And now it’s Friday. Annemarie is in Arcata, Harpy in in the Washington Heights section of the Dominican Republic and Bill is on the Garden State Parkway headed to Atlantic City after not driving a bus for the past 2 weeks.

He drove a bus once actually and I believe this was during the work week.

It’s been a hot day, temperatures in the 90 degree range, with tomorrow promising to hit 100 degrees. Luckily I can dress casually when I work. And I’m lucky to be working in an air conditioned store.

Today was a bit of an odd day. I headed in early to rectify the problem I had with closing. Don Birch was there already and fixed the problem. He and I had a nice little chat. He’s going to be taking the Series 7 test to become a stock broker and is expecting a package.

He doesn’t want Marcus or Calvin to know that he’s looking to leave and so he asked me to keep an eye out for the package and stash it away and also give him a call. Not a problem I said.

Raymond is also looking to get out, Sean is going to college and probably not stick around once that is through and I of course am looking for a regular 9 to 5, Monday through Friday job. Don Birch, Raymond and Sean have both spoken with me separately telling me their plans to get out, being so dissatisfied with the way things are run there.

This job is just a stop gap for me and I am on a few email lists that send me listings every day. I’m currently under consideration for one position, and have been under consideration for that position for about 2 weeks now.

The day at work was rather cool, Calvin was out and Marcus is still listed as being on his honeymoon. A number of Australians came in buying cigars and thrilled to know they can smoke in the backroom.

Most of the customers were nice enough, but there was one that was an absolute nightmare. He came in a bit lame in one leg. A semi-regular customer that no one else wanted to deal with, so it fell to me. I followed him into the humidor, and he immediately and loudly mentioned that he didn’t need help.

He said it twice and I mentioned that I wasn’t going to help him, that I was there to write down the numbers of the cigars so it will be easier to check out. He was also blind in one eye and scrutinized every cigar price listed, complaining that things were so expensive.

He would pick up a cigar and eyeball it and then put it back. I maintained a distance, but finally spoke up when he started putting cigars in the wrong place.

He seemed to be on medication and also reeked of booze and started screaming that Raymond wouldn’t talk to him the way I did and scurried out of the humidor like Laurence Olivier in Richard III yelling that I was stalking him.

Raymond calmed him down somewhat and Richard III stayed away from, before heading back into the humidor and screaming loud enough that anyone outside of the sealed room could hear him plainly. Don Birch was going to call security but I talked him out of it, preferring to have Raymond finish the deal.

He soon left and Raymond mentioned that on top of the booze and the meds seeping through his skin, he also smelled like he soiled himself. It was truly a strange scene, topped with my repeating, ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’.

I headed home about 2.5 hours after that, making it from the shop to the bus terminal in 13.6 minutes, thanks to the first 3 songs from King Crimson, Discipline.