May first. Friday night. Laundry done. It is the first thing I do when I get home on Friday nights. I get out of my work clothes, which I do every night I get home from work, and throw my dirty laundry in the washing machine. It takes about an hour overall. For the past two weeks I’ve done Mike’s laundry as well, but since he ain’t here, My clothes are washed solo. Then for the next 24-48 hours, the clothes hang in the kitchen and bathroom hanging on racks and hangers.

It’s an accomplishment that I ended the day with, having started the day making the bed that I had just woken up from. Bill had left before I woke up so his absence made the bed making that much easier.

Before I actually woke up and got out of bed, I had a dream that involved my brothers Frank & Brian. The part of the dream that I remember is meeting both of them in a diner that we were about to leave, once Frank finished acting like he was throwing cups of pink lemonade out the door. The cups had lids on them.

Frank then got quite irate when I asked him if he could give me a ride home. He was somewhat belligerent and I talked to Brian about what a pain in the ass Frank was being. Having written that I also remember part of the dream happening in the house where we grew up, I just remember the location not anything that happened.

While in bed, I did check the alarm clock at 5:55 and was content sleeping for one half hour. That didn’t happen since I got out of bed around 6:16 and started setting the bed a minute later.

Fridays are an easy day. Quite a lot of people work from home on Fridays, and Mondays have fewer people as well, but Fridays are the best. A seat can always be had. Fewer Xavier students for some reason, but teenage boys aren’t necessarily creatures of habit. They go where they go.

One of the students was in the train car; he always bites his nails. I am tempted to say something, having been a nail biter for close to 40 years, but I know that a grown man (me) speaking to someone close to 50 years younger would not be a good idea. The young man will eventually find out I reckon.

Work was a breeze. The only hiccup this morning was from the donut shop where I get my coffee and free donut. A different guy behind the register insisted I gave him a five. I gave him a ten, knowing what big bills I had in the wallet. The whole debacle took about 30 seconds when the usual register guy knew better, knowing that I wouldn’t do something like that. I didn’t have a moment of doubt, I KNEW what I gave the first guy, having seen him place it on the shelf above the bills in the tray.

At 8:00 I started the day, a sort of online competition with Yancy, 20 blocks away. I knocked them all out and was sure that there were no errors. I walked to a dispensary on 14th street that Jimmy Chile recommended. It was my second visit, and I had a nice springtime walk.

The afternoon puttered along, Jimmy Chile telling me another lurid tale from his past. I believe these harrowing stories and feel he would do well telling these stories on stage, like John Leguizamo or Spalding Gray.

Mike called for another favor. A hybrid bed. I ordered it, and I am having it sent here to my crib. Mike’s neighborhood isn’t that trustworthy, so with a delivery from Wednesday or Thursday or Friday, he’ll be staying here on Tuesday until it shows up.

That was a stressful part of my day. My money for Mike’s bed and an uncertain delivery date & time, certainly more worrying than the confusion over a $10.00 bill.

I’ve only known one woman named April, and that was April Hartford, the sister of Laura Hartford who was mainly known as Arrot. April was a sweetheart, though I had only known her a few hours, I reckon, and that was 40 years ago.

I know it’s a story I had told before. Jet Watley gave me tickets to Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden. Jet wasn’t going, and my friends Mike Weinert and Arrot were heading to Manhattan to pick up April at Penn Station, which is located right below Madison Square Garden.

The plan was for the four of us to attend the circus. April made two friends on the train from New England, two freunds from Germany. She wasn’t into the circus and so we gave the tickets to some kids who really wanted to go. They offered some money but we just gave them the tickets to their surprise.

We caught the Path train back to Hoboken, and of course, we wound up at Maxwell’s. We fell into our routines and overlapping groups of friends. April proved to be quite popular, much to Arrot’s surprise. She looked radiant, and men were swarming around her.

Arrot was distressed, though, since April was only 14 years old, though she did look sophisticated and passed for being a few years older. The powers that be never found out and we quickly moved to Mike and Arrot’s basement apartment, where, after smoking some opium, we wound up asleep with limbs entwined.

One of the freunds fell asleep with his head in my lap. Nothing came of it, neither literally nor figuratively.

Now I am home. Bill is eating pasta and pesto three feet behind me. Mike just called, waking up from a nap. He implored me to help him with his phone bill, and luckily for him, I was able to since it was not that much. I almost wrote that he begged, but Mike didn’t. He asked, sounding reluctant, while I was at work and I told him I’d take care of it when I got home.

I got home a little after 6 PM, which is when his phone service was cut off. Six minutes later, it was restored. And an hour after that, he woke up from his nap and groggily called. Too sleepy for anything resembling a meaningful conversation, I told Mike to call me when he wakes up.

Bill is going to sleep soon. Local driving tomorrow but still requiring an early start. Harry Potter is on. It’s been on quite a bit these days. 25th anniversary. I don’t mind, I’ve seen them a few times already. It’s like comfort food. Familiar enough.

I saw the first one, and it was the only one I saw in a theater. I went in 2001 with Annemarie, Rex, and Earl when I flew out to Arcata in a moment of bravado, since everyone else was reported to not fly that often after the 9/11 attacks.

April 30.2026