Monthly Archives: August 2009

Rain Dogs

Oh it’s incredibly muggy. Plenty of hummus in the air. Like wearing a wet sweater in a very stuffy room, which by the way, is what I am wearing as well as where I am writing. All just to prove a point.

Bill is doing better, I guess what ever he had the other night was just a transient thing. Such drama though, but then again he is an actor. He was fine last night when he came home.

We watched Senator Edward Kennedy’s funeral mass this morning into the afternoon. Couldn’t resist. Part of my Irish Catholic upbringing.

Despite my atheism, I try scrubbing them out and wringing them out and I still have that Irish Catholic upbringing. There’s no Calgon to ease my worried mind.

Bill having been brought up Evangelical Protestant hasn’t really seen the glitz and glamor of the Catholic ceremony so it was a thrill for him. He was also impressed that I knew the liturgical responses to various prayers.

Lift up your hearts/We lift them up to the Lord/Let us give thanks & praise to the Lord our God/It is right to give him thanks and praise because if we don’t he will kill us all.

Alright, so I ad-libbed a bit there.

It was a nice service though. Made it back in time for the burial broadcast which is going on right now.

Between then and now I went into the city, specifically to hang some pictures. After helping William hang his art work and whatnot for 11 years in Weehawken I sort of have a knack for hanging pictures.

At least that’s what I told them in the office.

Collected some potato salad too which was very nice & tasty. The rule of thumb for hanging pictures is not to hit your thumb. And balance too.

I guess I’ll hear if they don’t like the placement. Seemed alright by me.

I did find out the last time I was in the office that the neo-cons that I butted heads with might be out of business. They were counting on several million dollars to keep them afloat but they only got 700k.

I guess there isn’t any money in sub-prime mortgages these days. Or any faith in them.

The whole hanging pictures thing took under an hour. After the office visit I walked over to Second Avenue where a sparsely spaced street fair was going on. Saw some people from the neighborhood that I used to see often. A nod here, a smile there.

I walked down to the Path train and rode back to Hoboken from 33rd Street.

Last night I did watch Luis Bunuel’s Robinson Crusoe. Turned out I didn’t know a few things about it, like it was published in 1719. For some reason I thought it was written in the 1800’s.

It was Bunuel’s first color film and his only English film. Dan O’Herlihy was nominated for a best actor award for it in 1952.

The funeral procession just stopped by the Capitol Building in Washington DC en route to Arlington Cemetery. A prayer and some thanks to the staffers on Ted Kennedy. A nice send off.

That’s basically the day so far.

Move On

It’s been a quiet day. Woke up to pouring rain which meant no visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Harpy. I put the kibosh on that one. Just didn’t want to deal with the rain.

And it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, with Sunday just a threat of rain. That means on Sunday I might be able to see Excer’s band playing the band shell in Central Park. And Grizzly Bear is doing a free show in Williamsburg on Sunday night.

Dare I do both? Dare I?

I did make plans again with Harpy, this time I suggested the American Museum of Natural History. It’s an easier trip for Harpy, being on the West Side. And I reserved a museum pass from the Hoboken Library, good for one day which will be Monday. With or without the permission of the weather.

I just got choked up watching Jean Kennedy Smith describing the tribute to her brother Ted.

Last night Bill came home out of sorts, claiming to be very ill and not really making much sense. He attributed it to going in and out of various office climates and the heat on the street.

I tried telling him that he might be overdoing it (and he has) and not eating right.

Some people might get a chuckle out of someone like me commenting on what someone else is eating, but having gotten to 46 and having various people in my life telling me about the importance of diet I did actually listen.

Annemarie, Rex and Earl are all vegetarians, Julio was for a while and I did live with William for 11 years and he was thisclose to being macro-biotic. Last heard he was all about raw foods. And Rand & Lisa are 99.9% veggie.

So I tried to impart my cobbled together wisdom on eating right, without nagging but it fell on deaf ears mainly. I did mention it this morning once again with Bill on Google chat and he said it was a comfort.

Like me and my flirtations with certain jazz cigarettes from time to time. But I reminded him that this wasn’t about me, it was about him. It was best to let the chat end soon after that.

Like my friends and family wanted for me, I wanted the same for Bill. And like how I resented at the time to be ‘lectured’ on what I was eating, Bill probably resented me for doing the same.

I guess since I eventually came around somewhat and modified my diet, I can only hope Bill will do the same before it becomes too late.

I spent some time with Casey and the missus this afternoon. They’ve moving away tomorrow and were all packed up. I’m going to miss them. I wish we were able to spend more time together, but that’s adulthood I suppose.

That's him, Casey Chasm

That's him, Casey Chasm

People move up and away all the time. Sometimes you reconnect, sometimes you don’t. I certainly hope we all reconnect. But the Chasms read this frequently so perhaps they’ll post a comment every now and then.

So that is that. Hope you all have a good weekend.

Since it’s supposed to be rainy tomorrow, I picked up Woody Allen’s Manhattan, Mel Brooks High Anxiety and a vampire movie which is supposed to be one of the best ever made, Let the Right One In. Should make for an interesting viewing.