Everyone Out of the Pool

I had no intentions of heading out in 104° weather for today’s End of Summer event. However, along about 11:00 — the time the event was to have started, not seeing anyone on the walkway heading that way, I became curious, threw on a top, shorts, grass skirt stepped out the door around 11:30 to see if anything was going on.

To say it was hot outside is an understatement. The word for today is ……

Seems everyone got the bitchferno memo, because the pool area was bare.

However, over in the distance, just outside the back door of the Community Room, I could see a covered kiosk where cooking seemed to be happening.

Detouring through the Mail Room to get out of the heat, I headed to the Community Room and found the event going on strong.

Seems, management did have the good sense, after all, to move the event inside.

Lu and Dream Lover were in attendance, sitting on opposite sides of the room, not speaking to each other, Dream Lover having declared to me that he’s learned his lesson about craping where he eats, and dressed for the occasion.

I’d recently seen him on the walkway heading towards Lu’s unit, but evidently his being in that area had nothing to do with her.

There was no update on the Feces Felon — whether he’s been caught or struck again, but I did get info on the woman wearing the ankle bracelet that saves me time and attention, limiting my checking ankles to a specific nationality.

BTW, we need a name for the Woman Wearing the Ankle Bracelet. No moniker is coming to mind, so what say you?

At any rate, turns out she’s not a resident per se but that, recently released from jail — unknown what her crime was, she’s living here with her mother.

Talker tells me the woman is "really rough", got "ugly and super aggressive" with Talker when Talker …… seeing her having a pool party with four other people and no resident with them, gave her a heads up that she’d get in trouble with the office for bringing in that many people and being a non-resident unaccompanied by a resident.

Instead of appreciating the warning, the woman with the ankle monitor became aggressive, argumentative, ended up calling her mom to the scene to back her up, put Talker in her place.

When her mom came over, saw Talker was involved, she told her daughter "Why you arguing with L …… She’s my friend", and made her take her people and get out of the pool.

So, it seems that though Woman with the Ankle Bracelet can't break the rule that a non-resident cannot use the pool without a resident accompanying them, she can wear an angle monitor in the pool without being electrocuted.

On the other hand, the internet tells me, "Most electronic monitoring devices are only water-resistant enough for brief exposures like a quick shower or getting caught in the rain. Full submersion in a swimming pool can damage the device and trigger a false tamper alert".

I don't know how she managed it, but where's there's a will, there's a way.

Never in My Life

Finishing up the backlog of photos going into my personal Creative Memories scrapbook this morning, I heard myself say to myself "Never in my life did I ever think I’d be adding photos like this to the Memory book".

It was hella hard finishing up that layout, and then the Legacy LA Pride photos, but I got through it.

I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again … The circle of life is incredibly cruel.

No news yet as to whether the Feces Felon has struck again, but I did hear we’ve a new resident on the complex that’s wearing an ankle bracelet.

When I say ankle bracelet, I’m not talking about this …

I’m talking about this …

Not wanting to automatically judge the new resident as being a danger to society, assume that management is leasing to criminals, I went to ChatGPT and asked, "What kind of people require police ankle bracelets?" and got "Police and courts use electronic ankle bracelets to track individuals awaiting trial, serving probation or parole, or placed under house arrest. They are assigned based on risk level, specific offenses like domestic violence or repeat DUI, and as an alternative to jail time."

"Awaiting trial!!!!!! … on Parole!!!!!!! … Risk Level!!!!!"

WTF!!!

Is management running a Halfway House?

I'm now on the lookout for who this new neighbor might be and, actually, a few days ago — before I heard about an ankle bracelet resident, passed a woman I didn't recognize on the walkway. I looked in the eyes, smiled, said "good morning" but now, in retrospect, I'm thinking she looked hard, like someone who could be wearing an ankle bracelet.

At any rate, I'll now be passing, smiling, greeting, looking at ankles, rather than eyes, saying "good morning".

Repeat Performance

The cool down is over. The weather is heating up again, s0 I checked the forecast for next week’s End of Summer event in the pool area …… triple digits expected that day.

There’s been an unexpected buzz in the air about the event, folks are talking about it, telling others that didn’t know about it — even though signs are plastered everywhere. One resident …… the woman that used to sit in her car outside the Pain Cave to get a break from her husband, LOL, tells me she’s planning on wearing her swimsuit, bringing a pool floatie.

She doesn’t look that old, can still rock a revealing swimsuit.

I think the buzz is that folks are just so desperate for management to do something, anything that's not gonna cost us. So, the event might be a success.

Thing for me is the event is outdoors, in the area of the pool, during a week and on a day when triple digits are expected to hit, and I can't handle that.

So, unless something changes between now and then …… like the event being moved from the outdoor pool area to inside the Community Room and on the covered patio, I'm out, grass skirt and all.

In other news …… it was Tuesday when I blogged about Assistant Maintenance Guy going back/forth with inadequate equipment, cleaning up behind the Feces Felon (thanks for that title Bob). The very next day, yesterday, was Crafts Wednesday, so I went down to the Community Room.

Before I even got seated, Crafty Lady said manager had come in, told them, "It happened again". Between the time maintenance cleaned up on Tuesday, and this next morning, the Feces Felon had struck again.

Makes me think the felon is someone living in that area, whose unit allows them to watch the comings/goings as maintenance cleans up behind him, is getting a perverse pleasure from it.

If the cameras indicate it’s who Manager thinks it is, whether she feels she has enough to confront or not, she should confront. If all else fails, then test the DNA. Match it to who they think it is AND, if the felon refuses to give up his DNA to match, there are labs that can, from the DNA submitted, draw a picture of the felon, then follow ancestry techniques to name the exact person.

Me …… depending on the situation, I’m willing to risk a little bad karma by allowing my devious and vengeful side out to play. I’d terrorize the SOB, make him paranoid by mailing to the suspected felon’s unit or sneaking notes on his door saying, "I know who you are. I know what you’re doing".

So, anyway, I once again passed on participating in crafts, opted just to get the tea while taking photos, documenting for the residents' facebook page what the seniors created using the bottom of cans, the bottom of soda bottles, and the end of empty tissue rolls as tools for painting on canvas.

Why Did the Donut Go to the Dentist?

Last time I was at the bank, the riddle board displayed, "What lights up a soccer stadium". Today, when I dropped in, it was "Why did the donut go to the dentist?".

Before heading out for the bank, I checked into the Community Room for Kesha Tuesday and got …… guess what?

ROFLMAO!

Running into Di in the hallway, we each asked how the other was doing and entered the Community Room together, practically arm in arm.

I did this as a signal to the others that, although they exclude Di, deliberately leave her out of the circle, I’m not with that. I’ve known Di too many years to turn on her just because Crafty Lady doesn’t like her and has influenced others, who also have known Di for years, should know better, to also turn into mean girls and dismiss her.

Sure enough, walking into the room with Di, Crafty Lady greeted, "IT’S SHIRLEY!", deliberately excluding Di from the greeting.

I said, "And Di".

Point made.

Like I said, Kesha just gave us potato chips, passed out a flyer with information about managing utility bills in Summer. However, Manager came in, gave a short presentation about things going on that were "not okay".

Like the cameras on the property catching, over the weekend, a resident swimming in the pool, but not alone. Swimming with the resident was his dog, a maltese.

I’m filing this one under "What the hell is wrong with people". Some fool didn’t see a problem with letting his dog swim in the community pool.

It was observed by residents who reported it, management followed up by reviewing the cameras, identified the resident, gave him a warning. However, I've since heard from others, that residents who had no idea who/what had been in the pool before them, took a swim.

Good thing it’s cleaned twice weekly.

Also, "Not okay" was the fact that Assistant Maintenance Man was, at that precise moment, cleaning the mixed-sex bathroom by the pool of feces that had been painted on the walls.

Yikes and gross. Sounds like they should have called in a hazmat team for that.

I was reminded of an incident at my last place of employment where something the agency did had upset employees. Someone expressed their dissatisfaction by painting the walls of the men’s bathroom in feces.

Retaliation.

The agency called in a hazmat team for cleanup; but, of course, cleanup here is pushed onto the maintenance guys because cheap labor.

Thinking about what had happened at the agency, I asked about the timing of what was happening in the pool bathroom …… did it start after the rent increase?

She said no, it had happened before …… "a recurring problem".

Still sounds like someone is very very angry with management about something, or just sick.

Someone in the room brought up the cameras, and couldn’t management figure out who the feces painter is from viewing the cameras.

Manager said she’s been doing that, and the culprit has been narrowed down to a possible suspect, not a homeless person getting onto the property, but to a resident with insufficient proof to confront him.

In the meantime, the office is monitoring the camera, watching the suspected resident, and thinking of changing the key we all have for that bathroom to a system where residents have to ask staff for the bathroom key, sign for it, bring it back. They are also thinking about shutting that bathroom down altogether.

I don’t think they can shut it down because health codes require a dedicated poolside restroom; but no problem I, if they shut it down, because I never ever use it because it’s communal and mixed sex. I envision guys missing the target, shaking leftover urine over the seat and floor, would rather die than open that door, see what I envision. If I’m in the Community Room and have to go, I head back to my unit, take care of business, return to the Community Room.

So, anyway …… What lights up a socker stadium? A match.

Why did the donut go to the dentist? Because it needed a filling.

The Week that Was

We had a bit of a weather cooldown on Tuesday. It was still hot, but bearable, so I was able to log in a mile around the complex.

Saw that a unit, which had recently been vacated — the resident located elsewhere on the complex, has an obvious new resident. Obvious because the previous resident wasn’t this kind of decorative.

Elsewhere on the complex was this creatively decorated patio.

I'm guessing this is where those people relocated to.

While sitting on the patio, I’ve often grabbed the phone to take a pic of my favorite sight — my two elderly boys on the walkway but, slow walking as they are, I've not been able to get to the phone quick enough to capture a photo … that is until on my walk that day.

The boys, who look like they could be twins, do not live together. At the end of the walkway, one hangs a right, the other a left. So, I don’t know how they came to be such seemingly close friends …… always together.

I may have to one day come up with an excuse to approach, while the two are sitting outside the gate, engaged in their favorite activity of watching traffic go by, start a conversation, find out what their story is.

I bet drivers passing by, seeing not only the two boys but often other residents, sitting on walkers, with nothing better to do than watch traffic go by see it as sad.

I, on the other hand, think us residents to be content, at peace. Don't need a lot of what those driving by have and do to make us happy, feeling blessed just to be able to sit and watch the world roll by.

Wednesday was another day of bearable weather.

I’d planned to watch the eclipse that day, eclipse glasses at the ready.

Then learned, California would experience no visible eclipse activity as the path was restricted to far northern regions — Alaska, Canada. So, I decided instead to join the Usual Suspects in the Community Room for crafts but took the long way around …… twice around the complex to log in another mile.

Told myself this was doable …… that I could, at the very least get up and out, manage one mile a day, so long as the weather cooperated.

That motivation lasted about as long as you readers probably expected, as today is Saturday and I’ve not been out walking since Wednesday.

Oh well.

I didn’t participate in Wednesday’s craft session, just watched, took photos for the residents’ facebook page, as they made picture frames using stencils, plexiglass, cardboard.

As for what I’ve been doing locked in my unit, other than watching Korean and Chinese Dramas on TikTok and Facebook, lusting after the handsome young Asian men I see on the screen, I’ve been finishing up yet another scrapbook …… one I started in '23, which chronicles my own personal activities, got sidelined due to the birth of great grandkids, making books chronicling their activities.

Once my '23 book is finished, the plan is to do one more, that will cover my activities between then and now, which I sense will be the last chronicling my own personal activities.

The hardest part of scrapbooking is coming up with a title page. I've come up with a system where I sometimes make the title page look like magazine covers, like this one ……

Since this next book will be the last of my personal activities, I'm thinking of doing something with one of the few photos I have of my toddler years, titling it HOW IT STARTED.

In addition to scrapbooking, I've also been throwing together tropical wear for the Resident’s End of Summer Event.

Not finding, in storage, the grass skirt I’d previously made, I grabbed raffia when I was at the craft store purchasing that Venus Flytrap and, in between scrapbooking and lusting after young Asian men in K/Cdramas, building a skirt.

Also, while at the craft store, I looked for blocks and letters to arrange in 8647, but didn't find anything usable.

The fact is, I tried, LOL.

So, anyway, as I was saying …… in addition to scrapbooking supplies, there's currently grass-colored raffia everywhere.

Still not sure I’ll actually have the guts to wear the skirt … won’t know until the day of; but if I don’t wear it, it will turn into Skelly the Skeleton’s outfit for this year’s Halloween patio display.

Did You Make an Appointment?

Received an email on Saturday from Debra of She Who Seeks that Michael’s Craft Store was selling 46" Flytrap.

I thought Michael’s had long ago gone out of business, converted to an online store, but quickly googled, learned there was still a Michaels in Redlands — a doable 30-minute drive. So, I headed out in the heat yesterday, to check the plant out.

It was huge.

Fortunately, there was a 36" option.

It even has a spider on one of the bulbs.

There was even a door wreath available.

I passed on the door wreath.

I also passed on the cute doggie by the door, as Skelly the Skeleton already has a dog/Cujo, that I'm thinking of rehoming.

The 36" I chose is potted.

The plant is described as being a mixture of styrofoam, polyethylene, polyester, PVC, iron wire, cement, and labeled "for indoor décor use", but it didn't say "only", so we'll see how it handles outside.

I’m not at all sure that anything, other than the iron wiring, is good feng shui; but I’ve got enough good energy around to counter if the other materials are problematic.

So, anyway, the plan was to free Audrey from the pot it’s planted in, add it to the skeleton planter but, the material holding it in place is immune to the drill, screwdriver and hammer chisel, so I ended up positioning it as is and not liking it.

Reeassessing the arrangement this morning, I realized I could plant Audrey, pot and all, inside the skeleton planter and did.

Maybe the heat of the sun will soften the material, and I can chisel Audrey out of the pot altogether; but the current situation, of placing the plant, pot and all, in the skeleton planter with the little 25-inch Audrey, is working.

Returning from Michaels I found I was blocked from getting up the walkway and the stairs by three dirt bikes, lined up in a row.

I assumed the bikes belonged to people visiting White Haired Neighbor, started to yell up that I was blocked, but instead decided to maneuver my body through, around, between the bikes, careful not to knock one over.

Having made it through the first two bikes, the last bike being positioned right in front of the stairs, was more challenging. However, the way it was leaning, gave me just enough space to squeeze through, plant my feet on the first step.

Having managed the gauntlet, walking up the stairs, WHN’s door opened.

To prevent whoever was planning on coming out from running into me, knocking me back down the stairs I'd worked so hard to access, I said, "I’m coming up". The door closed.

Just as I reached my door, WHN’s door opened again. She and a handsome man, who she introduced as her son, and two young boys, introduced as her grandsons stepped out.

"You made it through the bikes", said her son.

"If my hips had been any wider, I’d not have made it", said I, and they all laughed.

Seeing me holding a 36" Venus Flytrap, WHN said, "I like your plant. Getting ready for Halloween".

"Not really?" said I. "I'm Halloween all year round."

"A lot of people are", said she.

I wish some of that lot of people were living here, so I wasn't the only one with a fetish for skeletons and other oddities, LOL.

Before I got inside my unit, WHN asked, "Did you ever call down and make arrangements to get your pipe cleared?"

"No. It’s like I said, if they don’t care, I don’t care".

"I still don’t understand", said she. "He was here, the equipment was here. It was just mean".

She’s not wrong.

Later that evening, there was a knock knock knock on the door.

Looking through the blinds in the kitchen, I saw it was the Talker.

I was not appropriately dressed for company …… wearing only a tank top and panties. So, I opened the door a crack, went to say, "I don’t have any pants on" and before I could finish the sentence, she said, "I don’t care. I’m mad" and barged right in.

So, there I was not fully clothed and took a guess at what had so disturbed her. "MAGA?", said I.

"MAGA, Painted Rock Lady and Lu", said she; all three now being described as "Those bitches". LOL.

After she’d got some of what upset her out …… enough to calm down to where I could point out the absurdity of my state of undress, I told her to "sit", went to the backroom, slipped on shorts, and let her talk about the girls having let her down, a breakup with that 50-year-old she was dating, and family issues for 2 hours.

She was not only over it all by the time she left, but laughing. So, my work was done.

However, the thing is …… since it seems I can no longer let myself be comfortable in my own space, because folks are knocking, catching me in various stages of undress, I'm seriously thinking about changing my boots doormat to something like this ……

Or this ……