Tag Archives: 2014

I Can’t Hear The Music

Back in the shack again after a day off. Yesterday was an alright day, nothing to write about even though I did. I can’t say it was entertaining or informative, that would be up to you. Slept relatively well which was good. Woke up to Bill kissing me good bye and telling me he loved me. That’s always nice to hear even if I am such a crab ass when I am laying bed. I did have the idea of actually attending the St. Ann’s feast but it started raining and when it stopped raining the idea had gone away.

At the shack today it’s a full staff. Calvin is back from his sojourn and has called a meeting so that means Bradley, Thomas, myself and Jerry Vale are all in attendance. I don’t know what the meeting will be about, no one does and maybe even Calvin doesn’t know since he is in the man cave writing notes on what to say.

We all got nice packages from Calvin and the convention he attended, a few packs of various cigars that he picked up in Las Vegas. I’m looking forward to having a few. They were given as homework which when the same thing happened last year with Marcus returning with goodies, I took him seriously and wrote down notes and impressions of each cigar. They were never asked for or collected.

So these are mainly for smoking I guess and enjoy them I will. The staff meeting is after the store closes and beer and pizza is provided. I raised a few eyebrows when I said I wasn’t drinking. Not feeling the need to have a beer and talk shop, literally. Not much of a drinker these days. Not unless I am in the bosom of my family. And obviously I am not.

Not so much into running for the bus with beer on my breath and then there is the price to pay tomorrow. Perhaps the adage of ‘one’s too many and a hundred’s not enough’ applies to me or at the very least this situation. The first time I heard that saying was from Nick Lowe but he was singing about kisses and not beer or booze. At least I think he was.

So the pizza is on the way and I got myself a diet caffeine free Pepsi. Calvin and Bradley are in the man cave. Beers were had by everyone but me. I didn’t mind. I was happy with my soda. Calvin ran down his list on how things were and how things should be. It was all mainly positive reports with events on the calendar coming up. Should be interesting.

I have to say I certainly did not expect Jerry Vale to start swearing like he had Tourette’s Syndrome. I know it wasn’t funny but I couldn’t help but laugh. Eventually Calvin noticed the fact that I was checking my watch as things were winding down and Thomas and myself started getting ready to head out. I couldn’t find my bottle of water and was disappointed to find that it was thrown out to make room for the beer they had for the meeting.

I also texted Bill to let him know that I was still at the cigar shack. The text went unanswered leaving me to assume that he was still in rehearsal. I came home and found Bill in bed. He stirred somewhat and asked why I was still at the shack at that late hour.

I told him a staff meeting and he mentioned something that I didn’t hear and so he repeated it, but since I didn’t understand what it was I said yeah and wished him a good night as I walked out of the room.

I hold much in disdain.

I Can’t Go On Without You

A day off after working a five day shift. Surprisingly enough it wasn’t as bad as previous five day shifts. Yesterday was with Bradley and Jerry Vale and that wasn’t so bad. We made sure the store would be in tip top shape for when Calvin returns from wherever he was for the past week.

It wasn’t that busy a day but it was still somewhat hot out. Not the 104 degrees like the other day, but actually around 94 degrees which made it a little bit comfortable. Still it was too hot to go outside for lunch so I once again stayed in the cigar shack and had a cigar in the man cave.

It was day five of doing that and it certainly was not as crowded as it had been the previous days. Just me and a customer. A seven hour playlist I made the other night was on and the customer sat across from me watching a sparsely attended Mets game in Tampa Bay as I read and finished last week’s New Yorker.

The rest of the day went by rather quickly and I insisted on closing the store sending Bradley and Jerry Vale home as soon as the opportunity arose. Fifteen minutes was not going to make much of a difference anyway.

I came home, Bill was asleep after returning from Boston on the bus. His pal Fred had continued on to New Hampshire leaving Bill to take an acting class on Sunday morning. I had some really crappy pizza when I came home and settled in to watch True Blood (quite busy and intense) then Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage.

Though I hadn’t watched Entourage in a few years I figured I would catch the last season and forgot how hot James Caan’s son Steve is. It’s definitely the hair and the cocky attitude. And the tight bod. I watched a documentary on John Lennon in New York City which I had seen before.

It was a hot summer night and nothing was on really anyhow. 20 years ago I would have been living in Lodi with my father, watching probably ‘I, Claudius’ on PBS and drinking while my father slept. And that scene was not going to last much longer. A few months later I had changed my address to Weehawken. A definite improvement.

This morning I woke up to find Bill still in bed. I was surprised to find out he had taken the day off. It wasn’t a bad thing, just a surprise. I was anticipating on being home alone but here he was. Before I even took a shower I had to tell him not to fill the water pitcher all the way since it overflows in the fridge when he does overfill it.

And I also told him not to remove the trap when he is showering since it doesn’t make matters any better, in fact it makes it worse. We have a crappy drain in our bath tub and despite Julio using a snake and finding two other broken snakes in the drain it still takes a long time for the water to go away. He rarely showers here and usually does so at the gym in the morning.

So he’s not used to the way things run or don’t run here. Bill said he was going to have a plumber come by and fix it but since he really doesn’t use the shower as often as I do, if at all and I have no real problem with it then it’s no big deal, an annoyance at best. When I heard him say that about having a plumber visit I said ‘whatever’ to which he requested that I stop saying ’whatever’ since he doesn’t like it.

So I grunted instead.