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.

Yeah it’s another day at the cigar shack and another crappy day at that. The weather coincides with the atmosphere inside the cigar shack. I am so ambivalent I have not checked the numbers since last night. The man cave usually gets cleared out at 7:00PM, but not tonight. Zack has been getting his smoke on.

And the music today has been provided by Pandora, the scourge of DJ’s everywhere. And it has been Thomas’ choosing to play Pandora, so we’ve had a smattering of Arcade Fire (who I really can’t bear to listen to anymore), some Beatles and Postal Service and a host of emo type things.

Thomas has been quite antagonistic today so I figured it would be best to stay out of his way and just stay within the confines of my own mind and body. If I said Black, Thomas would say White. I say left and he would say right. So it was probably for the best I feel. He just asked if I would be this way all night and since there is less than 90 minutes I don’t think it would really matter one way or another.

Plus I have had no reason to get into it or out of it or whatever position it would seem to be. He hasn’t been engaging like he usually is and now seems miffed at my reaction to his antagonism. Oh it could go on all right. I just attempted a conversation but apparently Thomas was not having it. That train has left the station. Pandora shut off about 20 minutes ago and he is not doing anything about it.

I hate selling pens and I hate selling pen refills. And I really hate doing repairs. And the last customers I’ve had were all about pens and lighters. The lighter needed to be repaired and so I did the proper paperwork and set it up to go out tomorrow with the mail. It’s just been added to some other items I had shipped out in the past few months, including a lighter of my own that the companies they were sent to have been quite lax in returning.

One company sent a lighter back with a cost of 68.00 despite my writing on the work order to phone with an estimate. So I needed to contact the customer who seemed remarkably non-plussed which was a relief since I was anticipating a justifiably irate customer.

Things have gotten better between Thomas and myself. All that was needed was explanations as to how each of us were feeling. He was feeling shitty and I was feeling crappy or vice versa.

On a nicer note, Zack’s wife stopped by the cigar shack and she was looking quite nice. She is a few months pregnant, due in June. They make a nice couple and it’s clear that Zack adores her. Now there is less than 30 minutes left at the cigar shack and I am glad Thomas is closing tonight. He offered to do it yesterday and I took him up on the offer so I wouldn’t have to close four days in a row.

Still I have to close tomorrow and Saturday but it’s OK. Shouldn’t be too bad and having written that I have more than likely jinxed myself. Home again, drizzly outside. Bill was able to exchange the melted Godiva chocolates from Valentine’s Day so that is really nice. To come home to a sweet man with a sweet heart shaped box of chocolates is great. I wish everyone could have that experience but you’ll have to get your own guy.

And NJ has passed same sex marriage which will likely be vetoed by our rotund governor.

Romantic-Me

And so it was back to work for me today after a day off which was quite productive, or at least somewhat productive. Today there was some difficulty waking up more than likely from the fact that it was raining outside and who really wants to get out of bed on a rainy day?

Bill had off today, he had an audition for a TV show this afternoon and also wanted to continue on his progress with regards to cleaning the apartment. SO Bill and his buddy are doing just that, cleaning the apartment. Bill said it would be all Spic & Span when I get home. I do have my reservations though.

My day at the cigar shack started in the red though. Last week I sold a few items totaling over $700.00. It was a good sale, the customer was nice and I enjoyed helping her. Unfortunately between that day and this morning, she found the same items online at a considerably lower price.

So she returned them for a refund and I can’t blame her for that but that put me in the hole. I spent the day trying to get out of the hole, bit by bit, cigar by cigar. A little over an hour ago, I was finally out of the hole and content to be in the low 3 figures. Back in Black should have been the theme song.

Slowly my numbers increased and soon I was hovering around $500.00. In the past 45 minutes thanks to 2 customers from far away lands I am now over 4 figures. I am happy about that and so is Zack. It’s been a busy kind of day, Zack, Bradley and Thomas and myself. Bradley and Thomas have done stellar work today.

There was an event that no one really wanted to have a part of. The cigar shack rarely has sales but the head cheeses insisted so we had no choice but to do what the head cheeses ordered. Food was ordered, whiskey distributor arrived, but unfortunately no one who said they were coming, came.

There was disappointment from the manager and the assistant manager but when the time came for them to leave, they left with whiskey on the breath.

This afternoon as I was coming back from lunch, before I headed into the cigar shack I was outside having a smoke. I saw this gent standing outside the cigar shack on the sidewalk holding up a pamphlet titled ‘TRY THIS!!!’. I figured he was handing out samples of something so I asked the gent what it was he wanted people to try.

It turned out he was looking for work as a personal assistant. His name is L. Jay Walker and he thinks of possibilities and getting them done as well as trying to find a cure for snoring. He claims to be big, strong, smart, compassionate as well as being a humorous guy with a calm and peaceful demeanor.

He can guarantee your safety and he’s quite handy as well as a great listener. So if you are looking for a personal assistant or know of someone who is, send an email to ljaywalker54@gmail.com. I figure it wouldn’t take much of anything for me to post his info and it would sure beat handing out pamphlets outside of a shopping area. He seemed like a nice guy anyhow.