30° in Hoboken on a Monday night. It was a weird day. Started off with Mike calling way too early for me to answer when the phone is on ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode. Between the two 60-somethings sharing a bed, a night of uninterrupted sleep is a fleeting goal.

Bill heard my phone vibrate, I did not. Somehow his sleep was disturbed where mine was not. And that’s how the day started. He was in a mood when he woke up which rubbed off on me. I did contact Mike to tell him not to call me at that time but to text instead. Whether or not that is a solution remains to be seen.

Bill and I were in separate rooms, he was doing his thing and I was doing mine. No animosity just recovering from interrupted sleep. He did take a nap. I started watching Homicide: Life on the Street. I loved the show when it was on in the Nineties.

A Friday night event for me. Great characters, story, and script. It didn’t really catch on with the general public but it got along with seven seasons. I remember making a friend when I was working at Arista Records, Kim Cozzens.

I was out on the sidewalk enjoying a Gauloises roll-up and spoke with Kim who worked on the other side of the floor I worked on. We talked about Homicide quite a bit while I was at Arista.

That was over 25 years ago.
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. It was a different time.

I was living in Weehawken. Now I am in Hoboken. I lived in Weehawken for 11 years. Now in Hoboken for 22, going on 23 years. I first moved to Hoboken in 1984. Initially, I moved into a mosquito-infested illegal loft for a month.

Then I moved back home and out again a few months later. This time was 201 Madison Street. The neighborhood featured burned-out buildings which made my Mother cry when she drove down my street.

After 201 Madison I was at 1124 Willow, a basement apartment which I shared with Jimmy Lee. It was a great situation, Jimmy was at his girlfriend’s flat about 28 days a month. It was filthy, improperly ventilated and in the basement. The doors didn’t quite lock and It was surprising that no one ever broke in, though I did have a late-night visitor come through my window.

1124 Willow turned into 216 Madison, down the street from where I originally moved. That was with Kevin Craughn. It was not the ideal situation, it was more like a safety net that was torn and frayed. I moved after being there for maybe a year or two to 710 Jefferson.

That lasted a month or so, my Mother died in May of that year and I moved to Lodi again, thinking this time might be better. It wasn’t and by October of 1991, I had moved to 127 Jane Street in Weehawken.