Author Archives: johnozed

About johnozed

I'm 50+ years old, 210-ish#, 6'2", reddish blonde, blue eyes with glasses (and without) masculine, funny, relatively intelligent, enjoy the company of assorted friends and family especially sordid friends and family. I love music, reading, writing, conversing, laughing, going to films, shows, concerts and smoking cigars. And I also enjoy looking nice in a suit and tie. Looking more like Lewis Lapham than Tom Wolfe. I'm sure there is more, but we'll just have to find out when I write about it. In a lifetime relationship with partner Bill Vila.

Slave to Love

Leave a reply

It’s Monday again. And going to work is just something to do. Last night, Bill came home, actually was home before I was and cleaned up some of the apartment. Kudos for Bill on taking the initiative. Piece by piece, bit by bit, he’s slowly getting the apartment. And buying groceries.

In the 5 years we’ve been living together, he never really did that before. He usually gets off the bus and buys whatever he needs at the Village Market. They charge a bit more for the convenience. I tried telling him to just walk to the supermarket which is a block away from the apartment, but he never would, until now.

I’m glad he’s finally listened to me, especially since I stand to benefit from his errands. He watched the Olympics as I wrote, going off on what was going on during the games. I was trying to get the blog up so I wasn’t really paying him much attention.

A little after 10:00 he went to bed. I stayed up and watched the news, finally going to bed at 11:30. Fell almost immediately into a deep sleep. That only lasted a few minutes. I think I was dreaming about 9/11, when Bill turned and touched me on the arm which made me jump almost a foot into the air. He didn’t notice but I had some difficulty going to sleep for a while after that.

Next thing I know Bill is kissing me goodbye as he was headed out the door. I rallied and shaved for the first time in days and was soon out the door. As I got on the bus I realized that I had nothing to read. I hoped Casey would be on this bus, but he was nowhere to be found as the bus pulled away from his usual stop.

So I sat and stared out the window and silently judged my fellow commuters. So many one passenger cars going into the city. With the price of gas and the cost of the toll you’d have to have some money in the bank to commute solo each day.

Got to work. Half the office out on vacation. I put off some work from last week, planning on doing it this week. Errands to run and I took my time, even stopping off to get my shoes shined. No one noticed since hardly anyone was in.

Got a phone call from Pedro who I hadn’t heard from in weeks. Still a knucklehead. I love him and mean that as a term of endearment. He was asking me about E-trade, how reliable it is. Apparently he has some money and is looking to invest. What does he want to invest in? Coal. I asked him, ‘Coal?’

He responded, ‘Yeah coal nigga. C-o-a-l. Coal.’ I told him that I didn’t think it was a good idea and explained why to him. His response was the fact that China uses it, and they’re building a coal plant a day. Whether or not that’s true it’s a terrible idea and definitely bad for the environment.

It seems when I’m not around giving him the liberal slant on things, he gets wrapped up in the conservative bullshit. He basically repeated the talking points that have been regurgitated the past few weeks. How fossil fuels are a myth and other crap like that.

I also said that he should look into solar and wind power, renewable sources of energy. He said that they were nowhere near ready and I responded that is when you should invest, now, when they are still in research.

And also some guys up at MIT a few weeks ago, had found a way to store the energy provided by solar panels. I love Pedro so much and I hate to see him following the low thought patterns of his fellow corrections officers.

If I didn’t get through to him I would like to think I put a kernel of knowledge in his mind, as opposed to the third hand FuckSnooze talking points.

Here’s some extra pics from the weekend…

I think adults on Razor Scooters are dumb

Hoboken from the Heights

And away he goes…!

D’Angelo- Untitled (How Does It Feel?)

Ya heard?

Bus Dem Shut

2 Replies

Just got home about an hour ago. Made a pound of pasta yesterday and I still have enough left over for tomorrow. It’s not bad. It’s the usual weekend fare, pasta, chicken with sauce. No pesto, that’s the Thursday thang.

Last night didn’t do much of anything. Wrote the blog, edited some pictures. The Olympics were on but without Bill’s enthusiasm it didn’t hold much interest for me. Today was going to be different. I was heading into the city to go to Summerstage and check out Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings.

Not a motorhead, but I thought this was worth looking at

I hopped on the bus and once in the city I decided to walk around, up to the park. I planned on walking up Park Avenue, a little out of the way because they had closed the street to traffic, leaving the streets to pedestrians and bicycles and kittens! Where they got the kittens from, I don’t know. But the last day for the street being closed was yesterday so no kittens today.

Too thin!

I bought a different cigar, a La Flor Dominicana Double Legero. All I know is that it was Dominican. I got a good deal on it and strolled up Fifth Avenue puffing away and look at all the other pedestrians and tourists roaming around in the shady side of the avenue. It wasn’t as crowded as it was yesterday. A lot less people, but still plenty of toddlers.

My cigar and a dandy…

Yesterday in an odd moment I was talking to Annemarie on the phone while in the park and I mentioned that there were so many babies, that I wondered if it was because of the blackout that I wrote about on Friday. Annemarie brought me down to earth and punctured my omnipotence. She’s good like that. Reminded me that the blackout was five years ago, not last year.

Rock people

Tree People

The line to get into Summerstage

I sat on the rock and enjoyed my cigar, no one seemed to mind, Other substances were being smoked as well. Of course there’s one in every crowd. Some guy in a white hat was sitting maybe thirty feet away from me stood up with his friend and started to walk away, but not before the guy in the white hat turned and looked at me and said, ‘We’re leaving. You’re ruined everything with your cigar. It stinks.’ I just looked at him and said ‘Bye’.

Be on the lookout

Next to where the guy in the white hat sat, was a couple. The girl said she liked the smell and the boyfriend agreed loudly enough. I thanked them and said that I though the guy in the white hat had an ugly hat. That happens from time to time, albeit rarely.

Some sort of confrontation with a guy usually. I think the last time was last year on my birthday. After lunch I decided to smoke a cigar and was walking down the street when some yutz starts screaming at me, hoping that I would die since I was smoking a cigar.

The illegal beer vendors showed up and I had myself a Heineken and grooved to the opening acts, Menahan Street Band, and Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens. Both were very good. Naomi Shelton was gospel of course and the Menahan Street Band were styled like the Bar-Kays from Stax. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings were great but it could have been a little louder.

One more beer and a surreptitious puff and I had to relieve myself. Wide range of people in the park and a ton of tourists of course, all clutching tourist guide books in so many different languages. I watched an older couple, white haired probably in their late 60’s sitting on a bench taking pictures of each other.

Lot’s of toddlers climbing the rock unattended to, somewhat foolishly since the rock is riddled with broken glass in various crevices. No one got hurt. At least while I was around. Not on my watch.

Headed back to the Path train, crowded but I snagged a seat since I knew where the door was going to open. I guess that was a little bit of instant karma. I was soon home heating up some very good leftovers. Bill’s here watching the Olympics as it starts all over again tomorrow.