Today has been a more productive day than yesterday. I did the laundry, trying to do the wash while Bill got ready for his bus ride. Timing was a bit off, he needed to shower in between my white and color clothes cycles.

Soon he was off to hit the road, leaving me with the laundry hanging in the bathroom. Last night was a quiet night. Bill and I watched Let the Right One In, a Swedish vampire movie.

I would have preferred subtitles to the terrible dubbing. Casey Chasm said it was really good, but it was OK. Chris Repella, formerly of McSwells recommended it as well. Perhaps it was too much hype, leaving me somewhat whelmed.

Bill thought it would have been gruesome but it wasn’t really. I’d watch it again if it wasn’t dubbed. Casey Chasm was right last week about the ‘fuckitall’ though. Made a difference today.

Last night I did go out for a short walk and ran into another former McSwells employee, Larry Heineman. Larry has been the musical director of the Blue Men Group since the beginning.

It was a good talk, Larry telling me about his world travels and asking about various people from our mutual past. It was just a quick chat on the sidewalk, but I left feeling that Larry recognized me and seemed happy to see me, but didn’t know my name.

The reason I had gone out was that there was nothing in the apartment for Bill to eat so I offered to pick up his usual Subway sandwich. I called him from the store and he proceeded to tell me what he wanted on his sandwich.

Within a few seconds the guys behind the counter knew who I was talking to on the phone since Bill always gets the same thing several days a week. He greets them with a ‘Namaste’ and that’s how they refer to him. ‘Namaste’ means ‘Blessing’ in Hindi.

And with a Namaste from myself I was out the door, which is when I ran into Larry, who’s wife is named Nancy but I always think it’s Marianne.

Stayed up and watched TV with Bill. Billy Crystal and John Fogerty were the guests. After that I went to bed, leaving Bill to prepare for his bus drive today.

This morning I was up and out early enough to run some errands. It was weird though. It seemed most everywhere I went there was someone sneezing without covering their mouths. It was disgusting.

All within about 20 minutes. And with all the news about N1H1 Swine Flu it was alarming. At the supermarket, the cashier kept cleaning her hands with Purell. I told her to go easy on the Purell since it can reduce the body’s natural immune system.

She asked me how I knew that and I simply told her science.

Speaking of science, I read a terribly sad and infuriating article in the New Yorker about how the state of Texas executed an innocent man. The state said he committed arson, ultimately killing his 3 children.

He swore he was innocent and after years of appeals and pleas for clemency he was put to death by lethal injection.

The state of Texas rejected the scientific process that deduced how the fire started and spread in favor of folklore and 19th century thinking. So terribly sad.

What good is a death penalty when the risk of killing an innocent man can occur?