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.

It’s Good Friday but for me it’s been mediocre. A lot of people have had off today, the jobs that I used to have, all had the day off. If the stock market was closed then so were we. But I am not there anymore and some of the companies aren’t around anymore and beleive it or not I am trying not to live in the past

It isn’t easy though. At the cigar shack a good number of our clientele work in the financial world, and they weren’t in. Some of the regulars were in, including a loud mouth know it all who is all of 20 years old, goes to the nearby college and has opinions on everything under the sun. He is so disliked this kid, that most of the regulars leave within minutes of the kid’s arrival on the scene.

I don’t like the kid either obviously, after sitting in the man cave with him and his sycophants and listening to them bad mouth the cigar shack. I kept my mouth shut as he trashed the place and kept a note that this kid was rotten.

On a more pleasant note, I ran into Amy Allison as I was headed back to the cigar shack after lunch. I hadn’t seen her since the night Farfetched closed. That would make it January 2009. We both chatted and caught up as much as we could in a short time. We both miss Farfetched a lot, but we were sure we don’t miss it as much as Susan and Lois miss it.

So it being a holiday weekend, the area around the cigar shack has quieted down quite a bit. Not much going on. Perhaps it’s because of the Easter season, maybe because it’s from Passover. I often wondered if modern day Israelites smeared lamb’s blood on their doorway. I’ve never seen it myself, but figured if you’re going to follow the story you should follow it all the way. After all, who wouldn’t want a then hunky, now dead John Derek as Joshuapissing off Edward G. Robinson?

I used to anticipate the sky turning black and opening up at 3 PM, the hour that I was taught that Jesus died. It never did happen, but man how I wished it would. I needed some proof to the stories I was brought up believing. It never happened and at 3:15 I more than likely moved onto something else, waiting for the final installment of The Robe, or King of Kings during Holy Week at the 4:30 Movie on ABC TV.

A little over a half hour left in the night at the cigar shack. I am on Saturday and Sunday which shouldn’t be so bad. Not expecting much. No Robert Hall for suburban moms taking their kids to buy new suits for Easter. Another ritual from my past that I hated. I never really cared much for Easter. My least favorite holiday growing up and I never liked ham either which my mother used to make for the holiday.

Now I am home, enjoyed a walk under a full moon. Bill is driving to Atlantic City. he didn’t have a good day either and I hope he’s OK. I’m sure he is, still- I worry.

06 We All Fall In Love Sometimes

Yes, today has been a day off. And it’s been alright. No need for pharmaceuticals since there was no despair at hand. I had a doctor’s appointment this morning and I wasn’t stressing it. It was merely a physical, a check up. This doctor is so much better than the one I had been seeing.

I held back on commenting on the old doctor when the new doctor asked who I had been seeing. When I mentioned the old doctor’s name, the new doctor mentioned that he was a friend. But it wasn’t really since the old doctor was a twin who shared his practice with his identical brother. I mentioned that it was Michael, not Joseph I had been seeing and the new doctor mentioned that all these years he had never met Joseph’s brother.

It was all very Dead Ringers by David Cronenberg. I was glad they were not gynecologists.

I was surprised my weight hadn’t gone down but I am trimmer. I guess the fat is turning to muscle. No, I still don’t have a six pack abdomen, and I don’t look like I swallowed a keg. My blood pressure is still low, 110 over 60 which isn’t that bad.

And the rest of the exam went well. I do have to go get some blood work done. Apparently the law dictates that general practitioners cannot take blood and leave it in the boxes outside their offices. Also the new doctor mentioned that kids had a habit of breaking into the boxes and throwing the contents onto the street, causing a lot of money in clean up.

Since I work in the city, I could get the blood extracted from Duane Reade which is a bit scary but since I trust the new doctor I will more than likely do it in the next few days.

After the doctor’s visit I was off running errands in the early afternoon of a spring day. It was bright and cool outside and I ran into RoDa as I wandered around. We chatted for awhile, talking about how we are both getting older as we stood on the street corner.

I’ve known RoDa for over 20 years and here we were in our 40’s talking about ailments and aging. He went his way and I went mine, home to some more coffee before returning two PG Wodehouse books to the bibliothèque.

Jimmy Seltzer had recommended reading Wodehouse and I did take them out, but since I was distracted by Mojo & Uncut magazines, as well as the New Yorker and my smartphone as well as the internets. Yes, the internets- where I saw a clip of Kurt Vonnegut talking about the firebombing of Dresden which got me interested enough in getting some Vonnegut from the American Classics selection via the bibliothèque.

Yes, I am reading Slaughterhouse Five. So it goes. And I did pick up the latest Mojo & Uncut magazines today. Have to schedule my reading habits so I can keep reading Vonnegut while reading about Steve Marriott & Jack White. Still haven’t gotten the latest New Yorker so I guess I will be calling the subscription department on Monday. So it goes.

06 Looking For Clues