Another goddamned day. It’s a fucking Wednesday and I have been in a mood since I woke up. Hoboken has been under a boil water advisory for the past 24 hours and I’m sure it will be corrected eventually but not soon enough for my tastes.

It’s a hassle and not the end of the world but just another straw that has been placed on the back of a camel. It’s been quite cold. I went for a walk, leaving Bill at home and when I came back he asked how it was outside. I explained that it was a February day and the temperatures were 29° but it really felt like 21°.

In any event, I am sick and tired of winter. It’s a drag and I do not want to have anything to do with almost anyone today. And to be under a boil water advisory in the middle of winter does not help anyone. Bill and I watched the documentary Sly Stone: The Burden of Black Genius on Hulu. It’s directed by Questlove, Ahmir Thompson, to his Mom.

I loved it but I am not sure if Bill knew anything about Sly Stone, though he seemed to enjoy it. Then we watched Roy Wood Jr.’s stand-up special which was funny. Bill was off to bed after that and I called Mike and left an unacknowledged voicemail yet again.

I find that annoying with regard to Mike. I know he’s new in our lives here but some recognition is all that is asked for and never received. It’s confusing to me. Both Bill and Mike are into the magical world of Astrology, Bill being a Cancer, Mike a Gemini and me a Virgo. What does it mean, I really couldn’t say.

Most of the time I think it is bullshit but I want to interact with these believers so I play along. The Virgo sign is supposed to represent communication and in that case, I do believe it to be true. I communicate and when others do not respond in kind it all falls apart.

So the unacknowledged voicemail set a tone for most of my day. The ongoing boil water advisory is not helping. And the job search. I send out resumes and apply online for positions and I get rejections or ignored.

It doesn’t help my spirits very much and all it takes is a look back to a few months ago and I get even more upset. I did contact Daisy the other day. The food place she worked at before I got her into Bratty McGrotty had a help-wanted sign.

I sent a text on President’s Day and she eventually replied that she thought about contacting me but was scared to. That was alarming. Daisy does not seem to be like my other friends, the ones that take the good with the bad. Those are true friends. They stick around.

I know Daisy has her kid and no time for nonsense like my nonsense but to say they’re scared to drop a line seemed ridiculous and sounded like the Filipino chick that she works with. Things ended on an OK note but let’s face it, the friendship isn’t going back to whatever it was before. That may be a good thing I reckon.

Four pots of water are boiling. When will the boil water advisory end?

Things got weird. Mike who has a strict schedule at work was able to get some overtime due to some bigwigs showing up tomorrow. He was hoping to get to work early tomorrow and we suggested he come over and sleep on the couch so he can walk to work in the morning.

I called him last night and left a message. He sent texts around 2:30 AM. I thought it odd and it was kindling for the embers that started for me this morning. Plus Bill and I being together so much in the apartment where we have to boil water then let it cool so we can actually use the water, the stress levels were out of the ordinary- high.

Mike asked if I could meet him after work and at 10:30 this morning I said no. The day progressed and my mood improved. Slowly but it was going in the right direction. I was able to tell Mike that I would meet him.

Not much contact after that and I proceeded as planned. I headed out into the winter night, leaving my toasty, humid apartment at 6:15 to meet Mike at 7:15. I walked down Washington Street and called Mike. Connection made, I can hear Mike talking to a coworker. I am on the line for 35 seconds before I hang up and try again. I get the same result. Again. And Again.

Finally, we connect. Mike is annoyed and to me, seems to think that I did not know it was a busy important work week for him. He does not like the fact that I am not in a good mood though by being out on the street on a February winter night I seem to be making an awfully noble effort to be in at least, a better mood.

I am fortunate t have people in my life who recognize the mood I can be in and sometimes stand back and allow it to play out, or try to alleviate my spirits. Or both. Those people are few and far between, living their own lives as they should instead of holding my hand through a momentary crisis.

Mike might be new to someone like me and Bill. We have no ulterior motives, we just want to help him with his life. We love him and want only the best for him. He’s got a lot to learn and so do two old dogs like Bill and myself.

Well, the blues have returned, and the bitterness about being released from my employment has risen to the top once again. I attribute this to tonight being the holiday party. I was not planning on going but then again I was not planning on being fired on November 4.

I also did not anticipate L’Orange Merde being re-elected but people are stupid and they seemed to have voted en masse for L’Orange Merde. Or maybe not. Democrats are not one to dispute election results or to cry foul like the godforsaken pieces of shit that stormed the capitol on January 6, 2021.

Earlier in my bitterness, I mentioned to Daisy that she shouldn’t go to the party. People get drunk and behave badly and then the washer women in the mailroom gossip about them for the rest of the year.

Today I texted her that if she goes that she should have a good time but to be careful. She replied a while later saying that she was going since she hardly ever gets a chance to go out and enjoy herself, she’s usually holed up with her kid.

She also told me she was in the middle of training in some new task, with a woman who was a bit helpful when the shit was being moved closer to the fan. Her advice to contact Leticia James as well as OSHA was a good idea.

A few days after that I was on Lunked In and her name was floated by as a potential contact. I was fine with the suggestion until I saw her Lunked In page which was quite celebratory regarding the return of L’Orange Merde so the MAGA woman was unceremoniously blocked.

Just another seemingly intelligent person who supports the piece of shit under the shoe which keeps reappearing no matter how many times one would try to scrape it off on a curb. So the job has been on my mind a lot today and it’s not a place where I care to spend any time.

Even walking around Hoboken en route to the supermarket this afternoon, I spied a coat rack and thought about taking a photograph of it and sending it to Shahabudeen Khan telling him the large jar of Vaseline was out of the frame.

I thought it was funny and it went nowhere since I did not take the photo. I mentioned it to Bill, to let him in on the joke in my head and he replied with ‘Why am I even thinking about these people’. The private joke did not land when it went public.

I did re-edit my initial email to the Department of Labor. It’s still in the draft stage. It was written before my dismissal and so it was all in what was then, present tense. Here it is over a month later and quite a few words needed to be adapted. It fed the flames of my sour furnace.

For a lark, I fed the email to Gemini AI and asked for a positive version, a harrowing version, and a humorous version.

I can’t be objective.