Vacancy

SIGNAL BOOST for Blogging Buddy Mary Kirkland of Dark Thoughts: Mary’s daughter Lizzie is currently hospitalized with double pneumonia, sepsis, has been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure, will be on oxygen for the foreseeable future and could really use some help with medical expenses.

If you would be so kind, Lizzie’s best friend Savanna has organized a GoFundMe for Lizzie HERE.

This is awful for Mary. My heart goes out to her and Lizzie.

Next Door Neighbor finally moved.

She’s gone, but that ugly assed tacky doormat remains.

Now askew from having been trampled on during the move.

I'm tempted, but don’t dare be so presumptuous as to toss the doormat in the trash myself. I’ll wait for management to discard. However, now that it's askew, I see there is an actual doormat under that red cover. So, if it looks like management is not going to toss it I will, under cover of darkness, make sure the red cover gets to the dumpster.

Why I say NDN "finally moved" is because, with a team of three/four male relatives (plus, when our downstairs neighbor’s son Compton …… the kid that wants to be my Boy Toy saw the move happening, he jumped in to help), it took 3 days, all day — morning, noon, night. Sometimes as late as 11:30 pm to complete the move.

I wasn’t annoyed by the noise during the day or late into the night; doubt any others in the quad made a stink about it. Instead, I was impressed with the dedication and amazed at their stamina — up/down the stairs to the U-Haul, load, drive 15 miles to the new place, unload, drive back to this complex, repeat.

I told NDN it was exhausting for me just to see how much work was going into the move.

Before leaving, she chastised me …… "You've never come to visit".

Yep. She went there.

Meaning, I never knocked on her door, hung out with her for coffee, conversation, play cards.

I wanted to say, "I've got better things to do than bore myself listening to your mundane conversations about things I have no interest in", but what I actually said was, "I'm not the visiting kind", to which she nodded affirmative, like she already knew that.

So, anyway, the days it took (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), with the number of people NDN had helping, brought back when I moved out of the apartment in Long Beach to this complex. As I recall, it only took a few hours with a team of two.

The difference is Next Door Neighbor has soooooooooo muuuuuch stuff — expensive, heavy, museum quality furniture, artwork, artifacts, memorabilia from when she travelled with her then military officer husband to countries where she had servants. Material objects that she says, though she can’t take it with her when she goes, she’s going to enjoy it while she’s here, let others worry about it when she’s gone.

I get it, and though I don’t have expensive museum quality stuff, I do have things that are hard for me to let go of — things that have no value, can’t be sold or donated after I’m gone; but things, like NDN, I enjoy surrounding myself with while I’m here.

I think I’ve done fairly well in decluttering the place, to not let the things I hold onto reach the level NDN has but, now looking around, I suddenly feel there’s still too much unnecessary stuff.

Time for me to do another decluttering/deep dive death cleaning.

On Saturday, when I walked into the bedroom to pull paperwork from a drawer, through that window I spied Talker sitting on the bench with a nice-looking guy.

Talker recently dyed the gray out of her hair to prepare for a blind date.

Seriously …… a friend is setting her up with a blind date.

What!? thought I when she told me.

A blind date????

At our age????

"Brave", I told her.

So, anyway, seeing her sitting there with that guy, I texted, "I’m looking out the window at you. Is that your blind date?"

I watched as she picked up her phone, looked at the text, bent over laughing, looked over, saw me waving from the window; whereupon, she called me on the phone, said, "No, it’s one of my granddaughter’s uncles. He’s a fireman".

I think I previously mentioned that Little Knock Knock has some eye candy looking uncles.

"He’s handsome", said I to which, listening to the telephone conversation, he responded, laughingly, "Thank you Miss Shirley".

I am so sure it’s not the first time that fireman has been complemented on his looks; and won't be the last time.

Talker is going to get good mileage on the retelling, to everyone she knows, possibly including the blind date when she gets to know him, that I was watching her through the window, getting all up in her business.

In other news, the seniors are throwing themselves an Easter Luncheon this Wednesday, April Fool's Day but no fooling.

There's likely to be a crowd.

I'm not yet ready for hanging with the folks. Taking a pass.

Good News Canada

If you don’t know who these young men are, I’m going to worry about you, LOL.

My favorite in the group .......

If you don’t know which one HE is, I’ll be completely plum flustered.

More Life Changes

Today was moving day for Twin 2, who has been living in the multi-family building next door.

How we came to live next door to each other began when I retired while living in that part of the Inland Empire known as Ontario. There was a very bad dysfunctional family situation going on which necessitated my relocating to Long Beach so granddaughter wouldn’t end up homeless.

Things did not work out. It became a situation where I had to Let Go and Let God; so, after a year of wasting my time, energy, money; I applied for and got a unit here in the senior building next to the multi-family building, moved back to the Inland Empire.

Twin 2 was living in Murietta at the time but eventually got a job in the leasing office of the multi-family building, a unit came with the job.

When she later transferred to the main office of the leasing company in Murietta, she remained living in the multi-family building — travelling an hour or so, depending on traffic, back and forth from working in Murietta, living in San Bernardino.

During this time, her estranged partner was living in the condo, passed away, left Twin 2 everything; whereupon Twin 2 rented the condo out to a relative of her partner.

Big mistake.

The condo renter having not worked out — caused significant damage, Twin 2 now winding down with a disability retirement due to her knees and other physical ailments, she decided to move back to the condo in Murietta.

As the condo was pretty much trashed (appliances, cabinets, flooring, water damage, the whole 9 yards) after a lawsuit got the renter out, it’s taken a little over 2 years for Twin 2 to have contractors strip and redo everything. Plus, it took time because Twin 2 is bougie (she didn’t get it from me) and very particular about the cabinets, flooring, appliances, lighting she had installed and in how she’s decorated the condo.

Once everything was in place, including the room for her fur babies, she packed everything up and called in the movers.

I got up early and drove over to give her a hug before she left the area, which made for an emotional day for me.

One of her neighbors has a fun sense of humor.

Murietta is only an hour or so away, but her moving felt like I was losing my last baby girl.

It made me feel better to know she has good friends from her job that live in the Murietta area, plan to stay in contact; and condo neighbors she’s reacquainted with while checking on progress of the condo work.

One work friend, bless her heart, even took the day off to help Twin 2 with the move, said they’re already planning BBQs and to party party party at the condo. Champagne was mentioned, LOL.

I’m happy Twin 2 will now be in an area where she can have more of a social life, but all these life changes are hard for me to swallow.

Another change — not a life change but one worth mentioning is …… Remember when I posted that video where I captured a hummingbird pollinating the Bird of Paradise area on the complex?

Well, this is how the area looked in January.

This is how it looks now.

Bye bye birdies, but WHY? Just WHY?

Had I'd come across the crime in progress, I’d have asked for some of those birdies, tried to repot/regrow on the patio.

Conundrum

Talker called yesterday, asking if I could make a copy of a legal document for her.

No problem, said I. So, she trotted on over, ended up spending two hours catching me up on the tea and complaining about our neighbor, known on the blog as MAGA.

A few days prior to her visit, I was surprised to see a facebook post where five or six of the ladies had ventured out of the complex, had a group lunch at Blaze Pizza.

It’s not unusual for a group to head out for an adventure, but what was usual about this group was MAGA was included.

Talker and MAGA in the same group outing??? That won’t end well, thought I.

Sure enough, after I made a copy of the document for Talker, she began venting about MAGA.

It seems that MAGA has been bending over backwards to connect with Talker, make amends for the dustup they had, which Talker now tells me went beyond shouting at each other, nearly ended in the laying of hands, a physical assault when MAGA got all up in Talker's face.

WOW! That would have probably gotten both evicted.

So, anyway, now MAGA has pulled a 180, approaches Talker like they’re besties, seems to always be around whenever Talker steps out of her unit, yells her name, rushes up to get Talker’s attention; and that it "happens often, like her radar is on overdrive".

Talker said MAGA is "kinda weird" (but didn't she already know that before she went to lunch with her) and now Talker has gotten to the point where she tries to go out at different times to avoid MAGA but "That don’t matter! There she is".

I teased Talker with, "That’s what you get for going to lunch with her. You've opened a door, are now trapped", and suggested I lend her one of my self-defense tools …… a tool I can’t name here on the blog or I’ll get a violation, but the tool that sprays.

I remember that when I was working at the agency I retired from — the agency where the KKK agency head, KKK directors, KKK secretaries tried to run me off, that coworkers who refused to go along with that KKK philosophy and I would go to lunch, sometimes movies/dinner.

One time when we were heading out to lunch, Venus — not exactly KKK, but giving me a hard time because the KKK agency head had so ordered it/she went along with the program, asked to join us and the girls said sure.

I made an excuse to disengage, cause this homey don't play that. I don't socialize with people I don't like and who don't like or are cruel to me. Going so far as to year after year take vacation during Secretary's Week, to avoid having to go to lunch with the three witches when I worked at the Law Firm.

So, though I was making light of Talker's conundrum by saying it's what she gets for going to lunch with MAGA, she really did bring this current situation upon herself.

After thinking about Talker’s conundrum for a bit, I suggested perhaps it was MAGA employing that old adage … "Keep your friends close, enemies closer" or MAGA trying to literally "Kill her with Kindness".

It wasn’t but seconds after Talker left my unit that I get a text from her, "When I came down your stairs, guess who practically ran to greet me?"

Damn! MAGA must really be using radar or deliberately lurking the area in hopes of running into Talker.

Whatever MAGA’s motives, Talker has had enough. Her plan is to find a "nice way" to tell MAGA she’s doing too much, making her feel uncomfortable and, if that doesn’t work, "I’ll have to take it to the next level".

Hmmmm? I don’t know if the next level is a harassment complaint to management or another yelling/screaming match.

Other than that, the latest tea is Next-Door Neighbor is moving this weekend. She’s hated living here for the entire 10 years, has been trying for 5 of the 10 to get a unit in Loma Linda.

I don’t know if she’d been on a waiting list all this time, but she’s finally gotten her wish.

She’ll have a downstairs apartment, which is what she wanted, and the Loma Linda complex has walking trails, a gym and, unlike here, actual activities. It's also a classier neighborhood, which is important to my bougie Next-Door Neighbor.

I’m happy for her, but now have to hope my new neighbor isn’t a single guy — which will create problems for me, or a married couple — also a problem because I then have to worry about the wife thinking I’m trying to seduce her man. Hopefully, I’ll get another single lady — neat, clean, independent/doesn't bother me, a non-hoarder.

The More Things Change

The more some things remain the same.

It’s been a while since I’ve venture out, so long that the jeep had to be towed by a pimped-out tow truck and battery replaced from having not been driven for weeks and weeks and weeks.

Emotional wreck that I was, having gotten through that inconvenience, finding myself able to handle contact with the tow truck driver and the dealership’s sales manager, I saw on this month’s activity calendar "Tuesday, March 17, Social: St. Patrick’s Day Paint and Sip, join neighbors in the Community Room for painting, festive snacks and refreshing beverages, 12:00- 1:30 pm".

Is there really going to be a paint and sip or is this another one of Kecia’s scams?thought I.

Do I dare try to get through a social?

You won’t know if you don’t try so baby steps .... not wearing green lipstick or the annual four-leaf clover top, I headed for the Community Room this morning.

Though I didn’t see Kesha or anything that looked like paint, canvasses, festive snacks or refreshing beverages, the handful of usual suspects I encountered said Kesha was on the premises. None had a clue about painting but said refreshing beverages was going to be juice.

To me, a refreshing beverage is coffee, but that's just me.

So, anyway, I stuck around/waited for about 20 minutes before deciding some things never change, that it was another scam and headed out to Starbucks, for a refreshing beverage.

At least I got to see the cute tree management set up in the lobby.

Unimaginable

The unimaginable has happened.

My baby girl, Twin 1/Beauty2theStreetz has left this mortal realm.

Having a hard time accepting this as reality, I will be turning off comments, disappearing from the blog world for I don’t know how long.

"Statement from Beauty 2 The Streetz …… It is with profound sorrow and heavy hearts that Beauty 2 The Streetz announces the passing of our beloved CEO and founder, Shirley Raines, affectionately known to so many as Ms. Shirley. Ms. Shirley dedicated her life to serving others and made an immeasurable impact on homeless communities throughout Los Angeles and Nevada. Through her tireless advocacy, deep compassion, and unwavering commitment, she used her powerful media platform to amplify the voices of those in need and to bring dignity, resources, and hope to some of the most underserved populations. This loss is devastating to the entire Beauty 2 The Streetz team, the communities we serve, and the countless individuals whose lives were forever changed by Ms. Shirley’s love, generosity, and selfless service. Her legacy will continue to live on through the work she started and the hearts she touched. We humbly ask that you keep Ms. Shirley’s family, loved ones, and the Beauty 2 The Streetz family in your prayers during this incredibly difficult time".

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