Post #40 - July 15, 2019....continued on February 11, 2020
Since selling my house in March, I have lived in two places and I'm ready to leave the 2nd. The first place I lived was in Howard, CO and the lady who owned the house had all kinds of drama. She was popping Xanax for anxiety because she said an ex boyfriend was stalking her and stealing from her. She's 58 years old. She also traded sex with a guy that lives down the road for home repairs. They would get stoned and have sex until the wee hours. Typically, she went to his house and came home around 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. One time he came to her house. I can't imagine living with so much drama. I moved out at the end of May.
I moved to Salida and rented a room from a lady who is a born again Christian, although she says she's not religious, she has a relationship with Jesus! She is hyperactive, 62 years old, widowed for 7 years and now has a boyfriend in Yakima, WA. Sometimes I wonder how people get significant others?!! Obviously, people don't have very high standards (that may be a bit mean of me to say). The neighbor to the south is a doctor and he and his wife (and 2 kids) have chickens. They also had a rooster that would crow at 4:00 a.m.! They are city people who know nothing about how to raise chickens. They don't shut them up at night and their coop isn't animal proof, so they wonder why their chickens are getting eaten! I heard one chicken getting devoured one morning. Lovely. After living there a month (the month of June) and at my wits end for getting woken up by this fucking rooster, I was mountain biking with a friend. Come to find out from this friend, roosters aren't allowed in Salida city limits. That REALLY pissed me off, because I had complained to the landlord about the rooster since I moved in. She knew they weren't allowed, yet she did nothing about it. So, the next morning, when I was awakend at 3:00 a.m. by the GD rooster, I called the police. They went to his house and told him he had to get rid of the rooster. I also complained about their dogs (they have 2 dogs) that barked at all hours of the night. There are quiet hours in the town of Salida, which means between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., dogs can't bark for hours on end. So the neighbors got notice about their dogs as well. The neighbor killed his rooster and then told my landlord how traumatic that was! WTF? He could have given the rooster away. No one said he had to kill it. Asshole. Also, during this time the landlord used the other upstairs bedroom as an Airbnb. That was mostly ok, but there were a few people that were noisy and rude. The Airbnb ended at the end of August. Then she had a traveling nurse rent the upstairs room. That was WORSE. This person, who is in their 50's was also a Christian and left dirty dishes in the sink for days. On September 9th, the landlord went to Yakima, WA for 3 months. It was GREAT to have her gone. No more boyfriend, brother Mike or other drama! BTW, she's a licensed social worker.....I can't imagine going to her for therapy! What a joke. So she also rented her bedroom out to another traveling nurse, so there's 3 of us living in her house. The one upstairs is from San Antonio, TX, so the first snow and she's freezing....cranks the heat up to 75. Sadly, the thermostat in her room controls the heat in my room, so I have my window open and it's still a sauna in there. And she's such an idiot...there's a porch off of her room with a bed, so she's sleeping out there, which has NO heat register! WTF? No idea how on earth she became a nurse....then again, common sense can't be learned. So many stories about Rita the PITA! She left at the end of November and she left dishes in the sink from before Thanksgiving....she never washed them. I left them for the landlord when I left on Dec. 7th.
While I was living in Howard, I thought I'd take a part-time job in town, so I'd be out of the house and meeting people. So, I interviewed with a CPA to work 2 days/week. I worked for him 1 day and quit on the 2nd day. He really wanted a secretary, not someone with an accounting degree. He is/was passive/aggressive and did not communicate well. He told me to be at his office for a meeting at 9:00 a.m. on a Friday. I left my favorite workout class 30 minutes early so I could be there, but no one else shows up until 9:25. He doesn't show until 9:35! I wasted my time and I have no idea why he told me to be there at 9:00. That ended that. I have found a lot of businesses here are not professional. I don't want Salida to grow, but competition would either force some businesses to up their game or they would go out of business. That includes doctors, physical therapists, bike shops, restaurants, Natural Grocers, etc.
Since my job with the CPA didn't work, I applied at the Shell gas station in Salida. This is another place that is completely unprofessional. I originally worked full-time - 4 days/week - noon to close. That was too much for me, so I dropped down to 3 days/week. Then without notice, the manager dropped me to 2 days/week and changed my days. Did I mention unprofessional? I'm still there, but I'm not sure for how long. The problem is there are regulars that come into that store that I look forward to seeing. I started there at the end of September, so it's been almost 5 months and I know a lot of the people who come in. I haven't quit as I would miss seeing these people. My co-workers are weird as hell. For quite some time, I was the only person who worked there that didn't smoke and had all of their teeth! ha Since I started 2 people were fired and 2 people quit. Says something. I've had to call the police twice when working there. Once, when I thought (and rightly so) that someone had stollen something and once when someone asked me for sex. Seriously?
After I moved out of the house with the 2 traveling nurses, I moved into a house with a woman who is in her late 70's. She has 'post-polio'. I had never heard of that. She's basically housebound. The deal is that I do things for her around the house for reduced rent. I moved in here on Dec. 8th or so. All was fine at first, but then I had to talk to her every time I was upstairs fixing food or doing laundry. Her bedroom is right off of the kitchen and laundry, so there's no way for me to be up there without her knowing. I'm not much for small talk, so this was NOT working. She actually yelled down the stairs (my room is downstairs and I work from down there) one day to ask me if everything was ok. I said yes, why. She said, well it's 12:30. I said so,? She said 'don't you work today?' (meaning at the Shell gas station - I usually leave at 11:45 as I start there at noon). I was PISSSED! I'm fucking 56 years old and she's babysitting me.....meddling in my life. What business is that of hers? I didn't work that day at Shell. I think I can manage my own life. I then told her that I do not want to talk every time I come upstairs to fix food and do laundry. She actually took my clothes out of the washer one day! Why? Just fucking leave me and my stuff alone. I thought she understood, but a few days later, she actually walked downstairs (it was a Sunday afternoon), knocked on my bedroom door and wanted me to put water softener in her Culligan machine. It didn't have to be done right then. I told her no, I was not on call, and that this had to stop. I shut my door and as she went upstairs she said 'I'm sorry.' Good lord. She's on oxygen, is very weak, lays around all day. I get that she's quite ill, but good god. Leave me the fuck alone. I don't have to let her know my schedule. It's none of her fucking business. Since then, it's been better, but she still comes out and talks. Not sure I can take this much longer. I get to the point where I'm so hungry I can't stand it anymore and then I go upstairs to fix food. This shouldn't be that way. I should be free to fix food when I want without being bothered. Where's my privacy?
I just drove into town to run some errands and I was sitting in my car in the Natural Grocers parking lot. I've been crying a lot today. A thought came into my mind, that I'm just not around the right people here in Salida. I need to seek out the people who share the same passions I do. Artsy Fartsy movies (I've recently been going to quite a few movies at the Salida Steamplant), yoga, running. People who are emotionally intelligent and self-aware. I've been around people who aren't for most of the 11 months that I've been here. Not a good thing.
To be continued....