Last day before a three day weekend. They always take their time, so today is dragging. Paul McCartney turns 84 today. The first record album I bought with my own money was Band on the Run. That was 1973 or 74. I remember hearing the title song at the St. Francis de Sales Bazaar, looking at the ‘Tip Top’ ride as the song played on the loudspeakers.

One of the first singles I ever bought was ‘Jet’. My mother used to bowl in a league on Tuesday nights at the Garden State Plaza, and while hanging out, she gave me some money, so I walked to the other side of the shopping mall and went to Sam Goody’s, where I bought the Apple Records single.

I knew the Beatles but not as much as I do nowadays.

There is no denying Paul’s talent. He really is something else. Even Bob Dylan is in awe of Paul’s talents, and Mick Jagger always has something nice to say about him. I know I would probably lose my mind should I ever meet him and I know I would not be the first to do such a thing.

I have seen Paul live twice. The first time was October 2005. Bill and I were on the outs, trying to negotiate time apart. So I went with Julio. We had seats close to each other but not next to each other. Paul came out and I screamed while he played Magical Mystery Tour.

When he was playing Maybe I’m Amazed I found a tear rolling down my cheek. Julio had the same thing happen when Paul played Yesterday. Paul loves to tour and certainly delivers with each show. And his band is top notch.

I met his drummer, Abe Laboriel Jr a few years ago on the street outside the shopping mall when I was working at the Davidoff cigar shack. Abe was a sweetheart. He was not with Paul on the season finale of Saturday Night Live last month, so I hope Abe is doing alright. I did a search online regarding Abe, but nothing came up, so perhaps no news is good news.

Tomorrow is Juneteenth and I am off of work. I look forward to sleeping in. Once again I slept so well and woke up before the alarm clock. In fact I was tired of opening one eye to check the time and was out of bed five minutes before the radio was set to go off.

Bill is at his dentist getting a tooth pulled so he won’t be in too good shape when we cross paths again. Mike is up in Harlem getting some soul food to bring back to his Chilltown crib.

Right now I am jonesin’ for a cigar and that is probably because I have been watching some videos of cigar store employees discussing cigar etiquette or the best and worst places to smoke cigars.

Now there is a little bit under 90 minutes…now a little over an hour. Soon I will be back on the mainland.

The midweek shuffle bored. It is Wednesday, June 17. Slept well. Part of my sleep routine is a tincture of thc. Previously, I had purchased the Soothe tincture, which was not as effective as I had hoped. I did not do what was expected and left me hanging in nocturnal limbo too often. Now I have the Rest tincture, which does the job and enables a good night’s sleep.

Of course, writing that and tempting the fates leaves me wide open. Once I hit 7 hours, my body clock alarm goes off and I open an eye to check the time. This morning I had an hour to go, then about 20 minutes. Once again, I am up just a few minutes before the clock radio makes its presence known.

I knew I would need to get in earlier than usual since it’s been a fortnight since Yancy was last here and this morning Yancy was expected at the fruit stand once again. My job starts at 8:00 AM and I was in at about 7:35 AM. I would not be surprised if Yancy was actually in before that but he was not so that was good.

I was able to butter my bagel and enjoy it before he made his appearance. The desk phone is still kaput, so Yancy and Connell did what they could to fix it, but nothing could be done without perhaps some major deconstruction, like taking apart my desk and following the wires into the cloth covered wall.

It took them a few minutes to figure that out. And a visiting tech guy from the big fruit stand came to the same conclusion, that nothing could be immediately done. There has been no word from the people on the other side of the world since 9:35 AM and it is now 2:06 PM.

It’s not a pressing matter and the phone maybe rings 2 or 3 times a week. I was using the desk phone to contact Bill or Mike before I was told not to by Marcus. And Marcus was just here telling me he had about 3 or 4 cups of coffee this morning which is odd since he usually has 1 or 2. He’s trying to live a good life despite his woman problems, also from the other side of the planet.

I guess I should be honored that he occasionally spills his guts to me, perhaps there is no one else at this fruit stand that could or would listen to him, or at the very least provide some sort of objectivity.

It is a beautiful spring day and I had some halal food for lunch. It had been a few weeks and it was good, just a little bit boring but that’s on me, not the halal food vendors. They do treat me right and always remember me when I show them I have the same plastic bag from my last visit.

It is nice to be remembered by fellows who see hundreds of people a week. I’m sure they don’t smoke weed.