This Place is Not a Home

Good morning readers, I hope this entry finds you well.

I was reading back through this thing and realized that I hadn’t updated since like March of 2021, I can’t remember the date it said now but having not written in a year? My goodness! That’s not like me at all. Well, I must remedy this, writing must become a thing again as it’s a wonderful way to get out all my thoughts and feelings.

So much has happened in a year such as Emmy changing her name to Kaylie Lynn most recently, (personally I love the name), the passing of my step-mother Georgia a few weeks ago, Kaylie getting punched in the face by a neighbor whom we thought we could trust, Kaylie having had her top surgery back in February, Getting a new kitten that we’ve named Freya back in December, I can’t think of anything from November or October but in September I had to make the decision to let Ozzy go over the rainbow bridge. Yep, that one broke me for a while, I’m still not over his passing. There are times I think I can hear him meowing, strange I know but I do. I miss the little guy like crazy, of course he was with me for fourteen years and one can’t just get over that. There are times when we get food from McDonalds, I get chicken nuggets just so I can eat them in his honor, those who know me remember that Ozzy’s favorite food was chicken nuggets and they had to be from McDonalds. He wouldn’t’ eat them from anywhere else. I still laugh when I think of that. You’d think a cat wouldn’t know the difference but trust me, he did. Last June I got a job! Yay! I’m working at the Mankato Country Inn and Suites now and I absolutely love my work. I’m a laundry attendant and my duties are to fold and put away clean laundry and whatever else they may need me to do. Like I said, so much has gone on in the past year.

Back here in the present

I’m working with my job coach to help with finding a second job, yes, I’ll still be working at the hotel but I’m looking for something else to fill more of my time. Admittedly the extra income would be a bonus as well, with the cost of living going up and prices rising at the grocery store a second job would be a huge help. Also, I’m wondering if I will have to start paying more for transportation as the gas prices are on the way up. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind paying my way I’m just thinking that they may raise the cost of my bus fare which I understand could happen. This remains to be seen.
There are two possibilities for work. The first is going back to Land to Air Express. I really do miss this job; it was one of my favorite places to work until things got messed up. The second is a place called The Creative Company, they are a company that sends out children’s books to different school programs and individuals with kids. I believe that either job would be an excellent job. Things at Land to Air have changed tremendously so no worries on that front, I have no concerns whatsoever about going back there. Once the decision is made, I’ll let you know which one panned out for me.

The other day I tweeted something about not considering this place to be home anymore when using swarmup. The tweet read: I no longer consider this place to be home. (@ River Crossing Townhomes. I’m not going to post the entire thing but that was the jest of it. Many of you asked if we were ok and what was happening, and I thought that it might be easier if I wrote in this blog and let you all read it so I wouldn’t have to type everything out more than once. So, here are my reasons for stating what I did.

• Ongoing maintenance issues.
• Ongoing maintenance issues.

1. Our dishwasher is leaking horribly and leaving all kinds of water and dirt under it. It’s now beginning to spread from under the thing creating problems of another kind. I will bet all my tax money that there’s mold under there.
2. Our door still has locking problems. When the fix it guy came over to put in a new lock, he put it in upside down and it’s super loose. There’s another issue with it but I feel I shouldn’t say what that is. If you want to know, just ask me in private.
3. We still have holes in the walls that were already there when we moved in. These aren’t little nail holes, they are huge.
4. The kitchen floor is coming apart at the seams and moving. The floor’s made up of faux wood meaning it’s not really wood but resembles it. Water comes up through it and it’s making it very uneven and cracking it.
5. The bathroom exhaust fan is still broken and considered to be a fire hazard. Also, the ceiling in there still sags and has black lines throughout.
6. Some of the wall outlets are still loose and have no plates on them. This is self-explanatory.
7. The carpet has tacks poking up through it. They did come to lay new carpet but were supposed to return to stretch it and that never happened so now we’ve got tack strips once again showing and poking our feet. Walking barefoot, not recommended.
I’m sure there are more that I’m not thinking of now, but you get the idea.

• Drugs and drug busts.

In our complex drugs are a huge problem. People smoking crystal meth is the biggest issue. I don’t really mind the marijuana use; you can smell it all over the place. The meth though, that’s not something Kaylie needs to be around, none of us need to be around that stuff.
Not long ago there was a drug bust in the second building of our complex. I don’t remember all the details of what was found and how much but again not something we need nor want to be around.

• The neighbors, not so friendly.

1. Cat. Cat was always one of these people who was a bit strange but aren’t we all in our own way? She was fun to be around unless she was drinking and numerous times, we asked her to stay away when she was drunk. She did respect this for a while, only popping over when she was sober. Things with her were fine because she told us one day she had stopped with the alcohol. She decided for whatever reason to start drinking again, that’s her business but again we told her not to come here when drinking. We told her we like sober her but drunk her was not so fun to be around. So, to make a long story short, she came over one night with her dog. As usual she was drunk and didn’t ask for permission to enter our home. We asked her to please take her dog home as Luna is not a dog cat, she refused to go. Things became heated after a bit and Kaylie ended up getting punched in the mouth. I called the police at that point, and they came out to take a statement and Kaylie is pressing charges and getting a restraining order put on her. All of that could have been prevented had Cat only left when we asked her to. Kaylie was going in for her top surgery the next day and we didn’t need any trouble from her royal drunkenness. We no longer trust Cat and she hates us. She’s of course playing the victim when Kaylie was the one who got punched.
2. Neighbors with dogs around here do not know how to clean up their dog’s poo, in the spring and summer time this makes it undesirable to sit out on our patio due to the horrid smell and the flies that the poo attracts. We have called the city because the property owner either doesn’t care to reprimand the people with said dogs or they just refuse to listen. I’m guessing that they just refuse to listen because the city did come out here and even sent the police to talk to them and still nothing gets done about it. I’m afraid to walk on the edge of the sidewalk because there has been dog’s mess left there too.
3. The late-night parties that get thrown here are loud. Normally I’m not a stickler for this type of issue but when I must work the next morning and I get woke up by loud music and yelling, something has to give. When the neighbors have bene approached nicely about this, they just say “well we have a social life and I’m going to continue to do what I want. If you can’t accept that, that’s not my problem.” The police officers can’t even do anything except to come and talk to them, but the action of the neighbors continues.
We just don’t feel safe or comfortable here anymore. When we first moved in the property owner said she wanted us to consider this our forever home but how can we do that when crap like this is going on and nothing changes when you report it? Personally, I think there needs to be background checks performed and that doesn’t happen. People move here because they know that they can get away with things and they believe there are no consequences for their transgressions. On a scale of 1-5 I give this complex a negative one million. I do not recommend anyone move here.
4. The trains that come through here all times of the day and night. Not to mention they shake our house and make it feel like an earthquake. Okay so I might be exaggerating just a bit, but they do make our house shake. I know that seems minor to some, but this is ridiculous.
5. The ice in our driveway. Cat has a job with this complex putting salt down and shoveling the snow but ever since the incident with Kaylie she won’t come near our building to do said job. Because of this Kaylie has fallen on her bad knee and I’ve almost done so a number of times.
Currently I’m looking for a new home for Kaylie, our cats and me to move to. I’m so over this hell that I feel I have brought us into. I say this because I was the one who really wanted to come here, I now wish I hadn’t.
So, there you have it. These are the reason I want to get away from this place and that I no longer feel I can call this complex home.

Well, there you have it. I will attempt to keep this thing updated. Yeah, yeah, I know I’ve said this before, but I truly do need to do this.

I’m off for now, going to go poke around on indeed.com to see if there’s anything interesting for jobs that I might be able to do. Kaylie wants to do some sort of work or volunteering, so I’ll peek for her too.

You all take care of yourselves.
“When you can’t find the sunshine, be the sunshine.”
Peace, love, and positivity to you all.