Mother of Invention

Another wet weekend here in the Inland Empire.

Once again stuck inside, with energy to burn, I decided to Spring clean.

Even though the weather isn’t indicating Spring, I know it’s Spring because the new Pikachu is wearing a Spring flower in her hair.

Got quite a lot of cleaning done: On Saturday, I decluttered the hall and bedroom closets, cleaned the bedroom blinds, cleaned the kitchen blinds and, just when I raised the blinds to wash the window, a string broke and I was left with this.

Oh great! I have to put in another maintenance request, thought I.

I’m not feeling good about the office sending that Assistant Maintenance Guy (AMG) up with new blinds, and it will probably be he because he's the one who takes care of the small jobs.

I don’t care what anyone says. When my brain tells me I’m making too much of a situation ─ reading into it more than was intended, but my gut tells me otherwise, I listen to my gut.

Better safe than sorry.

My gut is telling me it was weird for AMG to so pointedly ask if there was anything else he could do for me because that’s not how it works around here. One puts in a request and, when the guys get around to it, they only take care of what is on the request.

Once work is completed, resident signs off.

It’s done this way because, believe it or not, management requires residents to pay for “damages caused by the resident in the unit”. And, of course, management works it so most requests are always, not wear and tear but considered “damage caused by resident”.

Consequently, if the resident has anything else they’d like the guys to take care of , while present, then the resident has to go down to the office and put in yet another request.

Last week and this week are going to cost me because, every time I clean something it breaks.

First was the stove.

I cleaned the oven, it failed a week later, and the entire stove had to be replaced.

No charge for that, because it was a timer issue.

However, last week's florescent kitchen bulb replacement cost a mere $2.50, but a cost nevertheless.

Now it’s the kitchen blinds.

The list of Resident Charges indicates I’ll be reimbursing Corporate $27.51 for new ones.

I’m steam cleaning the bathroom today. Hopefully, no baseboards or floor tiles come loose in the process.

To top it off, in the middle of tracking my cleaning frenzy, the strap on Fitbit broke.

Necessity is the mother of invention so, until I can get a replacement strap, there’s good old duct tape.

As for what I’m currently using for privacy in the kitchen …. again, necessity is the mother of invention.

Can you identify what I'm using as temporary curtains, LOL?

Cohen Spoke

“Cheat, con man, racist”.

So, tell us something those of us who haven’t drunk the Kool-Aid didn’t already know.

But the fact Cohen has admitted to having done this that the other, at the behest of you-know-who, has brought up unpleasant memories of when I myself was in the workforce and feared for loss of job if I didn’t do something not quite on the up and up at the behest of the boss.

I was lucky, in that something inside always stood up, said no, and though I knew not to openly refuse because, being Black, it might have given grounds for my dismissal as being insolent, uncooperative, not a team player, I always smiled, appeared to get the message, but then found a way around.

Outwit, outsmart, outplay.

Like the time my job was to review timesheets, correct errors and sign off on their authenticity.

A timesheet was walked over to me by an assistant to a boss. The assistant looked me in the eyes and pointedly said, “Joe said not to change anything on this”.

I looked at the timesheet and observed the sheet indicated this particular boss’s secretary (who I knew for a fact was sleeping with the boss) was shown as in the office working during the time period, when she was actually vacationing in Hawaii.

For some reason, she had vacation time, but didn’t want to use it.

It isn't easy to do the right thing, when your job is on the line but, had the fraud been discovered, it would have fallen back on no one but myself, because of having signed off on the sheet, so I had no choice but to protect myself by correcting in-office to vacation.

The expected backlash from the conspirators never happened. Neither she, nor her boss, nor the assistant ever said a word about my non-compliance and work life went on as usual.

Then there was the time an attorney told me to sign and submit his grossly inflated expense report.

After having seen a secretary get into a whole lot of legal trouble for signing a contract in her boss’s name, at her boss’s behest ─ a contract which was later disputed and the boss said she’d not signed it, never told her secretary to sign for her, I no longer signed anything on behalf of, signified by /s/. So, I took the inflated expense report to someone in authority to sign for the attorney.

That someone in authority looked at the amount and said, “I’M NOT GOING TO SIGN THIS!”, so I left it on the attorney’s desk, with a note saying so and so refused to sign for him.

What could he do to me for not following orders and signing for him when someone in authority also refused?

He was mad to find it still sitting on his desk, when he returned a few days later and, as far as I know, he had his buddy, the General Counsel lead attorney, sign and collude with him.

The attorney did ask for, and got himself transferred to another secretary, but fine by me.

The secretary he got himself transferred to was the secretary of the General Counsel lead attorney who'd colluded with him.

There are so many stories I can relate to Cohen's situation, when I had to duck, dodge, weave, outwit, outsmart, outplay but my favorite is when a Contract Manager was assigned a Vendor Fair Project, which was destined to fail, and tried to set me up to take the fall.

She gave me a list of things she wanted me to do to set the event up relative to time and location.

I did them.

Then she asked me to set up a mailing list, send out rsvp notices.

I did that and, as I expected, no replies.

So far, everything was me out front, my name, my doing; her involvement, other than it being her project, nowhere.

Then she asked me to set up an appointment for her with the Advertising Director.

I did that as well.

The morning of her appointment with Advertising Director, I woke up to spidey sense telling me she was going to tell me to take the appointment for her.

That would have been totally inappropriate for me as just the secretary. Not only would I have not known what to say, what to do, but the mere meeting with a big mucky muck would have made the project mine in everyone’s eyes and set me up as the responsible one, so I called in sick.

Next day, after recovering from my illness, I returned to the office to learn she’d called in sick that day as well. She’d phoned in and left a message for me to take the appointment for her.

Ha!

She was mad as a wet hen, slamming paperwork down, stormed around the office when she realized I’d outsmarted her and, there being no visible evidence of her having performed activities to make the event successful, it was she herself held solely responsible when the project failed.

Looking back on my working years, most of those years were nightmares I seriously doubt any of you can relate to. I had children to feed, clothe, house so I’ve had to find my way through working for crooks, racists, the functionally insane while scared, afraid, worried most of the time and yes, there have been tears, but always learning how to anticipate, read minds, stay ahead, survive and I’ve lived to come out integrity in tact, retire comfortably and blog about it.

Go figure.

Well, it looks like rain is about to start, following by another storm coming to this area, so I’d better get off this computer and run errands while I can.

The hillside is crumbling. We can only use one side of the road driving out of the area in that direction.

There are homes in them thar hills. I may have to invest in binoculars to keep an eye out on how it’s impacting them.

Sweetheart Potluck

Though Activity Director’s late nod to Valentine’s Day ─ yesterday’s Sweetheart Potluck, was well-attended, the event had nothing to do with Valentines or Sweethearts.

It was too late. The seniors were over hearts, flowers and sweets.

The Community Room decorations had already been switched out for the next thing.

And instead of the plethora of desserts one would expect for a Valentine’s Day event, the menu was savory not sweet ─ Sandwiches, Chips, Macaroni Salad, Potato Salad, Lettuce Soup.

Lettuce soup was new to me. It looked delicious and everyone said it tasted so.

I couldn’t risk the soup containing ingredients I can no longer have, so I passed on it ─ and everything else. I did however later do research and located several recipes online, finally finding a recipe I can incorporate into my meal plan.

Greedy Grabby not only contributed to the potluck, but went all out with a platter of Grape Leaves, Rice with Chicken. (Trying to make amends perhaps).

One dessert did end up on the counter ─ Two containers of store-bought cupcakes.

Monthly birthday celebrations are a thing of the past. Another resident, wanting everyone to know the day was her birthday and wanting a celebration, brought her own cake.

I can’t decide if that was being desperate for attention or to be applauded as a ballsy move.

Apache, waning for attention, stood up and announced he was wearing his Success by Trump Cologne and asked how it smelled.

No one took the bait but me.

“Smells like skunk”, said I.

He laughed. He likes me like a sister, so I can get away with denigrating his hero, whereas he ends up in an argument when others do so.

Later, I was more truthful and said I couldn’t smell anything.

Apache offered his wrist for me to sniff. “Oh, I smell it now. But it smells weak, like the traitor”.

That was the truth. The cologne isn’t very strong. You have to focus to catch the aroma. It’s weak.

But to each his own.

A few residents, who were not present last time I showed up, were surprised to see me. Saying, they’d been asking around as to whatever happened to me ... “Did she move?”

Guess I’m going to have to get out more often.

Inasmuch as Apache is our unofficial mayor, the person willing to tackle Corporate, residents bring their issues to him. He in turn rats management and Corporate out to the county folks. (There’s an issue going on now where management took advantage of not having a manager and locked the doors for four days. No one could enter the office area through the front, no one could get to the Game Room. In fact, Assistant Community Manager wasn’t even in the office and the maintenance guys were observed, through the windows, to be in the Game Room playing pool. Apache got on his phone, turned them all in, and is once again persona non grata. Corporate has had enough, wrote him up for creating a "disturbance", trying to get him outta here. Apache, of course, like a true Trump supporter is enjoying the fight and has no intention of backing down.)

I was sitting with Apache when a resident in a wheelchair rolled over to tell him someone had stolen all her towels from the dryer.

Seriously? Stealing laundry? How low can a person go.

Apache said he’d report it.

In all fairness, I don’t see what management can do about that. There’s no camera in the laundry rooms, so we’ll just have to not leave our laundry unattended. Apache, on the other hand, sees it as one more nail to hammer management with.

Before I headed back upstairs, after the event, I popped into the office to put in a Maintenance Request for my overhead kitchen lighting. Assistant Community Manager took the request and asked, “What’s your unit number?”

All of a sudden I drew a blank.

My mind went completely empty ... there was nothing there. I could not remember where I lived!

She had to look it up on the computer.

At any rate, the Assistant Maintenance Guy showed up pretty quick, replaced the burnt out tube and, before leaving, pointedly asked, “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

I quickly processed that statement as strange … nothing any of the many maintenance guys has ever said to me before and not sure if I was reading more into it than was intended.

The women around her have in the past been very flirty with the maintenance guys. I know one who told me she’d asked one of the guys out on a date. Other maintenance guys have told others they’ve been sexually harassed by some of the women. I believe it because Apache has also been approached, only he likes it.

So, it wouldn’t be out of realm of possibility that this new guy thought I might be one of those women and threw me a line.

Deciding the best course was for me to play dumb, not take the bait, if there was bait to take, I stuck my head back into my needlepoint and tried to sound nonchalant with “No thanks”.

No Host Oscars

Because of all the speeches, I stopped watching The Oscars years ago. However, wanting to see how it went with no host, I gave it a go. No host went well, but could not get through the speeches.

I saw who presented, who won, watched them head for the stage and, as the speech began, I flipped the channel and caught up on what Worse Cooks in America was up to and whatever else was on at the time until tuning back into the Oscars hoping the speech was over. Most times my timing was right on.

I’ve not seen any of the movies, except for Black Panther, but have heard so much about each film that I’d formed opinions. 

From all the hype, I was surprised Roma didn’t do better.

Again, based on all the hype, Green Book’s win and Glenn Close’s loss were a complete surprise.

I’m still in awe at how Christian Bale was unrecognizable as that bulbous beast of a man in Vice, and yet appear so slim and attractive in the audience.

I read somewhere that in addition to makeup, he’d also gained weight. I’d like to know how much weight he gained and how he dropped that excess.

I was happy Black Panther did well. However, at the risk of inflaming the community and losing my Black Card, I would have been surprised if it had won Best Picture because, though I was proud of the movie, I didn’t think it was that good.

I was expecting Panther to be a lot of his suiting up and righting wrongs, like Bat Man. Instead, it was all about protecting the kingdom from Killamonga and not near enough of the suit.

Much as I like superheroes, Panther is not a movie I’d watch again, unlike the multitude of times I’d watched and rewatched the other superhero movies.

Speaking of superheroes ... what a sweetie Chris Evans is.

A facebook friend and I went back and forth over Billy Porter in a tuxedo dress designed by Project Runway’s Christian Siriano. I thought it was all that, but friend said she wasn’t a fan because the velvet looked too bottom heavy.

I’m sure it was and Billy probably had to build some leg muscles to carry it off, but looking fabulous is hard work.

Tomorrow is the Sweetheart Potluck. Tomorrow is also Pizza Tuesday.

The two events lumped together like that, especially since Valentine’s Day was days ago, seems so not worth it. However, inasmuch as the potluck is the only event we’ve had in a good long while, I imagine it will be well attended.

But for the fact I'd signed up to bring potato salad, I'd skip it. Not wanting to let anyone down, I picked up a tub at the deli while out and about yesterday. Of course, I won't be eating any, what with the ingredients being soybean oil, red bell pepper, and modified corn starch. Not just because they're on my no-no list but because I’m just now recovering from a gut episode caused by that Ben and Jerry Cherry Garcia ice cream I’d stored after the Idiot in Chief declared a national emergency.

I’d been doing so well, with no tummy upsets in such a long time, and I didn't see any ingredients I was aware of being on the no-no list, so I thought I could have that indulgence.

Wrong!

Not only did the ice cream torture me for five days with nausea and tummy upset  (it may have been the cherries), but it started up the sugar cravings.

An apple won’t do right now, so feeling sorry for myself, and to satisfy that sweet tooth, I stopped by a place for an indulgence I’ve tested and found cause no gut issues.

Pizza Tuesday

No flash flooding today, but another storm expected tomorrow, I figured I’d better head to the deli and pick up potato salad for Thursday’s Sweetheart Potluck, get that out of the way while it was dry outside.

The seniors actually celebrated Valentine’s Day at bingo on the 14th. I’d gotten a text from Apache asking if I’d come down and take pictures for the facebook page, as there was a crowd in the room and lots of themed prizes on the bingo table. That was one of the days when the storm was at its worst, so even though it didn’t deter other residents not one bit, I said no way.

“Might be pretty interesting” says he.

That was intriguing, but no way was I going to head out in the downpour.

I later learned it was interesting because he’d received ten Valentine Cards, some with telephone numbers on them.

Not at all sure I believed him, wanting to see those cards, I thought I’d catch up with him in the Community Room this Pizza Tuesday, before leaving the complex to pick up potato salad.

I arrived too late. He’d been there and was gone. However, it was lucky I stopped in because there was a notice posted indicating the Potluck has been rescheduled to next week.

Activity Director said it’s because, with no Community Manager, there’s no one available to issue her cash for sandwiches, chips and drinks she’d planned to provide.

Us residents are just to bring side dishes and desserts.

It was also lucky I stopped in because I got to witness first hand when Activity Director spoke to the room saying she’d received complaints about how some of the ladies handled themselves last Pizza Tuesday. She’d reviewed the video tape, seen with her own eyes and inasmuch as this is a recurring problem with people she isn’t going to name (we all know who ... Greedy Grabby and her crew), that she will be reviewing the tape each week when she’s not here and if she sees these same people behaving badly again, they will be banned from Pizza Tuesday.

It’s about time she took a hard line with that group.

I clapped at the end of her speech.

And yes, the Community Room is wired. It looks like a command center in the Manager’s Office with a screen that shows what’s going on in various locations of the complex while recording at the same time so management can play back to a particular time.

Oddly enough, not everyone knows they’re being taped and a few culprits have been caught sneaking around, taking things that don’t belong to them, getting themselves banned, but still a lot goes unobserved and management rarely reviews the tapes to track complained of incidents.

At any rate, with the giveaway under Activity Director’s control this morning, there was plenty to go around.

Some of the pizzas were heart shaped.

So with no activities this week, all the interesting 5Ks too far away, too cold outside to walk or hunt Pokémon, it’s back to vegging on the couch.

National Emergency

Waking up to news a national emergency has been declared, I rushed to the market for emergency supplies.

Everyone stay safe.