Monday, January 12th, 2026

New responsibilities have started today, including one that involved other people and email, and I have to say I knocked it out of the box, except for the slight mistake of including brackets that I included from a template I was using.

Other than that, it went well. I had my end of the year review for 2025 in 2026. And despite the misgivings I had with Barry McGarry, that’s all in the past and gets further and further away in the rear-view mirror. This review with the company that placed me at the fruit stand gave me a 100% review.

Of course, they would prefer I spend more time dealing with the company that placed me at the fruit stand rather than the fruit stand, but the fruit stand is where I am in the midst.

It was an enjoyable on-camera review with the woman who is usually annoyed with just about everything I do, it seems, but that was then, this is now and here I am in the thick of it. And I am making a noble effort to play according to their rules and forgetting the HBJ charm offensive that I’ve carried for almost 50 years. Holy guacamole indeed.

Mike was supposed to come over on Friday, but did not. He was waylaid by his parole officer and then, at night, went to a bachelor party in midtown Manhattan. Mike has no sense of direction despite my telling him to take an uptown train; he went up to Brooklyn. He called me from Brooklyn and made it sound like it was my fault that he was in Brooklyn.

I was able to get him back on the train into Manhattan and had him call me at every stop to make sure he was going in the right direction. At some point, I noticed Bill had stopped his driving and had Bill contact him since Bill is the MTA Maven when it comes to directions and information.

My friend went to the party, had a good time, and didn’t get home until 4:30 in the morning. Woke up hungover and unable to come over again due to the parole officer. I have no choice but to believe him, though in the back of my mind, the skeptic comes out and says you know he’s not doing that. But it’s none of my business, he has his life I have mine, even though he has more of a life than I do and he’s an ex-con.

And Sunday was more of the same, an expected visit that was canceled due to the interference of what may or may not have been a parole officer. I offered to come over, but he sort of backpedaled and reneged. It did not help my frame of mind; in fact, I was quite despairing just from being alone and not having anyone to talk to.

I did look into things that would get me into trouble and opted not to do them because I’m too old for that bullshit.