Screen Doors and New Neighbors

Maintenance here at the CCC can be a two edged sword with one side sharper than the other. On the sharper side, the system for writing up service requests works well for those of us who are computer literate. With the exception of that time a maintenance man was on vacation and an office girl closed out the work order about my water without sending one of the guys around to check it out, I have no complains. And yet here I am finding something to get picky about---the dull side of the sword: They’re not good at giving us prior notice of when they’ll be stopping to do things.

This week I got an e-mail saying they’d be installing screen doors on our units starting next week, but two days later two guys showed up at my apartment with a box containing my screen door. I had just stepped out of the shower, had my hair wrapped in a towel and my heavy winter bathrobe was buttoned up to my neck so I said, “Okay.” I wasn’t going to fall into the trap of saying come back later because you get downgraded to the bottom of the list. They have their way of picking through jobs so they keep their tool carts in certain areas for as long as possible. Two hours late I had my brand new screen door in just in time to greet spring if it ever gets to my part of the world. 

Mine was the second one installed in the complex and the neighbor who got one that same morning wasn’t home when hers was put in. She was unset because “they didn’t put the screens in! What are we supposed to do? Call them to change the glass and screens twice a year? Are they going to store them for us?” I tried to tell her that the screen was self-storing and rolled up (like a window shade) at the top of the door but I wasn’t getting through to her. I might have through the same thing if I hadn’t looked at the door online before I ordered one and I understood what I was getting. Word to the wise for anyone who isn't already computer literate, get there while you can because even in places like this upper middle class Continuum Care Complex life is easier if you can keep up online. We have our own app the covers sixteen areas of our lives including phone directories for staff and residents, dining menus, pastoral services, Life Enrichment schedules and so on.

There is a woman who moved in two weeks ago that I swear is going to worry herself to death. She walks around with a schedule of what’s going on for the week in her hand that one of her kids printed out for her. She seems to think if she doesn’t find the right room for, say, an exercise class or she misses the dining hours that she’ll get punished or kicked out. She doesn’t grasp the concept that no one in charge of anything cares if we show up or not. The word 'independent' in the term 'independent living' seems to be a hard concept for many people to understand. All of us have friends and family who've asked questions making it clear they think we moved into something like the Witness Protection Program only for old people hiding out from scouts looking for residents to ship us off to nursing homes.

Anyway, if our new resident gets moved out it will be because maybe she should have gone directly to memory care and by-passed independent living. And maybe deep down that is what she fears? I sat next to her at our baked potato buffet one night and she asked me four times when I moved in. To be fair, most of us moved in together in October and it was hard to keep our back stories all straight when you’re trying to learn them all at once. She needs to relax and give herself time because there is no Litmus Test coming. Well, there is actually but there is only one question: Are we residents a danger to ourselves or others? But even if we are they can’t move us out of our independent apartments without the consent and full cooperation of the person/family member we named as our power of attorney. And people with money could in theory even hire  live-in or part-time caregivers if they didn't want to move on down the food chain of a continuum care complex. There is a business associated with our CCC that covers all kinds of stop-gap services if we need them but we don't have to use that one in particular company.

The new resident has a three year old Chocolate Lab that nearly tipped me over jumping on me and I’m not a small, frail woman. She has no control over that dog and if anyone gets kicked out her dog might be asked to leave if it hurts someone. Its owner just lets go of the leash when the Lab sees someone it wants to greet. It did a full gallop and a two legged bounce against me. 

Now that spring is here I’m seeing a lot of dog walkers, mostly from the surrounding community who like taking our road and walkways through our wooded property. I don’t blame them. It’s one of the major reasons I bought here---the fact that it's so dog friendly. Now that I’m settled in, though, and my raw grief over losing Levi is in the rear view mirror I’m 95% he was my last dog. Just the right dog would have to fall in my lap for that decision to change. 

I still missing living with a dog. You can’t have a dog in your life 78 years out of 80 without feeling like a part of you is lost. Heck, neighbors called me the Poodle Lady for years, the one who threw birthday parties for her dogs and taught them circus tricks. But I keep reminding myself that all my life I’ve had my own back yard and I didn’t need to walk my dogs. That changes everything in the grand scheme of growing older. ©

No Rest for the Wicked

 

There’s no time for lollygagging here in the Daydreamer’s Den. If I was into walking I could have joined the Senior Walking Group at 9:30. But that’s not going to happen for me until spring, if ever, but at 10:30 I went to a meeting called Game Room Orientation where I was hoping (and succeeded) to whip up some interest in a monthly or by-monthly Monopoly game. They’ve already got a Cutthroat Pinochle group started and one called Mexican Train Dominoes plus a Scrabble group which---with my inability to spell without Alexa at my side---would be sheer punishment. I hate that game with a passion. 

After that I grabbed a quick vegetable panini at the cafe` so I could make it to a Gym Equipment Orientation at 12:30 followed by another class called Appliance Training at 2:00. The latter class was by far the most popular. All of us are having trouble learning the ends and outs of the high tech programmable thermostats and the dishwashers that likes to start themselves if you lean against them. Computer savvy person that I am I learned early on how to use the complex’s app to fill out a work order to have a guy come to cancel the program in the thermostat so I now have what is virtually a manual with only a few things to remember: Press plus or minor to change the temperature and mode to get air conditioning, heat or off.

Also today I put in a work order to get my floor cleaned with a power scrubber so I can order my area rug. There’s a foot wide strip across the floor where the drop clothes the workmen used must not have covered and the normal cleaning crew couldn’t get the film off with normal mopping when they prepped the apartment for me to move in. In the meantime I ordered a two by three foot rug in the same pattern and color as the seven by ten rug I need just to make sure it looks good with my wicker and new La-Z-Boy. It’s worth that extra step to know I wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of returning something that big if I don't like it. And it came today. 'Love' is not a strong enough word for how much I like it.

After a full day of back to back classes I felt like I was in college again and just like back in those days one of the ladies invited 5-6 of us in to see her apartment. Everyone raved about her linoleum kitchen floor that looked like cork that she paired with high pile cream, wall-to-wall carpeting in the living room area. It wasn’t an option for the masses but she hates gray and did both floors as an upgrade. She had that same white and stainless steel kitchen as me but with the light cork colored flooring didn’t look all that good in my opinion and where her carpeting started she had a huge, L-shaped creamy white couch with it’s back to the kitchen, a hard division of space. Where my wicker furniture is probably a tad too small in scale for the space her furniture was without a doubt too big for the space. She could seat an entire football team on her disco lounge style couches. A TV and coffee table completed her decor except for a single piece of art on the wall of a dainty bouquet of flowers that looked like it was straight off the walls of a place like Home Goods.

I told her she’s going to hate my apartment because I love gray. My love affair with that color dates way back to the ‘80s when we started painting houses, buying vehicles and dogs in shades of gray and, of course, my husband’s and my hair turned silver. We joked that we were the Gray Family all matchy-matchy grAy with a little grEy thrown in for variety. It’s going to be fun seeing what each of us has done with our similar space. Someone mentioned we need to set up a tour around the holidays. Sign me up.

After being gone most of the day I came back to clean windows and summer screens installed. And we got a promise of pull cords attached to our blinds because no one is tall enough to reach them without a ladder. I don't get how we're supposed to get them back up again without a ladder, but I don't care because I will never put mine up all the way to the ceiling anyway unless drones come peeking in the windows which is a possibility. I saw one today in the green space across from my apartment.

I also learned more about the painting classes that will on campus. It’s not going to the kind I'd hoped for. They’ll be like the Wine & Painting parties you hear about for bridal showers, where you all paint the same picture only this one is designed to complete a painting in three, one hour long classes rather than one three hour class like with the party painting. (one painting per mouth if you keep them up). I hate to be an art snob but it sounds like a step above paint-by-number ‘art’. Still, I signed up just to get a paint brush in my hands again. On the other side of the coin I have a confession to make: when I was a kid I absolutely adored paint-by-number kits and ten years ago I tried another and found it just as appealing---kind of like meditation or doing jigsaw puzzles, even sold that sucker on e-Bay because collecting finished paint-by-numbers was a thing when I was downsizing. So who knows, with enough wine I might become queen of the painting party concept, and yes, we can bring wine if we want. I asked. ©

October Job List Woes

Can you believe it’s almost November! I can’t. I don’t want it to be November because that means we’re getting closer and closer to snow season. I’m not ready for that. I still haven’t done a few things around the yard that I should---divide some plants, cover the A/C unit and what outdoor furniture I still have left, throw out my pots of perennials.. I sent a text to my lawn care guy to make sure I’m on his schedule for a fall cleanup and he’s coming tomorrow. At least that’s what he says. In the spirit of fairness it’s been so wet and rainy and the leaves aren’t all down off the trees yet. It’s just that he doesn’t inspire trust in me after the fiasco over my deck staining project last summer. At least with text communication I have a record of what the daffy-as-a-doorknob guy says. Judge Judy would be proud.

On the good side of fall jobs to check off my list, the furnace guy was here and mine passed inspection with flying colors. That’s always a good feeling with a unit that is almost two decades old. While we were down the basement I mentioned I needed to check my sump pump to make sure it was working and he did it for me. He said I probably need a new back flow flapper so in a week or so when my schedule gets less crowded I’ll call the plumber. I’m so afraid of falling into that sump pump pit and I should have tipped the furnace guy for checking it for me, but it didn’t occur to me until a minute ago. So who’s the daffy one now? 

At least my car is ready for winter. It sends me e-mails so I can’t neglect getting oil changes and the battery, tires, fluids and wiper blades checked. With only 21,000 miles on the Trax she still likes going to the dealership for her bi-annuals so she can say ‘hello’ to the guy who paired us up. I just have to remember to stay away from the new car showroom because the last time I "looked" I bought the Trax with no plans or forethought to replace my 2-3 year old car. It only took one question from the salesman, “How do you like your Chevy Cruze?” And I told him about how I couldn’t get my friend’s walker in it and I hated how low the trunk was and the fact that I missed having a cargo area and, “Oh, did I mention I hate the sick-baby-poop color? It didn't grow on my no matter how good of a deal you gave me when I bought it.”

One of the things I’ve had on my fall schedule was an appointment with my audiologist. My hearing aids are living on borrowed time and I think in the spring I might get new ones. I could afford new ones now but by ordering them in the late spring that will switch my yearly ‘ear checks’ to a time of the year when I’m less busy. I did the same thing with my Reclast infusion for my bones when I saw the internist two weeks ago. The infusion center is so busy that the doctor’s order for my infusion would have put it right at Christmas so we decided to cancel it and start ordering them with my April bi-annuals. I’ll be eating a lot of spinach in the meantime and popping calcium pills like they are candy. Just kidding. I don’t over-medicate but occasionally I don’t get my second calcium pill in for the day because it has to be taken with meals and sometimes I don’t eat after having a late lunch when I’m out and about. So I’m changing to the kind of calcium pills you don’t need to take with food which are big enough to qualify for horse suppositories. I hate them but I hate winter appointments more. 

About the only thing left on my fall job list is to check the expiration dates on my over-the-counter flu and cold stuff and restock my stash of Kleenex, frozen OJ and soup plus buy some foods for the freezer in case I get snowed in. I don’t like fall and how busy it keeps me, I think I’ve established that to everyone’s satisfaction. 

The auction house where Tim, the son-I-wish-I-had, took four loads of stuff of mine has not paid me for the last batch and I’ve been expecting a check for roughly $700. I tried calling a couple of times over a week’s time and got a recording that they “aren’t taking phone calls at this time” and I’ve tried e-mailing but they aren’t answering. So I’ve texted Tim and he’s going to drive out there and see what’s going on. If they’ve gone out of business it’s going to affect Tim’s business big time and it will force me to get another backup plan in the event that I don’t get all my downsizing done it time for my move. There are so many moving parts involved in moving and starting a new style of living and it will be a miracle if something doesn’t put a hitch in my giddy-up. 

One day I got obsessed with wondering where the heat ducts will be in the CCC unit I have a deposit on because it will make a difference on how many and where I can put bookcases when I move in. So I called them up to ask and was told I wasn’t the only one who wanted to know. The answer is they’re in the ceiling. In the ceiling? In the ceiling! Who does that? So now I’m obsessing about how I’m going to dry my mittens and boots in the winter with no register to put them on. Yes, I know, If I wasn’t obsessing about one thing or another I’d be obsessing about not having anything to obsess about.  ©