Good News, Bad News, Suspicious News

The Red Flag Warning/Outages was lifted this morning, which means I’ve got a few days of peace before the power company suggests we prepare ourselves yet again.

I was lucky in that our power had not been cut.

My friend The Archeologist did not fare so well. She had her power cut on the 27th and again on December 2^nd for a few hours and again on the 3^rd until this morning.

It’s understandable the Archeologists would be dealt with more harshly than us, because she’s in the residential zone where they had that Hillside fire last year, which got so close to her home that, in the middle of the night, she had only seconds to evacuate.

I may not have to worry much longer about power outages, because management posted notices to our doors yesterday that they’ve been “working hard to insure” this complex will not be affected by another state mandated blackout.

Maybe Corporate has been pulling strings to get us exempted.

The notice went on to indicate management has partnered with a “Coompany” to install powerwall backup batteries for every building on the property. “These batteries will provide up to 4 days of power for each apartment if a blackout occurs”.

Sound good, but I’m suspicious because the notice went on to say “an application will be going out for you to fill out and return so we can get this program started”.

What’s with this “program” thing and why do WE have to fill out an application?

If I’m not comfortable with whatever is on that application, I’ll opt out and straight up tell management I don’t trust ‘em, that us residents should not have to fill out and sign anything having to do with what they do to improve THEIR property.

The notice also says we’re getting Security, “effective January 1, 2020”

I’m sure they meant “2021”, but really … insure, rather than ensure; coompany, rather than company; and 2020 is not something anyone wants to see again.

Security won’t be full time, all day security. Instead, they’ll show up at night, do a patrol, then leave.

I’ve seen the movies. I’ve seen how the bad guys surveil security — see what time they drive up, what time they move on, so a patrol here, a patrol there is not much of a deterrent. Bad guys will know when it’s safe to break into mail boxes, automobiles, climb the pool fencing to enjoy the jacuzzi.

Last attachment to the notice was a doozie … “Dear Residents, we have been notified that an employee who works here has tested positive for Covie-19 and immediately underwent self-quarantine”.

There is not a doubt in my mind the infected employee is Head Maintenance Guy (HMG) because, how many times did I mention seeing him, off duty and on duty, violating the mask mandate.

Especially egregious was the time I blogged seeing HMG walking around posting yet another notice to our doors about requiring US to comply with the statewide order to wear a mask, while he was walking around, doing the postings, while NOT wearing a mask as he did so.

Then there was that time I was in the Laundry Room, and he came in mask less, with a load to wash.

Fortunately, I had two machines, someone had earlier started laundry in the other two machines, and there being only four, HMG had to remove himself and go to the Laundry Room on the other side of the grassy knoll.

And it’s not just HMG, but his entire family.

I’ve never, not once, seen his wife and kids wearing masks.

And then there was the time I spotted a female family member of his bringing his sons home, from wherever they’d been that day. The woman was not wearing a mask, the two boys were mask less AND the woman was carrying a newborn.

Having seen HMG mask less more often than not is why I always give him a wide berth when passing him on the quad, and why I made myself scarce the day he and his assistant were entering units to change A/C filters.

I’d be very surprised, and it would not be divine justice, if the employee testing positive is anyone other than HMG.

He’s young, healthy, he’ll be fine. I just hope he’s not caused a problem for his fellow staff members and/or any of the residents.

He’s Baaaack

I’d been wondering if the "pandemic/stay at home/cancel everything" was going to put an end to what has become a tradition for me ─ finding the elf hidden in the market, posting photos of my finds.

So much simple fun.

Fortunately, not. The little guy is back.

Looks like I won’t need anything from the market for a few days, so I’ll have to come up with something so I can search ─ a magazine maybe. LOL.

And speaking of the market, there was an incident a week ago, when a guy in a wheelchair, not wearing a mask, rolled up to the cashier, as I was checking out, and began a conversation with her.

She called him by name and the two were quite friendly, as I stared at him aghast, on the verge of asking “Where’s your mask bro?”.

The young man bagging my groceries offered the guy a mask.

“I have one”, said wheelchair man.

If he had one, I didn’t see it and, as he continued his conversation with the cashier without masking himself, I kept staring, in my head saying, “You said you have one, put it on”.

For some reason, I couldn’t get the words out of my head and through my mouth, but the cashier he was being so friendly with saw me staring daggers, gave him a mask and told him, “You’d better put this on. People are giving you bad looks”.

I don’t recall if he put it on, as I was heading away by then AND, inasmuch as he’d been talking his germs all over me, I sprayed my entire fully dressed body, top to bottom, front and back, with Lysol the minute I stepped in the door of my unit.

I keep a cleaning station just inside the door, to wipe my hands, mask, glasses before stepping fully inside the unit, head to the sink, wash my hands.

Wouldn’t you know, I stopped into the market yesterday, and who did I spot in line but wheelchair man, not wearing a mask, but with what looked to be one provided to him by the store hanging around his neck.

He’s making non-compliance a habit and, being in a wheelchair, on such friendly terms with store employees, is getting away with it.

I was so incensed that I located a manger, pointed out the anti-masker, said it’s not the first time.

Manager said, “Thank you, ma’am” but did nothing.

Waking up at 2:30 a.m. this morning, still thinking about wheelchair man and how the manager should have wheeled his maskless arse on out of the market, I fired off a complaint to the Public Relations Department of the market’s corporate office.

“On December 2, shortly after noon, I approached a young manager to complain about a maskless man being allowed to shop in the market. I informed that manager this was not the first time I’d seen this individual, in a wheelchair, being allowed to put others at risk. Manager was polite, responded “Thank you” and did nothing to alleviate the situation. I’d like to know why this maskless individual, who appears friendly and known to all the cashiers, was not ordered to wear a mask or leave. His being in a wheelchair should afford him no special privileges during this serious pandemic and doesn’t make him any less a viral threat to the rest of us.”

If that doesn’t elicit a response and/or I see him being allowed to visit the cashiers, shop again without being appropriately masked, I’ll go to war ─ complain, take names, photos, send emails, post tweets.

Oh ..... wait .... along about 9:30, I checked email and find I’ve received a response already.

“Thank you for taking a moment to bring this matter to our attention. We sincerely apologize for the unpleasant experience you encountered during your visit to our Shandin Hills store. We value the safety of our employees as well as the communities we serve and we continue to educate our staff on the importance of wearing their face covering properly. We do our best to notify and enforce shoppers to wear a face covering when entering our stores and we are offering a complimentary face mask to those who are not in compliance. Our management team and staff have been educated on how to assess these matters and kindly approach shoppers privately.

However, the California Department of Public Health has indicated that there are some individuals who are exempt from this mandate. Those individuals include; Persons age two years or under. These very young children must not wear a face covering because of the risk of suffocation. Persons with a medical condition, mental health condition, or disability that prevents wearing a face covering. This includes persons with a medical condition for whom wearing a face covering could obstruct breathing or who are, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove a face covering without assistance. Persons who are hearing impaired, or communicating with a person who is hearing impaired, where the ability to see the mouth is essential for communication.”

Thinking to myself, how do they know he has a medical condition that prevents wearing a face covering, I pushed on with the issue:

“Thank you for your prompt response, but let me point out his being in a wheel chair, able to talk incessantly, joke with the cashiers, indicates no problem with breathing. In fact, the first time he wheeled himself over to converse with my cashier, I was in the line of fire. Meaning, he was talking his germs all over me to where, when I got home, I sprayed myself top to bottom, front and back, with Lysol.

I would appreciate store management checking, next time he's in there refusing to wear the mask they provide, if there is a valid medical reason for his doing so or just being stubborn. If he really can't wear a mask for medical reasons, he should be encouraged to shut up, stop talking, stop putting others in jeopardy.

Also, I believe I've seen some stores offering, for those who cannot wear masks, to just give the employee their grocery list, remain outside, away from other customers, and the employee does the shopping for them.

Thanks again.”

Having now done all, I’ll just ─ as written in Ephesians, stand .... but nowhere near wheelchair man. LOL.

Wake Up Call

Talk about one of your worst fears coming into fruition ─ or nearly so, Twin 1 had an incident on Skid Row where one of the homeless she’s there to service attacked.

When she services Skid Row on the weekend, her non-profit consists of a team of volunteers, some volunteering as security to keep her safe.

Doesn’t always work out as safe even then, as one time she was talking to a woman, assessing her needs, and the woman suddenly went postal and got in a few good punches to Twin 1’s face before security took the woman down.

Chalking that up to a mental health issue, Twin 1 soldiered on and continued to service the down and out of Skid Row ─ more and more often during the week, alone, which I have a big problem with.

But no one can tell her anything ... especially me. Which is why she’s experienced so many hard things in life that now motivate her to understand, commiserate with, and try to help those who can’t help themselves.

All well fine and good. If that ─ through her own self-created trials and tribulations, is what the Universe has prepared her to do, so be it.

And she’s had some successes in that some of the people her non-profit supported did get housing, jobs, back on their feet.

One Trans person in particular has been her biggest success.

Assisting this person for years, including her in some of the news stories, this person was spotted by family in one of those broadcasts about Twin 1’s work on the row. Family had been looking for the individual for years. Her mom flew to Los Angeles, took her back home to Mississippi (I think it was), and I occasionally see photos of this person looking healthy, happy, safe with family.

Again, all well fine and good but, like I’ve said before, if there’s one thing I’ve learned during this parenthesis in eternity, it’s that no good deed goes unpunished. Not only that, but that the people one helps can be all kinds of ungrateful ─ not be there for you when you need help.

Sure enough, alone on Skid Row, handing out supplies through the car window, a woman began beating the car, tried to break through the windshield in an attempt to get at Twin 1 and no one waiting for supplies stepped up to help.

Fortunately, one homeless guy Twin 1 has known for a while came along, chased the woman away.

As for the people in line who failed to intervene, they acted like the whole thing was an inconvenience to them ─ asking Twin 1 not if she was okay, if she needed anything, just “Can I just get my burger now”.

Twin 1 is making excuses for these people, “Mom, because they have to live here, they were probably hesitant to step in”.

That’s bull crap and I say screw Skid Row.

She won’t.

Instead, she’ll continue with her weekday trips ALONE but, interpreting the incident as a wakeup call, she will be equipping herself with a long-handled taser and bear spray, because she says it doesn’t come back at you like pepper spray.

Other than that distressing bit of news, I was up early this morning, cooking up a storm those items I didn’t want to go bad in the freezer, because we’re under a Red Flag Warning power shut off, once again.

Such is life.

 

Mandatory Monday

Today began our mandatory stay at home and, though I can’t speak to what’s happening outside the area, around here it was business as usual.

I thought the market might change its hours — close earlier than the normal 11 p.m., but no such notice was posted when I stopped in.

Why close at such a late hour?

Who goes grocery shopping at night anyway?

After the governor violated the Covid restrictions he’d imposed on us — by attending a birthday party for one of his political advisers at The French Laundry, he’s viewed as somewhat of a joke. So, I don’t imagine this mandatory stay at home — until December 20, is going to carry very much weight.

The governor’s mea culpa apology actually did more harm than good.  He labeled attending the birthday party as a “bad mistake” and justified breaking the rules, that he’s been preaching to slow the spread of the coronavirus, as because the party was for a close friend, someone he’s known for 20 years.

That irked me a bit because I did not attend my granddaughter’s wedding, and I’ve known her for 25 years — 5 years longer than he’s known that close friend of his.

So, anyway, that’s a politician for you, but I do wonder why he didn’t think his attendance through. Did he not realize the public would find out and there’d be all this backlash?

I’m taking my own counsel. Doing what I know is best for me notwithstanding anyone’s rules.

Sunday’s episode of Holiday Wars was a lot less drama filled than last week's episode, in that the judges made an effort to not show their dislike for each other.

That whiny crybaby cake artist also made an effort to not be such a drama queen. He apologized to the host for previously being a “blubbering mess”, but then went in the opposite direction. Instead of blubbering, wanting to prove to us viewers that he could be a he-man, he started an argument with the head of his team, telling her off for yelling at him (she wasn’t).

He didn’t walk off the show, he didn’t cry, he acted like he felt he’d proven a point (he didn’t) and the show went on, with his team coming in on the bottom because the drama resulted in lack of cohesion in the team’s cake structure.

Watching a rerun of last week’s episode, reminded me of something I'd learned about a coffee known as Kopi Luwak ..... one of the world's most expensive coffee.

Teams had been tasked with providing the judges with a caffeinated treat.

One team provided chocolate bon bons made with mushrooms and pooped out coffee.

That's right .... pooped out coffee.

One of the judges explained the coffee making process as "A cute little ferret eats the coffee bean and, as its digesting, ferments it in its body, poops it out and it’s considered a delicacy that’s fully coveted throughout the world”.

The two judges, seemed to enjoy the treat.

Host Rayven, not so much. Just knowing where the coffee came from gave her a face, as she popped the bon bon in her mouth.

Some people will eat anything, and isn't some unknown someone eating something not meant for human consumption the cause of the virus that's gotten us into this pandemic mess? That is, if we are to believe the story about the bat and not the story about a virus being created in a lab.

At any rate, I do love coffee, but they couldn’t pay me to try Kopi Luwak, no matter how much sugar and caramel you disguise what it is with.

Checking In

The complex was spared the latest power shutoff, but I gotta tell you … the constant threats are draining and, with all the pandemic rules and regulations, I've had just about enough.

These outages and planned outages are beginning to read as just more bureaucratic bull manure, rather than necessary fire prevention measures.

At any rate, the wind is here to stay, so I guess the power company will soon be threatening us again.

Speaking of pandemic rules and regulations, we’re already under a curfew but, come Monday, we’ll also be under a Mandatory Stay At Home Order.

The curfew is not a problem for me. I’m always in by 4:00 — because that’s Judge Judy time and, no matter where I am, no matter what I’m doing, it’s imperative that I’m back at the complex in time for Judy.

Though I’m up around 6:30 a.m., I rarely head out for any reason until 11:00, so my days fit easily into curfew hours.

As for this Stay At Home Order — taking effect Monday, to remain in effect until the 21^st of December, that may slow my roll because I might not be able to drive out of the area to mall walk.

We already have that mall by Krispy Kreme closed to walkers and fearing, come Monday, the mall by those fancy apartments will become closed to walkers, I suited up and drove over to complete my latest and last 5K of the year.

I’ve wanted to participate in this race for years — because participants dress up like Santa, and you long time readers know how I love cosplay.

What stopped me from registering before was the hassle of driving to San Diego, the luggage, a hotel, figuring out how to feed my sensitive gut. So, this opportunity to participate virtually was right up my alley.

I registered early, received my race package early and was waiting for December, as official race day doesn’t begin until December 1.

But, with this latest Stay at Home Order, I didn’t want to take any chances on not being able to drive out of the area and mall walk, so off I went.

The mall was crazy busy.

So crazy busy that you’d not even know we were in a pandemic.

Restaurants were doing a brisk business, there were lines outside HLM, Lululemon, et al., and there was so much traffic coming into the mall that security began blocking off the main streets and directing traffic.

Crowded sidewalks really slowed me down so, after initially forging my way through the throngs to see if a Christmas tree had been erected in it's usual place this year, I headed away from the crowds, to the farthest parking lots to walk and loop around the outside perimeter of the mall.

Before heading away from the throngs, I managed a few photos of mall decorations.

Later, at home, I dug into the swag bag and tried on the Santa beard and hat.

More appropriate Santa.

Happy Thanksgiving .... Tomorrow

Thought I’d better get tomorrow's post in now, because a notice was just posted to our doors that “Due to High Winds, Possible Power Shutoff Thursday 11/26/20".

Are they serious?

On Thanksgiving Day?

When people are cooking and having people over?

Not me, of course, but plenty others are.

Timing couldn't be worse, but nothing to do except go with the flow.

So, some time tomorrow, power most likely will be cut, leaving me without a laptop to post to my blog, read blogs of others and with no television.

Last time the power company shut us down, I had daylight so I could at least work on that needlepoint, and I had a little neck light so I could read for a bit but, after daylight turned to evening, I just sat on the couch, in pitch black darkness, meditating until bedtime. Dinner had been leftover cold potato salad.

The day after, Trainer had asked what I’d done during the blackout and, when I said I'd been left in the dark, asked “Didn’t you have candles?”

The answer was no, because I’d not even thought of candles.

In the interim, however, figuring the power company would strike again, I invested in a little power station that will allow me to make coffee and use the crock pot for hot meals tomorrow.

I also invested in candles.

 

Tiger Joe, Keanu "John Wick" Reeves, Snoop, The Obamas

 Going to be a quiet day without the television, but I’m otherwise prepared.