ALL OVER A TABLE

Time to seriously get back to reality. I can’t miss a thing or everything goes to pot. I hate being the primary peacemaker, but the other levelheaded people will not say anything. They just walk away and hope for the best. It never rises to the top.

I stayed in my apartment drawing today. Big mistake. At 5:30 I went to see who was in our lounge. No one so I sat down to work the puzzle for a few minutes of distraction. Maria arrived with major distractions. How can so much pain be meted out in such a short time?

It began and ended with the puzzle table in the poolroom. It’s just a regular eight-foot folding table. They are found everywhere. This table has sat in front of large picture window since I have lived here. It was only moved at Christmas to place a Christmas tree in front of the window. That all changed this week! And the usual suspects are getting the blame. And also as usual, it is likely the usual suspect, but no one knows the truth.

As I understand, and I may not, it began with one woman who wanted the puzzle table moved as it blocked her view of the bay. Huh? The bottom of the window is table height. One cannot see out of the window below the ledge unless they have X-ray vision and then they could sit at any wall. And the last time I checked, puzzles lay flat on the table. No one is doing 3-D puzzles, thankfully. At any rate, she (whoever she is – and I can make as good a guess an any) moved the table so that it blocked the walkway past the pool table to the window side of the room. That’s the most used entrance to the area. She then placed a chair right next to the window. Do you think there was a reason that was done? Giving the benefit of the doubt is a waste of time. There are no doubt benefits here. It’s intentional. Why? To rile people up, of course! That seems to be the goal of two women in particular. It is done at least once a week ready or not.

I found out about it when Maria arrived at our lounge puzzle table. She could not believe people would do that just to irritate others. I almost choked. She would do that at the drop of a hat. No one holds a grudge longer or deeper. She would do it under the guise of making improvements. She believes it is her right. This is just another grudge move by the most annoying tenant from our building. She is getting challenged so often here she has moved to the other building. That caused fur to fly (yes old people have fur). Accusations, verbal attacks, threats. I’m thinking of filling a small pool with Jell-O and forcing four people to compete. It would draw the largest crowd we would ever have for a residents’ event.

Chas arrived a few minutes later with his own frustrations. No one has asked him but they are taking over the care of his flowerbeds. They are watering without his permission. Maria is one of those people. Since she was there when he brought it up, she is now offended when all she was doing was trying to help. Actually, she was trying to take over like she often does. He reported that one woman is trying to put the puzzle table in storage. Huh? It wasn’t hurting anyone. It did not block any view. It’s not the only window to the bay. Are we all going crazy?

Tomorrow morning I am going to put a sign on the table. “Get your hands off my table.” Unsigned of course. Can’t cause more trouble than the activities today. I’m glad I was a youth pastor. I have some training and experience with this behavior. What we really need is a King or Queen for this little fiefdom so someone can yell “off with their heads.”