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.

Manchester, England

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Argh. 98 degrees inside the apartment, says my trusty thermometer. I choose to believe the thermometer. Last night when I wrote it was quite difficult. Couldn’t focus on the keys. Took me a while to get a grip. I was still out of it when Bill came home. I was surprised to see him, he said he told me he was coming home earlier in the day. I forgot, so fried I was. Not that I was caught in flagrante delectico. That happens to other people.

I tried to keep cool with the lights low, he comes home, makes pasta and turns on as many lights as possible. To his credit he bought me a Ben and Jerry’s New York Fudge Brownie pint of ice cream so all was forgiven with but a flick of a switch. We watched the second half of A Hard Day’s Night. Bill thought it was called Ticket to Ride. I corrected him, telling him that he was thinking of Help. He really enjoyed the Ticket To Ride sequence, since it has the music notes on the Alps, a musician to the end.

I was waiting for the documentary on Roman Polanski. It’s been getting a lot of good reviews and as I turned the channel, I saw the opening credits to Hairspray, the musical version. It was cute and I saw it last year with Bill and Billie who was up from DC. I didn’t want to watch it again so I changed the channel again to Deep Impact. Which I had seen before but Bill had never seen it from start to finish. It was enjoyable somewhat each time Elijah Wood was on screen we’d yell out ‘Frodo!’.

When that ended Die Hard 3 came on and Bill was totally revved up for it so I went off to bed and slept a sweaty sleep, despite 2 fans a blowing. The Roman Polanski documentary is on tonight so that’s what I’ll be watching. Went to work this morning, it was 86 degrees, and that felt comfortable, but the nearest star, it’s rays are still quite powerful leaving me to seek sanctuary in the shade.

I had nothing to read, having finished the David Sheff book and the New Yorker. I could only stare out the window and look at all the single passenger cars heading into the tunnel. Such waste. Of course since gas is getting so expensive some people are actually using mass transit making things hot and crowded. I made it to the office, and changed my t shirt.

I called up the insurance company and asked them to explain my bill. They spelled it out, saying that since I had the extractions and the surgery on the same day, instead of getting $600.00 back I’ll be getting $129.00 instead. That sucked as I was planning on using the money towards the next dental appointment which was scheduled for July 2. I called up my dentist and had to cancel that and also ask her to write a letter saying why it was important to have the procedures done on the same day.

Apparently if I had one done on Monday and the other done on Tuesday that would have been alright. My dentist said she would check with her director. And to add a little salt to the wound, the $129.00 check was sent to the school and not to me. Again. They did this last time. If I want to appeal the insurance company’s decision, I have to do it in writing, and that should take about 30 days.

When I asked for the $129.00 check to be resent to me the initial neckbone said it would take 90 days. Then I was told 5 to 10 business days. Fucking assholes. And still no info from my dentist yet. Is this what I get when I go out of the plan and try to save some money? The procedures would cost a lot more if I went to an actual dentist in the plan. The dental school is about half that. Jerk off bastard insurance company.

After that I had errands to walk. Had to go to Saks Fifth Avenue for a director from my office. She’s in Europe and I tried doing it on the phone, but would up going to the store. Snooty but not as bad as I thought it would be and the men’s suits weren’t all that. I also found out and told Juan that we wouldn’t be hiring him for the summer. He was cool about it, he’s collecting unemployment, but I know they’re making a mistake, not but not hiring Juan, but by not hiring anyone at all.

Bamboo Banga

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Another hot day. Right now in the apartment the thermometer says 94 degrees. On TV it says 91. I am sweating profusely wearing only boxer shorts. A thrill for some, much needed for comfort. It’s drizzling right now, barely. It’s drying rapidly. Bad news for drivers and the cost of gas.

Scooters are in now. And there’s a prediction that by July 4, a barrel of oil will hit $150.00, translating to $5.00 for a gallon of gas. ‘I got some downers and speed, all the drugs that you need, but I can’t get a gallon of gas’ sang Ray Davies in the 1980’s.

Juan was here for a spell last night. He looked great, showing off his new American Apparel shorts. He lost weight but he didn’t seem to agree. I fed him some pasta and chicken and we watched the last episode of Lost on the DVR. Always good to have him around. Lost was good, saw some things I missed the first time around. Juan seemed to enjoy it too.

Around 9:00 he headed back to Trenton. I watched a documentary on Glenn Gould which was only an hour then watched the last half of Hannah and Her Sisters. I was asleep by 11:30 and sleep soundly under two fans blowing at top speed.

Woke up and went out. It wasn’t that hot at 8:30, only in the 80’s. No run ins at the bagel shop and I was soon back in my apartment wearing my third t shirt of the day and it was only 9:30. I watched a 2 hour documentary on Atlantic Records, or more specifically, all about Ahmet Ertegun. Only a mention or two of Arif Mardin so that was disappointing. Kid Rock was talked about more than Arif.

It was a very fast 2 hours though. Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant were just a few of the talking heads besides Aretha, Ben E. King and Solomon Burke. After that I watched Almost Famous again. Still a very good picture, surprised it didn’t do as well as I thought it did according to wikipedia. I think Cameron Crowe as well as many many others really identify with music on an intense level. I know I do.

After Almost Famous, my usual Sunday walk to mail the Netflix dvd’s. It was really oppressive, so much so that I was feeling woozy despite drinking a lot of water and having a couple of bottles on me. I wound up sitting by the river, trying to catch some breezes off the water.

I couldn’t focus to read a book and all I could do was just sit there and stare across the river. That’s never happened before. I remember about 10 years ago it was even hotter and I wound up riding my bicycle to Prospect Park, where it was too hot to even wear a light shirt.

Now today, it was difficult to walk down the street without feeling a bit dizzy and I was in the shade. I’m better now, back home and sitting in the dark. Nice. Tomorrow promises to be more of the same until later in the week, temperature-wise.