September 24 - 29 (Saturday - Thursday)
The ''Age or Ian'' Chronicles

I did not become aware of the impending presence of  ''Hurricane Ian''  until  September 24 (Sat.).

In ''somewhat'' preparation for it, I stopped into the Seven Springs ''Publix'' at the end of my workshift the following day  (Sun., Sep. 25)  to procure a few loaves of bread (whole wheat for envisioning ''Tuna Sandwiches''; cinnamon-raisin for envisioning ''Peanut Butter & Jelly'') and a few cans of black beans plus a few packs of soft tortillas (for future Mex-inspired preparations), all in anticipation that I might decide to ride-out the Storm. Then after work the next day after  (Mon., Sep. 26)  I stocked-up on a few cans of  ''Mini Ravioli''  from the Florida Highway 54 ''Winn-Dixie,'' then I continued on to ''Big Lots'' to try to grab a few more cases of bottled water (even though my current stock ever since my last acquisition was still sufficient enough to carry me through several days, if not a careful couple of weeks), but I was told that they were out of stock, and I did not bother to check back later in the evening when they said they might be having a new shipment in.

My preset ''date-specific'' alarm having awoken me for my follow-up ophthalmology exam on  Tuesday (Sep. 27)  was the final confirmation that I'd absolutely been wasting my time & efforts trying to utilize and rely upon those worthless ''calendar apps'' on my phone, bringing me to the decision that it was time to essentially be done with trying to bother using them altogether.

This eye exam did not produce the positive news I'd hoped to hear, having been told that the pressure in my left eye, though having been reduced  ''some''  following the laser treatment was still not sufficient enough for the Doctor to feel confidently assured about, so he said he was going to prescribe eyedrops for me to use on a nightly basis.

When I doubled-back to the Reception desk to get that prescription information, only to be told by the Samoan receptionist (whose name I'd still forgotten to learn) that the order would be placed to the pharmacy via a phone call, I'd inquired if a young Polynesian-looking boy sitting around inside the general area was her son, and she confirmed that not only was he her son but that the young ''Black'' woman whom I'd seen standing outside talking on the phone while holding an infant in her arms with a belly that was looking like she was about to pop-out another one when I left the office the first time was in fact her  daughter,  which caused me to raise the question regarding the two ''teenage boys'' she'd told me about during my previous visit, whereupon she'd clarified that the teen boys she'd earlier mentioned were in fact her  ''nephews,''  and confirmed that they were all living together.

After trying ''Big Lots'' again before leaving the area, and learning that they had closed the store (I assumed was part of their evacuation preparation), I went directly to my ''Walgreen's'' to acquire my drops, only to be told that they had not received an order. Calling the Ophthal's number to inquire about where (or if) the order had been sent, I was informed by the person on the line that my pharmacy information had not even been entered into their database.

So once we'd gotten that oversight squared away, and after being instructed to allow some time for the pharmacy to receive the order, I inquired about the possibility of receiving my CoViD updated booster. Considering how hella-busy their unusually large staff was in the back, I genuinely was not expecting that I'd be able to procure one anytime soon, but to my [pleasant] surprise I was able to receive one right then and there. For some reason which I do not quite fully understand (perhaps from internal distraction regarding the approaching Storm and which preparations to contemplate in advance of its unexpected impact) I found myself feeling a bit agitated about undergoing the process this time, so much so that I actually managed to take conscious note of ''feeling'' the pain of the poke this time around.

During the time I'd spent at the kitchen (continuing the process of trying to consume as much/many of my  ''freezer-required''  foods as I could ahead of the inevitable power outages that ''Ian'' would be bringing with him, I'd noticed that a  papaya tree  had grown in the back area: I'd suspected that it might have sprung up from one of those times when I'd taken rotted-out worm-eaten failed fruits and tossed them back in that area to get rid of them (possibly even with a little bit of ''bird-droppings'' help?), but as I continued to wonder and marvel at this new sight I'd eventually noticed a  second  tree, almost as tall, which had grown about a step away right beside it!

This was also the time of renewed warfare on the ''Ants Invasions'' (plural), as they were all seemingly coming out of hiding simultaneously, as if they understood the state of chaos I'd found myself stuck in and were trying to take undue advantage of the maddening situation. This included those ''common'' ants that I've always had to deal with since I've been here, plus the re-occurrence of those infuriating ''Ghost Ants.'' In each instance their activities (seemingly ''scouting'' for new digs -- no pun intended) were such that they'd readily exposed to me where their main nests were hiding -- and in the case of the ''common'' ants they revealed that yet again they'd selected my  ''Urusei Yatsura''  collection DVD cases to set-up shop! (What's so ''special'' about my ''UY'' set that ant invasions always seem to 'target' those particular sets of DVDs is truly beyond my comprehension.)

I also answered a text I'd received from one of the staff of the Property Management Office, which inquired as to whether I'd be evacuating or riding out the Storm: I responded honestly that I was still conflicted about what I'd actually planned to do and when, and that I would make my ultimate decision based on the path and predicted behaviors of the Storm. Despite this being my honest contemplation, my concerns over not genuinely knowing or having any reasonable idea what to actually expect from any rising waters that might or might not have inundated the immediate area, and thus feeling compelled to want to remain on site to address any impending circumstances that might occur, if they were to do so, my heaviest inclinations were to remain on standby and face whatever might come.

In relation to this decision, I was disturbed to learn that it seemed that I would not be alone in riding out the Storm in the apartments complex, as the newest residents (of both apartment units) appeared that they too were intent on staying put. My major upset about this revelation however was not so much the fact that I would lose being blissfully all alone in the area, but because their presences-- especially those of the southern-unit with their ''wide-openness'' of view --interfered with my contemplation as to whether or not to lockpick the ''storage room'' inside the ''laundry room,'' where I'd learned several years back when I'd decided to breach that room out of curiosity (especially since the Property Management Office claimed to possess no key to access it), to access and utilize those custom-fitted Hurricane-prep ''Windows Shutters'' that I'd learned had been stored inside there.

I also sent ''Mimi'' a text later in the Evening, to inquire as to whether she was still in New York or if she had returned at some point and not updated me on her re-arrival.

Throughout the night I was constantly being made to keep getting up out of bed to constantly run to toilet to empty my bladder, triggered by a long period of bodily feelings & reactions which I'd felt before at greater levels but which I honestly could not recall what they were then associated with -- perhaps akin to an extremely mild touch of a non-feverish ''Flu'' with seeming sense of very minor body chills? In between these frequent incidents, I was periodically keeping myself up-to-date with ''Ian's'' developments & transition, and the information continued to reassure me that its impact on our area was going to be (considerably?) less severe than all of the earlier predictions & projections had been bombarding us with throughout the past reports.

Along with the bladder-emptying & mildly lightheadedness issues, I'd eventually reached a point where I was also inevitably confronted with a few bouts of ''pseudo-diarrhea.'' I was not confidently certain how many of these issues, and to what extent, could've been attributable to the ''CoViD-boost'' shot vs. my earlier consumption of the deep-fried remainder of the fish sticks I'd purchased at ''Sam's Club,'' which was to serve not only as my way to try to get through as many of these frozen food items as possible before we got hit with the inevitable power outage, but was also to serve as the last batch of  anything  I ever planned on cooking using the ''deep fryer'' method, as I'd made the determination some few months back that I was going to wean myself off of such foods prepared in this manner... at the very least, those prepared ''At Home.''

Also done in preparation of the arriving Storm, I had relocated my motorcycle to the ''higher ground'' level on the alley-side of the complex, pulling it in as close to the wall as I could reasonably manage in the hopes that *IF* any of the impending winds would be strong enough to displace it from its center stand that, hopefully, it would ''fall'' to the left and remain stable via the side kickstand, and in the event that it too failed that the building ''wall'' would ''catch'' it and help keep it in somewhat of an ''upright'' position. When I checked on its status around 9:00 the next morning  (Wed., Sep. 28),  I was better able to observe that the ''tilt'' of the ground actually leans  away  from the building and toward the alley. I'd also had some concerns over the fact that even though the actual elevation is higher than down toward the main road where it's always parked, significant portions of the alley directly behind our complex still have a tendency to pool water during heavy rainstorms.

As it would turn out, the worst our area got was a constant moderate rain with occasional periods significant wind gusts, but nothing of any real concern: even the expectation of power outages came to nothing, outside of a series of ''blip-outs'' that started a few minutes ahead of 15:00 and seemed to occur around the top each subsequent hour up until just after 19:00.

I took advantage of the calm and end of rain  Thursday Morning (Sep. 29),  to engage in some fallen brush clean-up in and around my garden and to spray down my front door and deck areas.

During this process I went to the back of the apartment to clear some of the storm-flattened brush away from the new papaya trees, now discovering that there were actually three such trees that had sprung up. With the idea of preserving them from possible removal from another brush clearing, I decided to see if they could be uprooted, and upon realizing that they could, seeing that they're implantation was based on somewhat of a ''taproot'' system, I transplanted all three of them to my little garden area, but would soon realize that they would give the appearance of not taking well to the transfer process (possibly as a result of being ''stressed'' as part of the process?).

Afterwards, I proceeded to transport my motorcycle back over to its normal parking spot, and during my lockdown process discovered that I'd been leaking motor oil when I noticed the levels through the observation window showed that the contents appeared to have been completely drained: I tried to address it by returning with my tool set to see if it was possible to tighten things in the area down and hope that it would make some difference, but it seemed to be an indication that it should be submitted to the mechanics shop for them to address.

I finished the evening, and I suppose the storm session altogether, with the restoration of my outside chimes.

September 30, 2022 (Friday)
22:15, Eastern Daylight Time

Before going out to wash off the accumulated gunk surrounding the outside around oil reservoir where the leaking had occurred (which now allowed me to observe through the observation window that the compartment had not completely drained but had resettled to show it registering at the lowest ''minimum'' level), I clipped off all of the dying and wilting leaves/branches of the transplanted Papaya trees, essentially leaving little more than just long limbless stalks, in hopes that it might stimulate/reactivate normal regrowth.

And today I would realize, almost to absolutely no surprise, the ''exercise-overexertion'' pain that had persisted and continued to put limits on my overall range of movement in my left arm had finally seemed to have  completely  subsided... just as I'd ''Strongly SUSPECTED'' would happen when I'd made the conscious and deliberate decision to receive my CoViD update booster in the same arm, on the suspected belief that with both sources of motion-induced pain being forced to operate in tandem with one another that it would inevitably shock/trick my system into treating the combined pains as a singular issue needing to be addressed and tackle both problems together as-one accordingly.

October 1, 2022 (Saturday)
22:20, Eastern Daylight Time

Prior to making preparations for the Workday, I continued the process of clearing away and spot-cleaning in preparation for my upcoming apartment inspection ahead of lease-renewal. I also spent some time untangling & reconnecting peripheral wires behind my computer towers, finally giving some serious contemplation to [yet again  TRYING  to] resurrect my ''custom'' 6-core CPU machine, along with clearing through my over-abundant excess of extension cords and adapters -- now debating whether I should continue to keep my current ''Windows 7'' setup on the  ''hp''  device, or try transferring the hard drives and Operating System over to the ''custom'' box and hope it ''sticks'' and stays ''stable'' this time, or to break them up and configure them as ''dual-boot'' machines (still wanting a ''Mageia'' Linux system to work with), or just what exactly?

Topped-off the oil level inside my motorcycle resorting to some of the old oil I'd drained during a previous oil change; this was when a newly formed accumulating drip made it appear that the leaks are coming from the somewhere along the observation window.

Decided to use some of my ''sitdown time'' at work to call my Moms.

October 2, 2022 (Sunday)
23:10, Eastern Daylight Time

''Mimi'' texted me after I'd returned from work and was preparing to get some sleep, when she'd asked if I could be available for a visit from her today: I informed her that I would not be able to do so because of how it would conflict with this new scheduling, but that I'd make time for her anytime after the weekend; this was when she clarified her reply to my previous text, saying that she would be heading ''back'' to NY some time this week, but wasn't exactly sure when.

I'd also spent a little time pulling up the webpages for the sellers of my ''bourbon fruitcake'' and ''baklava,'' and later while back at work my ''Kona coffee,'' even though I was not entirely certain if I'd actually want to go through with placing any actual orders... especially when I'm this close against my 'Lease Renewal' period.

October 3 - 9, 2022 (Monday-Sunday)
''Full Week in Review''

Received a text from the Property Manager's office  Monday (Oct. 3)  alerting me to the fact that, as I'd expected would happen when I signed a  'two-year' lease  the last time, that I'd be facing a rent increase: not too terribly surprising, especially when taking into account all of the complications and madness surrounding the ''CoViD'' outbreak, but I was certainly not ready for a  *$150*  increase (more precisely, $155).

After mulling the situation over to try to absorb the shock, I decided to spend some time looking for alternative housing options on ''Craigslist,'' first for the more immediate area, then when finding nothing within my established price range within reasonable travel range of my [current] job (that wasn't in ''Tampa City'' proper) or was not a ''room mate'' sort of a situation began looking  outside  of the State -- specifically ''Knoxville'' (again with Tennessee's repeal of a ''State Income Tax'' being a/the prime motivating factor), but also looking again to ''Roanoke/Salem/Vinton'' for ''familiarity,'' only to find housing costs just as high, which was not a good sell or trade-off as far as I was concerned, when taking into consideration additional economic factors such as job availability, lower wages, winter-related costs (heating energy, clothing, transportation complications, etc.), and motorcycle insurance mandates, on top of the fact that like here all such lower-cost housing most likely would require long-ass commutes to their respective more ''urban-like'' locations.

So in reaction to this reality of seeing few if any options available to me, I sent an email to the Property Manager the following morning  (Tue., Oct. 4)  with a proposal to submit to the property owner (''holding'' group) wherein I stated that I'd be willing to be the daily general groundskeeper for all of the incidentals that typically don't get taken care apart from the periodic lawn mowing, as well as the cleaner/maintainer of the on-site laundry facilities, as an incentive to reduce the amount of my rent increase: I received a reply to my email the next day  (Wed., Oct. 5 - although the message did not actually get delivered until the following morning)  stating that they did not desire me taking on any of the extra responsibilities but that they would still contact the owner to see if they could negotiate a decrease in the new rate (which I suspected would probably go nowhere, but I still felt it was worth asking about).

I'd already given this idea some thought right after having received the first text, but at the time I wasn't too confident about trying to raise the issue because I was thinking that they couldn't really do much in that department being the ''Middle-Man'' (before I realized that I could just ask them to present my proposal to the owner for feedback). As part of my attempt to make a better case for myself, I went back to review exactly when I'd signed my first lease with them... and during this research I reviewed all of the headaches and chaotic racing I'd engaged in to get me to this point, and I was shocked to learn just how much of it I'd either completely forgotten or fused with other events, and was made to recall just how much of a minor miracle it was for me to do all of these things and accomplish so much in such a seemingly impossible short & concentrated period of time!

Friday (Oct. 7)  seemed to be the date set aside for the tsunami of chaos during this annual time of Rush-&-Spend as part of getting my financial obligations covered.

It began with my first heading to ''Walgreen's'' to finally obtain my prescribed eyedrops after retrieving my latest ''Amazon Vine'' shipment from the Post Office, then dropping those off back at the apartment before heading out to ''Dollar-anna-Quarter Tree'' to purchase a few bottles of that  Lipton ''Georgia Peach''  bottled tea (for the purpose of mixing it with that disgusting 'powdered' stuff to see if such a mixture could improve the flavor and thus make it more palatable) and of course not finding it being made available anymore (as is always the case whenever I've become positively impressed by something) before heading over to keep my dental appointment for my crown settings.

While in the dentist's chair, I received an email alerting me to another part of my ''Vine'' delivery that had just arrived which was not part of the items I'd retrieved earlier. So I'd intended to swing back by the Post Office to grab that item, rather than continuing next to ''Sam's Club,'' which had been the next intended stop of my itinerary.

But rather than choosing to wait in line at the ''Red'' left-turn onto Main Street, I decided to continue with the flow of traffic and take the next left turn instead. When I tried to make my left turn onto ''Congress St.,'' the opposite-facing vehicle ahead of me ignored my Right-of-Way and proceeded to make a right-turn as I'd entered the intersection -- and not being alerted by my blaring on the horn rammed me and spilled me onto the road outside of the intersection.

Outside of the requisite panicked questions of concern, a couple of men did me the courtesy of wheeling & propping-up my motorcycle onto the grass as I dragged myself onto the area myself and try to settle the storm & fog rolling through my head, uncertain what I should be doing both in the moment and in future response.

While still trying to address & work through those concerns, one of the male passengers of the female driver kept trying to cajole me with a seeming plea to get me to ''resolve'' the situation with the promise of $100... but even though my concerns about what, if anything, my halfway-useless medical insurance would cover (and equally concerned about what I'd be charged through the ''towing'' scam), I felt it was more important to get medically checked-out and file a Police Report, so I ended up being transported to hospital by County 'Fire-&-Rescue' (don't know if that made a financial difference as opposed to a private ambulatory service).

After having both of my thighs X-rayed, and waiting in triage for whatever follow-up examination(s) they had planned, I was met by the reporting P.D. Officer who gave me information on how to receive the Report, etc., then dropped the bombshell saying that according to an eyewitness on the scene that  ''I''  had been the one who had taken the intersection out-of-line, and explained how that assessment would affect my driving record and how it would affect me financially, but that I'd still have the ability to dispute it in court. While that bit of eyewitness partial-misinformation had taken me aback, it was also somewhat ''welcome'' information that reaffirmed what I  ''thought''  I'd remembered about the sequence of events, so that I could now use that factual clarity to support my defense regarding the whos, whats, and whens, which I'd further explained to him, emphasizing the fact that I was almost entirely already out of the intersection when the impact occurred, as should've been evident by where my motorcycle had been pushed off to the side of the road from the exact spot where it (and me) laid.

While there, I'd also informed our account supervisor of the situation (he was none too thrilled to receive this news, saying that he was dealing with quite a large number of people calling-off), as well as my Mother (who re-texted me later saying that she'd actually had a premonition earlier that morning that I'd gotten involved in a minor motorcycle accident).

I also made what I knew was going to be the most disgusting call of all that I was going to have to face:  the ''Towing Yard'' scam!''  -- where they fed me all of their typical money-grubbing B.S. about ''after hours'' and ''daily storage'' fees (even though SUPPOSEDLY they're closed on the weekends), and the BIG kicker being...  ''Cash Transactions''  ONLY!

I didn't finally get to leave the hospital until literally just a couple of minutes shy of  Midnight (Sat., Oct. 8),  whereby I walked back to the apartment.

I finally worked-up the motivation to leave the apartment at 12:00 Noon (didn't plan it that way, just happened that way), debating whether to wait and take the short trip to my bank branch by bus, or to just huff it on-foot, which became the latter after I'd made the mistake of again believing that just because I was heading in a general direction that it meant that I was heading in the right direction, so I had to end-up doubling back a few blocks just to get back on-track, by which time I was close enough to the shopping center that it did not even matter anymore. As I was en route to the bank, my Scheduling Supervisor texted me to inform me that he managed to have somebody to cover for me in my absence.

I was unable to use the ATM to make my withdrawal because the screen reminded me that I'd ''locked'' the card (apparently done to protect my account[s] after the September 2020 loss of my previous wallet and collection of bank & credit cards), so I went to the teller and withdrew $200, then walked the distance to the Tow Lot.

The ''visual'' damage to the motorcycle (in addition to the most obvious absence of the right mirror) was minimal, all of the electronic components were still functioning normally, and nothing felt out of alignment... even the oil level that had been a major concern appeared to be okay. The  ''but''  however involved the left braking lever, which was playing loose and the fluid appeared very low in the hazy view window.

I chose not to go anywhere except straight back to the apartment, ignoring my  ''naxopren''  pills which the hospital had prescribed, as well as the package pick-up whose attempt was responsible for all of this frustration anyway. I then informed my Supervisor about the state & condition of my motorcycle and requested that the rest of my schedule be covered so that I could have the brake problem fixed, then called ''Cycle Springs'' to ask if they could look at & address the issue, as well as perform an oil change and inspect for leakage, plus asking if they might also be able to perform any ''scheduled maintenance'' that might've been due/overdue: I was scheduled for ''Thursday'' (13th) at Noon.

October 11, 2022 (Tuesday)
23:35, Eastern Daylight Time

Called ''Dolman Law Group'' in the morning (after putting off doing so yesterday because of a Holiday I was unaware of until I'd received and returned calls from ''Amazon'' regarding an undeliverable package), only to be told that based on what I'd told them about my traffic collision they would not be able to assist me, but referred me to the ''Florida Bar,'' who said they were not in a position to help in this manner (which the call-taker explained was a common problem they had to frequently address because of misinformed referral-makers) and suggested that I look into a website which could provided legal answers to specific questions, but I wasn't informed that in order to post a question the person submitting the questions had to meet certain ''income/assets'' requirements, as it was associated with  ''Legal Aid''  services. Upon getting a sense of what financial-levels qualified to meet those acceptable requirements, I blasted through clearing my credit card debts in an attempt to decrease the amount in my checking account balance, which because of all of the past medical treatments would knock the total down by over $4,000.

I then engaged in some spot-cleaning and organizing inside the apartment throughout the day, in preparation for the next day's lease-renewal ''inspection'': I also restored the ''bathroom door'' which I'd kept in storage right after it had been originally mounted (I'd already moved the refrigerator away from the rear exit ahead of time when ''Ian'' decided to pass through, in case I'd needed to try to address any issues that might've arrived in association with him), and later in the evening I laundered my bedding and bath cloths, stealing another panty in the process as a response to whomever had left her/their clothes in ''my'' dryer by the time I was ready to use it and then after the fact when they still had not been retrieved (I was prevented from washing another load, of mainly working clothes, because someone else had come in and made use of the washers as my load was still drying. I also ''simple-repaired'' the chimes that had long-since fallen off of the ''butterfly'' wind chime however long ago that happened last year.

October 12, 2022 (Wednesday)
20:30, Eastern Daylight Time

Continued to finish-up on clearing & organizing the apartment in anticipation of the Property Manager's inspection visit, once again cheat-coding by gathering together all of the paper records I'd still been in the process of clearing & sorting and storing them back inside the storage closet, only this time now all centralized within the same box which I'm now certain I'll not lose track of again. I also removed all of the panties I'd stolen from the laundry room off of my bathroom wall & mirrors and stored them away temporarily.

As I was preparing the computer systems for restoration back into their designated spots, I continued trying to connect & set-up the ''6-core'' dormant machine in hopes of preparing for use as a  ''Linux''  machine, something behind the power switch to the ''power supply'' on the rear of the unit had an electrical blowout, which rendered the entire device inoperable. I could not guess with any certainty what might have led to that result: initially I'd chalked it up to its just having been a bad factory configuration (for which I could find support in the fact that it had always caused me any number of operational problems ever since I'd acquired it), but then, because of the slimy feel of a number of the cords in the back, if it might not have been the result of (or contribution from) all of the disinfectant chemical spraying I'd been doing each time I was faced with tackling the wall mold problems. In any event, its [seemingly complete?] destruction simplified everything in the area which allowed me to streamline the station set-up; this also forced me to reconsider parting with the old ''former business leased'' ''hp'' that had remained set-up in the ''living room,'' figuring that I could yet again switch out the internal components from that machine and try designating that one as my ''Linux Box,'' hoping that  ''mageia''  will be able to establish itself onto it (considering that I could never get the  ''kubuntu''  distribution to complete its installation upon it) ~ I've still not attempted to regain access to the laptop as of late.

As the last thing on my To-Do list, I laundered all of my work pants (except of course the one hanging in the closet that is still in need of having one of its belt loops mended). The basket of dried clothes from the previous night were still sitting out as I'd left them in their clothes basket, only this time I did not try to use that as an excuse to steal anymore panties, as they were taking up any of the washer/dryer units to which I'd needed access.

By time 16:00 or so approached, I was ready to accept the fact that I would not be getting that inspection visit after all, for whatever reason I was never alerted to, neither as a ''reminder'' or as a ''rescheduling'' call. All the same, its anticipation was the jolt of motivation I'd needed for me to kick myself into gear and the seriously address what I'd been allowing to get beyond my control for far too long.

October 13 - 16, 2022 (Thursday-Sunday)
Extended ''Weekend in Review''

Missed my scheduled motorcycle service appointment  Thursday (Oct. 13),  because I hadn't bothered with inputting the date/time in my phone, which I'm continually viewing as a major waste of time anyway, and I'd wound-up waking-up just mere minutes from when I should've already dropped off the vehicle, so I rescheduled for the following morning.

As though as having been done on cosmic purpose, this oversight alerted me to yet another in-my-face ant invasion, this time taking place in two separate spots at and near the base inside of the bathroom window.

I spent part of the remainder of the day beginning to cannibalize parts from the supposed ''6-core'' machine to transfer to the ''intel'' former-lease machine.

The next morning  (Fri., Oct. 14),  I once again missed my motorcycle service appointment, only this time it was as a result of more of a decision than an oversight. As I'd already pre-planned, I rode out to the Post Office, which I hadn't bother to venture to since the date of the accident occurrence, to retrieve my ''Amazon Vine'' shipments ahead of riding all the way out to Clearwater to spend God only knows how much of the day, and admittedly to contemplate trying to make use of the  ''prosthetic breasts''  I'd ordered as an assist in those times when I'd be required to utilize the public restroom facilities. But as I was traveling on the rode I realized that the looseness of the problematic braking lever had stiffened during the time it had remained set & stationary since having parked it in its space, although it still had some ''give'' and the braking itself felt weak, suggesting that the brake pads were possibly also in need of replacing outright anyway. So part of the rest of the day, when I wasn't sleeping, was spent testing & reviewing my Amazon haul and fiddling around with computer parts.

Searched online while at work  Sunday (Oct. 16),  to see who if anybody had any potatoes on sale, so I could use them to test out the kitchen utensil items I'd ordered from ''Vine,'' even as I scoured Amazon's site to request a few more items through the service. Then after work I pit-stopped into ''Little-54'' Walmart to get some sandwich/salad fixin's for my next work lunch and a later Asia-inspired stir-fry later in the week, as wall as a couple of cases of that  Lipton's ''Georgia Peach''  iced tea (which I'd also confirmed the stocking of when I'd conducted the potato search), for the purpose of blending it in with that powdered garbage to make it more palatable, then continued to the ''Winn-Dixie'' for my potatoes and snow crabs (both of which I'd discovered were on sale during my search at work) along with a few produce items that were out of stock at Walmart, plus a few other incidental items to help complete tuna sandwich preparations for later.

October 21, 2022 (Friday)
19:25, Eastern Daylight Time

I woke-up with a headache for the first time in seems-like forever, which played out as though it were a harbinger of the headaches that were to follow.

I rode out to claim the latest shipments of my ''Amazon Vine'' orders, which finally found not only the Police citation that was filed against me, but also a couple of commercial post cards from two different ''Vultures'' drooling over the idea of enticing me to utilize their services for driver training courses.

Instead of heading straight back to the apartment, I decided to double-back to the funeral home on the corner where I'd gotten plowed to inquire as to whether their property might have by any chance had any surveillance cameras that could've possibly installed in such a way as to notice any activity in the area of the intersection, but I was of course informed that none of their cameras were positioned in such a way to include such a view. Then, again instead of returning directly back to the apartment, I quickly decided to turn back around and see if the apartment complex across the street from the funeral parlor might've had such cameras; but I chose not to wait for the office manager to get done with whomever she was engaging in [business-related?] conversation with and decided to call later, having called the number only once and not receiving an answer -- I then made the decision to wait until Monday to try calling again.

October 23, 2022 (Sunday)
15:20, Eastern Daylight Time

Replaced the mirrors on the motorcycle after my lunch break at the jobsite -- they're similar to the ones that had originally come installed on it when I'd originally purchased it, but these ones proved less flexible & stable, required some getting re-accustomed to, and altered the wind fluttering dynamics of my signal panties so that they would require some readjusting of their own in order to get them to ''fly right'' like I want them.

I received a text from my Mother informing me that my Sister had texted her saying that she suspects that my Dad's household has been afflicted with the C-19 coronavirus; I called his household from the jobsite later, only to get his wife and speak exclusively with her, as she said he was sleeping: according to her, she'd gotten her vaccinations up to date, but said that he had been stubbornly refusing to get himself vaccinated -- still she suspects that he may recover from the illness, although I'd expressed my concerns about ''Long COVID'' symptoms even if he does eliminate the virus from his system.

October 27, 2022 (Thursday)
20:15, Eastern Daylight Time

My ophthalmological follow-up exam determined that the eye drops I'd been prescribed were effective in reducing the pressure inside, but this also meant that I'll now be forever dependent on the prescribed medication.

After the eye visit I claimed my latest ''Amazon Vine'' delivered items and then rode out againg to the apartment complex on the corner where I got hit in traffic to inquire about any surveillance cameras they might possibly have that hopefully could've caught the actual sequence of events leading to my getting stuck at that intersection, only to find the leasing office closed until a later announced time.

I then planned on continuing on from there to ''Domino's,'' not really so much because of actually craving anything from there but mainly as an excuse to take advantage of the current  5% ''cash back''  promotion being offered by ''Sam's Club's''  ''MasterCharge'' -- instead, I diverted my attention into the local ''Dollar Tree'' to try to find my cinnamon-flavored toothpaste, which the store on ''Florida Highway 54'' did not have in stock (so I can stop brushing with just baking soda, which I've been doing now for about the past couple of weeks, which totally disgusts me): while there, I again perused their DVD/BD pile as well and found among the chaotic mess a collection of televised song performances of  Nat ''King'' Cole,  which I decided to purchase for my mother, who's a fan.

In frustration with myself, I yet again decided to put-off trying to contact the apartments at the vehicular strike intersection... its as though I've already convinced myself that my efforts constitute a lost cause anyway.

A new ''pest war'' is also underway now that I've kept the apartment shut-up during these periods of chillier weather, only this time it's those and torturously inexplicably evasive  fruit flies,  which seemed to have all the good sense to effectively leave me alone all throughout the Summer months! This was also when I'd learn that the alternative insect spray I'd purchased when I'd first invested in those gel ''ant baits'' is utterly useless!

Also finally put the finishing touches on my back-up computer transfer: the only thing left is to make myself comfortable enough to actually turn the cursed thing on and start getting it set-up.

October 28 - 31, 2022 (Friday-Monday)
''Extended End-of-the-Month 'Holiday' Post-Weekend in Review''

Friday (Oct. 28)  I tried to place another call to the on-site office of the apartment complex on corner where I'd gotten run into, and probably would have left a message on their voicemail had it not been for the fact that the introduction message just droned on and on and with the speech being a severely stunted extemporaneous prattle which would have benefited greatly if it had instead been read from a prepared script.

After the again missed connection I spent LITERALLY over an hour on the phone (all but the final five or ten minutes after having been transferred to the ''Partner Provider's'' call center) with a representative from my health insurance provider trying to get information on locating an in-network Optometrist, finally being provided (by the aforementioned ''Partner'' rep) with three local providers. The time-consuming and frustrating experience was enough to quite possibly inspire me to drop this  ''Ambetter-than-Nothing''  joke and perhaps considering making a transition over to a different, albeit more expensive, insurance provider during ''HealthCare.Gov's'' ''Open Enrollment'' plan renewal.

Finally decided to take advantage of that ''dining cash-back'' incentive of my MasterCard before the perk ran out, which only had the effect of inspiring me to finally come to the decision and realization that I now needed to shut the lid on anymore ''commercial chain'' pizza restaurants, especially since this last experience proved so dissatisfying.

While inspecting some occasional electronic-sounding popping noises that seemed to be emanating from around my wiring array associated with my main computer set-up, I used one of my ''Vine'' flashlights to check around the area where the noise seemed to be coming from and was able to observe that there was yet again another accumulation of water that appeared to be seeping out from underneath the floorboards, but this time with no evidence of it being the result of ''sweating'' down from the walls, and fortunately not pooling & spreading out across the floor as was the previous situation.

I also reached the point where I'd finally tired of waiting around for this supposed apartment inspection to take place, so I was finally moved to restore the refrigerator back to its preferred location next to the sink/cabinets where I've always kept it.

Saturday (Oct. 29)  saw the first day I took full notice of my arms' ability to finally be able to exhibit their full range of motion without any amount of resisting or hindering pain while I was showering in advance of preparing for work. Though this fact was still not a reflection of an unlimited and absolute full recovery to what was once their unrestricted normal operations, as shards of pain continue to be an issue especially in the left shoulder region, mainly during ''lying-down'' periods, especially when attempting to rest that arm in an ''above-the-head'' position, and at times when laterally trying to lift the arm, for all intents and purposes, it can be said that my post-overexertion repair is almost completely at full recovery.

Had the most hellatious and frightening time trying to stay alert on the road after work  Monday (Oct. 31),  to the point where I was seriously becoming concerned that I might actually blank-out long enough to have resulted in a tragic incident -- running into a ditch at best; running into traffic at worst: had it not been for the periodic mandatory stops at various intersections... I'm just saying. I barely managed well enough to finally make it to ''Sam's Club'' where, primarily motivated by a desire to consider a ''King Crab'' purchase, I'd acquired a pack of Mahi-steaks, something called ''brioche'' hamburger buns (in lieu of the availability of  Arnold (Oroweat) ''Health Nut''  bread), a carton of golden kiwis, and settling for a pack of lesser-expensive Snow Crab.

Again, I deemed myself way too tired-- and too 'defeated' --to bother calling the apartment complex where I'd gotten plowed into, also delaying calling to schedule an appointment with any of the optometrists from the list I'd been given.

November 1 - 3, 2022 (Tuesday-Thursday)
''[rest of the] Week in Review''

Tuesday (Nov. 1)  saw me finally getting around to emptying my deep fryer for cleaning and hopefully eventual selling-off, in line with my decision to discontinue its use altogether, opting to henceforth perform any future deep/semi-deep frying attempts using the pan method.

In reviewing my emails, this was also when I was smacked backwards with the revelation that the next rental renewal for a basic bottom-tier Post Office Box is now going to cost an a outrageous $160! ($166, to be exact) -- which was enough to result in my no longer feeling guilty over using the address to send all of my ''Amazon'' parcels.

Wednesday (Nov. 2)  I decided to restore the panties I'd stolen from the laundry back to where I'd had them displayed in the bathroom, as well as returning the sandwich bag packed full of colorful used tampon applicators I'd collected from my time working at my previous jobsite in ''Town 'n' Country.''

A few hours later, as if to taunt me about all of the ''restoration'' activities I was putting back into effect, I'd received (or just noticed?) a text from the Property Management Office ''reminding'' me that I'd not yet submitted my series of ''apartment inspection'' photos ahead of my lease renewal... something that I'd replied to stating that I'd been informed that I was supposed to have a ''visitation'' inspection to handle all of that for me, but in scrolling through the history of texts I then realized that the Office had indeed informed me/us of one of their staff resigning which left them short-staffed, thus they requested our ''assistance'' to gather & submit those images on their behalf: the reason I'd missed it was because that message had been sent a day right after ''Hurricane Ian'' had passed through, and I thought the message was in response to that, asking if we had any storm-related damage to report. In any case, I simply replied back mentioning my earlier understanding of the request and left it at that for the time being -- of course there was still no information within the text I'd received to indicate whether or not I was able to achieve a decrease in my inflated rent for the new lease period.

In trying to scrub off the price sticker residue off of the sealing wrap of Nat Cole DVD case I had to reluctantly remove the seal because I'd erroneously believed that no water would be able to get through it: this thus resulted in my being able to take a peek at the DVD contents of what I'd be sending my Mother.

I received a text from the Property Management Office on  Thursday (Nov. 3)  reiterating that they'd had one of their staff quit on them, but stated that a new hire was slated to start sometime next week and that they would reschedule the inspection around this accordingly.

I would also learn, due to a damp mattress, that the leak from the south wall had spread outward, and again it appeared that the water was creeping from around the base board until I decided to take snapshots of the incident to submit to the Property Managers to have them check on, whereupon it was determined that this was once again a case of the walls ''sweating,'' which was also once again spurring another mold resurfacing, which I quickly tackled with almost wanton abandon.

Later in the day I finally decided to address one of the pair of window blinds in the outer room that had long been in need having a couple of cracked spots patched-up; I then turned my attention to the bathroom sinks cabinet, intending to ''wood stain'' it, only to then opt for getting some use out of my cans of spray paint and using those instead. Why I'd purchased a can of ''black'' paint, I have no recollection, but I found myself accidentally using that one for the cabinet doors & trim, then used the ''brown'' stuff (which I'd originally purchased to paint the bedroom base boards with, leaving all but the south wall untouched) to paint the ''outside'' portion of the bedroom door. Both of those actions were done to address and correct visible spots of damage: in the case of the bathroom, to cover over a discolored water-damaged spot which had been there for God only knows how long before I'd moved in which I'd managed to uncover some months back after removing the white plastic facades after they began failing; for the bedroom door, the intent was to aid in covering over the ''rip'' around the doorknob that was the result of our last clueless ''maintenance'' guy when tried to drill out the knob housing hole.

November 4 - 6, 2022 (Friday-Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

Decided to  ''Take the L''  on  Friday (Nov. 4)  and ''acknowledge'' (not, ''accept'') defeat by going out to the County 'Judicial Center' and paying that erroneously-applied traffic fine. In reaction to the wrongness of the assessment, rather than paying it off using the credit card, despite the ''cash back'' perk, I submitted the payment using a ''personal check,'' upon which I'd made a notation in & around the ''Memo'' space that I was submitting the payment [quote] ''under EXTREME PROTEST'' [unquote] ~ explaining that I was being penalized for a wrong that had actually been done against me and not the other way around.

Before returning to the apartment, I stopped into the Post Office to renew my P.O. Box, then once back inside I called to schedule an appointment with one of the Optometrists from my list, after confirming with the receptionist that they did indeed accept my ''insurance.''

In testing out my collection of USB recharging cords at the jobsite the previous weekend, I'd brought them all inside the apartment with me, and as a result had inadvertently forgotten to bring one of the AC adapters to work with me  Saturday (Nov. 5),  which resulted in my draining down the battery in my phone almost to completion, forcing me to disconnect from all online network access tied to the Internet or online apps (ironically, I'd just placed an online order on ''Walmart's'' website for a couple of compatible (supposedly 'genuine' OEM replacement/backup batteries just about a quarter-hour past 12-Noon).

Received a $5 ''tip'' or ''reward'' (I guess) for standing watch at a street-parking location next to my jobsite for about an entire hour while waiting on Tampa Police to swing by to investigate the situation involving an ''Alfa Romeo'' which I'd come across with its passenger door flung wide open. The vehicle owners were adamant that they had shut all of the doors properly and felt certain that they had also locked the car before walking off. I speculated that what had likely happened was that someone had been walking along the sidewalk ''testing'' doors and managed to find theirs unlocked, but then must've gotten spooked by someone (s)he saw in the area approaching before having a chance to go through the interior, as would seem supported by the fact that the owners claimed that nothing inside was amiss. Thus resulting in their showing their appreciation with their ''Buy-Yourself-A-Coffee'' monetary gift.

In looking throughout all of the various locations I could think of in trying to find a spare USB adapter that someone might have had left lying around at my jobsite  Sunday (Nov. 6),  I finally found in the very last place I'd intended on investigating a lobby-monitoring 'webcam-like' thingy that someone had placed ''lens-down'' on the table, which exposed the back of the device where I took notice of the pair of USB ports, whereupon I retrieved my charging cord to test whether it would work or not: I was surprised that it did work to generate a charge on my phone... the only problem was that it would have taken all of five-plus hours to complete the process; so I traced the cam wire to see where it led, and found that it was completely detachable from a free-standing AC adapter, which I requisitioned and began recharging my phone in the place where I take my ''lunch breaks,'' reducing my recharging time back down to two-ish plus hours (since there were no other attachments or connections, I'd assumed that the camera operated on that ''Bluetooth'' thingamajig).

It was during the recharging process that I visited ''Amazon'' to look into those  ''GoPro''  dashcam/helmetcam things when I'd again gotten the impulse to check the status of my  ''Injustice''  DVD movie order, which seemed to be running late, as I'd discovered a day or two ago: but this time, when I examined the details much more closely, I realized that the order was placed, and supposedly shipped, over a year ago!

After messing around on their website, getting a run-around of automated non-answers for something like 10 or 15 minutes, I tracked down a Customer Service number and ended up wasting another 22+ minutes of not getting any answers because they could not get access to my account.

That whole ''moving the clock back'' thing caught me completely unawares, which I'd only gotten alerted to when I heard my ''departure time'' alarm going off in my pocket as I'd gotten stuck at a heavily backed-up traffic intersection on ''Dale Mabry'' while on my trek back to the worksite: had it been just another ordinary day, I'd have definitely arrived to the jobsite late because of how badly traffic was congested due to its being a football ''home game'' day.

On my way to get myself checked-in, I again ran across the parking attendant whom I'd engaged in conversation with the previous weekend, and who had given me her phone number number as she was leaving at the end of her shift that day, and we chatted a bit until it was actually time for me to clock-in, then a while later, again as she was leaving for her home (''Spring Hill''), she stopped by and again engaged me in conversation, lasting almost to my ''lunch break'' time... at one point making it apparent that she might be open to a ''movie night'' during one of our mutual days off. I told her that I would try to send her an ''SMS email'' to her text number: my goal in doing so being having the opportunity to converse in email exchange via my account where my signature sign-off highlights my unambiguous ''Pussy-Eating Passion''... which I'd always kept managing to drop throughout points in our conversations.

During my break time, I again contacted ''Amazon,'' and after over 40-minutes on the phone line between two different representatives, I was compensated for my year-long lost delivery with a ''refund'' in the form of a ''Gift Card'' store credit that was somehow effected by manipulating one of my earlier shoes purchase returns. In any event, they could not simply dispatch a new item out to me instead.

November 7 - 10, 2022 (Monday-Thursday)
''Week in Review''

Did some shopping at ''Publix'' (@Seven Springs) after work  Monday (Nov. 7),  grabbing the items I'd pre-selected from a makeshift ''grocery list'' I'd put together using snapshots I'd taken of their weekly ad while at work, then immediately after dropping those items off at the Apartment went back out to pick-up my pre-order from ''Sam's Club,'' which consisted of two more packages of Snow Crab, a box of frozen battered chicken for (supposedly) 'Orange Chicken' base, another package of shredded cheese, and a box of straight-on ''potato chips'' (finally making the wise decision to eliminate those ''mixed assortment'' headaches out of the equation).

I tried calling my Dad's household again, only to yet again find myself getting put off by that wife of his -- by 'text' no less: I texted back saying that I'd try to call sometime during the following day.

From there, I called my Mother and stayed in each other's ear 'til just past Midnight.

As that call was drawing to a close, I decided to finally turn on the back-up computer station in the front room, but was having difficulty getting anything started, so I settled on letting it run through ''Memory Test'' diagnostics, and chose to remain in the area, eventually deciding to sleep there on the unfolded couch, as the process was ongoing -- trying to listen to simultaneously listen to  Keith Olbermann's  podcast playing from inside the bedroom.

Barely arrived ''on-time'' to my Optician appointment  Tuesday (Nov. 8),  where I had to challenge the examining Doctor on giving me matching vision on both lenses, as he was trying to convince me somehow that my  ''myopic''  eye's ''distance vision'' correction should've be completely ignored and that focus (no pun intended) should've been placed on the ''sick'' eye with the supposed ''good'' vision because of the post-cataract implanted replacement lens: on top of which, he [too] wanted to burden me with ''bifocals,'' which I'd naturally rejected after already going through one all-complicating experience with them. As my insurance coverage was being reviewed after choosing my frames, the order taker expressed to me a surprise that my particular ''vision plan'' was actually remarkably good in that it covered so much of my order... including the polycarbonate lenses that were recommended.

After the appointment, I'd intended to grab my latest order delivery waiting for me at the Post Office, but as I came upon that cursed ''4-way stop'' intersection where I'd gotten slammed, I took that opportunity to again try to visit the leasing office of the apartment complex there to inquire about the possibility of any mounted cameras that were able to capture any of the intersection and its related activity... and of course to no surprise the answer told me what I'd already strongly suspected (and I dare say, had already ''known'').

Upon leaving those premises, as I'd approached the corner, I noticed on the sole house that was on that corner something that appeared to be either a camera or a motion-detector mounted on one of its beams, at which I looped back around the block and took a chance to see if anybody was at home. I explained to the man who had answered the door that I was curious about his camera mount and asked if it by any chance viewed outward toward the intersection, to which he'd stated that it was set-up only to view activity in the front portion of his house, focusing on his entryways. After explaining why I was inquiring about this, our continued conversation revealed that the intersection in question had been a hot bed for vehicular mishaps ever since he'd been living there, mentioning that in the roughly a year of his occupancy he'd observed that some form of vehicular accident had occurred there or somewhere very near that immediate area at least  NINE (9)  times, mentioning that he'd even observed the situation involving my own accident, which he said he'd witnessed only after the fact, thus denying me a hopeful [and 'impartial'] ''eyewitness'' of my own.

Among my mail was a (it better be) ''final bill'' from the hospital relating to the post-accident check-up: my attempt to pay the bill on-site was halted when I was informed that they would/could not accept payments on-location, but that I'd have to submit such payments online instead.

Back at the Apartment, I sent a text to Martha and Vikki along with a snapshot I'd taken of myself inside the optical center to show-off my newest glasses frames. Later in the evening, I ordered a new motorcycle helmet for myself: because this one was a model from an entirely different manufacturer, due to my current one no longer being available, I opted in this case to use my credit card ''Rewards Points'' to cover the cost -- essentially not really losing any money should I later determine that I'm unsatisfied with the substitution.

Tried paying that hospital bill online, but kept getting blocked from proceeding because their stupid website expects that everyone who uses their services naturally has an ''account'' with their system.

Spent a second night in the front room while computer memory testing was still in operation into  Wednesday Morning (Nov. 9). Eventually, I began to wonder just how long the testing process was actually supposed to take, so I finally decided to search for information online and learned that the test would keep making ''passes'' cycling automatically in perpetuity until manually deactivated. At some point afterward, I then attempted to install a fresh  ''Windows 7'''  operating system, only to have the process halted because of possibly the internal board battery being drained.

I also took the opportunity to pay my credit cards off early ahead of the impending Hurricane, despite having a few charges still on ''pending'' status, and then texted Mom and Vikki.

I'd also made the decision to finally contact the part-time Parking Attendant from my place of work to try to follow-up on any potential interest that might exist. I also attempted to conduct a 'reverse number' search and came across a possible name match for someone named, ''Paula,'' but could not confirm anything beyond this one hit which appeared on an inactive unused ''Pinterest'' page.

The storm  Thursday (Nov. 10)  managed to dislodge one of my larger wind chimes and a couple of unripe papayas, but other than a flash power outage ''blip,'' there was no real damage or other related complications.

I also texted ''Mimi'' in order to get a sense of her location status, under the guise of inquiring if she was here locally taking on the storm directly or if she was still in New York doing her gig there to face the storm's remnants there: she texted back stating that she was in Florida, vaguely insinuating that she's back in the area for the long stay.

November 14 - 17, 2022 (Monday-Thursday)
''Week in Review''

Returned to the Post Office later in the day  Monday (Nov. 14)  to claim a package I was informed had been delivered only to find no package waiting for me. On the return back to the apartment I was smacked with the unceremonious announcement that  ''Who?Tube''  had COMPLETELY scrubbed my established channel and participatory access to the site -- all of this because of ''multiple copyright strikes'' after no alerts about any such ''violation'' for over month, and despite the fact that NONE of the uploads had been rejected during the posting process!

After retrieving my delivered package(s)  Tuesday (Nov. 15),  which included the paired set of garden hose nozzles I'd ordered through ''Amazon Vine,'' I tested them against the one I'd bought for my own selfish use after a contracted ''Power Washer'' took off with the original one that had been onsite at least since my arrival & residency, and decided to leave the poorest performing one attached to the hose for the purpose of common use among the residents.

''Who?Tube''  continued to take a ''don't give a shit'' attitude by repeatedly sending the same brush-off automated message, obviously without anyone even bothering to address the questions regarding not only why the supposedly ''offending'' uploads had been both ''accepted without notice'' and allowed to remain without issue for over a month but also why the channel/account could not have just been  ''temporarily suspended''  to allow time to either dispute the decision or remove the supposedly ''violating'' content!

So rather than continuing to play the runaround game, I simply decided to accept the loss and reapplied for a new ''Goo-Goo'' account: and while admittedly the new account name I'd decided on was actually much closer in euphony to what I was trying to evoke in the ''Play-on-Words'' aspect of my original account, it still lacked the overall more accurately descriptive implications which I was able to evoke with the old account name. Even so, I still could have re-established the new ''channel name'' under the one I'd established it under originally, due to how ''Who?Tube'' now allows channels to self-identify, but I chose to go with the ''updated/modified'' name anyway, just to avoid any further potential issues that possibly could arise.

I woke up relatively late in the morning  Wednesday (Nov. 16)  to try to rapid-clean/organize my immediate surroundings in preparation for the apartment inspection, during which time I finally tried once again to reactivate the laptop and was surprised to find that it started itself back up with nary a problem (this would even prove to be the case later in the day after disengaging it into, and reawakening it from, ''Hibernation'' mode): but it still posed a problem in that it still for some unknown reason could not connect me to the Internet, nor launch any of the ''Screen Savers'' save for ''Picture Slideshow'' mode.

Again, someone at the Property Manager's Office texted me, proclaiming yet again another need to ''reschedule'' for my apartment inspection, then yet again requested that I take time out of my personal routine to essentially do  ''their''  job for them by instructing me to take and submit a series of snapshots from around the apartment, but continued to be repeatedly vague about what details they were particularly interested in... even after I'd again asked for at least some specifics, other than some general non-committal,  ''take pictures of each room of your apartment.'' So since they were refusing to provide me with specifics of any sort, I simply took matters into my own hands and took snapshots of pretty much anything and everything that was either originally part of the apartment prior to my having moved in, or those ''alterations'' (permanent or temporary) I'd effected during my stay here.

Paid my Electricity balance plus for what I'd estimated would be sufficient to cover next year's projected usage, factoring in all the rising costs that are already showing signs of being implemented, literally just minutes before the ''deadline'' ended at Midnight.

Finally decided to order my 100% Kona coffee from Home after waking-up  Thursday (Nov. 17),  only to learn that the brand (and in the quantity) I'd wanted was no longer available! Because of this, I began seriously reconsidering whether or not to follow-through with my intended online purchases of Trappist Fruitcake and/or Baklava Tray.

Began the process earlier in the day of resizing the snapshots taken from around the apartment, despite battling through an aggravating mini-migraine. Initially, the transmission of the image files I'd sent late in the night failed despite the file size reductions, because their cheap email service couldn't handle around 140 individual image files, so I had to resort to sending them broken down into  multiple  emails, deciding upon 15-individual transmissions to consist of 10 attached images per page across 14 sends, capped-off by one ''text'' message.

November 18 - 20, 2022 (Friday-Sunday)
''Weekend in Review''

I finished rifling off the multiple ''apartment images'' attachment emails to the Property Management's Office well past the Midnight mark  Friday (Nov. 18),  which ended with the inclusion of the original list of items I'd tacked onto my first transmission attempt that addressed the several aspects of the apartment that had remained unresolved issues that I'd largely ignored and operated around, which I'd really included as more of a cathartic move -- sort of a slap-back at the steep increase in rent and the essentially forcing me to do their job for them re: the ''lease-renewal inspection'' photographs! After that had been completed, I proceeded to revert to the altered state of things back to where they'd reflected my preferred arrangement of things that I'd adopted to suit my personal aesthetic tastes.

Amazingly, my laptop is still behaving somewhat normally, but I still had not been able to reconnect online, so on  Saturday (Nov. 19),  I decided again to reinstall the Operating software afresh, this time while keeping it connected to the Internet Ethernet, in hopes that that might solve those and perhaps other issues... it didn't, so I just put it in ''Hibernation'' until a later time.

Saturday also turned out to be the first ''heavy coat'' day of the year, followed by the same  Sunday (Nov. 20),  on which date I also broke out the ''electric blanket'' for bed rest time before returning to an almost persistent rainy workday.

November 21, 2022 (Monday)
20:50, Eastern Standard Time

Retrieved my latest deliveries from the Post Office after work, swapped-out the old shower curtain for the new one that had just arrived, tested & switched-out some of the twisty fluorescent light bulbs for the large-ass and barely able to fit LED bulbs before making my way to the optometrist to receive my new glasses prescription, getting pissed yet again not only over how the examining doctor was trying to insist on correcting the vision on ONLY the ''bum'' almost completely useless left eye (not to mention being yet another in a long string of Optometrists trying to pressure me into ''bifocals''), but also wishing nasty thoughts at the last Optometrist who saw me in Hawaii who prescribed the prescriptions I'd been struggling with through all these years since leaving Home which had me believing all this time that I was having such problems seeing clearly and properly out of them because my eye health and vision had all gone to shit, only to learn with this new prescription (again, which I ''INSISTED'' on!) that it was in fact the Optometrist in Hawaii who had fucked-up my clear-vision prescription! ~ Now, with this updated prescription, I no longer necessarily have hold things practically up against my nose in order to somewhat clearly see and read things up-close, as I'm now able to comfortably make out much of what I'm looking at in close/reading distance without even needing to remove my eyeglasses... AS HAD ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE since I'd first started wearing these cursed things way back in Junior-fucking-High-School!!! When shit like this gets found out, it almost makes me want to lay off of the MAGA/Q anti-vax crybabies... or my Doctor-avoiding Dad.

Received a text from Property Management regarding my lease renewal, asking if I'd preferred having the contract e-mailed or snail-mailed -- I replied back stating that I'd rather take care of those issues in-person, also inquiring about the possibility of doing a repeat of the ''two-year lease'': (still ''radio silence'' on whether any rent increase reduction requests were approved).

Determined to have my 100% Kona coffee, I decided to try to find a different brand and supplier other than ''Lion'' / ''Hawaii Coffee Company,'' and found some operation calling itself ''CoffeeAM,'' which sold its own brands of International coffees in ''pound-size'' bags, but which when tallied cost more than ''Lion'' -- which was still limited to only individual 7-oz. bag purchases. I'd finally decided to proceed with the ''Lion Coffee'' purchase despite not being able to get the ''paired-items'' discount, but completely shot down that idea when their checkout refused to accept any of the coupon/promo codes I'd supplied -- including the one they'd emailed me directly in exchange for adding me to their emailing list... so I reverted back to ''CoffeeAM'' and used their 10% off ''first-timer'' discount code, which in the end only translated in knocking $7.50 off of their assessed $11 ''shipping'' charge.

In the end, it would be the outrageously high 'no-free options' shipping charges that would result in my canceling the orders I'd tried to place immediately afterwards for the Trappist Monk fruitcake that I hadn't ordered since my last attempt in Hawaii (which was also in response to new 'shipping' guidelines) and for the Baklava tray that was always a favorite of mine.

November 22, 2022 (Tuesday)
00:15 (Wed., 11/23), Eastern Standard Time

Arrived to the Property Management Office around Noon or slightly before to sign my renewed lease paperwork and cut them the full two-year's amount, but was reminded in a follow-up text after I'd left that I'd forgotten to include the $39 amount for that bullshit ''renewal fee,'' which they gave me the option to submit at a later date (I figure they should've just waived it altogether, because it's totally bogus).

From there I tried to locate a place called, ''Sam's New York Pizza'' on 'Little Road,' which I'd learned about a week ago while at work when I was conducting an online search for possible ''New York style'' pies closer to home so that I would not have to be required to visit the place in ''Ybor.'' I kept passing it so much, not seeing it from the roadside at the location I was certain it should've been (because of the absence of any signage) until I resorted to  ''Goo-Goo Maps''  GPS to finally direct me there. The pie was okay and close to what I'd hoped it would be, but I found it lacking, mainly in its overly chewy texture, but also its quick loss of flavor... but it only ended-up costing me $13, rather than the $16 I thought it would be.

The apartment became an instant mess all over again, partially because of my running around and package delivery accumulations and the like. At some point during that time, I sent ''pix-texts'' both to ''Parking Gal'' and ''Mimi'' informing them both of my lease renewal status (blatantly reminding Mimi that such would continue to make me available to  ''Polish Her Pearl''  -- my new euphemism to describe the act of licking & sucking on her Clit).

Finally had to remove my ''retro-looking'' clock/radio because of its degraded malfunctioning of turning itself on or not allowing itself to be shut off properly: I'm considering taking it apart to see if anything can be manipulated or adjusted inside that might correct the issue, because I definitely do not want to toss it, even if it does keep poor time.

November 28 - 30, 2022 (Monday-Wednesday)
season-completion ''Week in Review''

Finally gave in and decided to order my fruitcake from the Trappist Monks at ''Gethsemani'' while still at work  Monday (Nov. 28),  only to back-out at the last second after being faced with a $16 ''shipping'' charge! Still determined to have a fruitcake this year, I searched online for an alternative and not really feeling confident in any of the available choices: I finally settled on the one produced by the Monks of ''Assumption Abbey'' (which I'd had once before in Hawaii, but was not all that taken with), first with the intent of purchasing it through ''Amazon,'' where I could get it with ''free shipping,'' but then (at the mention of one of the ''reviewers'') I decided to check out the product's availability on the Abbey's own website, where I found that I could get the same item not only with its own ''free shipping'' incentive but also at a lower price in entirety. Then I followed-through on  Tuesday (Nov. 29)  to give-in to order my ''Shatila'' baklava tray, despite the hard decision to accept the $11 shipping charge. All told, these will  probably  be my final time placing such orders -- only the ''coffee'' is going to be the tough thing to completely back-out on.

Just prior to leaving the worksite Monday was also when my ''stupidphone,'' for whatever reason, began glitching-out on me, mainly refusing to connect to certain apps and Internet paths, which I'd finally managed to trace back to the automatically-updated ''Time-&-Date'' function inexplicably falling out of sync, and things would not return to ''normal'' unless I reset everything ''manually'' and kept the 'automated' feature switched off.

Finally left the apartment  Wednesday (Nov. 30),  to deliver that B.S. ''lease-renewal fee'' to the Property Management Office, then decided to pay a second visit to ''Sam's Pizza'' for another try, this time with the request to have it cooked an extra bit longer, half of which I ate on-site, noticing the improvement in the crust with the additional time in the oven, but still finding that the pie itself was not really anything spectacular enough to keep me coming back.

On my way back to the apartment I had yet another encounter of some jackass about plowing into me at one of this stupid city's ubiquitous new ''4-way'' stops -- this time just two blocks away from my residence where they put that ridiculously placed feature on the ''Main Street'' intersection! ~ again, involving a ''left turn'' on my part, after I'd once again clearly come to a FULL STOP! ... only this time, the disrespectful and/or inattentive ass-wipe was going to plow into me going straight on! And again, because of my stubborn insistence on ''being 'RIGHT','' I could've once again fallen victim to somebody else's stupidiocy! If these are not the cosmic call to push me toward trying to protect myself with a  ''Go-Pro''  or some similar sort of recording device....

---

ARCHIVES

* ''5-Year Archive'': Autumn 2001 - Winter 2006 *
* ''5-Year Archive'': Winter 2006 - Winter 2011 *
* ''5-Year Archive'': Winter 2011 - Winter 2016 *
* ''5-Year Archive'': Winter 2016 - Winter 2021 *

Winter 2021 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2022 (Mar-May) / Summer 2022 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2022 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2022 (Dec-Feb) / Spring 2023 (Mar-May) / Summer 2023 (Jun-Aug) / Autumn 2023 (Sep-Nov) / Winter 2023 (Dec-Feb)

((Return To ''Current'' Page))