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.

Last night was a mellow Fourth of July. No complaints. It was raining and very muggy out. No need to go to the river to see the fireworks since you couldn’t really see them anyhow. You could see different colored clouds and fog flashing.

From the 5th floor perch where I sit you could see North Bergen and Jersey City blowing up. No interest really. Bill phoned and though he and his mother were about 100 yards from the East River, they wound up watching it on TV.

Before Bill went over to Stuyvesant Town, we watched Galaxy Quest, which Bill had never seen before. That’s the Star Trek spoof with Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman. It’s really a funny movie and a wonderful send up of the Enterprise enterprise. After that we started to watch Psycho.

I hoped Bill had never seen it before, but he did. I looked out the window and a few miles away I could see a plume of smoke so we watched the local news which didn’t have any information on it. The plume eventually dissipated .Bill was busy, shredding boxes of documents and papers that he had accumulated over the years and threatened to collapse ala the Collyer Brothers from way back in the day.

Juan came over last night and we watched what else but Walk Hard. Juan had never seen it before, and for me it was the third time in two days. I made some summer cocktails which were basically vodka and diet Sierra Mist with a slice of lemon for a summertime qualification.

It seems I can’t make a proper drink anymore these days, and I should leave drink making to a professional. The second cocktail proved to be the last as it kicked my ass as well as Juan’s. I made us each a hot dog on the George Foreman grill which allowed me to regain single vision, able to read with both eyes open.

Fittingly we watched Weeds after Walk Hard. Juan hadn’t seen the latest episodes and I had only seen two out of three. Still watched two out of three because midway through the second episode, I was fading fast. Juan walked back home and I went to bed. Had a good night’s sleep, woke up around 8:30 which was quite nice.

Texted Julio about bagels but didn’t receive a response. Stine made it a point to tell me the other night not to post her picture anymore, she was very uncomfortable about it. So no more pictures of Stine then. I think that was prompted by the cd I gave her of all the photos of Alexander that I had taken. That’s too bad, but I don’t want to make waves so I’ll respect her wishes.

Today’s weather is reminiscent of the 1977 Fourth of July which was bound to be a letdown after the previous year’s bicentennial celebration. I remember going to the Garden State Plaza, which was still an outdoor mall then and running around in the rain with my friends through Sam Goody’s and Bamberger’s.

Eventually I broke off on my own for a little while doing some exploring from the tearooms of Mars to the surfaces of Uranus. I’m amazed at how I can remember these things.

Now where did I put my keys?

This afternoon I wandered around Hoboken, bought a used cd of Walk Hard which is just as much fun as the movie and I’ll try never to mention Walk Hard again. I just loaned the dvd to Rand and Lisa and they’d never seen it before.

I had a nice stroll up Washington Street with them, they ran into stores while I hung outside smoking a Padron 5000. Quite nice and the humidity keeps the cigar fresh. Almost had a Mojito with the two of them, but Bill had just came home and I wanted to see how he was doing. He’s fine.

A Cardinal 50 feet from my window

Hoboken Holiday weekend

Today is the fourth of July. The country is 232 years old. Or at least the Declaration of Independence was stated on this day. Actual independence didn’t happen until a number of years later. In 1976 was the bicentennial. A major event. My father was working in the World Trade Center at the time and a few months before, there was a plan to have a party in the offices so we could watch the tall ships and the fireworks from on high.

That was the plan until rumors started floating around about how gangs were going to be roaming the streets mugging the deep influx of tourists. That scared my father enough so that we spent July 4th in the backyard of 13 Riverview Avenue in Lodi, which despite what you may have heard is not the same thing.

My brother Frank had promised to take me to see the fireworks that night. He was at a party with his wife Elaine though and didn’t show up. There were plenty of firecrackers to keep me amused. My brother Brian wound up with me in the back seat of his car while him and his buddy Eddie drove around River Road in Fort Lee that night where I heard the fireworks going off overhead, not actually able to see them due to the tree tops blocking the view.

It wasn’t that bad, I still got back home and met up with my friends. I stole a pack of Marlboro’s from my mother and got caught but was let go when I explained it would be easier to light a firecracker with a cigarette rather than using matches or lighters. Somehow that worked and I walked away with a hard pack of Marlboro’s in my pocket. That’s probably when I started smoking.

Me and my friends whiled away the remaining bicentennial hours blowing up whatever we could. My sister Annemarie worked in a hospital at that time and gave us all warnings about people in the emergency rooms due to playing with fireworks, so we were careful, though a firecracker did go off in my hand, leaving my thumb and index finger numb for a few hours.

My brother Frank tried to make up for his absence the next day and gave me a copy of Abbey Road which is the first Beatles album I ever owned. I forgave him and soon got every much into the Beatles.

This year, it’s been overcast and muggy. Rained a bit today. Hoboken is like a ghost town today. I rode around, wound up by Battery Park. Bill was spending time with his mother, didn’t make it down there. I rode around, the streets crowded with tourists everywhere as well as Statues of Liberty.

The Feelies sounded great, but I couldn’t see them. I wound up outside the park and listened. Brenda was saying thank you after each song, I wonder if her mother asked her to. I was bored and decided to ride back to the Path train, taking it to Exchange Place and riding home from there.

Not much else going on today. Bill’s staying at his mother’s apartment since the fireworks will be going off 100 yards from her bedroom window. Here’s some pics.

The fans