If At First You Don’t Succeed

Happy belated quarantined Memorial Day.

In the good old days ─ good old days being ten/twelve weeks ago, us seniors would have gotten together and given ourselves a BBQ outside in the patio area by the pool.

There’s still a lock on the pool gate ─ rightly so, and we’re all in masks staying away from each other so instead, craving a Memorial Day themed meal (slaw, potato salad, turkey dog in a bun), I spent time in the kitchen.

The yeast having arrived before the gluten free masa (thanks again Anne Marie), I put tamales on the back burner and went back to my original plan of baking gluten-free hot dog buns. That project ended up being a waste of time, energy, flour, eggs.

The first recipe allowed the dough to be shaped as a bun before baking, but didn’t translate well substituting all-purpose flour with gluten free and baking powder with soda. Epic fail.

If at first you don’t succeed, try again.

The second recipe was specifically developed for gluten free flour and translated well with soda instead of powder, but called for a hot dog pan ─ which I didn't have. Substituting a cake pan for the hot dog pan turned out a bread cake. Taste wasn’t bad, but impossible to shape, after baking, into a useable bun.

If you don’t succeed a second time, go with what you know. I just wrapped those turkey dogs in a tortilla and called it a Memorial Day meal.

Before logging off last night, I checked Yelp to see if the complex received any further reviews, other than the two.

It did not.

However, instead of two reviews there was only one ─ the original negative review. The positive review from across the quad neighbor Quiet Old Guy, had been moved off the main page and, in its place, were the words “1 other review that is not currently recommended”.

How interesting.

My inquiring mind had to know why, so I Googled “Why would Yelp flag a review as not recommended?” Google replied, “According to Yelp, their algorithm chooses to not recommend certain reviews because it's believed that the flagged review is fake ...”

WOWIE WOW!

I can’t imagine that positive review did not come from Quiet Old Guy. It read like something his strait-laced, deferential to those in authority self would say. However, I can’t say it’s beyond the realm of possibility that management would have been so stupid, so desperate, as to have posted their own positive review posing as him.

Either way, there are no further reviews and seems there won’t be. It was incredibly ostentatious to ask residents for reviews in the first place. Especially when folks have other things on their minds, like surviving this pandemic. Management will now have to live with the one negative review, and suspicions they faked a positive.

Say Hello to My Little Friend

Having no access to the scale in the Game Room to check myself since the lockdown, and curious to know how I’m doing, I invested in one.

The good news is I’m still at my pre-pandemic weight. I haven’t gained.

The bad news is I’m still at my pre-pandemic weight. I haven’t lost.

I’m not on the Weight Watchers program, but ended up choosing this scale for no special reason. It arrived yesterday and, looking at the box, I found it’s one of those fancy scales that has fitness modes, which modes tells the user all kinds of body analysis stuff, i.e., fat, water, mass.

I have no idea how the scale can go into that level of detail, and looks like I’ll never know because, once I opened the box and began reading the manual for setting fitness mode, I read … “The age range for fitness mode is 18 to 75”.

At 76 years of age, I’ve aged out of fitness mode. LOL.

No matter, I probably wouldn’t understand all that data even if I could get access to it. I just want to watch my weight — preferably watch it go down.

With no walking competitions on the horizon, because of restrictions on group activities, I’ve been depending on Virtual 5Ks. I’m getting emails every day about this one and that one, but few have caught my fancy — other than the Wonder Diva I just completed, and one other coming up soon — the Covid 19 Over it 5K.

I’m certainly not over Covid. I don’t think any of us will be over it in many years to come. I think we’ll just learn how to survive in it. So, though not actually over it, I registered because of the fabulous “over it” hair buff they’re offering, as the words tell the story of a great many things in life I am actually over. LOL.

THEN, on Thursday, another interesting virtual popped up in email.

Interesting, not because of any special bling. Interesting because I did the ridge run September of last year, was looking forward to this year’s run — which Covid put a halt to, and thought their virtual worth participation.

While registering for the event, I saw that participants are expected to pick up race packets.

Really?

For a virtual?

Expecting participants to pick up race packets for a virtual — especially when the reason going virtual is because of a pandemic, makes about as much sense as when the bank originally had us spaced out in line, but too close at the teller windows.

I backed out of the registration process, and thinking this having to go virtual is new to the organization — they just didn’t know, I emailed the organizers — “In case you didn’t know, it’s customary to mail packets to participants in virtuals”.

That was bold of me, I later thought, not knowing what, if anything, would be coming back at me. Surprisingly, they replied … nicely.

“Thanks for connecting. We were trying to at least have a little contact with runners so we could at least say thank you for participating. Also then we would not have to charge the participant for the mailing. I think shipping would be six or seven dollars. What are your thoughts? Are you local?”

Well that’s just silly — the wanting contact to say thank you. I ignored it and addressed cost of mailing with … “One of the advantages of a virtual is race packets are mailed to participants with cost of mailing included in registration fee. Since you’ve already posted pickup, I guess it would be difficult to change now. However, I’m thinking maybe you could have two registration fees – one pickup, one mail to cover cost. Or at least an option button to have mailed, at cost. Thanks for replying. I’ll check the site later to see if any changes. If not, good luck with the virtual. Hope it’s as successful as last year’s event was.”

It won’t be, as successful that is. Not with having a package pickup, I thought to myself. But that was that.

Then whatdoyaknow. I wake up this morning to a reply … “Shirley that’s a great idea”. 

Look at me … being an influencer. LOL.

I don’t know which idea, but they are going to change the registration process. So, I guess I’ll be adding that 5K to my workouts.

Yeast Less

Which one of you is hoarding all the yeast?

Needing active dry yeast for a baking project planned for the weekend, I went to the two local markets yesterday and found none, so I headed out of the area today, checked two markets in that area. Still no yeast.

There must be a lot of baking going on in self-isolation.

Not planning to go any further out of the area, I gave up on the idea of baking and decided to try a different recipe.

Can you guess what it is?

Only thing missing is gluten-free masa, which I hope to arrive by the weekend so I can get started. If it doesn’t arrive, then it’s back to the drawing board as to which recipe I’ll experiment with this weekend.

I’m having better luck with finding needlepoint floss.

I managed to get the two colors I initially ran out of. One source, I found after scrounging around on the internet, would only sell in bulk — lots of 12. But okay, I needed it, so went for it. I was able to purchase three of the other color from a source I found in the United Kingdom. I repeat … THE UNITED KINGDOM YALL! But I got my missing colors and feel lucky to have found them.

It cost me though. What pre-pandemic I could walk into a craft store and purchase for $4, ended up costing $41.

Once active dry yeast becomes available, I imagine the yeast won’t be the only thing to rise. What normally runs around $3.99 a packet is going to rise in cost exponentially.

Then There Were Two

Another review popped up on Yelp.

I didn’t personally know the first reviewer — at least I don’t think so. I’ve probably seen her around, but I don’t know the name of everyone I pass and greet. But I immediately recognized the second reviewer to be my across the quad upstairs neighbor Quiet Old Guy — Church Lady’s “friend”.

Whereas the first reviewer gave management a two star negative, Quiet Old Guy gave management a five star positive.

“I have lived at this location for 2 years. We have the best management and maintanance team. The team don't work for us, they work with us. Some residents think they live in a rent to own location and complain when they can't have their way. We should thank God for an affordable location and a caring staff”.

My immediate reaction was bless his heart, then I laughed out loud.

Fact checking through the blog, I find Nosey — downstairs corner unit across the quad, informed me a resident had moved into the vacant unit just before the 18th of October 2018 and described him as “a Black man and doesn’t walk so good”. So, not quite two years.

Though he still drives, he does appear to have medical issues, is very slow moving, depends on a cane.

He comes across as quite a nice old school gentleman — stiff, formal, respectful of women, respectful of authority, and it’s quite obvious from his physicality/his aura that he’s not had an easy time in life. So, I understand the five-star rating.

QOG has never shared with me where he was living before, but others have: Shadow came from a rundown property where there was drug dealing, assaults, burglaries. The 33-years married couple, that had a domestic violence issue last year, came from a community where there was unchecked reverse racism — residents called them names and were mean to them because they’re white. Then there was Christian Writer, who’d complained of being treated badly by neighbors in her previous community. And, on two other occasions, new residents stopped me as I was walking, introduced themselves and said how happy they felt to get a unit in this complex after having been on the wait list for a great while. So, to residents having experienced worse, here is nirvana.

So, I understand QOG’s five-star rating. He now has a safe, clean place to live, nice friendly kind neighbors, even has a lady friend — probably the best he’s had in a long time.

However, “best management and maintanance team … they work with us”?? That’s a stretch. But, we see through our perceived notions, expectations and past experiences.

Be Careful What You Ask For

Especially if what you’re asking is someone’s opinion.

Management posted another Activity Packet to our doors yesterday. Included in the packet was a sheet asking, “How Are We Doing? Want to leave your feedback. Here’s how! Go to YELP.COM …. Choose star rating and leave review … Thank you for your FEEDBACK, it is greatly appreciated.”

My immediate thought was hot damn! this is going to be good.

Are they serious? Do they really not know they’ve put themselves squarely on the railroad tracks and the train is coming?

I right away went to Yelp to see if there were any reviews and whatdoyaknow. Someone had immediately, that very day, posted a review.

“Although it's a beautiful place, you don't get to "live" here. You can only have 3 plants on your patios. You can't hang bird feeders or wind chimes, anything that may need to be attached to the railing on the patios. There is no designated smoking area. You have to walk out to the sidewalk and stand by the road, a busy street and I don't find it safe with the fast cars, accidents in front of the entrance or the homeless/drug addicted people badgering us for a smoke. The wash rooms almost never have all of the machines working at once. We are responsible to call for maintenance (the number on the machines). Most of the time when I need to do laundry, someone has filled up all of the working machines and then I have to wait all day. If you want a visit from someone or a delivery, good luck getting them inside the complex. Half the time the call box out front is broken. If they do manage to get in, there is approximately 12 visitor parking spaces for the over 200 apartments. All of this has been a problem before and during this Covid-19 problem. We are just expected to sit in the apartment and watch TV. We can't grow tomatoes or other veggies, enjoy the birds, relax with a hot cup of coffee and a smoke on our patio, no simple pleasures are allowed. We just exist.”

She didn’t lie, and pretty much summed up how the majority of the old folks feel … just allowed to exist.

Lucky for this management group, few residents will post a review. But only because 1) many aren’t even going to read the packet posted to their door 2) many do not have access to a computer and 3) some are not computer literate — like the resident who long ago told me her daughter tried to teach her, but she was too afraid of the computer to learn. Also, for those who would like to post a review, but have no computer, the computer they go to in the Game Room is not accessible during this lockdown. All lucky for management because, otherwise, even though this management group is not the worst, they’d find themselves soundly trashed on Yelp.

Be careful what you ask for.

This reminds me of a kid who was courting me in the workplace. He delivered the mail to the floor I worked on, would stop by my desk, chat me up, try to impress me.

I was never interested, but not because he was young. It was because he was young AND immature. But I was nice, didn’t run him off, just listened to what he had to say.

Then came the day when I guess he figured he’d won me over. Looking for validation, that I was into him, he asked, “What do you think of me?”

Foolish me. I thought he wanted to know what I saw. Which was something to the effect, “You’re the kind of person that is all show, no substance. You don’t do nice things for people unless it’s in front of others, so those others can see and be impressed.”

“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE TALKING TO ME LIKE THIS!!!”

I must have hit the nail on the head, touched an area he thought was hidden, because he forgot he’d asked me “What do you think of me” and I was merely giving him what he’d asked for — my opinion. 

However, I learned from his reaction. Thereafter, when anyone asked me what I thought of them — and for some strange reason a few others have, I say, “Do you really want me to answer that?” After which, there is a brief period of silence as the individual considers, sees something in my eyes, then says, “No. Never mind”.

As for the mail kid … wanting to show me a thing or two — which demonstrated just how immature he was, he began vigorously pursuing another girl on the same floor. I was unaware of it at the time, wouldn’t have cared had I known, but his immature mind thought it would be a way of getting back at me. At any rate, the girl he was pursuing did not like him, found him to be too aggressive and, when he wouldn’t stop asking her out, she filed a complaint. Never saw or heard anything about him again after that.

Can’t wait to see how management is going to handle this Yelp review. They can’t call in their lawyers and demand the resident remove the review, because they asked for it. Their only option is to come up with a face-saving response or ignore and hope no one else reads the packet, gains access to a computer and posts a review.

If I were management, I would have posted a “How are we doing” survey, so they could control the narrative. I myself would be happy to get some things off my chest in survey form, but don’t feel my smoke detector issue is Yelp review worthy. But good on management that I woke up this morning and found the driveway gate had already been repaired.

Wonder Diva

Heading out for the university this morning, to qualify in the Wonder Diva Virtual 5K and earn my swag ─ already received on the honor system, I saw the driveway entry gate was down. Gone actually.

Gate down, no security, I fully expect our cars to be broken into and/or stolen.

While standing there, wondering what could have happened, a resident ─ whom I’ll name The Preacher walked up and said a delivery truck had “backed up into the gate”, essentially destroying it.

I don’t see how a truck could have taken out the gate by backing up, when there's an entry side and an exit side, but whatever.

I’ve seen Preacher around for maybe two years, but hardly say anything more to him that good morning because, the one time we did get into a discussion about ─ I can’t remember exactly, but think it was about something No. 45 was doing or had caused to happen, and Preacher’s response was, “I always go by the bible” and he began to refer to the Book of Revelations and how everything that’s happened with No. 45 was prophesized.

He wasn’t wrong. It’s just that I felt like he was mansplaining to me, like I was some idiot woman and he this all-knowing male.

Preacher was ─ against complex rules not wearing a mask and, at one point during our very short interaction, he coughed, which made me glad I at least was wearing one.

Jerk!

Earlier in the week, I’d spotted Younger Sister heading for the mailbox … without a mask.

“Where’s your mask?” chastised I.

“Oh you know how it is”, said she. “It bothers me”.

No, I don’t know .... But Covid-19 is going to bother you a whole lot more, I thought to myself as I walked away.

Then, a few days ago, a mask wearing woman in the market walked by me and asked, “Are you doing okay”.

“Un huh??????” answered a confused I, wondering why she was asking.

“I can’t breathe. Feel like I’m about to pass out”, she went on to say. “You must be used to it”.

“I guess”, was my reply as we both went our separate ways.

Some folks are making such a big deal out of such a minor thing, when the risk of what the alternative will do to your ability to breath is major.

At any rate, arriving at the University, I found barriers preventing me from parking on campus.

I ended up parking at a shopping center about a half mile away and began tracking my time and pace from that point. Once I’d made it onto campus grounds, I found the area to be a lot safer than the last time ─ when it was completely deserted. This time there were landscapers and construction people on the property. There were also campus cops ... a lot of them. I think I counted something like eight cars here and there.

When I saw they’d found a guy camping out near the closed food court area, I understood why so many cars. Campus and dorms are empty. Lots of places for interlopers to ride out this pandemic.

They didn’t arrest him. Just made him pick up his belongings and leave.

No doubt he’ll be back under the cover of darkness and find a better hiding place.

At any rate, Wonder Diva Virtual completed. Took a little over an hour because, with no one to compete against, there was no need to hurry. Lol.