A Day in the Life

Another long day at the dealership, getting the driver side mirror and tie rod ends taken care of. 

To be specific … five hours!

And a soon to be return visit because, when the mechanic opened the box containing the new driver side mirror, he found it had suffered shipping damage.

Service Advisor said, “I’ll order another, make sure it’s not damaged, then call you to come back in.”

“And how long will that take?”, asked I.

“I’ll try to get you out in an hour and a half”.

Translation: Another three hours.

Oh well. Stuff’s gotta get done.

Just in case we went into overtime today, I’d taken the precaution of bringing something to snack on – cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, olives in a marinade of olive oil and apple cider vinegar. I also took a thermos of that bulletproof coffee I’ve become so fond of.

Next time, I’ll take the added precaution of throwing in some protein – like a boiled egg or cashews.

What did I do for five hours?

The wait, though long, wasn’t terrible, except for the first hour. The waiting room is a nice place to waste one’s life away. There was that needlepoint project to work on, plus this week’s Woman’s Day magazine and crossword puzzle.

The first hour was rough only because there was a husband/wife senior-looking couple engaged in conversation with another senior-looking husband/wife couple. The husbands hardly spoke a word, but one of the wives talked rather loudly and wouldn’t shut up. She talked at length about all the places they’d travelled to, about being stuck in traffic jams, while needing to go potty. She talked about one such traffic jam, when she was on a bus trip with a nice clean bathroom, but could see “white butts” as other drivers got out of their cars and went potty by the roadside. 

I was thinking to myself, stuck on a bus with this woman’s yaking yaking yaking? I would have lost my mind and started screaming.

She talked about how she doesn’t like Vegas, but loves casinos. That casinos have nice bathrooms and lots of real-life Indians. About how so many of her neighbors have moved or are moving out of California to Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, etc., because housing is cheap, but found utilities are high and weather is bad. One family found themselves in 30 below. How some relocated, found they didn’t like it, wanted to move back to Ontario, but couldn’t afford it, and how some of the areas friends moved out-of-state to, those areas are catching up -- getting expensive. She herself would love to live in Sedona, but is priced out.

I think the wife in the other couple was tired of her talking as well because, when the yaking wife took a break to go to the lady’s room, she and her husband escaped, went outside, and didn’t come back. That couple weren’t the only ones. There are two sides to the waiting room – one side has the television, which is where I was but couldn’t hear it for her yaking, the other side is the cashiers and car stuff to purchase. I noticed, during the hour the wife wouldn’t shut up, others in the area had gotten up and moved over to the quiet side.

At any rate, once the yaking wife returned from the lady’s room and found the other couple no longer there, she evidently didn’t see anyone else she wanted to chat up and became quiet. Didn't even talk at her husband.

I’m expecting to hear from the Service Advisor in another day or two to come back in, but needing to rest from this long day, I’ll be putting it off to next Tuesday, which means not catching up with the seniors here at the complex for yet another week or two.

Happy 1st Community Pokémon GO Day

Lured by the promise of catching a special Pokémon and extra points per capture, between the hours of 11:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M., I was off to join the hunt at the University campus this morning.

As soon as I stepped out of the car, I was surrounded by dozens and dozens of Pikachu’s and, as I began walking the campus collecting Pokéballs, I ran into dozens and dozens and dozens more. Also saw a great many individual players, such as myself, and teams taking advantage of the event. I eventually followed a Lure to a location where I found music, vendors, artists, snow on the ground.

Fascinated with what I was seeing, I said to the kids in the middle photo, "This is as close to snow as I've ever come".

They found that hilarious.

“Where’d the snow come from?”, I asked.

“They said it just appeared because it got so cold”.

Yeah, right.

I can be gullible, but not THAT gullible.

Later, as I hunted and hunted and hunted, not seeing anything that looked "special", getting frustrated because there were so many Pikachu’s in my way, I commented to a young lady working with a group, “So many Pikachu’s”.

“It’s an event”, said she.

“Yes, I know. But I don’t need more Pikachu’s”.

“You have to tap on them to find the Special Ones. Here, let me show you”.

And she showed me what the special ones looked like – metallic in color.

“Ohhhhhhhhhh! That’s why so many”.

Bless her heart, she even pointed me to a tree where there was supposedly “a lot of special ones”.

Of course, by then it was getting to the cut-off time, I had passed up so many opportunities to capture a special before other players emptied the pool, because I didn’t know I was to tap on/weed through the dozens and dozens and dozens I’d run into earlier, so I only manage to find and capture two.

But I got ‘em. Don’t yet know what to do with them, but I got ‘em and logged in 2.05 walking miles, 4904 steps.

Since Pokémon GO Community Day is scheduled to be a monthly event, I’ll be giving it another go in February.

The Answer

Except for the time I put the former Complex Manager, Nurse Ratched, on the hot seat for not handling the termite situation a few years back and, more recently, Head Maintenance Guy on blast about the slow A/C repair and portable pickups, I haven’t spoken up in the Residents/Management meeting. I just listen, observe, report back on this blog.

Yesterday, I raised my hand and spoke about something observed Wednesday afternoon.

Sitting on the couch, I looked over and, through the patio widow, spied a feeble old guy trying to walk a pit bull.

A pit bull, on this property where we have so many small dogs? thought I.

Feeble old guy was tripping and stumbling obviously unable to control the pit.

Who’s walking who, thought I.

Because of the breed, and inasmuch as the dog couldn’t be controlled, it seemed to me a foregone conclusion it would eventually attack other dogs, so I planned to bring that up in the meeting.

Apologies if you’re a lover of pit bulls, but I know what I know, so don’t try to sway my opinion -- the breed is dangerous.

Wouldn’t you know, just before the meeting began, a resident I’d never seen before, rushed in, sat next to me. Shaking, trembling, out of breath, almost in tears, she said a pit-bull had just tried to attack her. She’d had to run to escape.

I brought it up -- both what I’d observed and what the resident had just told me.

Complex Manager said something is already being done about the pit, but can’t divulge what that something is.

Hmmmmm.

Casino Lady did indeed inform Community Manager that the police department said management could, with consent, post photos of the pervert encountered day after Thanksgiving. Community Manager looked really uncomfortable. She hemmed, hawed, squirmed, obviously trying to think of how to respond without saying too much.

I know that look because I once worked for a politician, which is where I learned to dislike/distrust politics/politicians. He’d hold press conferences, go on the news, make himself look good for votes by telling the public to contact him for this that the other, but then it was the job of us girls in the office to not let any of those calls through, and we had to be careful not to say too much, to blow off the public in a way that would not say our refusing to put them through was on his orders.

Ultimately, Complex Manager found a way to say it without saying too much -- “No. I can’t do that. It might cause a problem”.

Which meant she’d been ordered to take the heat for Corporate’s decision that to do so would make them liable -- the pervert would have cause to sue.

Casino Lady countered with the obvious, that it will cause an even bigger problem if someone eventually gets hurt.

True that!

I guess Corporate will have to learn the hard way.

In the interim, we’ve been advised to be watchful, on guard.

No sh*t, because you know how it is that when one little ant finds a way to creep into your space, it leaves a trail and, before you know it, more ants follow? Well, it seems perverts leave a trail as well, because another resident I’d not seen before -- we have a lot of new people, reported sitting in her unit one night and seeing a naked man outside her patio window. 

A completely naked man on a cold night.

She said he waved at her and, once assured he had her attention, began dancing around, arms in the air, his stuff dangling away.

I’m upstairs, rarely go out at night and inasmuch as I close my blinds as soon as the sun goes down, not likely to be the recipient of such a show.

The resident reporting the incident lives in a ground floor unit.

The description she gave, of the guy being skinny, didn’t match description of the other, so it looks like we’ve two creeping off/on around our complex.

Living here since 2012, I’ve seen and experienced plenty, but these perverts ants are a first.

I'm fairly certain owners of the pit bull will be forced to relocate if they don't rehome the dog, but don’t think anyone will be inclined to move over these other incidents, because no place is completely incident free. Precautions have to be taken everywhere one goes nowadays so, true it is, we’ll all have to be watchful, on guard and, in my case, remain paranoidly prepared.

No Escape

I over estimated in thinking I’d have no contact with the folks for another two weeks.

Ran into The Baker and another resident at the market.

Baker said, “I just noticed they have gluten-free cupcakes in the Bakery section. If I bought you some, could you eat them?”

The Baker is just the nicest, sweetest, most thoughtful person you’d ever meet, always wanting to do something for someone, but I had to let her down.

“No, because it’s not just the gluten. It’s the high fructose corn syrup, baking powder, which has corn starch in it, regular butter and regular sugar”.

These things I know because I’ve learned the hard way – trial, error, cooking something with everything I think wouldn’t set off a gut reaction, only to get sick, go back and read what was in every ingredient until I pin-pointed the problem, which generally is some version of soy, corn, wheat and put the product on my never again list.

The Baker then said, “Well, what if you gave me some recipes?”

I can do that, but I probably won’t because she has no idea how many ingredients she’ll have to stockpile that she normally doesn’t use.

Next on The Baker’s mind was, “Everyone’s talking about seeing police on the complex this morning, wondering what it was about.”

Believe it or not, I knew the answer.

“That was a welfare check on my elusive downstairs neighbor”.

Shortly after 10:00 this morning, I heard voices underneath my patio. Looked out and observed Complex Manager and both maintenance guys.

Few seconds later, they were joined by two police officers.

The group then walked to the door of the unit beneath me, where the weird resident lives. The resident who is never seen because she comes in late, leaves early for work, doesn’t talk to us the few times we’ve seen her taking out trash or heading to her car, except to tell me, when I welcomed her to the quad, “I don’t like people!” (with considerable emphasis added). She evidently also doesn’t like sunlight either, because she never opens her patio doors to let in fresh air, and keeps all her blinds shut tight.

At any rate, Community Manager knocked on the resident’s door.

No one answering, she opened and let the officers in to take a look.

The officers came out smiling.

Complex Manager looked relieved.

I really think they thought she might be dead in there.

She’s not old, probably barely over the required 55 years of age, so I don’t know what prompted the Welfare Check, but she's fine. I hear her coming in most nights, lately with male company.

Returning to the complex from the market, more contact with residents was made when I walked through the corridor, heading to the mailbox, and noticed something new had been added.

A fairly new resident has opened a nail salon.

Moving on up.

THEN, the resident I’ve only once or twice mentioned in this blog as Casino Lady, because she used to work at one, approached me about that pervert who jumped the fence, tried to corner me at the mailbox area and exposed himself.

She thought what I’d originally thought, that inasmuch as management had him on video, they should post a photo of him, from waist up of course, so residents will know who to be on the lookout for, and tells me she's taken it upon herself to request management do just that.

Management told her it's not legal for them to do so.

Not satisfied with that, she went to the police department with the issue and was told the police department could not release a photo from the video either, but management can do so with the victim’s consent.

She said, “I plan to bring this up at tomorrow’s Residents/Management meeting” and wanted to know if I, as the victim, would consent to the pervert’s photo being posted.

I don’t like that word, victim, but “Hell yeah! Post him everywhere.”

That guy so rattled me that I’m still overly nervous and jumpy. I want him caught. Besides, knowing they are being taped, and photos will be posted, might deter others from the multi-family complex next door from jumping the fence, for whatever purpose.

I wasn’t planning to attend tomorrow’s meeting, but now I'm there.

Downtime

Monday’s walking of the University Campus netted 1.52 miles, 3638 steps, 113 Pokéballs, plus I added a new capture.

I was so excited to see a Plusle that I failed to snap a photo in Augmented Reality Mode (real-world environment), so I’ll have to show you what he looks like from my Pokédex.

Kinda looks like Pikachu with big ears.

This morning's estimated 2 hours, $250 at the dealership’s service department, for transmission service, wound up 3-1/2 hours $190.

Not my favorite thing to do, downtime at the dealership, but had to be done. Want the old girl to keep going, if not for me then for Granddaughter, who is likely to inherit the Saturn when I let go for a new car.

That might be happening sooner rather than later, because she needs a better car than the PT Cruiser she purchased from a relative, and No. 3 Grandson needs a car, period. If I give her the Saturn, she can give her brother the cruiser who, along with his dad, can better handle mechanical issues.

Lot of good walking areas around the dealership, but to step outside the waiting room is to be accosted by hungry sales personnel trying to sell you a car.

I’ve already researched the dealer’s inventory, and find no makes/models I’m interested in, for when ready to purchase, so I stayed inside – read a Woman's World magazine, worked the cross-word puzzle, put time in on my needlepoint project.

And would you believe, I have to waste more of my life away at the dealership again next week, because I asked them to look at a problem I was having with my driver side window slipping, not giving me the range of view I usually have.

Inasmuch as the problem happened overnight – and I do mean overnight, like one day it was fine, next day it wasn’t, I’m fairly certain someone exiting the truck which parks next to me in the complex car port, Head Maintenance Guy’s truck, managed to hit it, knocking it out of position. Maybe even the gardener backed into it when clearing the area of leaves and tumblweeds.

Either way, I'm sure it was an accident, but the bottom line is a new side mirror has to be ordered -- Estimated cost $450.

Parts are also being ordered, for next week, to repair steering wheel’s tie rod ends – Estimated cost $450.

Going to be an expensive month.

To his credit, the service advisor did not try to talk me into next week’s costly work, saying wasn’t necessary right away, just something that eventually was going to need handling.

Better I get ‘em done now than stick Granddaughter with another problem vehicle.

With my having not made contact with residents since last week’s Pizza Tuesday, missing today’s Pizza Tuesday, and scheduled to miss next week’s Pizza Tuesday, I’m looking at 21-28 days away from and out of the Community Room loop.

Happy MLK Day

I had hoped to spend this past Saturday walking the University Campus, collecting Pokéballs, as the nearly 200 balls collected, when in Long Beach during the Thanksgiving week, have been depleted.

Because a Poké Gym has been established less than a quarter mile away from my unit in one direction, and because there’s a Pokéstop in the other direction, at the multi-family unit next door, I’m the recipient of cross activity and have been lucky enough to catch Pokémon without getting off the couch.

Pikachu himself is particularly fond of popping up on or near my needlepoint station.

Or Pikachu herself -- I can never tell the difference, and there is a difference, having to do with shape of the tail.

At any rate, Saturday walking the campus was preempted by my having to drive out of the area to the rescheduled appointment with the locktician (beautician for braids).

Sunday, had me scheduled for the nail salon.

I can actually purchase Pokéballs: 100 balls at $0.99, 500 at $4.00

But why pay for what I can obtain free with just a little leg work and fortunately, today is a holiday, campus closed to classes, and me with no commitments in my way.

There will be no people watching for me tomorrow, Pizza Tuesday, as I’ll be at the dealership having the transmission serviced.

It’s just as well I won’t be connecting with the folks for a few days, because so many seem bored, discontent, and I don't want to buy into that.

Even The Seer has been depressed of late, but her issue is that of being resentful -- resentful of where she is in life, more critical of others than she normally is, projecting her frustration that prayers are not being answered, that she’s not getting what she wants. My philosophy of don’t ask, trust the Universe, listen to what it’s telling you and go with the flow because “Your Father within knoweth what things you have need of” is wasted, falling on deaf ears, so I won't be expending any more energy on trying to lift a person who doesn't want to be lifted right now. And I can’t anymore with Apache -- his love affair with, admiration and defense of the Orange Idiot in Chief, even in the face of “sh*thole” is more than I’m willing to handle.

This thing with The Seer is temporary, she'll get over being upset with the Universe. But you can't cure stupid, so there's little hope my pal Apache will ever wake up and smell the covfefe.

So suffice it to say, I’ll be spending less time with the folks for a while, more time hunting Pokémon and training for The Great Donut Run, which I’m hoping is a flat trail, no hills.