The Inspection

Yesterday was National Pokémon Day. Had I bothered to get out and play, I might have caught new Pokémon for my deck and/or earned extra points for evolving those I already have.

Thing is, I didn't get out to play. Instead, I was stuck inside waiting for an inspection.

Truth be told, I don’t think I could have motivated myself to head out, walk around outside, even if the inspection hadn’t keep me inside, because outside is just too peopley for me right now.

At any rate, by way of background ………… We here at the complex have biannual and annual inspections by Regulatory Agencies. It's something to do with tax credits provided to Corporate being dependent on the units meeting certain standards.

Since moving here in 2012, I always get notices posted to my door indicating my unit "might" be one of those "randomly" selected for inspection but, thus far, I’ve never been inspected.

My unit was once inspected by a woman from Corporate, checking up on their investment, but I've never been inspected by any of the big deal Regulatory Agencies.

Doesn't matter to me except that, every time I get a notice, I have to get up early, prepare and hang around all day just in case.

Thus it was, when I returned from the Pain Cave on Monday, saw the "Notice to Enter Dwelling, February 27, between the hours of 8 AM and 4 PM to conduct inspection with Regulatory Agency", I got up early yesterday, performed my morning rituals, tweaked the unit for neatness and waited for what I assumed would be nothing.

Lo and Behold, there was a knock on the door around 1 o’clock.

It was Head Maintenance Guy, Manager, and a guy they introduced as the Inspector.

I’ve heard from others, whose units have been inspected, that the Inspector checks absolutely everything ……… opens closet doors, looks in the tub, turns faucets on, flushes toilets, open kitchen cabinets, tests the stove, even opens the refrigerator.

My inspection took less than five minutes.

All the Inspector did was to walk out onto the patio, look at an area of the patio floor Head Maintenance Guy pointed out, that is buckling; come back inside, look up at the A/C filter cover, test the smoke detector.

The Inspector did go into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door, looked, closed the refrigerator door and exited the unit saying the Maintenance Guys would be replacing a part.

Sounded like B.S. to me, just for show, and I doubt the Maintenance Guys will be replacing shiz.

I saw the same thing happen when the woman from Corporate did her inspection. She said the guys would be re laminating the kitchen counter. That work was never done, there was no follow up.

When Head Maintenance Guy and the Inspector walked out onto the patio, Manager stood like a statue, just inside the door, hugging her clipboard.

After telling me I was the last one, that they’d been at it since 8 o’clock, she stared straight ahead — watching the TV thought I.

All of sudden, she made a quick movement, rushed towards the bookcase in front of her, bent down exclaiming "That is soooo cute. I’ve never seen anything like that".

She reached in and handled the item she was talking about.

I later stood where she had been standing when she made that quick movement, and this is what she saw from that vintage point.

When she bent down and handled the item she said was soooo cute, this is what she was looking at.

Joe Exotica

Of all the candles on display, what most fascinated her was Tiger Joe.

I pointed out Luigi and said, "This one is my latest purchase".

Still fondling Tiger Joe, she didn’t seem interested, so I said, "You do know who that is don’t you?"

She shook her head to indicate no.

"Luigi Mangione, the CEO shooter", said I.

With a blank look on her face, she said "I don’t know who that is".

OMG!!!

After thinking about it, I’m fairly certain Manager is likely not the only one on the property to not know anything about a CEO being shot, who Luigi is.

Today is Economic Blackout Day. So, after this morning’s workout, I did not head to the market but, from observing all the cars in the market parking lot, other shops and stores in the area, it's business as usual around here.

Misunderstood the Assignment

Tuesday's walking club did not go as expected — not just because no one but Activity Director showed up, but because I misunderstood the assignment and missed the walk.

Activity Calendar indicated 8:45 - 9:00, which no way did I interpret as a measly 15-minute walk. Instead, I'd assumed we were to gather between 8:45/9:00, set off walking at 9.

That’s what I did last time ....... arrived 9:00, caught AD rounding a corner, walked from that point not knowing she was actually finishing the walk and chose to walk with me since I was there.

So suited up and ready by 8:30 yesterday, not wanting to arrive too early, I waited until 5 minutes to 9.

Arriving at the pool area, seeing no one, I assumed AD was a no show, waited until 9:00 sharp just in case she showed and, when 9 arrived started heading back to my unit when AD rounded the corner, looking like she'd just been on a hike.

"Did you walk already?", asked I.

"Yes".

"By yourself?"

"Yes".

"But I thought you'd be taking off at 9:00".

She clarified the actual walk was from 8:45 to 9:00.

Seems a short while, but doesn’t mean I have to stop after 15 minutes.

So, anyway, since no one showed up, I suggested Walking Club is a bust, that she should take it off next month's calendar.

Bless her heart, she's not ready to give up. Plans to put the activity on next month’s calendar ... every other Tuesday, 8:45 a.m. 

I'll be there.

My not understanding the assignment happened to be fortuitous, because I had lots to do yesterday.

Instead of walking, I spent the day clearing out the kitchen cabinets .... all of them, even under the sink. No easy chore, but required for pest control guy, due to treat the unit this morning.

Red Light had been worried about TinTin’s furniture and began preemptively setting up traps around her own unit, because TinTin revealed the reason she’d relocated to our quad — her former neighbor was a hoarder which hoarding resulted in a roach problem, not only in TinTin’s unit but in her furnishings as well …. the furnishings TinTin brought with her to our quad.

Sure enough, I spotted a handful of the little bastids last week, immediately called for pest control to treat the unit before things got out of hand.

Of course, pest control guy only comes once a month on Wednesday at 11:00, so I had to give up this morning’s workout.

Instructions for the day was to have all the cupboards bare and, once pest control guy treated the place, leave the unit, not come back for three hours.

No problem. I had a plan ...... spend the 3 hours taking care of a non-fasting blood test the doctor had requested, drop into Sprouts for product I can’t find nearby, do some banking, hunt for the illusive purple Pikachu recently release into the wild.

It was a 45-minute wait for the blood test, so I finally had time to get some reading done.

I’ve The In-Between to finish, also The Old Gays Guide to the Good Life.

I chose the Old Gays Guide because it makes me laugh, whereas the In-Between brings me to tears, and sobbing in public is not cool.

I plan to get the car serviced next week, which will give me even more time for reading, and possibly hunting in a different area as I still didn't run across that special Pikachu in Redlands.

So, anyway, the good news is the unit has been treated.

Bad news is that I’m now tasked with putting all this clutter back in place.

Clearing the cupboards gave me an opportunity to toss unused and expired products. I’m now going to take my time putting things back ……… start with what I really need and use, which will give me an idea of what I no longer need taking up space.

Less is more.

It Ain’t Pretty

This is what the bedroom window looks like from the outside.

It ain’t pretty, but the bubble wrap is doing its job, seems to be effective in keeping the cold air out of the bedroom at night.

I did not have to run the heater last night, and woke up without sniffles and feeling chilled to the bone.

Because the outside view isn’t all that pretty, I did look into a window installation kit, as suggested by DrumMajor (Thanks friend) and liked that it was touted as "crystal clear", but was turned off by the mixed reviews ……… some purchasers liked it, others complained it did not live up to "crystal clear", tape didn’t hold, and the panels are not reusable when taken down.

Under the theory of "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it", now that I see bubble wrap is doing the job, I’m gonna stick with it.

Pun intended, LOL.

Besides, the shrink wrap touted a 30/35% reduction in heating bill. Bubble wrap is estimating a 50% reduction.

As for the aesthetics, I’m good with losing my view and the window looking unappealing through the Winter months.

I had errands to run after this morning’s workout.

The weather was perfect for a drive, so out of the area I went — looking for new pokémon characters at each stop.

Bass Pro Shop was crawling with pokémons, but nothing I needed in my deck.

They did however have a sign at the entrance that one does not see every day.

I asked the young lady at the desk if people actually come in with weapons on them. She replied in the affirmative, adding that it scares her when the weapons are placed in her hands.

I’ll bet, but that lets me know there are perfectly normal looking people walking around armed to the teeth with more than just pepper spray.

So, no pokémons at Bass Pro, but they did have a fun looking poke stop, where I snagged game tools.

The next stop was my reward for having worked so hard cleaning up the place over the weekend.

After a stop at Sprouts, for items I can’t purchase locally, finding no interesting pokémon, it was off to the hardware store to replenish cleaning supplies.

In the parking lot, I captured one I did not already have in my deck — a Frogadier.

I think this is where I also captured a problem because, just moments after jumping on the freeway, heading home, bells and whistles went off on the car's instrument panel, indicating the left rear passenger side tire was down to 28 psi.

Panic … Fright … and it had been such a nice day up until then.

The good news ……… I was in the right area — the tire place was just down the street from where I’d just been at the hardware store.

Getting off at the next exit, holding my breath I’d make it before the tire gave out, I jumped back on the freeway, headed to where I’d been, passed the hardware store, made it a mile further to the tire place.

They found a rather large nail, said it’d be like a 2-hour wait, because it was a busy day, did I want to wait and be serviced.

I said no, I did not, but had no choice.

More good news ………… the tire was fixable, and no charge.

Good news because I’d spent most of my cash and, had the nail been embedded in an area where the tire was not patchable (that has happened to me in the past), I'd have been SOL because I'd left my credit card at home.

It's a blessing to have a car, not rely on public transportation; but it's also a headache as so much can go wrong, at any time.

I'm still not over the terror of the blowout I had a few months ago, and now this.

So, that was the agony and ecstasy of my day. More like ecstasy then agony.

Chocolate was intended for days like this. Fortunately, I’d just stocked up.

I did not watch yesterday’s game, but had timed it just right to tune in and catch halftime.

It was okay. At least Usher’s performance didn’t lull me to sleep like Rihanna's did last year.

My only criticism …… half time was just too short. It felt to me like Usher had been cheated on allotted time, compared to other halftime shows I’ve seen.

Renewed and it Feels So Good

After two days and DMV offices in two cities, I got through the gauntlet that is renewing one’s drivers' license.

In conversations with others at the two offices, the general consensus is that the system, though fairly quick and relatively uncomplicated in the past, is now neither quick nor uncomplicated.

Walking through the doors about 20 minutes early for my appointment at the local office yesterday, seeing a gaggle of people packed like sardines, not trusting the atmosphere, I immediately masked up.

I was the only masked up person in the place but didn’t care about the stares. There’s just too much stuff going around to risk it.

Walking up to a clerk, saying I have an appointment, I was asked for a "code".

Saying I knew nothing of a code, I was unceremoniously told, without further ado by a little Gen Zer who looked like she resented having to work for a living, to "stand over there" ...... "over there" being a line of about 20 people leaning up against the wall.

My appointment time came and went, without the "over there" line moving an inch, so I walked over to a different clerk, questioned if I was in the correct spot inasmuch as I had an appointment.

He explained there was paperwork to be filled out.

It seems I had the option to fill out said paperwork online at home, which paperwork would have generated a code that supposedly would have moved me up the line ─ from "over there" to speedy appointment status.

The little bitch Gen Zer, sitting there doing nothing but staring into space, couldn’t take a moment out of her resentment to tell me that?

At any rate, I decided not to waste hours of my life in a line that wasn’t moving ─ walked out, went home, filled out the paperwork online, went to reschedule to another day, but learned the nearest appointment available was a month away — mid December!

So what happens if, in mid-December, I don’t pass on the first try? Do I have to reschedule again? Come back in yet another month, by which time my license would have expired?

DMV is now worse than my doctor’s office.

Every time something comes up that I need to schedule an appointment with her, I get a message she’s booked up, not available to schedule for three months. In which case, I research holistic methods of healing what ails me— usually the writings of The Sleeping Prophet Edgar Cayce, with sometimes remarkable results.

I’m actually better off healing myself anyway, because the doctors at the medical center just don’t seem all that swift. They never solve problems, just prescribe medication without delving into what exactly the problem is, and there is no follow up.

So, anyway, I booked the mid-December appointment but then thought, since it would take another 30 days to book an appointment should I not pass, I logged in to schedule a backup appointment at the Redlands office.

Redlands was booked up until late December!!!

Good grief!

I opted out of a backup appointment.

But then thinking it best to have that second appointment just-in-case, I went to book it, found an opening for this morning had popped up at Redlands, cancelled this morning’s workout, and jumped on it.

Arriving 30 minutes early for my appointment, I could not find parking on the small parking lot and found signs on the lots of nearby businesses that indicated "no DMV parking" and threats of tows. Consequently, I parked about half mile away at Citrus Plaza, in front of Target, switched from sandals to walking shoes, and hiked to the office.

There was a line for appointments, a line for without appointments and angry people, rolling eyes, in both because the idiot checking us in was an obvious fool.

So annoying the idiot was that the guy in line ahead of me told me he wanted to do him physical harm.

I cautioned my line mate to "Be calm. Don’t turn into a male Karen".

He maintained, and we both eventually got through the gauntlet with tickets issued by the idiot, only to sit where told to and sit and sit and sit.

While waiting, I added two new pokémon to my poke deck.

While I was killing time playing Pokémon GO, my line mate was getting antsy, got up, sought out a supervisor.

All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity.

The supervisor came over and began checking the numbers on everyone’s tickets (about 20+ of us), saying the idiot had logged is in as waiting for service at the Riverside office.

We were in Redlands.

Things went pretty quick after that, as it was all hands-on deck; clerks at every window stepping in to service us.

I passed the visual, which I wasn't sure I would because of eyestrain caused by close needle work.

There was a quickly handled minor problem with the camera when I stood for a new photo, which prompted me to say to the clerk, "What else can go wrong?"

Fortunately, the what else wasn’t failing the written — I passed by the skin of my teeth (missed the maximum allowed 5) because of questions like how many feet between cars parallel parked … how many feet between a car and motorcycle, yada yada yada.

It was a difficult test. One woman failed by missing 8. Another missed 11.

The what else that could go wrong was ……… it started raining and here I was a half mile from my car.

A nice lady, waiting for her test results, said she and her husband would drive me to my car but, after 3 hours, I was ready to get out of there.

So here I am back in my unit telling the tale, not drenched enough to get ill I hope, renewed and it feels so good not to have to face that again for another 5 years.

Umbrella Alley

Leaving the craft store in Redlands this morning, I remembered Activity Director, during her class on entertainment for no or low cost, suggested a walking tour through Redland’s Umbrella Alley.

Googling the address, I set the GPS and drove the 2 miles over from the craft store.

Lo and Behold the Alley is around the corner from my new all-female dental office. I’d previously walked right by the Alley a time or two, hadn’t even noticed it.

I dunno. The Alley is cute, but I must admit to being underwhelmed.

I meant to open the Pokémon Go App, check the Alley for interesting/new characters but Redlands was so hot that I forgot all about anything other than a quick tour of the Alley, head back home to my A/C.

Head Maintenance Guy showed up yesterday afternoon with a replacement part for the oven.

It’s beginning to worry me that he’s being so pleasant and accommodating lately.

Maybe HMG is worried that, inasmuch as Assistant Maintence Guy does the better job and is thought of more highly than he (the boss) is, that he'd better step it up to avoid being demoted to the assistant position.

At any rate, hearing him bang and clink around, while I was listening to the television and working on that never ending needlepoint project, I didn’t feel very confident in this — his second time "fixing" the oven. So, when he finished up, once again pronouncing "fixed" I said "I’ll cook something tonight and let you know how it goes".

I'm happy to report he got it right this time.

Amazing what can be done when HMG puts time and effort into it.

So, all is well until whatever else is next to fail.

On the 15th Day of Christmas …………

I found Jippy the Elf strapped to a pole in the meat department.

I don’t know if it’s just my dirty mind that I’m seeing some kind of naughty subliminal messaging in the Elf being strapped to a pole in the meat department but, other than that, whoever is hiding the Elf this year is making it too easy with this hiding in plain sight.

When out and about, I may check this store in a different location, see if the hiding spot is more challenging.

In other news, returning from my trip to Long Beach for Thanksmas, I’d reported the Queen Mary — closed due to deteriorating conditions, needing an estimated $700 million for repairs, was saved from being sunk into the briny deep by an influx of $5 million for partial repairs.

The plan for the Queen was, after certain areas were repaired, a reopening of those areas by end of the year.

With end of year rapidly approaching, I doubted the deadline could be met.

Lo and Behold, the Queen is open for business.

Did you hear the Guide confirm? ....... "Definitely yes, the Queen IS haunted".

I must admit, the idea of touring the Queen, for the purpose of hunting Pokémon, sounds tempting; but I’d be too afraid some invisible something would stick to me, follow me home, so no.

My Two Cents

Candy Crush Saga disappeared late Friday night. Facebook is no longer supporting the game on its platform. They dropped Alpha Betty Saga a few months ago, and now Candy Crush. Seems I’ll have a lot more time for reading books now.

PokémonGo has been a bust since September — no interesting new pokémon and a change that, in order to perform some of the functions in the game, the user has to give permission to link to the contacts in our phone — which of course I declined.

There’s still Tik Tok but, with no games with which to waste hours and hours, more time is now freed up for reflection and reading.

On Friday, Trainer and I were discussing the Depp-Heard trial.

He, like most, thinks Amber is a wackadoodle and Johnny is going to win.

I haven’t been watching the trial on Court TV because I just knew it would trigger my own past trauma but, what with clips of the trial on Tik Tok, Twitter and in the news, it’s hard to ignore the proceedings completely. So I'm familiar with some of the details, and Trainer turned me onto a tidbit I’d not come across — having to do with a text, read at trial, that Johnny wrote in response to a text from Amber that ended with his saying, "I have other uses for your throat which does not include injury".

Well, that peaked my curiosity so I researched the statement on TikTok and found women volunteering — shouting for Johnny to "Pick Me! Pick Me!".

Can’t say I blame them. Johnny is ruggedly handsome, charming, described by one news pendant as an "Aging Icon Idol" and better-looking IMO than his pretty boy 21 Jump Street Days.

At any rate, it didn’t take long for the words of that text to explode into a cottage industry offering of tee shirts, sweat shirts, drinking glasses.

Not to mention a coffee mug I’m tempted to purchase.

Only thing stopping me from purchasing is my distrust of the site offering it.

Last time I ordered an item off that site from a vendor in Missouri, two $1500 unauthorized charges showed up on my card from some fictitious company in, guess where ..... Missouri. So, much as I want that coffee mug, I’ll wait until it’s offered elsewhere.

As expected, what little of the trial I’d previously heard, plus other things I’d had on my mind, did trigger me. I took a trip down the rabbit hole for a while there into a blue funk, but I’m back from that place — without letting on to you guys I’d even gone there.

So now that I’ve processed what I had to process, my two cents is — Johnny is a bad boy, no doubt about it. A ruggedly handsome sexy charming bad boy. I was and still am a fan.

As for my thoughts on his being an abuser, I won’t say other than to speak from experience as to how charming and believable I know an abuser can be.

They are all skilled actors, these men who get off on abusing. They are skilled at playing whichever role the occasion requires when out in public, and with friends, coworkers, family members.

It’s just so easy for them to charm people into not seeing beyond whichever role they're presenting, which mask they're wearing at any given time.

Just sayin.

Speaking of Blood Results

I received an updated, more precise analysis from Ancestry this morning.

It’s all very confusing.

Nigeria — up 4% from last year's analysis
Cameroon — down 2%
England — down a whopping 8%
Mali — down 3%
Benin & Togo — up 1%
Senegal — down 3%

Ivory Coast & Ghana is new/were not included in the last year’s analysis.

Wales and Indigenous Americas remain the same, while Ireland is down 2%.

Germanic Europe’s 1% previously appearing is now gone. 

What happened?

How can Germanic blood be there one year, disappear the next, as has Scotland’s whopping 6% — gone, dissipated.

I’m beginning to think Ancestry is no more an accurate reflection of the elements that make me a person than the medical center’s BMI Index.

One thing though is that, although I’ve always felt I came from another planet, that I’m part alien, the results show I’m 100% from here, planet earth.

The woman who found me on Ancestry, who calls herself my DNA Cousin, and who spent four years on solving our connection — ultimately learning that our great grandfathers were brothers, has ceased communicating because, I’m guessing, she was offended by something I said.

I didn’t mean to offend her but, in her last message, she was telling me more about my father’s side of the family — how this long dead relative didn’t like that one, how that long dead one had been mean and abusive to others.

The more I learned from her, the more I got a feel for small town living during that era and suddenly realized what I’d escaped because my dad left my mom for one of those small minded, jealous, spiteful women and I got to grow up in a more enlightened part of the country.

Unfortunately, I did not simply realize it in my mind, but typed out “I'm beginning to think my father did my mom a favor by leaving her. My father's side of the family appear to have had a lot of issues”.

Mom brought a lot of that old-fashioned limited thinking with her, but being where we were gave me ways and means of going around her, rising above the limitations she tried so hard to place on me. It was a struggle, but something kept pushing me forward until I expanded my awareness and grew.

At any rate, I haven’t heard from DNA Cousin since I said what I said, but oh well.

And now this ….

Yep, that’s right, Khloe has taken over Candy Crush.

I logged on to play and found she’s hosting an All Stars Tournament pitting us crushers, above Level 25, against each other, with the goal of crowning one of us the Nation’s No.1 Crusher, winning a years’ supply of Gold Bars.

At Level 3295, I’m automatically entered into the tournament, whether I want to be or not, but I won’t be competing against anyone but myself — just play a normal game, my normal way.

So far, the only thing I see different is that some of the symbols have been replaced with orange stars.

Also, thus far today, in addition to working out on the smart hula hoop, I put in 5 miles on the indoor bike and caught a new Pokémon.

It’s a good thing I caught it in my unit during daytime hours. because it might have freaked me out a little to see it at night, especially since it started moving directly towards me.

What the heck!! They don’t generally move forward.

Back In The Saddle

More appropriately, it's back to the Pain Cave this morning, after a four-day vacation from working out, rather than the normal two day weekend off.

The car did get its annual service yesterday. Also taken care of was a critical recall, I knew nothing about.

I don’t recall receiving a recall notice or, if I did, it would be just like me to not realize what it was and shred as junk mail.

At any rate, that’s another appointment off my to-do list. Only thing remaining to get off my list, my mind, my back, is the Optometrist — scheduled for next week.

I spent the 3-1/2 hours at the dealership playing Pokémon GO, meditating, napping, reading.

Caught a new Pokémon, called Falinks, which netted me two thousand points.

I also engaged in two battles — lost both.

Not sure I’ll be playing Pokémon GO for very much longer. A newly implemented change is rolling out that’s making me less and less likely to continue. That change being, in order to perform some of the functions in the game, the user has to give permission to link to the contacts in our phone.

Seems shady to me, so I’m not doing that.

There’s always Candy Crush to play.

The only time I have to read is during downtime — while waiting for the dentist, the dermatologist, the car to be serviced. Thus, I’ve not made much progress on that hilarious read Everyone in this Room Will Someday be Dead.

The heroin, with all her issues, cracks me up. Like what I was reading yesterday .... she walked into the bathroom, mistook her own reflection for an intruder, shouted "Who are you!", made a fist and, attempting to defend herself, punched the mirror. Broke it of course, cut her hand, headed to the ER — and not for the first time as she’s a bit of a hypochondriac.

Not expecting any downtime at the Optometrist, and with something interesting about to go down in the book, involving the police and a dead former employee, I may have to make time to read.

Arriving back at the complex, I found the Monthly Calendar posted to the door.

It appears the Tyrant did not learn his Movie Night lesson. He’s tying again — on the 24th, showing Eddie and the Cruisers.

Where is he getting these dated movies from?

That movie, having to do with a rock and roll star, who disappeared at the height of his fame, is something like forty years old.

The notice indicates “Space is limited. First 15 to reserve get to watch the movie”.

I don’t think the Tyrant has anything to worry about, as attendees will probably be that same old guy and his wife that were the only ones to show up for A Quiet Place.

Also, there’s a meeting scheduled for the 17th to discuss a Travel Club — “go on exciting quarterly adventures, cruises, casinos, beaches, museums, musicals, etc.”

In a pandemic? With a variant floating around?

Since he can't bore us to death, looks like he’s trying a more direct route to killing us off.

Be on Time and Wait

Today was the day I finally got in to see the dermatologist.

At my request, my primary had authorized a session with a dermatologist.

It’s sorta locking the barn door after the horse has been stolen but, at this late stage of life, I wanted to know if anything could be done to repair the sun damage caused by too much sun in my younger years.

It took three months to get the appointment and, because it’s been so hot lately, and I’ve been not wanting to leave my unit for anything other than workout and groceries, it took everything I have to not cancel the appointment.

Soldiering on, I dealt with the heat, the traffic, and made it to the medical center well ahead of my scheduled appointment.

Sitting outside the center, in a nicely shaded area, I people watched, caught a few Pokémon, admired the way the camo Birkenstock’s matched my leggings.

I about lost my mind, couldn’t wait to order, when the internet "cookies" caused an ad for the camo Birkenstocks to hit my feed, because I luv luv luv camo … camo anything.

When it was time for my 2:15 appointment, I headed inside to the bank of elevators.

There was a long line and only one elevator working so, silly me, I thought to take the stairs.

I huffed and I puffed and petered out by the time I’d reached the third floor. Lucky for me, that’s as far as the winding marble staircase went because I’d have ended my life, right there on the stairs of the medical center, by foolishly trying to continue on to the 6th floor had more stairs been available.

The good news was, that from there, I was able to catch the one working elevator when it was going down, so I was already on when it got down to the first floor where all the people were lined up waiting.

Checking in at 6th Floor Dermatology, one of the girls saw me still trying to catch my breath, sweating a little and commented, "It must be really hot outside".

"It is hot, but this is from trying to climb your stairs", said I.

So, all checked in on time, I was directed to the Waiting Room where I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited.

Forward thinking individual that I am, I always carry a book to entertain myself when I go to the medical center, because you just never know.

Out of respect for where I was, I’d removed the cover and left it at home.

Forty-five minutes later at 3:15, still waiting, reading, beginning to feel drowsy, thinking I should have gone ahead and cancelled, I closed the book and considered walking out.

Just when I was about to the walking out point, had had enough, the doctor’s assistant comes out, says they’re running a little behind.

I check my phone, see it’s now going on 3:30. I go back to reading … but first, I take a photo of the Waiting Room’s wall, because I thought it interesting.

They could have done a better job on the seating, those benches are a fail up against that backdrop.

Along about 3:45, I got called into the doctor’s examination room, where I waited and waited and waited and waited.

Along about 4:00, in walks the Dermatologist — an African woman with a humungous bosom.

Now, I’m a big girl myself, so when I describe another woman’s bosom as humungous, that’s saying something.

At any rate, she was professional, knew her stuff, explained all the various causes of what she calls hyperpigmentation — that it’s not just sun, gave me various options for lightening the dark spots — pointing out that nothing is guaranteed, but we could either try a fast course of treatment, with something I can’t remember what she said, or a slow course of treatment. That some clients reported improvement with either, others no change. With fewer side effects, I opted for a slow course.

If it works, fine. If it doesn’t, I’m okay applying cover sticks and toner blends.

Asking how long the hyperpigmentation has been developing, and I say the first dark spot appeared in my late 20’s, the Dermatologist calculated further darkening of the skin in other areas took about 50 years to develop and asked, "Why now? What took you so long to want to do something about it?"

"I just never thought I’d live long enough for it to become an issue, but I'm here, no end in sight, so I figured why not", said I.

That sent her into a fit of involuntary laughter, after which she looked me up/down said, "Wow. You’re in good shape for your age. I mean Wow".

"Grace of God", said I.

I was finally outta there at 4:15, with a prescription for Retin-A crème and a guaranteed hack for making kitchen tile look brand new from her assistant — Clorox blue gel toilet bowl cleaner.

Can’t wait to give it a try. The doctor’s assistant said it works without a lot of scrubbing.

Heading to the Pharmacy, I passed a door that said "stairs". Looking inside, I saw normal regular stairs. Evidently that marble staircase I tried to get to the 6th Floor on, was the wrong stairs to try to climb.

Pharmacy was too busy, I was exhausted, so I headed home to order the crème from the Pharmacy online.

I’m going to tell Trainer about the huffing, puffing and suggest we do some elevations on the treadmill to get me in better shape for tackling stairs.

Too bad he doesn't have a Stairmaster. If I had room, I'd order one for myself, but I can't squeeze not one more piece of exercise equipment into this unit.

So that was my exhausting day. Next up is the dentist, followed by the optometrist, neither of which I expect to be as long a timewaster as this appointment ... all that waiting for only 10 minutes with the dermatologist.

Tales of this Past Weekend

I almost reached my goal of not facing the outside world all weekend, not leaving the unit, but not quite because, receiving notice the books I’d ordered were ready for pick up, I headed out early Saturday morning to handle that errand.

I wasn’t the only one up and out early, to beat the heat because, driving away from the complex, I spotted Greedy Grabby walking back from the market.

It’s been a while since she’s been mentioned in the blog so, by way of clarification, Greedy Grabby is the resident that behaves as though everything is about her, for her, that the rules don’t apply to her — is going through life with a Princess Complex.

She’d come to potlucks and, instead of bringing a dish, she’d fill up a plate for herself, her husband, have a good time, take a plate or plates to go.

On free pizza day, everyone told to take only one so everyone could get a pizza, it was always a battle for Activity Director to keep Greedy from grabbing more than her share.

Greedy would come to Easter Egg and Cookie decorating classes and, instead of following instructions to bring her own boiled eggs or cookies to decorate or exchange, she’d look around at what others had, point and say “I want that” and others would acquiesce to her.

Then there was that time she created chaos in the craft room.

Greedy is from Syria and, not knowing her background, there’s the possibility that she does come from high birth, especially since she has an entourage of ladies, seemingly from the same country, who treat her as the Princess she obviously believes she is.

The entourage hangs on her every word.

That word got Greedy Grabby and her entourage banned from the local Senior Center, when they were caught raiding the Center’s storage area.

At any rate, seeing her walking down the street, I can put a checkmark by her name as another OG who is present and accounted for post-pandemic. However, she was walking alone — no entourage, which is unusual. So I don’t know if her fan base are still residents.

Since I was out and about, I stopped for gas.

WOW!

The gas station was the one where, stopping in some time ago, I’d spotted a bitcoin machine.

I'd previously commented on a blogger's site, a blogger who'd also seen a bitcoin machine, that next time I was in that gas station, thinking it odd that it would be located at a gas station, instead of somewhere more sophisticated, I'd ask the attendant if anyone ever used it, but I didn't ask.

It looked like the station had cut down on staff.

Gone were the three young friendly faces I'd seen before. What was left was one lone grumpy faced middle aged guy, who gave me a hateful look when I entered the premises.

Not knowing if it was because he hated his job, hated Black people or was just crazy, and since I was alone in the store with him, I limited the conversation to $20 on No. 8, took a photo of the machine and got the heck outa there. LOL.

Thinking about it later, it's very possible the lone attendant was the owner, and his hateful look the result of this post pandemic thing of workers no longer willing to take crap. Maybe all his young friendly workers didn't like the way he looked at them either and quit, leaving him to grudgingly fend for himself.

Taking the streets back to the complex, rather than the freeway, so I could drive by the Civic Center, where there’s a ton of PokéStops, I managed to snag a new Pokémon.

Research tells me it’s a Flying Pikachu, and the 5 indicates the 5th anniversary of the game.

I've been playing Pokémon Go for five years?

With a start date of July 2016, it seems so — which is longer than I've been able to stomach a relationship, some jobs too.

After capturing that Flying Pikachu, headed back to the complex, stopped at a red light, I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I spotted something weird.

Pulling over and around to get a better look …. It was no mirage.

What an odd location for someone to dump a couch or .... did it fall off a moving truck?

So that was my weekend.

I don’t have much time for reading, but I did recently finish Walter Mosley’s latest, and the RuPaul book I'd held onto for 26 years before getting around to reading (I’d purchased in 1995).

Finished

Mosley’s book had me on the edge of my seat, holding my breath in suspense, as is usual with his books, and Ru’s book was a revelation.

I don't know what took me so long to get around to reading it, except it got lost in a container of books and I'd forgotten I even had it, but I'm glad I read it.

Now I'm on to two new books.