Me and Mr L’s. Today was a haircut day. It’s Monday. Growing up in Lodi NJ Barbershops would be closed Sunday and Monday. In Hoboken, the barbershops are closed on Wednesday unless there is a holiday approaching and rules are bent.

For quite a number of years I’ve been going to Mr. L’s which is in my neighborhood. Presently there are four barbershops in my area with a few more on the main drag, Washington Street. There is no shortage of tonsorial artists.

I thought about learning the trade about 15 years ago and talked out of it from Tony and his son Nick as well as Lou, Mr. L himself. ‘It’s a boring life and you’re on your feet all day’, was their advice to not become a barber.

I looked into going to school for it which is out of character for me since my educational experiences were found to be lacking. I went to a beauty school on 34th Street by the Empire State Building and was given an oversized book to lug around. I also went to a beauty school in North Bergen.

Both advised me that I would have to learn to cut women’s hair and do makeup, two areas I did not want to know about. And student loans would have to be acquired. I looked into a barber school in the Village which offered free or reduced fees if one was a veteran and since I was not a veteran I dropped the idea.

My sister-in-law offered to loan me the money but instead, I got a job at the cigar shack which if you have been reading this here blog back then, you would know what happened there. Now there are Help Wanted signs in the window of Mr L’s.

I have tried all the barbers or stylists in the shop. Tony, Nick’s father was my main guy. He’s retired after some health issues and the pandemic really set him back. Lou, Mr L himself also retired but makes an occasional appearance since he owns the building.

I tried the women as well. One cut me when she was looking at her Blackberry and tried to cover it up so she was released from the list. There was one woman I did trust to cut my shoulder-length pony tail and she did well. But Nick inherited the ‘go-to’ title from his father.

I do like the haircut I got yesterday. Close-cropped and low maintenance. Mike said that it makes me look a few years younger and Bill just loves it outright. Today is Tuesday and it is 45°. The job search goes on and on. I am going to have to lower my aim for a job that pays close to what I was making at Bratty McGrotty.

I wrote this whole post last night. I write on Google Drive and then I copy and paste into WordPress. Last night I hit the wrong keys and didn’t notice and copied the title. When I did notice what had happened I hit CTRL Z but it would only go so far. So here I am, 12 hours later trying to recoup what it was that I wrote on this here blog.

29° on a Sunday afternoon. Not much going on in the past 48 hours. There was a plan to hang out with Mike yesterday but it did not happen as I was a little bit under the weather. I did rally but it was decided that I stay home and take care of myself, which is what I basically do every day and have done every day since that awful week in November.

Now it is February and it’s the usual wintertime bleakness. Bill is off to the gym, Mike is working and I am a solo act again. The only plan I have is to go out and buy some good multivitamins since I may be deficient in some supplemental areas. Resumes go out like bread cast on the water and neither fish nor fowl return in kind.

I shot a few videos the other day which I haven’t posted anywhere. I haven’t checked it out either. I really should. It’s all part of the plan for a webcast. I also had an idea for Mike to do reviews of movies he has seen, maybe lasting for a minute or two.

The plan so far is me reading older posts from this here blog, having Bill ask me questions about what I just read, some video I shoot from around town, short interviews with various friends, and Mike’s reviews. I hope to get it all around 15 minutes.

No idea on how to monetize this concept, so I guess I would just keep working until that happens. If it happens at all. Money is not the goal but if it happens I would not turn it down. I did plan on writing yesterday but could not get it together despite the fact that I was sitting where I write, just like I am now.

The difference between then and now is that I am writing instead of thinking about it. There was an interview with Michael Pain in the New York Times where he was asked about his diaries and how he edits them knowing that they would eventually be read by other people. And I suppose that is what I do as well.

There were a few posts on this here blog way back when and Juan read them and said some were a bit harsh, so they were removed from public consumption.

Michael Palin quote on writing: “Everyone should try it. You don’t have to be a great writer, just writing down what happened the day before- it’s quite good for you. To define what your life is about. The diaries constantly surprise me, how I completely contradict myself.”

And I guess I do just that, but to remove myself from subjectivity to objectivity is always a challenge, at least a challenge to pull it off successfully. Soon I will be out on the street. Buying yet another Mega Millions ticket, maybe a cigar and the vitamins. After that, my day is an open book, albeit halfway done I reckon.