Author: Peg

I “enjoyed poor health” today. Side effects from yesterday’s covid shot. Took a two and a half hour nap this afternoon. Awaking just in time for dinner. I woke from my nap and asked Alex what time was it. 5:29 she says. I think it is 5:29 in the morning. And, why exactly did I go to sleep on top of the bed covers? It was one of those naps. Nothing nappy at all about the nap. More like a coma. 

Not wanting to miss a meal, I scurried around and made it downstairs for dinner. BLT with avocado. 

Anyhow, I think the nap about knocked out the side effects from the shot. Feeling pretty good now. 

News from the Asylum. I will be getting new windows on May 23. When I will be in Jolly Old England. And, we got this notice today.

. . . residents have asked us to report our cumulative case numbers. Since March 1, 2022, there have been a total of 8 cases in Residential Living, 0 cases in Assisted Living, 1 case in HCC . . . and 8 cases among team members. . .

Covid is alive and well in the Asylum. 

An interesting day.  4.25 miles on foot. 3 bus rides. 1 metro ride. Covid Vax #4. And, I took 1 old Mac Book Pro and 3 iPads to the Apple store. I use one of the iPad all the time. That one is an early Gen 5 mini. I also have a Gen 1 mini. And some vague iPad Pro that I really use mostly as a 2nd or 3rd monitor and as a viewing platform for Zoom Yoga. The Gen 5 mini came home with me as did a Gen 6 mini. The rest stayed at the Apple Store. All the money I got for the old gear went to the new Mini. Which I totally don’t need. But how many more years do I have to get new stuff?

I also took the hospital’s computer back to the hospital. I got it last year when the Macbook Pro ($300 for it) was being flakey. But I really rather use my Mac and VMWare. So, no need to keep an HP in the Old Bat Cave. With a rather grime Post-It note that said  “If I am dead, please return this computer to Employee Health at Virginia Hospital Center”

I may turn the Gen 5 in for cash after I am sure the new one is working. But knowing me, I’ll keep it around for “just in case”.

And, I got the 4th Covid shot today. I have had 3 Pfizers. Switched to Moderna for this one.  Will report tomorrow about side effects.  If any.

After a long day of open housing, all of the “prospects” have gone. Now. Now, I have to find all of the stuff that makes The Old Bat Cave work. Sort of like a squirrel digging up buried nuts.  

The open house  was good. I don’t know how many people came through. Not many people are interested in a no-bedroom apartment. Actually, they aren’t even interested in a one-bedroom apartment. These are not people who embrace minimalism. These are the people who live in McMansions.  That’s not fair. A couple of the single ladies said they lived in 800-900 sq ft condos. They could imagine squeezing into my 590 sq ft if they tried really hard. 

I did get an updated price list. In 2015, I paid $185,370 “entrance fee”. And $2,790 monthly “service fee”. The entrance fee is now $236,395″ and my monthly is $3,519. 

Tomorrow might be the day to get Covid Jab #4. Never mind that I think it is a waste of time. But, what if I am wrong?  I have been wrong in the past. If I get the shot and get Covid at least I can tell myself “I did everything I could”. So, tomorrow might be the day. 

Our long-promised new windows seem to be going to happen. Intelligently, they decided to install new windows in our vacant apartments before doing the occupied units. And today was a fine day to start. 

I doubt that 150 people will come to see my apartment. Having zero bedrooms, one bath, and no balcony. It’s not the apartment that anyone thinks they want. (I sure didn’t want it! I “needed” a bathtub, a balcony, room for my rug, and a view. 2 out of 4.) My apartment is shown to show people that life doesn’t end just because you downsize.  And to help people start to think outside the box.

This is “new”. Well, I do need to accept that I moved out of the area in 2015. Returned to the old neighborhood today to see the dentist. At 0700 hours. I took the bus. 

The hygenist was wandering around my mouth and said “I just got back from a week in Mexico last night”. Damn, I hope his mask was working. Next, I go to the dentist to have a little repair work done. Guess who spent the weekend in Ft Lauderdale at a bachelor party? Talk about potential Covid exposure. 

I was all finished shortly after 8. Decided to walk home. That way, I would get home and have my exercise done already. It was about 3.5 miles home. Nice day for a walk.

Rest of the day devoted to getting ready for the Old Bat Cave open house on Wednesday. A lot of clutter/crap can accumulate in a small apartment in 6+ years. Especially when you were held prisoner for 2 of those years. 

Nice dinner tonight. Good conversation. Ditto the wine and chocolate-covered strawberries. Leftovers from Mother’s Day. 

Mother’s Day Brunch. Funny story. The Asylum ordered a couple of hundred roses so each woman at lunch could have one. Well, apparently the roses arrived last night and the person who received them at our front desk gave all of the roses to an unknown resident. For no apparent reason. You just have to laugh.

Today’s trip planning – figure out what to wear. Especially after getting an email that announced “The hotels we stay at on this tour have a dress code of smart casual.” “Smart casual”? 

If I could figure out a single pair of shoes solution… That would help. But I don’t see this happening. 

I came home from Norway schlepping 20 pounds. I would really like to keep it to 15 pounds. And no. Wheels wouldn’t really help. 

Chilly, rainy, Saturday. Did a bunch of busywork kinda stuff.  Worked on getting my bus pass sorted out. I started this before going to Hawai’i last Halloween. I got my bus pass issued in October, but I had a hard time getting the $14 balance transferred to the new card. Today, I tried to get the balance left on Carlton’s bus pass transferred to my new card. The transfer will either work or not.  $27 one way or the other will not change my life. 

Went into my foreign money stash. I have a few British pounds. And some Euros. I also found my Oyster Card. (That used to work on the London public transit system.) When I was in Norway, I didn’t get any Norwegian money. Everything, even a cup of coffee at 7/11 was obtained with a credit card.

Also, found out that after getting to London, I will have to pass a Covid test before going on the bus tour.  And, that makes me assume that I will need to pass a Covid test before getting on the barge. I know I will need to pass a Covid test before flying home. NOW, I have 3 places in Europe to get totally screwed by Covid. I have absolutely zero idea how I will handle failing any of the tests. 

• • • Tomorrow, I will come up with 3 plan B’s.
    • Monday, after the dentist I will wear my mask a lot more.
    • Thursday, I will get the almost worthless Covid jab #4. 
    • And, that is all that I can do.

Came upon this photo of  Carlton’s Grandfather today while wandering around my photo archives.  And, why wasn’t I culling and cataloging photos? It was on my to-do list.

Well, I got distracted.  The Old Bat’s Cave is going to be on display at the “Open House” next Wednesday. Not my smartest move, letting an untold number of strangers into my apartment 10 days before going to Europe. But, I plan on being well masked. (After seeing the dentist on Monday, I plan on being mostly masked.) But, I have wandered off topic. The Old Bat Cave has nothing that makes it appealing to any old person. It is small. Only one room. But, it is the 2nd cheapest apartment in the joint and it has a killer view. That might make it appealing. My friends have their larger units open. And, they are all wonderfully decorated. Me, I have 50+ year old furniture. And Alexa, of course, who controls the lights, fan, coffee pot, heating pad and provides music as required. Most old people aren’t all the interested in having Alexa run things.

But, there is that view. SO, rather than do anything useful today – I made a loop of 7 years of photos taken out my window. With a variety of cameras and lenses.

There is no audio. The images are in no particular order I plan on looping it on my external monitor. Especially if it is cloudy. And it is over 13minutes long. No way do I expect anyone to watch the entire thing.

And how exactly did I expect my photos to get culled and cataloged? Like they are just going to organize themselves. Just realized this evening that I haven’t done basic photo organization and culling since early January. So, that will be one of my tasks during the upcoming 3 day monsoon season. After all, new photos will be taken in London and France. Coming up in 2 weeks!

Today’s forced march: 21 minutes. 1.28 miles. 16.4-minute mile. Plus Little Old Lady Barre Class. 

Looking for something in the deep dark corners of Evernote today. I didn’t find what I was looking for. What I found was even better. This ad from West Hawai’i Today. I had scanned it into Evernote in 2010. But, it must be older than that.

Normal kinda day. Doing some general organizing and tidying. Next Wednesday, the Old Bat Cave will be on display at an “Open House” thing. Remember, this Asylum is a not-for-profit Ponzi scheme. So, we have to get new residents to replace the ones who die. The Old Bat Cave is frequently one that they show – mostly for the view I think. Because no one has seen my apartment and said “I want one like this”. Also getting the tidied because it is very likely that my windows will be replaced while I am gone. And someone is going to have to move furniture. I want to make it easy for them.

Testing the fire alarms, again, this morning. So, I did a longer walk today. 2.56 miles at a blazing average of 17.05-minute miles. Of course, I had to stop a couple of times for photos.

Guess these guys most likely found mates last fall and stayed around until spring mating. After mating the gents hang out together until June when they molt. But, until molting, the guys are more than willing and able to mate with any female that is “available”. Apparently, they are too picky about species.

I neither need nor want a dog. But, this cutie was patiently waiting for their human out front of The Asylum this afternoon.

Got lots of little stuff done today. I even, after 50 years, canceled my dead tree subscription to the Washington Post. They were very nice about it. Promised to return $123 to me and actually gave me the “introductory” rate for the online version. For now, I am keeping the dead tree version of the Wall Street Journal. And, since I moved into The Asylum, I have just had the digital version of the NY Times.  

While I was waiting on some work phone calls, I cleaned off my desk and my origami workspace. And, consigned more clothes to the donation bag. 

Went to Barre Class, even the Little Old Lady version is hard on my legs. So, no forced march today. Just a little one-mile stroll. 

My crow buddy showed up just now. I think he is yelling at the crow feather in my pencil holder cup. 

Today’s forced march, or rather “brisk walk” took me to Douglas Park. Don’t think that I have ever been there and it is less than 2 miles away. The “brisk” part of today’s outing was 2.05 miles in 36 minutes. Which isn’t even close to a 15-minute mile. More like a 17.25-minute mile. I strolled back for a bit and then hopped a bus for the rest of the way back to The Asylum. 

Last night, our table had the worst ever service. “They” are closing our pizza venue due to lack of staff. Last night was its last night for the foreseeable future. Well, it should have closed one day sooner. Service was so bad that all you could do was:

1. 1. 1. Be really glad that no one seemed to have any outside guests or prospective residents with them.
      2. Enjoy the wine that one of our party brought.
      3. Just laugh if you had a pizza in front of you and a server showed up with another pizza for you. Or when the server insisted that yes you did order a salad.

And,  they also drastically overcharged me. But, since I will be gone the last 10 days of the month it will not hurt me to pay for the $22 lobster roll when I ordered a $5 pizza. 

Oh well, in the grand scheme of things – that’s no biggie. Regained some of Friday’s losses.  And, I think we can eat dinner outside this evening. Which makes the crappy food way better.