Author: Peg

Remember the strip mall shot? Well, today the strip mall was a huge crime scene. It’s the first time in my entire life that my daily exercise program was interrupted by the police.

It was too chilly for a walk before 7 this morning and I had about 4 hours of pretty serious work to do – so, I decided to put the walk off until after the work was done.

The work is finished. I am looking out my window drinking coffee. Noticed that the traffic was really strange. Way too many cars coming down my street. And a couple of police cars. I have some flowers to arrange. While I am doing that I get a text:

Shelter in Place
This is a message from the Fairfax County Police Department. F C P D is requesting residents near three five four four South Jefferson Street shelter in place due to police activity in the area.

Well. That’s interesting. But not scary. Not like the infamous BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL that I got in Hawai’i in 2018. That was scary.

Friends on the other side of the building look at the strip mall and they report lots of police cars. 

Social media kicks in and soon there were reports of a shooter targeting the strip mall. Or rather cars parked at the strip mall. Equipment kept coming.

In the end, nothing happened. At least nothing happened that was reported. 

Major police response after cars struck by bullets in Fairfax County.
Police said initial reports that a gunman fired on the vehicles with a high-powered rifle from an apartment building were unfounded.

Seems that it was just a generic drive-by.  The police response might have been a little over the top in retrospect. In fairness, part of the excessive police was due to our location which is right on the county line. Each jurisdiction brought its finest to the incident.

I will walk briskly around the strip mall on my walk tomorrow morning. 

Don’t expect me to take serious photos.  This was the day’s adventure. Coming up with a web-worthy photo of the Asylum Coach AKA Executive Director. Well, if employees are now “team members” – there has to be a coach – doesn’t there? Maybe he is the General Manager? I despise senseless jargoning. This really isn’t a team.  When I was a “kid programmer”, I remember the project officer announced, “we are on a first name basis here and you can call me  Colonel or Sir for short”. 

Oh, the WiFi left much to be desired today.  Seems that the WiFi kept tripping a circuit breaker.

Finished a surprisingly good audiobook. Atomic Adventures by James Mahaffey. Think you have to be a little warped to enjoy it. But I am and I did. 

They are screening the bocce ball court with a zillion arbor vitae. My “plan” was to organize a  coed bikini and speedo bocce games. Then the neighboring building residents would rush out and plant bushes on the outside of the fence to hide our sorry saggy bodies from their view.

A variation on that “plan”. Some of us have had it with masks. A friend says that management has a choice: She will wear clothes or a mask. But not both. We seem to have gone from no resident covid cases to 12 since last week. 

Great lunch today. “My” green beans, bacon, tomatoes, and a nice slice of bread and butter. 

On the downside. Wifi has been sketchy this afternoon. So, I’ll get this posted while it is in working mode.

Which isn’t to say that they don’t have some fine shows. I just like the way it looks when it is empty. 

 

Big news around The Asylum this afternoon is that our COO will leave at the year’s end.  With her departure, the entire “upper management” team will have changed within the last 3 years.  Of course, this is unsettling. I like to control change. I do not like change thrust upon me. 

 

Awake in the middle of the night, I was pleased to find the moon out my window.  This shot was with the Pixel. In “camera” mode not “night sight”. 

I didn’t really expect to be fascinated by the Queen’s funeral. But, I ended up glued to my external monitor. Part of me was watching for something dreadful to happen. But most of the time I was delighted by the wonderful lines of sight and camera angles. And Emma the Pony. Who wouldn’t want their favorite pony at their funeral?

After being lost in wonderland all morning, I went for a longer-than-usual forced march. And sort of wasted the rest of the day. 

This old lens doesn’t play well with the Pen F.  It might work in manual focus mode. But, my old eyes don’t manual focus all that great. 

One of my friends here at the Asylum was saying this morning that he was having a hard time accepting that the brain says “that sounds like fun” while the body is yelling “wait a minute” and the body wins the argument. 

 

The Asylum had its first Regular Monthly Sunday Brunch since February 2020 today. Maybe the Covid nightmare is coming to an end. 

The Buffet was today’s main event. But I did snag a couple of rooms in Volcano NP for mid December. You can never tell what Madam Pele will be up to. Or what the weather will be like.  Hoping that I get lucky. My guests are young. They can go hiking. I can sit by the fire and read.  The Volcano House.  

Note to Asylum Sisters. If I don’t make the bell tomorrow – put this picture on The Table of the Dead. (And cancel my reservations at Volcano House!)

Did more Triangle Boxes. Decided to pass on hexagon and octagon boxes. 

One of the boxes went directly to recycling. 

 

Gave my creaky old body a day off from the “forced march” and went for a long and slow walk today. Came upon 3 red-eared sliders living the turtle life on a log. I covered three miles at the blazing pace of 2 miles per hour. Which is actually slower than a turtle. But, I stopped to take pictures. 

My origami haumana is wrestling with the square boxes this week. I figured I should revisit the triangle box since I gave up on it a couple of years ago. It seemed easier this morning. I will try another one tomorrow morning. If it is still “easy” I may try a 6 or 8-sided box. Or not.  Maybe I will do another round of 7-year cleaning. Pretty sure that there are another 25 pounds of “stuff” and clothes that should make their way to Goodwill. 

One of our favorite days of the year at The Asylum. The day we congratulate our newest citizens and ourselves for underwriting the cost of the citizenship application for our staff and for tutoring the applicants to ensure that they pass the test.  The citizenship test isn’t that hard. But if your English is shaky or if you haven’t been to school in a long time – it can be very scary. 

We are very pleased with ourselves because we had enough money to help immediate family members too. We have about 1,000 employees. About 250 are not citizens. And we don’t call them “employees” anymore. The Chief People Officer has decided to call the workers “team members”. Goddess save me from jargon of all varieties. 

Later in the day a local dog rescue group brought some dogs by for show and tell. One of the staff really wanted a dog. But, I think the $300 – $400 dollar adoption fee may have been a little steep for him. According to the Asylum rules, I couldn’t buy him a dog. But, he deserves a little dog. 

Big event of the day. I ate some of my bean crop. I had them with tomatoes, pepper, and olive oil. Outstanding. 

And now the stock market will be closed for two entire days. Thank You!

The way to The Asylum is a bit uphill. When it snows I can watch cars skitter around. There is always a collection of scooters at the start of the hill. Heck, that’s what I want the thing to do. Get my tired ass up the hill. It’s not a big hill. Maybe 50 feet over a block.

Today in the 7 year tidy up, I did the Food storage areas. That means the fridge/freezer and the food storage cupboard. I don’t have much food storage space. Nor do I need much. Everything of suspect age went into trash/compost. The scraps frozen in the freezer for soup became soup. A nice robust chicken soup. Tomorrow I will clean the actual inside of the fridge and freezer. (It hasn’t been 7 years since I cleaned the fridge and food storage cupboards. Max 2 years.)

Came across this sentence in The Journal today.

Sort of mind-numbing. I think it has something to do with blockchain. But don’t bet on it.

Lovely September day. I took a break from my 7 Year cleaning to take a load of stuff to the Goodwill. About 25 pounds of “stuff” and clothing. 

Note: Old people do not need any more “stuff”.  We don’t even need the “stuff” that we already have. 

After leaving off my “stuff”, I went into Goodwill to see if they had any “stuff” that I “needed” or clothes that I wanted.  Managed to make it out without buying anything. A very successful trip. 

But, I did come upon some other Little Old Lady’s collection of decorative plates still in their original packaging. Genuine limited editions with certificates of authenticity. Yeah, right. 

But, it was a great day to be out and about. It’s easy to get lulled into living life inside the confines of The Asylum. Not a good thing. 

 

Well, that was unpleasant. 166 more days like today and I will have ZERO money. That’s a little scary actually. I have some money stashed away in a Doomsday Fund. But, I sure as hell wouldn’t like living on it. 

Like a mature adult, I headed off to our saloon and had not one but two Tequila Sunrises. Or maybe a Sunrise and a Sunset. A smartass friend asked if that made the stock market go back up. 

About Aibo. Even before today’s market unpleasantness, I decided to forget about Aibo. About all it is is cute. The Japanese value cuteness or kawii. Me, not so much. Do I really want to spend 3K on an AI pet that wanders around the apartment yapping and looking at me with cute eyes? Potentially tripping me. I think now. At least for today. (Subject to change of course.)

Today, I cleaned my tiny hall closet. It is stuffed with everything from gardening tools to wetsuit to dust buster. And even umbrellas and coats and all manner of rain gear.  Don’t have a car, so such things are required. 

And hats. The Old Bat’s Hats live in that closet. I decided to keep these “for now”. But, if I get an invitation to the Queen’s Funeral or to King Chuck’s coronation, methinks I will have to buy a proper hat. 

Dining services had been improving until Saturday evening.

But outstanding eggs florentine and fruit for breakfast this morning. God Save the Breakfast Cook. 

Back to the cleaning. If I only clean every 7 years then this is most likely the last cleaning that I will undertake. Maybe I should be doing a better job? 

Thinking about: Getting an Aibo puppy. Going somewhere north in the winter for another crack at the lights. Well, at least I am still thinking!