately cancelled the card and told me to toss it in the trash.

I wasn’t comfortable with that. Someone might find it, try to use it and, just in case this turns into one of those "No good deed goes unpunished" things, where something happens like the owner of the card is not notified it's been reported found and cancelled, she instead returns to the ATM and asks Starbucks to run their video, the video shows me picking it up, and I then end up accused of something.

Sounds far fetched, but having been on the receiving end of good deeds going bad in the past, it's not as far fetched as it seems, so I'm playing it safe.

I've reported the card and, when Breaking Bad ends on Friday, I’ll be making a run by the bank for cash anyway, so I'll give them the card and let them take care of the rest.

See you end of the week, when the Marathon is over.

Sights and Sounds

The Diva Run is done!

That’s my 14^th and last 5K of the year.

Not that it’s done me any good insofar as losing weight. Over the year, I’ve actually gained three/four pounds, but my breathing is not as labored as this time last year, moving my body from Point A to Point B doesn’t feel like such a chore, and I no longer hear joints popping and cracking.

I ended up doing yesterday’s walk at Victoria Gardens. It being Christmas Day, with all the shops and stores closed, I had the whole mall to myself for the first two miles. After that, it was just a human here, a human there, a couple humans heading for the movie theater – which had opened, and three other Pokémon trainers like myself.

It was so peaceful, so serene with not a creature stirring, that I didn’t just do the miles I needed from yesterday to total 3.12, I walked the whole 3.12.

Here are some of the sights and sounds I was able to enjoy while walking along, no one talking or blocking my view:

This short but sweet gone-out-of-business sign at the Reebox store made me stop and laugh, because it is soooo hashtag 2016.

The Apple Store was, of course, closed -- but not for good, just for the Holiday.

So what’s with that guy inside?

Jeans, in various states and stages of disrepair, were on display in about a dozen boutique windows.

As a kid, we'd put patches on ours to cover up the holes. I still do, even though it now appears the more wear and tear the better is a fashion statement.

I don't recall what we paid for a good pair of jeans back in the day, but I'm sure these distressed ragged ones cost a small fortune.

The new art project is fascinating.

It's titled "Pac Mac Heart and Love Locks ... The love locks embraces the touching of hearts and invites the community in."

I’ll have to look around for a lock that speaks to who I am -- something black but country/western.

The developers of Pokémon Go were very giving yesterday in that they released quite a few Christmas Pikachu into the wild. Normally difficult to catch more than one Pikachu over months of hunting, I caught two of the Christmas issues in Victoria Gardens -- one in front of a jewelry store, another while crossing a street.

I caught two more on the way home -- one in the car leaving Starbucks, another when I stopped at a PokéStop two blocks down.

Yesterday was a perfect day.

Except, having overused that stress-fractured foot, I began feeling some discomfort in the afternoon, which worsened overnight to where I couldn’t walk this morning without holding onto the walls. Consequently, much as I want to compete in January's Citrus Run, I'm going to have to cry "uncle" and opt out of extensive walking activities until the foot has completely healed.

On the subject of never say never again, looks like I’ll be driving to the bus terminal in the bad area of town today. Granddaughter’s two besties are heading back to Long Beach. Granddaughter is working, so I’ll be their Uber driver.

Happy Merry Everything !!

So finally it’s here -- Christmas Day and, best of all, it’s not wet outside.

While you're all celebrating with your families, I'll be doing my loner thing.

The plan is to locate an area of town where there’s some activity, lots of people, isn’t closed down for the Holiday, so I can take advantage of the Pokémon Go Holiday event -- which is an increased chance of finding Eggs that hatch sought after pokémon at Stops.

I don’t want to go back to the University, because I bundled up and headed to the campus yesterday with two intentions: 1) Walk 3.12 miles 2) Capture some good pokémon.

I only managed 1.20 miles before having to rush back to the car because rain drops began falling on my head and, though there were plenty pokémon to catch, they were the boring same old same old, so I need a better hunting ground for today.

Formerly estranged daughter drove granddaughters’ two besties down from Long Beach yesterday, to spend the Holiday with granddaughter. She also dropped off a boat load of cooked food for the crew – turkey, dressing, gravy, whipped potatoes, potato salad, greens, candied yams, handmade dinner rolls, peach cobbler, sweet potato pie.

Both my girls are amazing cooks.

Didn’t learn it from me.

Learned from my mom.

Except for sous chef duties, Mom would never let me into her kitchen, didn’t teach me a blessed thing, but to my girls she passed on her cooking skills.

Having not seen Daughter No. 2 since 2009, because of my hurt feelings which I recently let go of, I went over to make a plate and say hello. (Actually, five minutes older than her twin, she's technically Daughter No. 1).

Partaking of dishes that included wheat (gluten) and high fructose corn syrup, I thought I’d be paying the price today with terrible stomach pains, but I woke up feeling normal, which is great because there are leftovers in the fridge I plan not to let go to waste.

And so that is.

I met my new neighbor yesterday morning.

That’s right … the older woman I saw viewing the unit across the quad, just a day or so ago, has already moved in.

As I stepped out the door, on my way to the University, I encountered her on the pathway, introduced myself, and told her she’d love it here.

She said her son (the gray-haired gentleman I saw with her that day) moved her in last night, and that she doesn’t even have furniture yet -- just the bare essentials.

Asking me for directions to the Community Room, but not seeming to understand, I walked her over as she bombarded me with questions:

“Is the Community Room open on days like this?”

She means weekends when the office is closed, and the answer is Yes.

“Does it have WiFi?”

Yes.

“Does it require a password?”

Yes.

“What’s the password?”

That I don’t know.

In between the questions, I learned she lived 20 years in Nevada, relocated to Sacramento and is now here.

After reaching our destination, I showed her how to get in/out when office is closed, and waited while she tried to log into the internet.

No automatic sign-on, which we assumed meant we had to have the password.

“Let me call a friend who’s up on everything around here”, said I.

I called Apache who informed, “Yes, there is a password, but management shut WiFi down.”

“They did … Why?”

“It wasn’t working properly.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to manage without a computer until after the Holiday, when everything gets set up in my unit”, said new neighbor.

Sounds like my kind of person … a teckie.

There being more than one way to skin a cat, I asked new neighbor if she drove.

She did.

So I directed her to the nearest Starbucks and off I went to the University.

When rain drops derailed my goal of 3.12 miles, I headed home, with a stop by Starbucks, and there was new neighbor … laptop open, cellphone to her ear, smiling and waving at me.

We’re off to a good neighborly start.

Ugly Sweater Cookies

My holiday spirit continues to wane -- in that I can’t wait for Christmas and New Years to be over and done with but, in going through the motions, I did attend the Holiday Breakfast in the multi-family building next door.

Walking into where I only knew one person -- granddaughter, the ice was immediately broken upon being handed cookies to be decorated as ugly sweaters.

I definitely could have applied myself and done better, but it is what it is.

Breakfast was fruit, donuts and breakfast sandwiches which, upon being micro waved, made the place smell like the Olive Garden. More than a few times I had to block the smell by putting a napkin to my nose, but I survived the cheesy odor.

I’d eaten breakfast before arriving, so was not tempted by anything offered by the building’s management team, and focused on decorating cookies, talking with those in attendance.

There were quite a few kids, all of whom were cute and very well behaved, so I had a good time watching them play games, collect prizes, decorate their cookies.

Pretty Good, Looks Like a Sweater

Rudolph and an Elf

Vampire Santa and a Straight-Up Fanged Vampire

I wondered about this vampire making kid, where his inspiration came from. Does his grandma, who I learned is raising him, let him watch AMC's The Walking Dead?

Amazing Creations by a Dad in Attendance

One game that tickled me to no end was two teams of kids having to wrap a package, get the wrapped package to the next table where one of the kids had to play Santa by putting on a red t-shirt, stuff it with balloons to make a Santa belly, don a Santa hat, go to the next station, where each team member had to do a dizzy thing by putting their head down on a giant candy cane, and twirl their body around it. First team to wrap their package, dress a member as Santa, twirl and get their wrapped package to the Christmas tree was declared winner -- prizes all around.

Looking at the video, I think some corners were cut, but the game was a hoot!

At 2:45, I headed down to the Community Room for our Holiday Luncheon.

It wasn’t a hoot or anything spectacular like the catered events of previous years, but it was okay, with a nice turnout – about 40 people.

Dinner was from the deli -- fried chicken, choice of potato or macaroni salad, packaged dinner rolls -- which I don’t eat bread but had the rolls not been straight from the refrigerator cold, had been warmed in the oven, I might have, and corn. I don’t know if the corn was canned or frozen, but it tasted pretty good.

There were all kinds of cookies, a cake, cupcakes, pecan and pumpkin pies. I limited myself to a slice of pumpkin pie and headed back to the unit just in time to catch Judge Judy.

On tap for today is … I’m trying to motivate myself to bundle up against the cold and wet, from yet another all night rain, and head over to the University to get that Virtual 5K taken care of. I never did make it to Wal-Mart or Victoria Gardens for those thermals. Maybe next week.