Monthly Archives: February 2012

I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues

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It is President’s Day today and a lot of people have off and most students in this area have off for the week. Not sure about college students but then again I am never sure about college students. It’s been a busy day at the cigar shack and now I am in the three days on, one day off mode.

My next day off is Thursday and I will attempt to take my niece Corinne to see the Doug Wheeler show, starting off nice and early, like maybe getting there at noon. If it doesn’t work out, well there will be plenty of other galleries to check out.

Yesterday was quite an interesting day. Bill did not sleep too well the night before. He’s been having some problems lately and they all came to a head, so to speak over the weekend. It was intense enough that I considered canceling our plans for Sunday afternoon. Bill wasn’t having it and after trying to catch up on his sleep with the out of the ordinary interruptions.

We headed into Manhattan on the Path train. The plan was to see a friend of mine that I used to work with back in Wanker Banker days, Janelle Rintrona having a show at the Duplex on Sheridan Square. She had been posting invites about her shows for sometime and since I had off I figured it would be nice to see. And it was.

It was fairly crowded and I remembered why I don’t do this sort of thing anymore. It’s expensive. 4 Coronas, 2 apiece for Bill and myself were $30.00, 2 drink minimum you see and a $15.00 cover charge per person. It was my treat since Bill is always treating me to things and I didn’t mind the cost since it was fun and I did have the money.

I just love hanging out with Bill and yesterday was no different, plus since he’s been unwell I was able to keep a close eye on him. I didn’t know many of the songs that Janelle sang but it was enjoyable nonetheless. I would have not have gotten the cup of mixed nuts since it was $2.00 but it was Bill’s request.

A walk back to the Path train and a quick ride to Hoboken. We walked down Washington Street, passing 3rd and Washington Street around 6:45 and at 7:00 the building on the corner caught fire and burned throughout the night, and restarted this morning causing all the residents to be homeless.

The building will have to be razed, including the fruit stand on the street level. Already a benefit is planned for the residents the first weekend in March. Hoboken is good like that. The same thing happened earlier in January. Another fire, another benefit.

Bill called in sick today and saw the doctor who told him what was more than likely happening. Almost biblical. I suppose it was a good thing that Dr. Fioretti did what he did when I was newly born.

Janelle Rintrona and Bassist




Washington Street shut down



16 Madman Across the Water

I Guess It’s American

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A Saturday in the cigar shack. Not a bad day as far as I am concerned. Thanks to a Chilean Sea Bass I’ve done quite good as did the store. There was a bit of a “to do” today. A customer bought a humidor that was marked down and asked if he could pick it up later in the week.

Bradley who had done the sale said ‘Sure, no problem’ and it wasn’t a problem since we had done this for various customers in the past. The customer came in today to pick it up and Bradley and I went crazy looking for the humidor. The customer decided to go home and would pick it up some other time.

Bradley and I kept looking but let’s face it, the cigar shack isn’t that large and one of us would have found it eventually. Thomas and Zack had been working in the cigar shack’s walk in humidor yesterday and that’s where the purchased humidor was last seen, where Bradley had left it, in a shopping bag. I suggested he call Zack and Thomas to see if they knew, perhaps they had moved it without telling anyone.

So Bradley did text them and Thomas replied that he had no idea. No word from Zack. Bradley had the idea to check the video tape and sure enough, there was Bradley placing the humidor in the walk in humidor. He checked the following days and there was a morning, Zack was the only one in the store, and it was a bit busy.

A well dressed guy walks around and goes into the humidor by himself while Zack was helping customers in the front of the shack. The well dressed guy looks around the walk in humidor and also checks to see Zack being busy with other people. The guy checks the bag, not really seeing what it was and seeing that Zack was still quite busy, picks up the bag and walks right out of the store, right under Zack’s nose.

Bradley and I couldn’t believe it. So brazen, this guy just walks in, looks around and just steals a humidor. The customer that it was sold to was understanding and the whole thing needs to be resolved on Monday, a refund or another humidor. That will be decided by Zack and the customer. I was infuriated as was Bradley and Jerry Vale.

I don’t recall seeing the well dressed guy before, but with a closer look, he could be someone that someone had seen before. Really douche bag behavior. It put a damper on the day but I do have to say that Bradley, Jerry Vale and myself were glad that it did not happen on any of our shifts.

There will be some tightening up I am sure, perhaps there will be no more ‘one guy working solo until the afternoon shift comes in’, since this did happen with Zack working solo, waiting for me to come in. I’m off tomorrow so I won’t have to deal with it until Monday.


"what's taters Precious?"



03 Shoplifters Of The World Unite