Did Someone Say Luau

Detouring through the Community Room after Monday’s workout, I saw as poster indicating management is giving us a Luau this Friday.

I’m in.

After Tuesday’s workout I drove to Party City and picked up a grass skirt.

Tried it on.

Didn’t like it.

It was cheaply made, with just a short little ribbon tie at the waist.

The ribbon tie wouldn’t hold ─ kept slipping and the way the raffia bunched at the waist made me look fat, so I took the pre-made grass skirt apart, tossed the ribbon tie and pimped it with an elastic ribbon waist.

Black instead of green because it blends better with the black top I plan to wear, giving me a much better looking waist than bright green would have.

I'm hoping not to be the only resident with a lei and grass skirt, but we have so many who are uptight that I probably will be … even though one resident bragged about owning an authentic grass skirt.

Better brush up on the hukilau.

While in the Community Room, I learned the new Community Manager’s lunch had been stolen from the refrigerator.

Guess no one told him about someone breaking into the locked kitchen cabinet, stealing coffee, paper plates, paper towels, kitchen gadgets. Taking the ice cream, bottled water, and trays of food placed in the refrigerator in advance of an event from the refrigerator.

What with all the potlucks, free pizzas, chicken nuggets, bread deliveries and other free food coming through here, no one needs to do that.

Management needs to put the camera in the kitchen to better use and nab the culprits.

With Community Manager’s lunch being the last to be pilfered, maybe now they will.

Jury is Out

Now that I’ve got my days straight, I had no problem meeting up 7:00 Saturday morning with the walking group I was invited to join by Trainer’s client, but the jury is still out as to whether I’ll participate much with this group.

It’s way different than the run/walk group I was with for five years, that is until the group ended when the organizer had a job transfer.

That was more like a community group of runners, walkers, kids, beginners.

However many as had been looking for a 5K, and seen a posting on the site "Active", signed-up to participate in a fun run/walk. Generally 50 to 100 would show up, we'd all start off together along a set route. The runners would, of course, finish way ahead of us walkers, but there were activities at the start/finish line to occupy them until everyone had crossed the finish line, after which there was a medal ceremony and group photo.

2014 Crazy Tutu/Ugly Necktie 5K

There are only about a dozen or so in this new group and though it’s touted as “runners, walkers, kids, beginners”, it appeared those I met on Saturday were serious marathon runners, hikers, all of whom dispersed into different directions, did their own thing based on whether they wanted to go climbing, hiking, running.

So, it was me showing up, being introduced to folks ─ some seniors who are so accomplished at running that I’m told they usually medal in first-place in competitions, and then swoosh ... everyone scattered and disappeared.

That’s everyone except Trainer’s client and another lady, both of whom I’m sure would rather have gone hiking, but didn’t want to leave me, the newcomer, all alone.

The walk was okay, a route I’ll probably add to my places to go, but just the three of us walking along wasn’t worth joining a group for. I can do that kind of walk on my own and walking on my own is exactly what I did when they led me to a challenging steep incline.

It's steeper than it looks

We’d just passed the college, an area I’m comfortable being alone in, so I said I was done and planned to head back.

The two wanted to turn back to make sure I got safely to my car, but I insisted they continue, that I could take care of myself in that area and so it was they continued challenging themselves, while I turned back, detoured through the college, defeated a PokémonGo Gym, hatched two eggs, logged in 2.22 miles by the time I got back to the car, drove home and shampooed the carpet.

Will I go back next Saturday?

I don’t know.

The jury is still out.

It just didn’t feel like a group ─ didn’t feel worth getting up early on a Saturday for.

One good thing that came out of it was I received information on a couple of upcoming 5Ks I’d heard nothing about ─ one of which is taking place at the college.

I registered for all of them ─ one in August, two in September.

Plus, I’ve got the Stampede 5K in August and the Batman 5K in September.

Speaking of Batman ... look at the cool leggings I managed to snag.

The glasses, I already had. Leftover from when I did a 5K as Batgirl.

So, the jury is still out on the walking group, but only because I don’t want to be rude and just not show up ever again, because the people I met were nice, friendly.

Maybe I’ll give it one more shot and, if I still feel the same, give myself permission to be rude and not show up again.

RIP 2004 Saturn Vue

So, granddaughter’s car is totaled.

Inasmuch as there was no front-end damage, repairs looked expensive but doable to me.

But noooo.

Instead, I get a text message “It's hard to tell from the picture but the entire back door needs replacement because it’s crushed in, it doesn't open but there's large gaps and when driving it's very loud and large amounts of wind come in. Also, the back bumper and the area that's meant to house the rear light is all crushed in. Because the vehicle is older, even with the lower mileage, insurance says damages sound like they're more than the vehicle is worth which totals it out.”

And, as I’d surmised, the hit/run driver had no insurance.

I’m pretty sure that driving without insurance AND hit/run is a crime, but I seriously doubt hit/run driver will suffer much in the way of consequences ─ he won’t be arrested, his car won’t be impounded, so we’ll have to be satisfied with the humiliation he must have felt at thinking he’d gotten clean away only to be tracked down through his license plate.

Maybe he’ll do the right thing next time.

Everything happens for a reason so, though I’m sad the life of the Saturn that served me so well is over less than a year out of my custody, I can accept it and be grateful granddaughter was not injured.

If and when it’s time to get rid of the Jeep for whatever reason, I won’t be deeding it to granddaughter or any other relative. I’ll be looking at what financially benefits me and more than likely trading it in.

Elsewhere in my world, shortly after I ignored a call from a number I did not recognize, I got like the strangest email from a company I’d recently ordered from. So seemingly inappropriate, that I thought it might be a catfishing situation (the process of luring someone into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona), but no. Turns out it’s legit from a company representative.

“This is Melanie with ______.com, it looks like I just missed you! I couldn’t reach your voicemail, so I also wanted to shoot you an email in case this works better for you. I'm a gearhead here at ___________ and I would be psyched to get to know you more! I'm an avid climber, skier and love to camp too – what gets you outside? I’d love to hear how the Sun Mask works out once you get a chance to use it. Do you have any trips lined up this summer? Hope to talk to you soon!”

What the heck?

Am I over reacting that this sounds like something you’d see on a dating site?

Suffice it to say, I’ve marked further correspondence from ________.com as spam.

Further elsewhere in my world, I finally ran into my buddy Apache and asked if, during his late PM/early AM walks, he’s seen which residents are doing laundry.

He said, “Yes, it’s me”.

“No, I mean in my building”.

“Yes, that was me and Diane last week”

As to why they were doing laundry in my building, he had no explanation, but was upset because someone reported him and management had given him a talking to.

“What about all the other people”, he said he’d asked management.

He’s right about that, because I tracked one whole week of hearing rulebreakers doing laundry at 11:00 pm, being awakened at 2:30 am the next morning, 11:30 that night, 3:00 am the next morning, 10 pm the next night, 4:45 am the next morning.

In speaking with the new Community Manager about it, I’d asked if he couldn’t set the laundry room doors to automatically lock at 10 pm. He actually said it’s being looked at.

The new Community Manager is a hoot. He’s short, plump, rosy cheeked, exudes likeability, comes across as very sweet and giggles like a girl. But, I’m not holding my breath as to if and when automatic locks will be done. In the grand scheme, the noise is a minor inconvenience.

As for the woman downstairs, underneath my unit, she was losing her mind with complaints to the office about me waking her up at 3:30 am, when she thought the noise was coming from me. Now all of a sudden she says she no longer hears it.

What’s that about?

Returning to my unit yesterday from the mailbox, I spied her outside her unit.

That in itself is unusual, because something is not right about her. She says she doesn’t like people, won’t talk to any of us, stays hidden inside her unit with the windows and blinds shut tight and the maintenance guys tell me she freaks out and requests they come seal any perceived little hole or crack anywhere because, using her words, “Bugs will get in and eat me”.

Yet here she was, outside her unit, sitting on the bench outside, in conversation with that Big Friendly Guy (BFG) I’d mention was using a cane.

He’s no longer using the cane, by the way.

Because the woman had chased me away when I’d attempted to introduce myself shortly after she moved in, I hesitated in speaking but, since she was with BFG, I ventured “Hey folks” and, addressing her directly, asked if the noise was still bothering her.

No hard mean look this time, just an “I don’t hear it”.

It’s impossible she doesn’t since her bedroom is right next to the Laundry Room.

I can only assume that inasmuch as she has no problem sitting chatting with BFG and she does have an occasional male visitor, the people she doesn’t like are limited to the female gender. Thus, the losing her mind when she thought the noise was coming from a female way older than she, but a target for being way prettier.

Whatever.

Guurl bye. 

Drama on the Patio

Spotted a disturbance on the patio early this morning.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a bird emergency, with one seemingly in distress, two others trying to render aid.

When I moved the blinds away to get a clearer view, the helpers fled, leaving the injured bird behind.

Now what you need to know about me is I’m the kind of person that enjoys cats, dogs, birds, people but, ever since mom gave my dog Skippy away, only at a distance. I’m not the one who’s going to be performing CPR or, in the case of cats, dogs, birds, the one who will pick them up, transport to the nearest vet. Instead, I’ll make the calls to get help.

In short, I’m the helping kind ─ I'll stop, get involved, but I'm not the physically touching rendering aid kind.

Even when my twins were little and would get a splinter. I couldn’t handle it. I’d knock on a neighbor’s door and ask them to pull the splinter out. And God forbid, blood was involved. There would be screaming, vomiting, and not from the kids, but from me.

So with this bird on my patio, unable to fly, looking to be dying, it was high drama, with me begging “Pease don’t die on my patio”.

Hours went by.

Bird wasn't moving and looked to be fading.

From a safe distance, I began trickling cold water onto the patio, thinking a drink might do bird some good but still, bird wasn't moving.

I began thinking how sad to die alone on the patio and wondered if I could get maintenance to take the little corpse away, because no way would I ever go out onto the patio with a dead bird on it.

I regularly checked on the bird, sent water its way and whatdyaknow, along about 10:45 I saw this:

Bird 911 had come to the rescue.

Whatever food or medicine bird rescue had fed her (and somehow I know it’s a she), she seemed to perk up, was up and walking around, but still unable to fly.

That is until checking on her, shortly after 11:00, I found her to be gone.

Praise the Universe!

I don't know if it was the water, the TLC from the other bird, the prayers, or being able to rest undisturbed until whatever was wrong passed, but nothing dead for me to deal with on the patio!

Drama over, I got dressed and headed out for grocery shopping.

Would you believe, shortly after I returned, around 1:30, she came back.

I know it was she because I recognized the white spot on her tail.

Thinking maybe she’d left some sort of bird pheromones that led her back, I went out to sweep the patio.

She didn’t fly away.

She wasn’t afraid of me.

I swept the entire patio around her, she never moved. Even allowed me to get up close and take a photo of her fully recovered self.

I think I made a friend.

In fact, I think I made several friends because, for the remainder of the afternoon, I had bird visitors ... on the railing, close flybys.

Either several new friends for me or bird was telling her people, “You won’t believe what happened to me this morning” and her folks stopped by to see for themselves.

EARTHQUAKES!!!

Had one of my “I Forgot” days again.

Trainer had mentioned one of his clients is into country music and 5Ks, so I gave him a flyer about the Stampede 5K coming up in the area to pass on to her.

She, in turn, told Trainer to invite me to join her local walking group.

Wanting to know more about the group, I met up with Trainer’s client during her session at the Pain Cave, on Wednesday, and ended up joining her Pacer’s group, scheduled to meet up and walk this Saturday morning.

I inked in 7:00 Saturday to my planner.

The 4^th of July on Thursday threw me off my game. Thursday felt like a weekend, Friday felt like a weekend and I had to constantly remind myself .. no, today is Thursday … no, today is Friday. Somehow, things got twisted in my head and I began mentally mapping out … no, today is Thursday, remember to workout with Trainer … no, today is Friday, rest today and tomorrow to reserve energy for Sunday's group walk.

Not Saturday's group walk, but Sunday's.

And so it was when, along about 9:30 this morning, I happened to look at my planner and realized … no, the group walk was this morning, not tomorrow. I’d missed it.

Oh well.

Embarrassing, but there’s always next Saturday.

Adding to the holiday throwing me off my game, there was the chaos of two earthquakes.

Even though my friend the Archeologist, who lives a few blocks away, posted she’d felt Thursday’s 6.4 quake, I didn’t feel a thing.

A coworker friend, who also lives in this area, also felt Thursday’s quake, posting “Everyone my Rae Dunn is safe... I repeat, my Rae Dunn is safe from the earthquake!” LOL. (Rae Dunn being the hottest new trend in pottery and friend’s obsession).

Then I lost my Wi-Fi right in the middle of The Walking Dead Marathon on Friday, around noon. Don’t know if the quake or aftershocks was the cause, but I was without Wi-Fi until shortly after 4:00. 

No television.

No laptop.

Cell phone worked, but could not access Facebook or the PokémonGo app.

Though I like things peaceful and quiet, that was too much quiet for me. 

Even though I had needlepoint to occupy my time, meditation and a new read (Walter Mosley’s Down the River Unto the Sea), it was an awful couple of hours being cut off from the world without internet or television.

Then, after being without Wi-Fi earlier in the day, there was yet another earthquake, a whopping 6.9, around 8:15 that evening.

That one I felt.

It rolled on and on and on, causing the 5K medals on the bid/medal board to swing and clang into each other.

I didn’t feel panic as the rolling continued on and on gathering momentum. I was more in a state of suspended animation, frozen on the couch, not thinking, not moving, just observing, waiting to see what was next, and what came next was a mere nothing compared to all the devastation in the Ridgecrest area ─ a sign and a few books tipped over in the bookcase.

Inasmuch as, we are not only in the red fire zone area, but on a fault line, I think I’d better put together a kit for the car, including toiletries, makeup, water purifier and clothing). Because of my gut issues, food is going to be a problem, so I’ll have to wing it, take my chances during an emergency that I can find fresh veggies, or just let myself be sick on ramen noodles and crackers.

I’m also redoing my go-bag to focus on important papers and Creative Memory photo albums, striking off the list the laptops because laptops can be replaced. The only electronic I really need is the cellphone ─ the only item that worked during the Wi-Fi outage, which can also be used as a flashlight.

Happy Birthday America

And Happy Birthday Captain America!

Nothing special happening for us seniors today and looks like the nation is going to be presented with a whole lot of nothing coming to us in the guise of a spectacle wasting an enormous amount of money while migrant children go without soap and toothpaste.

On a personal level, this holiday started off with a BANG, literally and figuratively when granddaughter messaged she’d been the victim of a hit and run.

Second time the Saturn has been hit since I turned it over to her.

I think it was bad luck when she removed my old “Jesus Loves You But I’m His Favorite” sticker because first there was the Saturn being sideswiped.

And now a full on assault.

The good news is she and her boyfriend were banged up, sore, but neither seriously injured due to the quick thinking of boyfriend.

Boyfriend was driving and, while in a turn, spotted the car flying down the street, heading directly towards granddaughter in the passenger seat. Boyfriend quickly sped up to try to avoid the impact and, from where the damage is located, looks like they almost escaped the hit.

Not only did boyfriend’s quick thinking save granddaughter from serious harm, he was able to chase the guy down and take photos of his license plate.

The police ran the plates, got the drivers info, but said granddaughter and boyfriend will have to wait for about 10 days for a report as to who hit and run guy is.

How much you wanna bet hit and run guy has no insurance.

Ugly as the Saturn now looks, granddaughter says the car still drives fine but, of course, it can’t be driven with the tail light missing.

It looks fixable, if they can find a good body shop. Fixable but expensive. Not to mention what this is going to do to her insurance rate.

Oh well, such is life.

Granddaughter says she learned through this experience that boyfriend and she have different methods of responding to almost losing their lives. Boyfriend was all heroic when he needed to be. However, after all was said and done, reality set in and boyfriend experienced a panic attack and had to lay down. Granddaughter broke her diet and ate a pop tart.