Shirtless Neighbor

I went to a senior center here in my burb just 8 miles away from downtown Raleigh. This senior center made me realize I am not a true senior here, only in the number. 

Rick and I wondered, "At what age do we become that type of senior?"   

I don't know the answer to that. 

This place I moved to was a choice only because we could not afford to stay where we were and retire. As I have told you all too many times we did not wish to move, we had to move. Rick and I lost our jobs at age 50 and 51. My pension was taken, you've seen it all on TV so I won't repeat. So there we were at age 50 and 51 with no jobs and highly skilled which means absolutely nothing. Thankfully we had very healthy savings, if we hadn't we'd have been homeless.

Rick's last interview he made the mistake of saying something that the young girl said, "oh my dad and grandpa say that all the time" 

He knew right then he was not getting hired. It was terrible. We were going through money like water.  We had 2 homes and no income. We sold cars, possessions and homes. We did all we could to stay afloat. Sadly no one during a recession was buying vacation homes. Tried to rent it out like an air bnb and that was costly in numerous ways. Paying for millions in real estate and having no job was a whole lot of fun. We were going through our big savings quickly.

It came to a point where we had to do something. The house was for sale for a year! I cashed in my 401K as did Rick to keep us from having things taken from us. We never missed a payment and there were days I would have rather eaten than pay another 5K in mortgages. However, Rick was so adamant about not ruining our credit.

Rick's 401K started our business and that kept us going. We saved and saved and saved but knew we'd never have what we would need to retire. We knew our only option when the time came was to move. That is how we ended up here. No snow and homes were far cheaper. A blue governor and great healthcare. No traffic ( we still love that part of this area!) 

Cities we loved far more we just couldn't afford or we'd stay where we were. Or it was a very cold snowy place most of the year. Not what we wanted either. So here we are. We picked the best we could for what we could do.

We are stuck and we are trying to find our way here and make it home. 

Last night he told me this was what he ran away from when he was a kid. 

Oh, I get it. 

We both don't care for it now after 10 months. We think it should get better but we aren't banking on it. Thankfully it's not just me. (we do love the weather) 

I asked someone about a local library and was met with, "it's summer why would you want to go to a library?"  Really?  I asked someone else and was told the same thing. Pitiful but it explains a lot about the rednecks we encounter if you ask me. The only thing worse than these rednecks are northern rednecks. Yikes.

I went to our suburb's senior center. We were greeted by a nice woman who was 110 if she was a day. She was a lovely woman but not helpful. 

We asked LOUDLY about classes and lectures etc. 

Before moving here I had a neighbor (you may remember me telling you about her Alzheimers and driving) who was a lot older than me. We used to do fun things and one day she said, "I know you're not a senior but would you wish to go with me to this lecture? You'll have to pay more"  I thought it sounded fun but it was in the middle of the day. I played hooky for a few hours and went anyway.  I loved it! 

This National Geographic female photographer was interesting, funny and her photos were fabulous. I thought it was great. I went to a couple of them with her. The authors were my favorite. This type of thing I was looking for here. Granted there are not 17 Smithsonian museums and galleries here for such things but it is the state capital I thought there'd be something like this. Apparently, there are no such things at this senior center or in Raleigh. There was square dancing but we didn't think we'd hear any AC/DC there so it wasn't our cup of tea. (LOL) But she did tell us about the puppet show to bring the kids or the PreSchool theatre camp. Rick's daughter is 42 think she'll like the theatre camp?

Then Rick and I ventured over to the local Y. 

We wanted to see if there were any events there or exercise classes. 

Can we use the pool at any time or only during classes?

I need to move now that I am not on steroids and only chemo. 

I no longer have dizziness since I've stopped the steroids so I think I'm safe now.  They kept trying to get us to do a class on chair exercising. 

Oh please, if I didn't have a broken ankle I can do jumping jacks, pilates, cardio, biking etc. What the hell do they think we are? I'm not my mom yet. No such classes so we did not join. Although the pool appealed to Rick the woman made such a big friggin' deal about his age and using the pool. 

The man doesn't even have gray hair really? He can swim, slower I suppose, no longer the big high school swimmer who broke records, but he can swim for God's sake. Rick even said to her, "it's good exercise for all ages and is good and gentle on your joints." She laughed at us, the hillbilly wearing camouflage with double negative grammar laughing at us.  

We have friends coming and Rick and I wondered what we can do with them since everything is bar-related or kid related. We are stumped. How many bars must we visit? We've gone on websites, we've asked people, and I've even signed up for things hoping to get something good. All I've received are concerts, bar events and everything to bring your kids to. 

Rick and I think the only reason the big-name concerts come is that this is a big college town. Otherwise, there would be no concerts. So we thought let's see if they have something like Wolf Trap.  They do have an outdoor amphitheater but no inside the theatre seating which is still outside or a restaurant. It's more college-like than Wolf Trap. Standing or sitting on the grass. So that was out for the 4 of us.

When we first moved to DC Metro everyone wanted to come to visit. 

We didn't know anything about the places to see or the museums etc. 

We didn't even know there were 17 Smithsonian's. 

I contacted the Chamber of Commerce. They sent me a packet of goodies. They told me to check the website for coupons and events. 

In the packet were coupons for tourist attractions. There was a 2-for-one water taxi tour of the city. We used that for when our guests came. 

That was a great one. 

We were also given coupons for kid events etc. It was so helpful, it even included a walking map and a metro map (subway) I realize that is a big historic city but the packet had things for the surrounding areas too like Middleburg, Leesburg, Vienna/McLean, etc. 

I called the chamber here in my suburb and in Raleigh. 

They told me about gov't meetings etc. 

They have nothing about the city. 

They have no event or newcomer packages. 

But if interested we can go to a meeting about transportation. 

Gee no thanks, we have a car and a GPS, there is no mass transit here.

Rick and I are going to go to a nursery that has a bar later this week. 

I was happy to stroll a nursery and the whole 'make your own bouquet" is what appealed to me. I don't care about the bar. They have a ton of distilleries and breweries BBQ or biscuit places here. Not much else. 

Raleigh, unlike the burbs here, seems to be progressive in the LGBTQ community. There are a lot of those types of things to do.  We don't quite fit in but it's nice it's there. It makes sense since that generation is all about being out and proud and pronouns. It is a college town lest we forget.

Up north we went to a brunch that was so fabulous and our servers were all in drag and there was a bit of a show while dining. I wondered if they had a venue like that since the person coming loves RuPaul's Drag Race I thought it may be fun to go to a place like that for them. No such thing but the man I spoke to thought that was a wonderful idea. He was going to DC in August could I tell him the name of this place. I did. 

But I was left at a dead end...again.

They won't be here until late August so I have some time and will continue to ask everywhere we go and to everyone we meet. I've even been on reddit. But that was a rabbit hole of people who were saying the same thing as me. I saw a website of a couple from Australia who moved here and what they liked. BARS. They liked that the ocean was just 2 hrs away. Then sky bars. Geez. They did mention hiking trails and biking trails which in a boot I can't do. But I also know this is not a thing one of the people in the couple would ever wish to do. So back to square one.

I will continue searching and I pray we hit pay dirt. 

In the meantime I suggested to Rick we go visit them, it's maybe easier. 

He laughed, but I was serious.

In the meantime, we are on shirtless neighbor watch. 

We are bad people. Rick and I have made it a game. 

I have a medicine calendar on the fridge to keep track of what day is what pills etc. We put an X on the days he is without a shirt.  Granted this is his yard, but we've seen him leave in his truck without a shirt too. Where does he go shirtless other than the beach?

We are on day 62. 

No, he does not look like this.

This is more like our neighbor but without the hair on his body or head.

I know it's mean. But we get a kick out of the fact that he is always without a shirt. When we saw him shirtless in his truck we both wondered if he carries a shirt so he can go inside a store thinking, no shoes, no shirt, no service. But then we thought, maybe around here they let him in but oooh, cover it up mister, please.

Rick offered him some tomatoes and he told Rick he doesn't eat fruit and vegetables. Okay, we are not growing Doritos or pizza darn it, sorry!

He has a trailer he told us at the shore. He said he was going there for the summer since he works from home. That was on May 1st.  But we've seen him around here a bit too so when he was talking to Rick about the tomatoes Rick asked if he was no longer at the shore? He told Rick he doesn't have a washer and dryer because it's not allowed (WHAT?) so he comes back to do laundry. Are there no laundromats on the shore?   

I mean you only wear shorts and hopefully underwear so how much laundry do you have?

We wondered if he even had on underwear under his shorts. I say we wondered, it was actually Rick who brought that up and I just said, "c'mon I didn't want to picture that!"

For some reason, this amuses us. He has been shirtless since May. 

We wondered when the shirtless season ends. October? But it's still in the 70s so maybe November? Yesterday after seeing him in the rain without his shirt on we decided to pick a date. When do we think he will wear a shirt again? The winner gets whatever they want within our means of course. We have to have the date by tomorrow. I'm thinking November but early or late? I have until this evening to make my guess and put it on the calendar. Can you tell we are bored?

Then Rick suggested that when our friends are here visiting, we can show our friends how the locals live, hand them binoculars and have them look over our fence -  'there they are in their natural habitat. do not feed the locals' 😉

Good thing we amuse ourselves isn't it?