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.

I’ll have a bash

I almost forgot to write again, yet here I am remembering to write. The Beatles are on, A Hard Day’s Night. I’ve seen it a lot of times so it’s more for the soundtrack than the visuals but eventually, they get me to turn my head.

It was a good day for bicycle riding. Today was a ride to North Bergen again. Nice ride, some deer in the headlights on the Hudson River Walkway. Despite the ringing of bells, chimes, and buzzers they freeze.

I don’t curse them out surprisingly. I generally say something though. Today there were two women trying to figure out how to work a smartphone camera and I buzzed, rang, and chimed, and still no movement. I rolled past and said, ‘Come on, get out of the way…’ And then I was gone.

Other bicyclists don’t ring any alarms or bells, they just speed past. My neighbor in the building and I had a disagreement about alerting pedestrians. He rides daily from Hoboken to Newark and rings no bells.

I insisted that it was good to give a heads up, and sometimes I even say ‘Heads up’ instead of chiming, buzzing, or ringing. He rides more than I do but still, I won’t defer to his methods.

I found today that I am good at determining distances by eye. I’d see a landmark and figure that it was a mile away and it was roughly a mile away. I’d check to see if I was right by the odometer and I was. A feather in my cap I suppose or in this case, a feather in my bicycle helmet.

I rode back to Hoboken without incident and before I ascended the stairs I went to an herb shop on Washington Street. The past 2 times I’d gone it was OK, but today they were giving me the hard sell to join their secret club in the shop. I told them that I was not interested at this time but they were insistent.

3 times they asked and 3 times I begged off. Perhaps it is a good deal but at the moment I was not interested. I’m sure they had something to talk about once I left. I do like them though. Both stores on Washington Street are good enough though. The one by the Path train is a weird vibe but any port in a storm…

I did not sleep well last night. Intermittent at best. I did have a sexy dream that featured Bill, who I kept asking if we were in an open relationship as a lesbian filmmaker walked past us as we lay in bed on top of each other.

I’m taking precautions to get a good night’s sleep tonight since it’s back to whatever it is I do at work. It’s a Monday so that should keep some people out of the office. Not like a Friday though when I can expect people not to be at their desks.

I suppose I will find out tomorrow.

Better Things

I did not write yesterday and only remembered that I forgot this morning. To be honest, I was fatigued last night and I wondered if it was because of the flu shot and covid booster I had gotten on Thursday night. It went well, my arm was sore at the injection point but other than that no problems except for brewing tired. And my back ached between my shoulder blades and lower neck.

The day went well yesterday, a not-crowded Path train going into the city and just a sprinkling of workers in the office. The afternoon cigar smoke was ok. A La Flor Dominicana Maduro which wasn’t burning to my satisfaction. The spot on Thomas Street was alright, not the euphoria from the epiphany the day before, I was more down to earth.

I usually finish the cigar on Murray Street which is not that busy but yesterday a local mom had a birthday party for her kid and part of the party was a van which I guess had an arcade inside so kids can use PlayStation or whatever it is kids do these days. The kids who were not in the van were on the opposite sidewalk being noisy, being kids.

The self-evaluation was due at 5:00 PM and I did some tweaking on it. Not as verbose as I originally thought. I did not sink down to their level for a half-hearted attempt of lifting them up. Schlomo the DKB, rated me as ‘Successful’ 6 times, ‘Above Expectations’ 1 time, and ‘Below Expectations’ 3 times which averaged out to a ‘C’ in Schlomo the DKB’s world.

It’s bullshit and the self-evaluation proved that by spelling ‘Expectations’ as ‘Expecaions’ and ‘Expectaions’. I think someone got a kickback from the evaluating company because this was incredibly stupid. Of course, I pointed it out posting ‘Expectations Expecaions Expectaions, that’s what it’s all about.’

There will be an interview next month to discuss my submission and I’m sure I will be asked about that. Right now my reply would be ‘How can I take this seriously when the evaluation company couldn’t even proofread what they are sending to clients?’

No, I am not like everybody else. I doubt if anyone else caught it. Familiarity breeds contempt and I am overly familiar with some of these people. The people I was told not to trust, as told by the Legume, seem to be more trustworthy than him or the other 2 judging me.

I am older than the 3 of them and 40 years older than the Legume’s daughter who fabricated charges against me. The bloom is off the rose which decayed in the sun back in July.

But today is Saturday and I had a good bike ride which was one hour and forty-four minutes this afternoon. The tree I enjoy was occupied by a Park Police SUV so that was no go. Of all the places to park in Liberty State Park this Federal Employee had to park under MY tree.

More cycling is scheduled for tomorrow. I have to get as much riding in while the weather is still pleasant enough.