May | 2011 | johnozed

Getting started somewhat. At work in the cigar shack, the shake up continues. No shakedown though. Calvin seems apprehensive about the future, worried about there being a drop in sales when he assumes control.

I tried to reassure him that it shouldn’t happen that way, but also to keep in mind that the summer is coming up and that is usually a slow slow time for us in the cigar business as well as retail in most places except for air conditioner sales and pools.

He just left to head home to the wife and kid leaving Thomas and me to run things. Thomas is as straight as Six O’clock and it seems that a few guys find him to be eye candy.

Like right now, this gent in a red Stanford windbreaker seems to be devouring him with his eyes. He seems to be a born salesman that Thomas is, so whatever it takes to close the deal he will more than likely do.

A few old customers came in today and hung out for a few hours. Was not expecting that, we (Calvin & I) figured that they were boycotting the cigar shack and wouldn’t be around anymore.

Then yesterday a fairly famous cigar magazine released the news that Marcus was leaving the cigar shack for a cigar hut. That news brought out congratulations from a lot of customers (but still not the brain dead Bradley) and the news also seemed to finish off whatever boycott might have been in the works.

So there is a change in the air and with the wind blowing for the next couple of days, maybe weeks, we won’t see how things are settled until then.

Well now I’ve written almost 300 words so I guess I will stop here and finish when I get home. Hopefully Bill will be awake and feeling better. He came home this morning, looking like and feeling like crap. He went right to bed as I would have done if I was in his shoes.

Now I am home, Bill is awake and watching stand up comedy on TV. His old friend and former crush sent him a postcard which to Bill is cool. I merely carried it up four flights of stairs, didn’t read it since it was not addressed to me. I’m sure the postman read it.

Last night I watched ‘Something Wild’ which I hadn’t seen in a while. It’s a good movie, not great though it is funny to see the Feelies playing the high school reunion band. I bunch of people from Maxwells went to see it when it first came out.

Somebody had to work at Maxwells that night so I didn’t go. I remember that I was working at Friedman, Alpren & Green at the time and an elderly secretary saw it the first weekend and expressed her disappointment with the violence that comes out in the second half of the movie, when Ray Liotta make his appearance. He was scarier in that than he was in Goodfellas.

That’s about all that I have to write about tonight. Off tomorrow, not writing. Have a good one, smell ya later.

Greg, all of your comments go directly into the spam folder. Weep no more, you ‘control’. Good luck getting things straight.

A day off and lacking in something to write. It’s happened before and it’s happening again. Bill is driving down to Atlantic City, my poor baby is a bit under the weather but he feels OK enough to do it. No word on whether or not her is driving tomorrow, as of now he hasn’t heard anything, so maybe he will be able to get some rest.

The cigar shack has been interesting as of late. Yesterday Marcus told the brain dead Bradley that he has resigned from the cigar shack, taking another job at a different cigar hut somewhere in midtown. I was taken aback by his announcement and said ‘What? What?’

Calvin knew about it, he is moving into Marcus’ position. That will put me in the number 2 position since I am the longest serving employee. The brain dead Bradley and I were standing in the doorway when the announcement was made, Calvin facing us and Marcus in between.

According to Calvin, the brain dead Bradley turned beet red when Marcus said what he said. I was flummoxed myself but wished Marcus the best and congratulated Calvin on his promotion. Calvin noted that the brain dead Bradley congratulated Marcus and said nothing about Calvin.

Calvin and I closed the shop last night and had a chat about the brain dead Bradley. I wondered how long it will be before the brain dead Bradley attempts to follow Marcus to the cigar hut. Calvin doesn’t seem to care since Calvin doesn’t seem to care for the brain dead Bradley.

He feels the brain dead Bradley lacks social skills and therefore doesn’t do too well in sales. He’s a good organizer which is something that could be said in his favor. Calvin also mentioned that Marcus had a problem with my being snippy sometimes to customers.

Calvin feels that my snippiness is usually justified and that most of the customers realize that they have to be careful with what they say to me since I usually return the volley. If you can dish it out, you have to be able to take it, at least that’s what Calvin thinks.

So according to Calvin I will be his underboss. It’s not an official position and there probably won’t be any increase in pay. But I assured Calvin of my loyalty, which is something I that I think is quite valuable. I did find out that I have 2 weeks’ vacation, starting in June and plan to take one of those weeks in July when Annemarie is in town with possibly, hopefully Earl.

I was also asked to work a double shift this upcoming Wednesday and being a team player I agreed to do it. 9:30 to 9:30 which really promises to be a long day. It promises to be a bona fide long day, not the usual 10 hour shift that only feels like a long day.

So with any luck, the brain dead Bradley will need to find a new outlet to plug his respirator in soon enough. I look forward to when I will see the back of his soft skull getting smaller and smaller as he walks away he will be out of sight and out of mind.

I’ll be back at the cigar shack tomorrow, then off again on Sunday. It’s a crazy schedule but that’s how it goes I suppose. I did have an enjoyable day today, ran into Mike Cecchini this afternoon and we made tentative plans to meet up. I’d love to play guitar with him so that might be going on somewhere down the line.

I also saw some Christianists proclaiming the end of the world on the street today, dragging their children along with them to a religious misanthropic rally. Fascinating people in a perverse way as they hope their predictions are true and that billions will die while they are sucked into the sky into the bosom of their Iron Age sky god.

They and only they have the inside scoop. I guess they are having rallies to recruit people to their cause, but man will those t-shirts look terribly silly on May 22.

But I guess you can’t have enough rags.