Overreacting ???

I’m big on punctuality. I hate having my time wasted and am careful not to waste anyone else’s time. Consequently, I’m always a few minutes early to appointments of whatever nature.

Thus it is, I generally arrive at the Pain Cave for my 11:45 appointment, at 11:40 ─ occasionally, 11:35 and kill the extra time in the car ─ listening to music or playing PokemonGo.

It was pouring down rain yesterday which, having to put on boots, a jacket, grab an umbrella threw me off. I arrived precisely at 11:45.

“You’ve never been this late before Shirley”, said Trainer (even though I technically was not late, rather precisely on time). “I was beginning to worry”, he went on to say. “Was just about to call to see if you were okay”.

“Awwwwwww”, murmured I. He’s such a sweet kid. Was worried about me.

To look at him, you’d never guess him to be so soft, caring. Muscular and all tatted up, one might judge him as a badass gangbanger.

At any rate, tomorrow’s session was rescheduled to today, because I have a conflicting appointment tomorrow. Tomorrow also happens to be our one-year anniversary, as my first training session was March 12, 2019.

Trainer was joking around about me abandoning him on our anniversary.

“Don’t feel too bad” said I. “You’ve lasted longer than some of my boyfriends”.

He got a good laugh from that and said, “Back at you. You’ve lasted longer than many of my girlfriends”.

Arriving back at the complex, I found a notice attached to the door that, due to this Covid thing, management is cancelling all social events (what few we did have), including the coffee setup in the Community Room, and asking residents not to leave refreshments, i.e., donuts, cookie, cupcakes, etc.

Good, thought I. Not just because it’s smart to limit social contacts during this COVID thing, but because the seniors need this timeout, from the bingo they so dearly love, so they can reflect on their behaviors of late. Consider what’s really important, what is not.

Management is also requesting we not contact them via in person office visits, use the telephone instead.

Plus, when placing a work order, management would like for us to tell them if we are ill or not feeling well. (Probably so they can have an excuse for not showing up).

Ha! Good luck with that one, thought I, as it’s difficult enough to get service when we’re feeling great.

Is management overreacting? Carrying things too far? I dunno? It sounds like they are deathly afraid of being contaminated by one of us. Maybe it is us who should be afraid of being contaminated by one of them, not want them in our units or near us because we don’t know where their bodies have been, with whom they’ve come in contact.

I think management is overreacting, but only time will tell.

At any rate, there now being no reason for the seniors to come out of their units, this place is going to start looking like a deserted ghost town.

Another fun looking run/walk has come to my attention but, inasmuch as festivals and large gatherings are being cancelled right and left, I’m not sure the one’s I’ve already registered for (except for the virtual) will take place. So, I’m taking a wait and see stance on registering for this latest one.

I’ve got to hurry up a trip to Macy’s — to replenish makeup and a trip to the craft store — for floss, before said businesses find it necessary to shut down.

Hopefully businesses won’t get that afraid of customers, but you never know.

Panic Buying

The checker and bag person were making fun of people panic buying toilet paper at the market yesterday. Not to their face but, as the panic buyer walked away, and I took her place at the counter, the checker and bag person began to disparage her.

The acoustics was terrible, so I couldn’t make out all they were saying, except when the bag person looked at me and tried to draw me into the conversation with, “They can’t eat toilet paper”.

Not wanting to be thus included in making fun of anyone for any reason, I said, “You never know. They might”.

A ridiculous comeback, but it was all I had. LOL.

Actually, there appeared to be plenty of toilet paper on the shelf, no need to panic buy. What they didn’t have was dried seaweed (nori). Someone was either planning a huge sushi party or panic bought ALL the nori.

The market tried to mask the absence of nori by repositioning products to cover the gaps where usually three/four different brands of nori can be found, but that didn’t fool me.

Oh well.

Having previously reported panic buying of wipes had not reached this area, as there was still plenty on the shelf, I looked around and found those shelves are now completely bare.

Guess it’s a good thing I’ve got a stash of my own, because I ALWAYS keep wipes in the car, in the house, and in my fanny pack because … people.

Even though I could not ascertain how well I did at Saturday’s Shamrock 5k, because of the way the sorority’s broke results down, tracking data accumulated from the device on the back of my bib came though and indicates I came in 2nd in the 61+ category. A 67-year-old beat me out by three minutes.

If you're curious as to how tracking works … it's the magic of radio frequency identification (RFID). There is an RFID reader embedded in the mat on the ground at the start point, and a RFID chip on back of our bibs. As we pass the RFID ground reader, data from the chip is sent to a computer indicating our bib number, time we crossed the reader heading out, time we crossed the reader coming back in. Then it breaks down results by age (evidently there were no racers over 61, other than myself and the No. 1 person). Further it breaks down my position compared to all who participated.

Front

Back

Overall, I came in 110 out of 267 participants.

Not bad. I’ll take it.

.

Shamrock 5K

This morning’s 5K ─ hosted by a Sorority, though not the most fun I’ve had participating in a run/walk, turned out better than I’d expected.

The participants were indeed much younger than I, but not the “silly fraternity girls (and boys) dancing prancing running the course in seconds, leaving my old arse behind” I’d expected.

There actually weren’t that many running the course. Instead, it was mostly walkers AND quite a few of those walkers were slowing me down with their casual strolling as though they had all day to get around the course.

I managed to get around the slowpokes, leave ‘em in my dust as I paced myself on to a 58:31 finish.

The course was three 1.04 mile loops around a particular area of the campus ─ mostly asphalt road, which pounding away on asphalt left me stiff and sore all over. Just short of halfway through, I noticed a group of healthy-looking young men were cheating ─ taking a shortcut to the finish line after having completed nowhere near the required three loops.

Boo for them and, because there were timer chips in our race bibs, cheating won’t get them higher placement in the results. They did, of course, get to the finish line long before me, but the results should show less than the required 3.12 miles ... positioning them well behind me or incomplete, I hope.

Other young fit walkers, didn’t even finish the course. Some dropped out after the first mile, some after the second so that, by the time of the third and final lap, there were darn few of us participants still on the course.

Upon crossing the finish line, there were no medals given because ─ Sorority.

However, special medals went to the top 3 men and women, age 18 and over, rather than the usual top men/women in varying age groups, which meant the six medal winners were all 18/20 somethings because ─ Sorority.

I wasn’t terribly disappointed, as I did at least get a tee-shirt and the feeling of accomplishment at having finished.

There was no entertainment along the course because ─ Sorority. But there was music, Starbucks Coffee, donuts (I passed), a Spirit Team and a Cheer Squad at the finish line.

All in all, it was an okay 5K. I’d do it again. And though I’m stiff and sore now, I’m game to go Beast mode, head back to campus tomorrow ─ for a much slower paced walk ... that is if it doesn’t rain, which it now looks to be threatening.

Next up is San Diego’s Hot Chocolate 5K.

I don’t care much for San Diego, plus travel is too difficult with my gut issues, not to mention booking myself into a hotel during this Covid thing is not smart. The race organizers must be taking Covid into consideration as well because, for the first time, they’re offering a virtual ... and a whole lot of swag (medal AND a jacket instead of a tee).

Sweet!

Seniors Behaving Badly …. Again Part 2

After today's workout, I stopped by the market and, as I was leaving, passed a customer wearing a mask — protection against Covid.

Arriving back at the complex, I saw a resident, out walking her dog, while wearing a mask and surgical gloves.

Other than those two signs of the time, this area has been very chill about getting into a panic. There was still toilet paper and hand sanitizers on shelves at the market, and the prices seemed normal.

After putting what few things I’d picked up at the market away, I checked into the Community Room expecting not to see bingo getting ready to begin — because of what Next Door Neighbor had revealed about trouble at last week’s session.

SURPRISE … the room was full, it was business as usual, except Apache was not in attendance.

The Baker was in the kitchen, preparing snacks for the seniors, whereupon I said, “You’re not supposed to be in the kitchen”.

I looked over, saw she’d also baked cupcakes, and said “Didn’t the doctor put you on rest, tell you not to do anything?”.

“I know, but I’m upset, need to keep busy”.

“Upset over what happened last Thursday?” asked I.

She began laughing hysterically and said, “No. That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”

The who what why of it is that Big Friendly Guy was talking with the resident who’d made the X-rated cupcake, the same resident who’d given an unsolicited lap dance to Apache at a previous bingo session. I need a name for her, as she’s likely to appear in the blog quite often, so let’s call her “X-rated”.

At any rate, Big Friendly Guy (BFG) and X-rated were supposedly talking loud during the bingo game, and another resident told them to be quiet.

The Baker said she heard “be quiet”, but said others heard it as “shut up”.

Whether “be quiet” or “shut up”, BFG took offense (although he himself appears to have been in the wrong for carrying on a conversation while numbers were being called), shot straight out of his chair and began yelling at whomever it was told him to shut up.

A woman in a wheel chair chimed in and said something to BFG about his talking having made it difficult to hear numbers called.

BFG ran straight up to the woman in the wheelchair, got up close and personal in her face and went off on her. Whereupon, The Baker tells me the entire room went nuts. Everyone got involved and there was yelling from everyone at everyone.

Apache tried to quiet everyone down saying that if all the arguing didn’t stop, it was going to cause him to get in trouble (because he’s in charge of bingo). No one listened, so Apache said he wasn’t doing bingo any longer, packed up all the prizes and walked out.

With no prizes on the table, no one to call the game, people still arguing, folks began leaving BUT, because one of the seniors had cooked soul food (as the session was titled “Black History Bingo”), and there was food in the oven, seniors began entering the kitchen, opening the oven, started taking food — making plates to take with them straight from the oven.

Baker said it was insane, out of control and, from start to finish, the funniest thing she’d ever seen, as she stood in a corner and stayed out of it.

Community Manager happened to walk into the room to see how bingo was going, saw the melee, quieted everyone down, and announced that, beginning April, he’d be taking bingo over.

GREAT! Another job that’s not his, when there’s more job-specific things he should be handling.

“You should have taped it”, said I to the Baker.

“I thought about it”, said she but not to worry because the Community Room video tape got it all. Community Manager reviewed the tape and had a talk with BFG.

I looked over to where BFG usually sits and saw he wasn’t present today.

I doubt Community Manager banned BFG from bingo. Community Manager is not the hardline type to ban anyone, so I'm assuming BFG has made the decision to be done with the seniors and with bingo.

I don’t think Apache is as forgiving as the Baker, so he’s probably done with it as well.

Besides once again being in the kitchen, cooking/baking for the seniors against doctor's orders because she's the forgiving kind, the Baker said she's doing it to keep busy. Her husband is not doing well and she doesn’t want to think about it.

Seniors Behaving Badly .... Again

Noticing yesterday that Nosey’s (corner unit downstairs, across the quad) blinds, usually opened enough for her to see what’s going on outside, were closed up tight, I thought it odd. THEN I realized I’d not seen her caregiver for a day or so.

Seeing next door neighbor on her patio, I asked if she knew whether everything was okay with Nosey, and next door neighbor said, “No. She’s in the hospital again.”

“Another fall?” I ventured to guess.

“Yes. She had another fall in her unit”, replied Next Door Neighbor.

Now that Nosey is dependent on a walker and a caretaker, I wonder how she managed to do that ... to fall and hurt herself yet again.

I’d not talked to Nosey for quite a while. First, because it seemed such an effort for her to understand what I was saying last time I did stop to ask how she was doing, when the caretaker had her sitting on the patio. Second, because she hasn’t been on the patio in months, and I didn’t want to knock and have Nosey struggle to get to the door if the caretaker happened to not be there.

It’s so scary when I see how some of the seniors are slowly painfully fading away. When my time comes, I hope I get to transition quickly, painlessly.

And speaking of having difficulty making myself understood, there is a resident I always run into while he’s out walking his pups. He’s a friendly guy, doesn’t appear to have any ailments ... that is until you talk to him. Then it becomes apparent he’s not quite all there. Consequently, I don’t try to engage him in conversation. I leave it at “good morning” when we pass and a wave when he’s at a distance.

The Seer once told me his situation is brain damage due to a motorcycle accident. However, his mother ─ who also has a unit on the property, once shared he (her youngest son) had been shot ... twice. Not bang bang, hospitalized, recovered but bang, hospitalized, recovered then bang again, hospitalized, recovered a second time.

I guess he has his good communication days and bad communication days because, for the first time in all the years I’ve been here, he engaged me in conversation today as I was heading to the mailbox. I understood him. He understood me.

What precipitated the conversation was his making the peace sign as we passed, then flipping the peace sign upside down.

"What’s that?", asked I.

"That’s peace", he indicated the up fingers were, and “That’s my thing” he indicated the sign upside down.

I’m thinking he’s talking gang sign and his being in a gang the reason why someone had tried to kill him twice.

He went on to say, “That’s been my thing since 1989. I’ve been molotov cocktailed, shot AND stabbed” ...  and he said it with what sounded like pride. 

His mom left those other two happenings out.

“You must have been into some bad stuff to have people after you like that.”

“No. All this happened to me after I got out of the military”.

No matter. We create your own reality, so he had to be doing something to draw those occurrences to himself, but it’s nothing short of a miracle that he’s still here, in better health than quite a lot of the seniors. But WOW! What a story.

The conversation ended with my saying, “You’re a walking talking miracle”.

When I was chatting with Next Door Neighbor, learning Nosey was once again hospitalized, Neighbor mentioned there was some sort of a bruhaha at last week’s Bingo. Something about shouting and a fight over food that resulted in Apache snatching up all the bingo prizes he’d displayed, walking out with them and back to his unit.

I’ll have to catch up with Apache tomorrow, learn the who, what, why of it.

These seniors are going to bad behave themselves right out of ALL their privileges.

Things are Picking Up Round Here

I really like the new Community Manager. He’s fun to talk to, diplomatic in dealing with the seniors, and is bringing some fun activities to the complex.

Among the fun activities he’s instituted was a Domino Tournament last month, a Pool Tournament, there’s Karaoke once a month now, he brought back Movie Night and now he’s starting a Travel Club — "quarterly trips to Casinos, Museums, beaches, etc."

Looking at this month’s Activity Calendar, I see he’s also scheduled a Murder Mystery Dinner.

He explains it as us seniors will be receiving an invitation to the dinner, and given a character to come as. During the dinner, lights will be turned off, someone will be murdered, and we are to figure out who the murderer is.

Sounds like fun. I’m in.

So all in all, Community Manager is a good natured guy, puts up with a lot of crap — mostly from Apache, and is acting more like the Activity Director than the actual Activity Director, but I do wish he’d do HIS OWN f _ _ _ ing job, as I’m still waiting for an annual unit inspection — long overdue and for him to follow up on what he indicated he’d do in that last Residents’/Management meeting … look into a new smoke detector for this unit.

He sorta reminds me of an ex-boyfriend, now deceased. That boyfriend was great EXCEPT, he'd do a lot to make me happy but it was never what I'd asked for. It would always be what HE thought I should have instead, then he'd be hurt — not understanding why I wasn’t happy or appreciative.

Community Manager is doing everything EXCEPT what I’ve asked him to do and, from my always seeing the two Maintenance Guys sitting in their office bullsh _ _ _ing, nothing to do, I’m guessing not doing what others have requested as well.

Oh well. I’m going to stop complaining about it. As long as the detector is not beeping, I’m happy. A replacement, or putting the current one back in place, will work itself out.

After trying to motivate myself, for ages, to once again get out walking on weekends, I finally got there this past Saturday. I turned off the television, put the needlepoint project down, and headed out to the university, managing to log in 4 miles.

It was a good thing I did, because I spotted a sign indicating a Hero 5K coming to the university.

Sweet!

Once back at the complex, I registered and learned dressing as your favorite hero is encouraged.

Double sweet! I’ll do Batman again.

That 5K isn’t until April, so I browsed around for whatever else is going on at the university and found there’s a Shamrock 5K this coming Saturday.

I don’t know about that one. Hosted by a fraternity, no mention of entertainment along the course, I have a feeling it might be a snooze fest — a bunch of young silly fraternity girls (and boys) dancing prancing running the course in seconds, leaving my old arse behind.

However, inasmuch as the plan is to walk the university next Saturday anyway, I figure if competing with the group doesn't look appealing, I’ll just eat the registration fee, forgo another medal, go to another area of the campus, and walk my own walk.

The plan this last weekend was to go Beast mode — walk the university two days in a row. So, all suited up, raring to go on Sunday, I opened the door and wailed NOOOOOOOOOO!

It was raining.

Oh well.

Hopefully this next weekend will go as planned.