Rain Sticks

Yesterday was chaotic.

Along around 10:15, Painted Rock Lady telephoned, asked "Are we meeting this morning?" (to discuss the flyers she wants).

I said, "Thursday at 11:00".

"Today is Thursday, and I’m already down here waiting for you".

"Oh crap!", said I. "Let me throw on some clothes and I’ll be right down".

It’s not unusual for me to get my days mixed up, so I accepted yesterday was Thursday and I’d somehow missed a day … Wednesday.

Arriving at the Community Room she was looking at her phone. Said, "I just checked the date and today IS Wednesday, not Thursday".

So not only did she call me down on the wrong day, it was also the wrong time; but whatever. I was there, so we worked out designs for her flyers.

While the two of us were in the room, Crafty Lady (having a momentary retrieve from her heart issues) and some of the Usual Suspects set up a table to work on Rain Sticks, which turns out to be closing off the end of a paper towel tube, inserting rice, closing off the other end of the tube, embellishing the tube and Voilà … rain sticks.

I didn’t make one, just stuck around to take photos for the seniors’ Facebook page, listen to the latest tea, which was that the last two Usual Suspects who moved away are now sorry.

Both moved to be closer to family. One is installed in a box style senior building — rows of rooms, hotel corridor set up, everyone in their own little space, walls paper thin, not the open areas to roam around like here, all of which she says is making it difficult to make friends, not to mention she’s not getting the care and closeness with family she’d expected.

The other moved out of state to be with family, and now says it was a mistake to leave the community, that she can’t get along with her daughter.

I’ve seen that happen a lot over the years I’ve lived here. Some former residents move back, others try but, for one reason or another, management won’t allow them back.

Red Light comes to mind. She was immediately regretful of moving, kept coming back to visit/involve herself in our activities, until she was told "You're no longer a resident. Not allowed to participate".

Whereupon she had a hissy fit. Made harassing telephone calls, sent harassing text messages.

I was worried she'd apply for a unit and return but, due to the harassment, she's blown any chance of returning.

Though the community and management would welcome the other two back with open arms, I doubt I’ll see either of the other two return, even if they wanted to. One is not healthy enough to handle another move, the other is in Texas; the logistics of moving back to California would be too difficult.

No way will my former Next Door Neighbor regret moving. She never liked it here and is now in a community that meets the bougie vibe she craved.

I sat with the ladies in the Community Room until their crafts were completed and they tried out their rain sticks.

Kinda reminds me of the Shake Weights that Suzanne Somers was hawking back in the day, LOL.

At any rate, the rain sticks fortunately did not work. Today, April 30th, is a sunny 81°.

Tomorrow ….

Another Day, Another Inspection

We just had an inspection here at the complex back in February — some kind of Regulatory Agency. Today an inspector from a different Regulatory Agency will be doing a random inspection of 20% of the 178 units on the property.

The February Notice of Inspection indicated the inspector would be checking the smoke detector, toilet, garbage disposal, light fixtures, HVAC, Bathroom Exhaust Fan, Stove, Water Heater, Windows and Doors.

My unit was selected at that time, and that level of detail is not exactly how it went.

All the inspector did was to check the patio flooring, look up at the A/C filter cover, test the smoke detector, walk into the kitchen, open the refrigerator door, look inside, close the refrigerator door and exit the unit saying the Maintenance Guys would be replacing a part — the grill that runs across the bottom of the fridge.

I blogged at the time that it sounded like B.S. to me, finding something to replace just to make himself look important, and I doubted the Maintenance Guys would be replacing shiz.

They didn’t.

The checklist for today’s inspector is exactly the same as the February inspector — check the smoke detector, toilet, garbage disposal, light fixtures, HVAC, Bathroom Exhaust Fan, Stove, Water Heater, Windows and Doors.

Remains to be seen if I’m selected again — I doubt it but, if so, I might not know about it as I’ll be in and out today.

These back-to-back inspections to make sure management is “in compliance with the federal tax credit program” seems excessive and suspicious.

What’s really going on?

All I can say is President Elon and his DOGE better not find out there are regulatory agencies doing the same job.

Today is also the last day of April.

You know what that means.

Last Day of April

I’m still here, on this side of the veil, going through the motions of my normal day-to-day activities, except without coffee and other stimulates that cause a rapid rise in BP.

So far so good in bringing the pressure down from the danger zone, fewer instances of being lightheaded, fading in/out, woozy.

Consequently, I'm taking granddaughter's dream as more of a warning, rather than a predetermined event, but we shall see.

In the meantime, life goes on as Justin and the Boys ring in the month of May.

Enjoy!

Rain, Monday, May Day Paving and the Goats

Seeing cars parked as normal, when I went to bed last night, I set the alarm for an early morning wakeup call to watch what I expected to be the spectacle of cars being towed in mass.

From my vantage point this morning, I not only could see cars parked in their regular spots, but laughed when I saw rain — thinking the rain would interfere with Day 1 of the paving project.

Laugh was on me because, by the time I’d showered and dressed, that landscape had changed — workers had arrived and began putting in what I later learned were speed bumps regardless of the rain; cars had moved, some were in the process of doing so.

Walking to this morning’s workout in the rain wasn’t fun for me but, on the way, I did see that four of our residents had managed parking along the curb next to the auto parts store. A fifth tried to fit in at the tail end, but there wasn’t enough curb remaining.

Next Door Neighbor managed to rent a garage here on the property, the rear of 7-Eleven held a few cars, and the market lot got the load.

I doubt the market people even know where all the cars came from, and I had a feeling that, end of today, folks would sneak their cars back onto the premises.

It didn’t take that long.

The paving crew left at noon, whereupon Head Maintenance Guy retrieved his car and parked it in its usual spot.

When Red Light questioned this, Assistant Maintenance Guy told her it was okay for others to park.

All in all, the day did not turn into the disaster I was expecting. Everyone seemed to manage one way or another.

I did not see any tows and Shadow, who sits outside the gate in his walker all day, watching the comings/goings, assured me no cars were towed today.

Though I didn’t enjoy walking to the Pain Cave in the rain, the plants I started — and are thus far surviving in the heat on the patio, enjoyed it.

Bottom layer are the wildflowers Activity Director showed me how to start, and poor now dead Audrey.

Top are the vegetables I started — Radish, Hot Pepper, Tomato but, with no identifying stick, I won’t know which is which until vegetables appear.

As you can see, I added an Adirondack side table to match the chair — both of which I assembled all by myself.

I won’t say I have a Green Thumb because I haven’t a clue as to what I’m doing. I just planted the seeds in dirt, give them a little water now and then, and the rest is just happening. Whereas Upstairs Lady tells me none of her plants have sprouted, she got sick of waiting for something to happen and tossed them out.

So maybe it’s attitude, our differing energies — mine patient, calm, letting nature take its course, making the difference.

As for the goats — if you will recall, I'd commented in the videos I posted a few days ago that the goats on the mountain being utilized as lawnmowers seemed very close to the roadway. In fact, there was just a simple chain link fence, recently installed to keep them in, between the goats and the road.

Well, the goats got out.

Twin 2 was fortunate enough to be on that stretch of road at the right time, saw the herd had gotten out, blocked both sides of the road and, as the goatherder and his dog corralled them back in, one was being defiant.

Tomorrow is the Last Day of April

You know what that means.

Yep, it's gonna be May.

Me ... May

So May happened.

May happened so fast that I forgot to pay homage to Justin Timberlake May in my last post.

For those of you unfamiliar with the phenomena that is Justin Timberlake May, it’s a fad that originated back in 2000. NSYNC had a wildly popular song out titled "It’s Gonna Be Me" and, in the song, Justin’s pronunciation of "Me" always came out sounding like "May".

Consequently, it's become a tradition to post Gonna Be May memes to social media on the last day of April, which I missed doing.

Looks like time is moving too fast for Community Manager No. 9 as well, because she once again missed posting the Activity Calendar in a timely manner.

If a calendar is not on my door when I return from tomorrow’s workout, I won’t find out if Activity Director has scheduled a craft class for Tuesday until too late ….. again.

No excuse for No. 9 to not be able to schedule the postings better. It’s part of her job, but I won’t be surprised if she eventually dispenses with the calendar altogether.

She also doesn’t seem to care how terrible the grassy areas around here are beginning to look.

Because of the drought, watering the lawns ceased long before the Water District called for a cut back on outdoor watering. Our former manager, No. 8, at least had the landscapers paint the grass, while No. 9 is just letting everything go brown.

They might as well dig it all up and turn the areas into a rock gardens.

In spite of all the problems we've had with getting management to issue work orders, take care of issues inside our units, the outside areas have always been well-maintained, described as "beautiful".

Will be interesting to see how this un-greening goes down with the Bigwigs when they do their annual inspection.