Monday

The start of a busy week: I did a wash and showered before breakfast at 8:00. Left about 10 and walked to Telephone Road, then bused to Portola. I was, of course, very early for the Soaring Spirits lunch at noon, but thought I'd go first to Barnes & Noble. When I had been there with with Mike on Sunday. I had seen some things I might get for upcoming birthdays and so on. But...

...as I was about to cross the street to get to B & N, I impulsively turned and went the other way. What was there? Colony Parc, where I lived when I moved to Ventura in 2015. I thought I'd just stroll around the complex and look at my old apartment. Actually, I had had two there: When I first moved, I had a two bedroom, two bath. However, about a year later, the rent went up and besides, although I would have like a second room (I still would), I really didn't need two bathrooms. I think the only one who ever used the second one was my niece, Carolyn, when she visited me.

Darn, I couldn't find either apartment. I was on foot and I didn't want to wander, so I stopped into the office. Curious, I asked how much the two-bedrooms units are now and almost collapsed on the spot when I was casually told "three thousand ten dollars." What?!  Good grief, you'd think you'd get a mansion for that. As for the one bed, one bath, the 520 sq. ft. one goes for $2295; for an extra hundred a month, you got 530 feet. As I was leaving, I ran into Israel, a maintenance man there who actually remembered me. When I expressed amazement about the high rents, he said a lot of people from L.A. had moved here because of COVID and, I guess, other problems. Wowee, I still can't get over the rents.

Got to Stonefire Grille a little early and found Vera there. Shortly after, Susan, Gayle, Renee, and Pat came and we had our usual congenial lunch. Vera said she'd like to arrange an outing to the Comedy Club in Oxnard and, of course, I immediately said, "I'm in." Left after a plate of pesto pasta, a Blue Moon, and lots of good talk.

Walked to the Dollar Tree on Telephone, then bused to Victoria and walked to Wal-Mart for light bulbs and the sleep aid I take. Home and stopped at CVS for cream sherry, then did some food prep. Before dinner, I went out to get the mail; on the way back, I stopped in to chat with Suzanne next door. While we were talking, I thought I heard my door open, but dismissed it, thinking it must have been Leah or Andy upstairs. When I went home, though, I found this:

Ellen had called (I didn't have my phone with me), then used her key to get in, so I missed her. I read her note inside the card, cried a few tears, then called her. We had a long talk, just about this and that, and it was so good. Later, I actually had to call her again, as the laptop froze. She guided me through what to do and it's up again. 

Today I'm taking Jim to lunch at Jasmine Thai for his birthday. He'll pick me up out front at noon.

Note: I changed my method of payment from automatic re my bank account to a credit card. The paper arrived on Sunday, but not, of course, on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday (they no longer publish on Saturday, so they owe me two). Today, Monday?  No. And I'm beginning to think it isn't worth subscribing to the print edition. I should add a note on how to unfreeze this thing, but now I'm not sure I remember the steps! 😣