WHERE HAVE ALL THE DEAD LEAVES GONE?

 

Okay, I have a name for the unhappy ladies who are original Geezer Apartments/Fallingbrick residents. They have never stopped complaining for the 14 months I've lived here, and I'm confident the year before my arrival. Three of them are the worst, and while I like them for the most part, their endless griping bothers me. I often avoid them, but they complain about management or the building when I’m around them for two seconds. How do I attract such nonsense?

One of them, who lives two doors down, knocked on my door yesterday. She loves Paddy and even took care of him once. Years ago, she taught with one of my beloved childhood buddies. I’ve suggested at least twice that she move since she’s miserable living here, but her excuse is that her friends are here. I responded that they all need to move since they seem fixated on anything and everything that goes wrong, no matter how minor. That didn’t stop her. I’ve seen her several times since then, including last night, and the first word out of her mouth is a derogatory remark about management. I consistently admonish her and tell her to stop.

The other two women are just as bad. They know I won't tolerate complaints about the building or management. Yet, they immediately launch into complaining the minute I’m around them. Last night, at a dinner party sponsored by management, they decided to sit at my table, which my friends and I deliberately set up far from the madding crowd. One of them started complaining about all the leaves the minute she sat down. I told her I hadn’t noticed a large number of leaves. She rolled her eyes and sarcastically responded, “Oh, really? Well, they are everywhere.” (I walk Paddy several times daily and haven’t noticed "leaves everywhere.") Then, she talked about our maintenance man using a leaf blower and making a pile of leaves in the open area at least 50 feet from her back patio and four to five feet higher than her apartment. When I remarked, “So?” She answered, “Well, the wind is blowing.” At that point, I slammed my hands on the table and declared, “I will not sit here and listen to complaints about the staff. I will leave unless it stops right now!” They were stunned into silence and left a few minutes later. I’m confident they’re much happier in their group, where they can complain 24/7. They have definitely reinforced each other with a disgustingly lousy habit.

For my entire life, my mother never stopped complaining about my father, her father, and her last husband, whom she married a few weeks after my father died when she was in her late 80s. My childhood was spent listening to her in the mistaken belief that she would be loving to me. As an adult, I was always exhausted after spending time with her and trying to redirect her self-pity until I stopped being around her.

I was in hospital management for most of my career. When one has a large staff, inpatient beds, outpatient clinics, patients, and the people over me, there is always someone complaining. After I retired, I decided I had heard enough petty grievances to last several lifetimes. I do not want to hear it anymore.

My only recourse is to never get near them again. After all, we can’t change someone’s behavior, but we can change our reaction to them. That’s my goal, but in the meantime, I’ll avoid them like the plague.

I’m calling them “The Disgruntled Three.”