Archive for the ‘News / Events’ Category
Chronicling the Goings On . . .
. . . at Sunrise of Gilbert, Arizona, could get exceedingly interesting — and perhaps depressing — over the next few weeks and months.
Sunday and today there was no one from management in the entire facility.
Executive Director Alberto Golia is helping out at another Sunrise facility in California for the next two of months when he’s really needed to help here. His 2IC Logan Watts was off. Mary, who held this place together for the past four-plus years left a week ago and there is no replacement on the horizon. There wasn’t a decision-maker anywhere on the property.
And the desks in the hallway adjoining the entry lobby are barren of placards reminding everyone of upcoming activities and events because no one is printing them out . There is a note saying the Sat morning shopping trips are suspended until????? because Bo, our backup bus driver has quit. Annette, Jason’s all round maintenance/problem-solver backup has quit because of Sunrise’s COVID-19 regs but and has been retained to fill in part time on the front desk.
And this is just the first six days since Mary left.
Got Through . . .
. . . biggest yard/garage sale of my life over the past two days.
Raised more than $500 from “donations” for stuff sold that will enrich the Sunrise of Gilbert employees’ fund. They’ll have a big Christmas party.
But there should have been more bucks flow in because there was a mountain of goods sold and much of it was quality goods — much better than any yard / garage sale I’ve been to. High ticket items ranged from golf clubs to wall hutches to music keyboard to silk scarves to filing drawers to floor lamps to etcetcetcetc.
But I was busy and had fun and will sleep good tonight.
Just J . . .
. . . is the name of a fellow living here.
J — just J.
He gets confused with a fellow who happens to live across the hall who’s name is Jay.
J said his mother figured their last name was long enough so she gave him a short first name.
Which made us think of other letters that sound like a name . . .
like K and B and D.
And how about the name that’s hidden in the alphabet — q r STU v w.
No One Admitted to Being Fired . . .
. . . during a recent “Flashbacks” session I honcho twice a week to dredge up long-ago personal memories.
I recounted a couple of firings that boosted my career rather than turning it to ashes
and then reminded the group that
Walt Disney was fired by the Kansas City Star when he was a young man
because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”
Unsettling News . . .
. . .Mary Weaver, the activities director at Sunrise of Gilbert for the last five years, quit today. Her last day will be Easter Monday — 11 days from now.
She’s been the caring in-charge person here who carried us through most of the pandemic shutdown and initiated several programs and activities that are going to suffer and/or disappear with her departure.
Gotta take a breath and assimilate all this.
Robocallers Have Your Number
There’s still no fool-proof way to eliminate robocallers and scam artists from getting to your phone because robots and crooks never sleep.
The highwater mark for these computer-dialed calls is 190 million in a single day but the daily average is about 1,500 a second offering everything from extending the warranty on your car to lottery winnings for a small up-front handling fee.
Modern technology has made it easy for telephone thieves to amass lists of phone numbers they feed into computers and await results.
The reason some 50 billion calls are made each year is because as many as 5 percent of them are answered and the respondents wind up being bilked out of thousands of dollars.
Simply, this schemers’ system works.
Just picking up the phone and not answering gives the scammers an edge. They know you’re home at that time and that the number is legitimate. And every other robocaller in the neighborhood finds that out, too.
The strong defense is to have caller ID. If you don’t recognize the name or number, just walk away. Legitimate callers, such as a family member or friend, or an important contact such as a doctor’s office, will leave a message and number to call.
If you recognize the caller, you can pick up the phone in mid-message and explain why you waited to answer. Be aware, however, that many crooked callers identify themselves as someone you may be dealing with and you can still become a victim of a scam.
Paranoia pays in these situations.
You can list your number on the national Do Not Call registry but that only bars legitimate marketers. Calls from crooks will keep on coming.
Blocking specific numbers doesn’t help all that much because unethical telemarketers have a way to make it appear that their calls are coming from a different number.
If you do have a conversation with a caller, you can protect yourself by pointing out you’re busy at the moment and ask for a number to call them back. If they won’t give you one, hang up.
Comedian Chris Rock . . .
. . .should keep the clown Will Smith
in his slapstick act.
Downtown is Slowly . . .
. . . slipping away.
Department stores and shoe stores and ladies-wear shops are giving away to online shopping and buying. When you do head for a shopping trip, it’s to a nearby suburban mall, with its own department stores and shoe stores and ladies-wear-shops and restaurants and saloons and beauty salons.
Banks, churches and post offices no longer anchor what used to be downtown. Employees of those downtown high-rise office buildings now work at home and the corporate HQ staff has moved to smaller, cheaper and more-comfortable quarters in some smaller town favored by the CEO. What used to be downtown is becoming a “Heritage District” to make use of those big empty buildings.
You Don’t See People Hoarding Food . . .
. . .during these trying times because
they can’t afford it.
Mature Life Features 