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.

a whole ‘nother story

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Saturday night. Rainy day. No bike riding. Not much walking around. Supermarket jaunt and that was about it. The type of weather, where even if you had an umbrella you would get wet since the air was mostly mist, a lot of mist.

Bill was off on the road again though he will return tomorrow and we can spend the day together. The Hoboken Art & Music Fair is scheduled but the rain might be a tiny bit better than today. They also have a rain date scheduled for next Sunday should they have to do that.

I just got off the phone with Bill. He’s out somewhere in the wilds of New Jersey. He expects to be home in the early morning, meaning 1 or 2 AM. I will be sleeping I hope. That has been fleeting lately. A full restful sleep.

I am tempted to take an Ibuprofen PM which will definitely put me under but I am wary, plus I was planning to do that on Sunday night so I can get a good night’s sleep before having to go to work on Monday. A fresh hell surely awaits to paraphrase Dorothy Parker.

It’s been a boring day overall. Not much on TV and I can usually find something. But it was slim pickings today. Something funny that requires little attention. The layout here is my desktop computer is to my right, and the television is to my left, putting me in the middle.

The computer commands my attention and the television is mainly auditory. If Bill was here and something was on TV that we were both ‘watching’, Bill would ask ‘Did I see that? You should go back to catch it’ and that is what I usually do. Since he’s not here there is nothing to suggest turning my head just a few inches to my left.

We have a few streaming services, including Tubi which I downloaded to watch Maggie Smith in California Suite. We have Hoopla, Kanopy, Disney, Max, Amazon, Hulu, Roku, and the granddaddy of them all, Netflix. We also have Crackle which we got to watch the Weird Al Yankovic biopic which was hilarious.

We have a PBS app but I’m not sure if that works anymore. And then there’s cable TV. So much to watch and there’s nothing on is the adage or words to that effect.

Now I’ve been watching Kenya Barris’ Black-ish for a few hours, or rather listening to Kenya Barris’ Black-ish for a few hours. Nothing on. Not even the Six O’clock News at Six O’clock. Friggin’ golf was on instead.

I am not into sports.

In the Nineties I liked the NY Knicks, since I was hanging out with a group that liked the Knicks and the Knicks were impressive then. Ewing, Oakley, Starks, and my favorite Anthony Mason. They made it to the playoffs but Reggie Miller or Michael Jordan stopped that. That’s my sports writing.
I could tell you about my summer league baseball story from the 1970s but that would be a whole ‘nother story for a whole ‘nother time.

Obviously

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Another later than usual post. Not that you’d know unless I told you. And who are you anyway? Nah, I’m just kidding. But it’s after 10 PM and I do try to post earlier than that. But here we are, Tempus fugit. It was a cooler day, weather-wise as well as at work.

Most of the office was working from home so hardly anyone was at their desks. The worst part of the day was when I was at lunch. Back on Thomas Street, sitting on a wall enjoying a cigar when I felt something his the back of my neck and down my shirt.

I had an idea what it was. A lantern fly. For the past 2 years, the general public has been instructed to kill them on sight. I hoped I was wrong and I imagined that I could feel it under my shirt. Being modest I unbuttoned my shirt and shook it loose.

I didn’t see it fall out but a moment later I saw a lantern fly on the sidewalk in front of me. I justified the killing of the lantern fly by reasoning that it invaded my space.

At one point last year, Bill and I were walking in Jersey City and they were greatly attracted to him. For me, it’s usually big-ass flies when I am at Sandy Hook. They are drawn to me. They do not bother anyone else that I’m with. Just me.

They bite and draw blood. I have to add OFF to the sunscreen.

I had an idea about a guy who gets bitten by a lantern fly and starts eating all the things that lantern flies eat, endangering the local flora. That’s all I got. Not a bad idea for a 15-minute walk from Thomas to Murray Streets.

I saw a guy that reminded me of my father. It was a bit unnerving and I thought of Six Feet Under’s finale. A few times, before the major characters died, they saw someone from their past. That was the unnerving part, was that my father? Was I about to die?

Obviously, I did not.

Bill came home today and that was good. We were watching A Room With A View, in honor of Maggie Smith who died today, or at least her death was announced. When I found out, I said ‘Aw’.

The weather forecast is calling for rain tomorrow, so no bike riding. It could all change of course. The meteorologists are generally wrong half the time. Not bad work if you can get it. It’s been overcast the past few days.

This is what autumn is. Every year. I can’t believe people actually wish for this weather. It’s a drag. Give me spring and summer. I find winter to be troublesome. I have fallen too many times. It’s fun when you’re a kid, but as one goes through life, the laughs turn into groans.

Very much like the groan you have just emitted after reading this post.