Musings of Old Man Joe

There and back again!

Personal comment

Leaving Los Angeles

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Photo by Dillon Shook on Unsplash

I decided with my wife it was time to go back to Ireland where I am from. I have been in Los Angeles for nearly thirty years and the city isn’t the same place it once was.
The Pandemic changed allot of things, I am lucky and I count my blessing that I can get out and head back to a small town for a break from the big city and the problems that are going on here.

Things weren’t that great before the pandemic hit us. I wrote about a pole that was drooping and could hurt people if they were blind and walked into it. After a month or so I took it down, The City never came to fix it and actually just complained about the way I asked them to help with said pole. So obviously there was something not that great even before Pandemic.

Of course then we had Pandemic, and the world changed. I had to take time from my job to look after my wife who wasn’t well. Then after a while we decided I should take an early retirement and we should head back to Ireland. Of course the original plan was to head back sometime next year. But fate would deal a few blows that changed our minds.

The building we live in was sold and the new owner/manager wants to do the LA thing and kick out the existing tenants, paint the place and charge a fortune. It doesn’t matter the people in my building are here on average 15-20 years. The longest has lived here about 45 years. Kicking people out of their homes is not a noble enterprise. Then new guy (I won’t use real names to be politically correct), let us just call him ASSHOLE!

So asshole started the three month retrofit during and pandemic to cut us out or our parking and make it just that bit more uncomfortable living here.
I feel like I am looking at the end of Los Angeles as I knew it, nobody I know can spend $3000 a month in rent. So it’s been harder to get things ready to leave, moving is already a stressful thing.

I left my job but needed health insurance for the last few months here. There is Cobra, which sounds great if you can afford it. But it’s even worse than you think. After you leave your job you are usually insured until the end of the month. The job has a few weeks to send the papers to the cobra people letting them know you have officially left. Then the cobra people have a few weeks to send you the papers to sign up for cobra. Then you sign up and they have another ten business days to let the health insurance company know you are paid up and they can cover you. This means it takes about a month the get the coverage with cobra, during that month you have no coverage, they back date it, but you can’t schedule appointments or get medication because you aren’t covered. So you pay a month for health insurance that doesn’t exist! Fucked up!!

I bought a car last January because at that time I was still going to be here for a few years. The Title for the car had the wrong address on it so of course I didn’t get it. I found this out about eight weeks ago when you could still actually call the DMV after only a two hour wait. Today I would forget it as I have been on hold with them the last week for about six hours and no joy. Happily I am also a AAA person and boy did it save my life this time. I was able to get my business done with a real person, Go figure!!

On reflection I am glad I gave myself the time to get ready, because if I was in a rush I wouldn’t have had enough time and I wouldn’t be ready when I am supposed to leave. I am looking forward to writing about where I am from and getting to know it again. I hope you will enjoy my getting to know Ireland again posts from November on.

Blog Update

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Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

For all those entrepreneurs who mail asking asking me if I want to market my blog in so many ways. I say to you thanks but no thanks!
My humble blog is not for money or for marketing anything. I am not a writer and for this space I use to just share my experiences good and bad.

I thank you all for the offers but should you mail me please understand I shall not be replying to you. I hope you have a great day and I wish you all there best with your endeavors.

Peace! ??

How Long does a Retrofit Take?

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empty parking lot
Fenced off parking lot

In this world of Los Angeles where persons buy up properties then do them up and rent them at crazy prices. I now have personal knowledge of the way this can go.

Over a month ago we the tenants were informed our building had been sold, the new persons had looked at the place during the pandemic and were going ahead with their evil plans. At the time we the tenants were unaware of what the evil plan was. During the lockdown it wasn’t easy to evict tenants so we figured there was some time before we would have to be evicted. And it’s not allowed to mess directly with the tenants (cutting off electrics and water).

So the plan goes like this, you say you’re going to do a retrofit for earthquakes to bring the building up to standards. Then you hire a company to do the retrofit. Seems normal and even though it is annoying there isn’t much the tenants can do when the permits have been approved.

Then what you do is the crafty bit, you fence off the parking so you have to find street parking when everybody and their cousin is home during a Pandemic and then NOTHING! It’s been over a month and the parking is the same since the day they fenced it in.

The company who is aiding the persons who bought the building in behaving like ass holes is https://www.optimumseismic.com.
I have called them, first time I called they said the work would take six weeks and not twelve, even though on their website they say it takes about three, this is not a big building! The second time I called and asked when they would be starting the work again they just put me off with some BS and never got back to me. I was surprised a company would be so complicit in helping to kick tenant out of their homes. Some have been in this building for more than thirty years. I have heard people say it’s just business, I disagree and the people being forced from their home would agree with me.

Greed has been kicking out the tenants in Los Angeles for years, the people who lived and work in Los Angeles when people think of it in its heyday have all but left. I am leaving soon as I am done with the BS and dirty streets, lack of empathy from the people who run the city. I am lucky that I can and I have somewhere to go. But many are not as lucky and having to do this during a Pandemic makes it just a bit more stressful.

I don’t know what Los Angeles will look like in years to come. I see lots of fancy apartments with lots of apartments vacant as regular people cannot afford the money they are asking. Maybe it will end up like a Chinese Ghost City.

My wife is going to be published!

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things my mother left behind book promo
Things My Mother Left Behind

I am so excited to be saying “My wife is going to be published.”
This has been on the cards for years, ever since I have known Susan her passion has been Poetry, she has a way with words. Even the fiction she has written (not published as of yet), stories based on experiences she has had and the fact she feels it’s necessary to edit my blog posts (not this one though) HAHA!

Susan constantly surprises me with new Poetry and check out her interview with Wombwell Rainbow Series. Susan has her website FloweringInk.com where you can keep up with her new book and recently published work.
And please check out her blog Stories From the Edge of Blindness.

Frozen Shoulder

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frozen plant
Photo by Alex Holyoake on Unsplash

For the last two months my wife has been in great pain in her right shoulder. During the stay at home scene it’s been difficult to see a doctor as they had stopped seeing patients, this is changing slowly.
We went through many scenarios trying to figure out what was wrong, torn muscle, pinched nerve, but it was really hard to get a definite answer.

This last week my wife saw a physiotherapist who had herself recently gone through Frozen Shoulder. She was able due to her recent bout diagnose my wife’s condition very accurately. She said even though she is a physical therapist she had to get help to diagnose her own condition. I can’t say it was good news but it’s great to know what is going on even if there really isn’t a treatment that can help, you just have to manage the condition.

Now is the hard part, physical therapy through the pain to regain range of motion. My understanding if left alone it could take a year or longer to heal by itself. My hope is that with therapy it can be reduced to a few months. Up until last Thursday I had never heard of frozen shoulder. I personally think it was brought on by bad posture while my wife is writing. We are working to change that so this does not recur.

Peace!