Another day, this one is a Wednesday. As I hoped today would be alright, it was so far, so good this morning. I was in the office a half hour early. I knew Yancy was going to arrive, and I certainly did not want to arrive and see him sitting on the couch doing those Yancy-type things that only Yancy could do. I went to bed at around 10:30 last night and that was a deciding factor.

And it was decided by Morpheus that I should wake up a bit earlier than usual. I looked at the alarm clock, saw it was 5:10 AM, and said, ‘I’ll take it’ and fell back asleep for another 45 minutes. Then another 10 minutes, and then I decided that it was time to get out of bed.

Things were in such a fraught state for me yesterday at work and I had words of encouragement from Bill and Mike’s ear. I need to remember Mike’s employment situation and how I would feel when I was out of work and listened to various employed friends complain about their jobs. I just sent him a post about jobs out in the Meadowlands at the American Dream whatchamacallit.

He is going to have to find a job soon. I hope he knows this. It was not an easy time for Mike last time, last summer. And that is why I am hesitant to assist this time. As Bill (& Mike) will profess, the Gemini thing, you never know which twin you’re going to get. Most of the time lately it’s been the good twin, but man, that bad twin is just a pain in the tuchis to deal with and I would rather not.

Bill is on the road, from the Bronx to Pennsylvania. Right now, Cornershop is playing a song, ‘Good to be on the Road Back Home Again’. They played Maxwell’s back in the day. I missed it. Julio was working that night and let me know I would have enjoyed seeing Cornershop. C’est La Vie.

Done with coffee for the day. Trying to figure out what to have for lunch. Should I have anything? Should I have salad today? I tried yesterday and that didn’t work out too well. And there is more than one salad bar in the area, anyhow.

Salad it is. It is supposed to be ready in a little over an hour. If you want to eat healthy, you will pay for it, one way or another. This is the lesson that is learned. Like I wrote yesterday the deli at 11 Park Place, Elim Deli, was very good despite the clientele of my coworkers who were less than human. I had lunch from there 4 out of 5 days a week. I would more than likely be getting my lunch from them again today, then go out fo a cigar walk an hour or so later. Today it is too cold for that, foolish April 8, 2026. When the weather warms up, that is what my spring and summer lunches will look like.

Lodi Vinny, 40 years
I was thinking of Vinny, who lived on Church Street in Lodi. He was a good kid, a few years younger than me. I didn’t know him from Lodi. We met when we both worked for HBJ. He was an assistant some days when I was driving into Manhattan.

He had a great body and was strong enough to pick me up and throw me into the piles of bagged styrofoam peanuts. I loved it when he did that. We never hung out, but one particular time, after the HBJ holiday party, we all piled into my car and went to the Soap Factory Disco in Leonia.

I was in a new wave look, blazer, skinny tie, black trousers and with that look I was turned away at the door. I was all set to just go home and offered Vinny a ride but he decided to walk from Leonia to Lodi which was a bit of a hike for a few miles on Route 46.

I’m sure he made it home safely, though I don’t think I saw much of Vinny after that. I hope he’s doing well.