Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Summer-like temperatures in the 70’s. It was a busy day at the major fruit stand today. Big plans were had. 50 years of selling fruit. Started out with three guys, a few weeks later it was two guys. Don’t know who the third guy was. I guess it doesn’t really matter. They got paid.

I was anxious and apprehensive last night. Bill came home and that relieved some of that anxious apprehension. A hug did the trick. I missed the big lug. Of course, 10 minutes after coming home he was driving me crazy. Good crazy of course. He had hisstoreis to tell, I had my stories to tell and then there were stories about Mike which were also told.

It was busy at the main fruit stand. Hundreds of guests coming in. Some followed the protocols, some didn’t. Some of those that did had problems when the website for the guests signing in kept crashing or losing the info that was fed into it. It made for a mad scramble but things were accomplished. I kept my head down and did what I could. It was not difficult and I had to think quickly.

Guests from all over the country were appearing, quite a few from the west coast. And my smaller usual fruit stand was represented by workers that I hardly ever see. They didn’t know me and I didn’t know them. My part of my fruit stand is relatively isolated and that causes some anxiety when I know I am scheduled to put in my time in midtown. From working alongside a handful of workers to dozens, sometimes hundreds like today. But it went well and here I am.

There was no chance of writing while working so it’s another scramble to get some typing done. Bill offered words of encouragement this morning when I left. I asked the same of Mike last night but he was unreachable. I helped him with his phone bill and there were no phone calls. Mike is at his crib and explained that he was worried about calling me knowing it was going to be hectic for me today.

Whatever. Things have been going well with Mike so a hiccup like that is inconsequential. Mike and his beloved were going to go on a cruise next month and it was scheduled only to have a parole officer that approved the cruise, was overruled by another higher ranking parole officer. So no cruise for Mike and his beloved.

An adjustment was made for a meet up in Las Vegas but the parole officer put the kibosh on that. Mike has a lot to learn and I cannot teach him or explain some things without hearing his resentment which is amplified when he figures out that I was right in whatever I was trying to school him on.

His beloved certainly loves Mike despite all the plans that have been made and abandoned. I suppose being 3000 miles away lessens the sting.

Jay Yamron was not happy. His partner, Joe Gallino returned from a field trip with what seemed to be the flu. Jay had just gotten over the flu on his own and now felt obligated to take care of Joe. Jay cared but didn’t care. The relationship between Jay and Joe had cooled down and now they were more like roommates.

Joe had a slight fever and Jay did what he could. There was love and there was compassion and there was the splitting of the rent. Jay mentioned this to their mutual friend Kim Larsen who had her own problems. Not that she didn’t care but there were other pressing matters on her mind.

Jay tucked Joe into bed and went out to pick up some soup and antihistamines. The soup was for the both of them and the antihistamines were a shot in the dark. Jay hoped that they would knock Joe out and provide a decent night of sleep. It had been a while since Jay had a good night of sleep.

Meanwhile Kim was wondering how she was going to get from midtown Manhattan to Saddle Brook NJ. She didn’t own a car and the book publisher talked about having a commuter van ferry employees back and forth, but for how long would that go on for?

She asked Demi Lemakos for her input and Demi was reluctant. Demi was looking forward to her retirement and was planning on going back to her homeland, Greece. Demi was not going to let this opportunity to pass through her fingers. That would be foolish.

Demi was tight lipped and offered no advice whatsoever. Kim would have to wait until Joe was on his feet again and who knew how long that would take?

That is about as far as I had gotten with these three names from the HBJ past. Whether or not they are still alive I couldn’t say. It’s been almost 40 years since I had crossed paths with them.

Bill was on the road and is expected back today. Mike came over on Thursday night and left yesterday. It was a good visit. Mike s the 44 year old screenager. He is constantly on his phone (and I am on my computer) and I have come to terms with that.

Today was slow at the fruit stand. Slow enough that I had online words with some guy in the Golden Girls Memes social media page. He posted the Girls at a Cheesecake Factory. So obviously made by artificial intelligence that I noted how tacky it was and lacking in creativity. He insisted that it was creative.

Entering words and direction in an artificial intelligence engine requires very little creativity, merely keystrokes. After some back and forth I eventually deleted my comments. I know that for this here blog, I do use artificial intelligence to rewrite my posts as something by various writers. I do post that they are artificially created and since no one reads this here blogs, no one is the wiser.

Tomorrow and Wednesday I am back at the major fruit stand. Tomorrow is the fiftieth anniversary of the fruit stand and major events are scheduled. I am anxious about this though my job will be what I had done before. Nothing to be alarmed before though tomorrow promises to include hundreds more people than what I am used to.

I just have to get there and I will as I usually do.