Here Comes the Neighborhood

Heading out for Tuesday’s workout at the Pain Cave, I noticed the vacant lot on the corner had been fenced in.

There was construction going on.

I mentioned to Trainer that the lot had been sold only a few months ago, and work has already begun, whereas the lot directly across the street from the complex had been sold well over a year ago and nothing. In fact, the weeds on the lot have been allowed to grow so high that I wouldn’t be surprised if there was not a dead body in there.

Trainer is a young man with an old soul and a great sense of humor. He gets me, no judgments, so his reply was not shock, nor the "don’t say/think/feel things like that" I sometimes get from neighbors and family. Instead, it was “You’d smell it”.

LOL.

“It’s too far across the street for that”, said I. “Besides, we’ve had residents die in their units and no one has mentioned a smell, and sometimes the person has been dead for days”.

I went on to say the fact death sometimes goes unnoticed around here in the complex causes me to sometimes worry about how long it will be, should something happen, before anyone notices and calls for a welfare check.

“Monday, Tuesday, Thursday” said he. “If you don't show up and haven’t called to cancel or reschedule on a Monday, Tuesday or Thursday, I’ll know somethings wrong”.

ROFLMAO!

At least Trainer’s got my back.

So, anyway, there was a knock on the door as I was getting dressed for this morning’s workout.

It was Apache saying, “Guess what’s going in at the corner”.

Before I could guess, he blurted out “Starbucks!”

That’s huge news.

When the marijuana dispensary opened up a few doors down, the residents went crazy out of their minds ...“There goes the neighborhood”. 

None of the awful things residents thought the business would bring into the neighborhood happened, but no one was unhappy when the business was raided and shut down.

With Starbucks going in at the corner, I expect it’s going to be more like "Here comes the neighborhood".

Perhaps it will urge the corner market to up it’s game with fresh produce.

The market was open Memorial Day ... the day I was desperate for veggies. In fact, the place was packed, doing a brisk business ─ mostly at the deli.

I wish I could have done something as simple as deli potato salad and fried chicken. Instead, I browsed the veggies, passed on mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli ─ pretty much the entire row until I came across nice looking carrots, zucchini, a couple sweet potatoes, ambrosia apples. I ended up going with those items and frozen cauliflower rice, frozen broccoli, to get me through until tomorrow, when I’ll be out of the area and can load up on veggies at the same market chain, but in a location where the customers are more highly valued.

He’s Baaaack

The outgoing mail slot was fine when I picked up mail on Wednesday but, when I went to the mail center yesterday afternoon (Friday), I could see where the bad guy had returned and begun working on getting into the outgoing slot.

The mail carrier is still not delivering to the boxes the guy damaged two weeks ago, management -- other than to make the area less hazardous to walk through by putting the medal back in place with duct tape, has not yet set about repairs, and the bad guy is back for more already.

Taped Off so No One Would Get Hurt

Another Use for Duct Tape

I don’t imagine there’s any point of management making repairs if no steps are being taken to solve the issue of break-ins. Either post night security on the property, relocate the mail center to the inside office, or enclose the mail center in a gate with key access to residents.

For now, the mail carrier has told us to give outgoing mail directly to her or drop off at the UPS Store next to the corner market.

Though nowhere in the world is completely safe from bad things, and there are worse things that can happen beyond mail theft and breaking into cars, I’m feeling we’re under siege here. Like I’m living in an episode of The Walking Dead, surrounded by reanimated corpses, having to always be aware of my surroundings during the day, pepper spray and a taser at the ready, never venturing out at night.

Residents have reported regularly seeing guys jumping the fence to get onto the property, a homeless guy was chased off twice as he tried to enter the Community Room, Apache recently chased a guy away from the pool shower (I forgot to ask if the guy was naked showering, but I can’t imagine showering with clothes on).

Inasmuch as the police are slow to respond, or totally non-responsive, we don’t even call them anymore. Apache has trouble sleeping at night because of back pain, so it’s not unusual that he’s outside early a.m., trying to walk the pain off or is doing his laundry. When I told him a resident had seen a guy and a girl arrive on a bike, hop the pool fence and go swimming, he made his mission to catch them. Early this morning he did – at 3:00 a.m., and ran them off.

Because there are worse things that can happen and nowhere is completely safe, moving is not a viable option for me. Because of where my unit is located on the property, it’s safe inside and I have a great view. Plus, I can’t imagine being able to have a unit as nice as this one at so little cost because of its location not being anywhere near walking distances to anything of major importance – like a beach, mall or entertainment, where units not near as nice as this go for thousands. 

The downsides of living here are I now feel the pool is too creepy germy to swim in, I have to leave the area for better produce (as the freshest produce is not shipped to markets in this area, like today when I drove 20 miles to get cauliflower that didn’t have brown spots, cherry tomatoes and apricots that weren’t already soft, and apples that weren’t blemished), leave the area for entertainment, and now the fact we’re being preyed upon.

One resident I spoke with is already looking to move. The choice for me is ... take a chance on a better area and spend so much on rent that finances become a worry, or put up with what’s happening in this area and enjoy, what we in the spiritual circles refer to as, “plenty plenty plenty to spare and to share”.

Right now, it’s an easy choice to keep my lovely unit, beautiful view and extra cash, but who knows.

Saw Head Maintenance Guy (HMG) walking around on Friday, so he's baaaack as well. No word yet on his aunt -- Assistant Community Manager. The rumor mill is now saying she’s not sick, nor on vacation, but fired.

I don’t see her job listed on Corporate’s Career site, so I’ll believe it when I see her job posted and/or a moving van at her unit.

As far as I know, Activity Director is still on staff, but I won’t know that for sure until Tuesday when we’re scheduled for an End of Summer Luau. If she shows and the luau is on, she’s still employed here. If she doesn’t show ...... well then.

Redlining

It looks like I’m going to have to do all my shopping out of the area and online, because it appears we are being redlined.

Redlining is generally well-known as higher insurance rates in certain areas, but I came to be more familiar with it as lower-quality in goods and services provided to certain areas.

For instance, back in the day when I was dating my actor friend Jim (he played a priest in Richard Geer’s Primal Fear, had a bit part in one of the Jurassic Park movies, a recurring part as a bailiff in some law thing and parts in a couple other movies I can’t recall) and we both lived in Long Beach, he’d shop at the market three blocks from my apartment. I, on the other hand, trekked ten blocks in the other direction to shop at a different branch of the same market. When he asked me why, I pointed out the closer market was towards where the area went down –  where the very poor, alcoholics and drug-addicted lived, while the further market was near the rich part of town -- Sandra Bullock, married to Jesse James at the time, had a house in that area, overlooking the ocean.

I educated Jim that, if he looked at the produce in the poor area, he’d find tired looking produce, meats that smelled, and expiration dates already expired or due to expire within a day or so, while everything in the further market was fresh and beautiful, with expiration dates so far in the future that the produce would be consumed well before time ran out.

Lately, I’ve been noticing the same thing occurring at my local market.

Even though Bob’s Red Mill Almond Flour was a popular product, sold out as soon as they restocked, it hasn’t been in stock for so long that I’ve had to turn to Amazon as a source. And the Ambrosia apples I last bought were disappointing in flavor. They weren’t sweet. And when I shopped this morning, the Ambrosia apples were bruised and ugly. After picking through, I was able to find three I could live with, so hopefully they taste sweet as that’s my evening sweet fix.

Finding nice looking potatoes has been getting difficult to where sometimes I just pass on potatoes all together. And today, with an urge to make potato salad, I was able to pick through and dig out only five small potatoes. The same with zucchini – ugly, shriveled, bruised, so I passed. Not to mention, the cherry tomatoes I purchased last time went bad practically overnight.

I had to also pass on eggs, as I prefer Eggland's Best. They had only three cartons in stock but, when I saw the condition of the egg section, broken egg oozing from the Eggland's cartons, I got grossed out and walked away.

The okra finally looked nice and fresh today. Only, I wasn’t in the mood for okra. But of course, as soon as I got back to my unit I began thinking “I should have gotten the okra”, but I wasn’t about to head back to the market.

Plus, the market has reorganized things to what I can only assume is an anti-theft measure. Certain items are contained in a boxed-off area, in front of the meat counter, where the butchers can keep an eye out, plus there are now cameras in that area.

I felt watched and decidedly uncomfortable when I picked up toothpaste, deodorant and orajel.

Same when I was last at Walmart and wanted to try a product I’d seen advertised on television – Maybelline Tattoo Studio Brow Gel.

They had it in stock, but behind lock and key. I had to call someone over to unlock the case AND, after she’d taken it out of the case, she put a clear plastic lock box on it, which lock box was unlocked by the cashier when I later checked out.

Damn!

I can’t blame markets and retail stores for wanted to try to thwart thievery, but we’re not all shoplifters, druggies or so less than that we should be the dumping ground for undesirable produce. Produce that should be donated to the needy, rather than sold in the market.

At any rate, when I needed to replenish a different Maybelline product recently, instead of going to Walmart, putting myself through the locked case and lock box process, I ordered online.

And now dissatisfied with what I'm seeing in the local market, looks like I’ll be driving out-of-the area to Sprouts this week and probably planning to do all my grocery shopping there in future.

In the back of my mind, I remember seeing a sign for a Farmer’s Market at one of the malls. I may have to look that up and make it a weekly jaunt.

BTW, I recently looked up my formerly very handsome boyfriend Jim on Facebook, and he has really let himself go. He’s married, has a son in college, a teen daughter, a younger son, has earned himself three Masters Degrees, gotten fat, grown a beard and looks very much like Santa Claus.

Shocked at his appearance, I did not leave a message or friend him.

Weird how some of us change so much, while others get older but look fairly the same.

Ricard Geer still looks great.