Tuesday, December 9th, 2025, when I woke up, it was 17°. When I left the apartment, it was 17 degrees; now it is 26°.

Bill is on the road. He sent me his itinerary, which I got last night, and it doesn’t seem to be in effect. I don’t know why, but here we are.

So Mike had called up earlier in the night and it was good but me and Bill were in the middle of something so I told him I’d call him back, and after Bill went to bed, I called him bac,k and he said, “I want to talk to you about something,” which generally does not lead to anything good.

So, as I was anticipating either something that I had done or perhaps a joke, he proceeded to tell me about how he does not like to be on speakerphone, as he was on speakerphone at that very moment.

And I admit I didn’t want to hear it either on speakerphone or holding the phone to my ear. It put me in a bad mood, and I did not want to be on the phone with him after that. Lately, we’ve had phone calls that lasted almost an hour, but last night, it was 8 minutes.

Excuse me for being too sensitive, which I remember someone saying to my brother Frank back in the day, and Frank was greatly put off by that, since people have been telling him all of his life that he’s too sensitive.

Mike should be directing his love towards his beloved in the Bay Area.

I don’t know why, but there’s a lot of sadness right now in my heart. I have to work at the major fruit stands tomorrow, and I really do not want to. I have no say in the matter of course.

Yancy did my head in this morning, and it set the tone for the rest of the day. I could not argue with him or stand my ground; I just had to accept that he thought he was right and he thought I was wrong when it was the opposite. It made me think I was losing my mind.

Tomorrow I have to work around him at the main fruit stand, and I am not looking forward to it. I’ll be fine once I’m there; it’s just the dread of being around him. One generally knows what they’re going to get with Yancy, though I can only speak of my time working alongside him since April, earlier this year.

I finished The Cars: Let The Story Be Told by Bill Janowitz. I enjoyed it mostly. Towards the end, they don’t have much to do with each other except for Ric and Greg. Ben became an alcoholic and gun enthusiast, and a 2nd level rock star. Elliot and Dave do what they can successfully. Ric was a dick, though. An odd character in general.

I still think their first album is classic, with the second, third, and fourth albums providing diminishing results to my ears.

Tom Verlaine Traveling was an earworm this morning. It’s a song that made its way onto various mixtapes that I made way back when, in 1984. I can think of at least three people who got mix tapes with that song on them. It is a good song, I like it, but in hindsight, perhaps I overplayed it myself. I remember my brother played the import album of Cover on his radio show on WFMU.

And I had mentioned to him that I couldn’t believe that Tom Verlaine still had an American record contract, and someone, I think it was Mike Mountain, phoned up Frank, my brother, to let him know that he shouldn’t say things like that because Tom Verlaine was probably listening and that he still had an American record contract. Which, in fact, he did.

This morning, the PATH train was not running from Hoboken to Manhattan due to track breakage, which meant I had to take the bus and then a subway, which was a hassle, but I still got to work a few minutes early.

Marcus had a lot to say this morning, which is odd since Marcus rarely speaks in the morning, but we had an interesting talk about online shopping and buyer’s remorse. Then it was an online meeting with my peers, and it was also announced that I would be working at NYC 14/11 Penn Plaza for a few days next week, which is what I did yesterday, and didn’t like i,t so my discomfort will be stretched out to a few days next week.

I, of course, have no say in the matter, and we’ll have to go no matter what. I took a photograph of myself and found that I looked so much like my late brother Frank, it was unnerving. I sent it to my sister, who responded with omg. Mike was supposed to have his beloved visit again this weekend he couldn’t make it last weekend, and so this weekend he’s not making it again.

And Mike seems okay with it. It does seem to be a bit much, but that’s what he wants and that’s what he’s getting, which is nothing. I suppose I could take photographs with him on Saturday if he’d like, if he asks, but he has not, and as the date approaches, the window of opportunity gets smaller and smaller.

Just had some words with a man wearing a Neil Young and Crazy Horse- Love Earth t-shirt. He had more teeth in his head than I do, but his crucial teeth in the front were missing. A former Roman Catholic, he claimed that he predicted the shutdown of the government was going to happen and heard it as it happened. I asked for $1, and I gave him two. He asked for five, and I said no.

I tried to drink coconut water at least once a week to prevent leg cramps. Sometimes that coconut whatever lasts two weeks, I believe I had one last week, a can of coconut water, only to be disturbed this morning while sleeping with a leg cramp, but it was severe enough to get my attention.