DON'T TALK TO ME

If the truth will set you free, I expect to be in bondage for quite some time. The maintenance man left last night and there seems to already be a world of total confusion. Not that that is unusual, but it doesn’t linger for long. We usually rotate through confusion frustration, anger, and partial peace and quiet with a cloud of depression hanging overhead.

There has been an on going flower war between Chas and Liz for months. Well at least since the gardens went in. The single major on going conflict at The Home is over the gardens. If one wants to stay clear of that fighting, I recommend going to the store to purchase your veggies. Liz has a degree in horticulture. As such she is the self appoint guru of what everyone should and should not do with their plants. In addition, she plants who knows what at every open space she can find — all without permission. The lack of permission grates on several people. I think it actually looks pretty good.

Add to the mix that Maria is the self-appointed water gardener. She not only waters her own plants, but everyone else’s as well. This does not bode well with Liz or even several others. The people who have gardens do it because they like gardening ( doesn’t make sense to me) and don’t want anyone else’s help. When Maria is confronted she argues that she is helping. Yah, right! They tell her to keep her cotton pickin’ hands out of their garden. Now, I don’t know if she ever picked cotton, but she seems to have done everything else. If you don’t believe it, just tell a story in her presence and she will tell a similar story that is a little bigger and a little more exciting. Maria does tell a good story.

The major on going feud is between Chas and Liz. Both try to draw others in to making the rest of us a Hatfield or McCoy. Frankly, I would rather be the government agent trying to shut down the stills. Chas is in a wheelchair. This year they added a paved space and installed raised beds for people in wheelchairs. There are two people that use the patio garden. I doubt you could have three. Chas extended his space by placing three pots on the patio. At the top of the wall is Liz’ garden. It is easy for her to work in her garden without bending over as her garden is slightly lower than the top of the wall. However, to do that she moves Chas plants and never puts them back where they were. Naturally (and I say naturally because life here depends on stirring conflict) Chas is angry with Liz. They exchange angry words daily. Chas threatens to throw his plants away. That would not bother Liz, but others like his plants and are offended every time he suggests nuclear bomb activity on his garden. So he is so sick and tired that he gave his potted plants to Maria. Sound simple? That’s where you would be wrong. Now he and Maria argue about the plants, over watering and location. Liz is still moving the pots and now both Chas and Maria are angry with Liz. Liz handles things by telling people, “Don’t talk to me.”

At I left this morning for bread wars, I noticed that the two hanging plants on our front porch were gone. So were the potted plants by the gardens. Maria comes along to help with the bread and so she says (don’t necessary take this as the truth), someone (implication is obvious) poured salt water on the hanging plants and they were dying so Chas threw them away. Yesterday they looked fine to me – and I say that as an expert in being Switzerland in the plant wars. Some one had pulled the potted plants pots out by the roots and left them sit on top if the pot drying out, or so I’m told. (Question this statement).

As for me — I don’t trust any of them. We may never know the truth. The one thing we can count on is no one will win plant wars. I am expecting Chas or Maria or both to begin pulling Liz’s plants out. It won’t be long until they begin reporting each other to the administrative office. When that happens, the big she boss will come over and give us a lecture about controlling ourselves and trying to act like adults. The key word is acting. It would be nice if they just were adults. I do hope three dunce caps are brought. I have an idea for their use.

I wish I had secret video cameras placed around this place. That would be a great thing to show on move night with popcorn.

THE END IS COMING

It is hard to believe that such hot news is not being discussed in the halls, lounges and bathroom. But everyone is virtually silent. Word is getting around that the manager and her husband, the maintenance man, have resigned and are leaving July 6. It is obvious that not everyone knows they’re leaving, but the talkers all know. But it is quiet talk softly on the sides. There is great disappointment. Things have never worked so well. That’s a good thing.

I spent a great deal of time with them this morning. We are just good friends. A few people have chipped in to given them a framed print of one of my drawings — specifically his favorite one. (See new photo on the side). We talked about their move to central Florida. His wife is always cold here. Admittedly it is consistently cooler here than many parts of the USA. We get very little snow in the winter, but because we live in a rain forest, it takes a long time till it warms up and stops dripping. We are still waiting for summer. Isn’t not that we haven’t had some nice days. We have, and we loved both of them. We are unsure if it has gone back to early spring or if fall is coming. Tree leaves are not falling so I guess it is still spring.

We talked about independent senior centers and I learned we are not dramatically different. The bickering here is not very different than the college dorm. It happens in any close living situation. There are conflicts, most of which are easily solved. There are the stubborn ones who refuse to change. In college they don’t return the next semester or get kicked out of school. Here, they leave of their own freewill or they get evicted. I have been amazed how similar the living situation is. The biggest different is we are more set in our ways that college students and we don’t stay up so late. On the other hand, we do beat them up in the morning.

Our BBQ on the 4th of July will give our residents the opportunity to say goodbye. The management has made no move to tell us of the departure or even set a date and time when they will arrive with the big announcement. They feel like we all know and do not need an explanation. We don’t all know, but will find out soon enough. We do want an explanation, but it will likely bring very little satisfaction.

It’s like everyone has a little secret and they talk in quiet tones hesitantly hoping not to pass on information the other still may not know. It’s hoot (old people say hoot). The one surprise in conversation is the number of people talking about flooding the administrative office with work orders, complaints, questions and who knows what else. They want to overwhelm them. It’s probably more talk than do, but there is the handful that will tell them in no uncertain terms what they think of our loss. So will those who are happy. As for me, I plan to take notes, and repeat the drama with a bit of flourish for my own amusement and yours.