Category Archives: Cool Cold Reality

Where it is and what it came from. The end-all, be-all, and all-for-a-dollar.

Bloom in 10

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34° on A Monday night in Hoboken. It’s been quite an out of the ordinary couple of days. It’s March 3. Friday night had Bill, Mike, and myself watching Ted Lasso. Mike seems enamored of the show as Bill and I had been in the past.

Bill did his last minute packing thing, running around the apartment before he went to sleep for an early departure Saturday morning. Mike soon fell asleep on the couch, I turned everything on low on my computer before turning in.

Bill gave me a goodbye kiss and I went back to sleep. I regret not walking to the door to see him off. I was up an hour after that, Mike was up already. Mike had expressed a desire to shoot some photos in Jersey City and I was game.

The day before we discussed it and he had packed a bag with his wardrobe and accoutrements so I wasn’t taken by surprise. And Saturday was a nice day, the temperatures reaching 60°. We took a Lyft to Jersey City since the baggage was too unwieldy to walk over, though we agreed we would walk back.

Between Mike and myself I have a better cameraphone and I wound up taking shots of Mike in different shirts, sneakers, and even a leather harness. He has his admirers online and I provided artistic direction while I took the photos.

It was fun working underneath an overpass that had some wonderful graffiti that Mike ably posed in front of, smoking a cigar that we shared. I wound up taking a couple of hundred photos, with maybe a dozen of myself smoking the shared cigar. It was a good time.

We walked home as it had started getting chilly and windy. The walk was enjoyable. Mike just takes it all in, the view and whatever it is that I was saying, my personal history of Hoboken. He never says anything.

It was like that in December when Bill, Mike, and I went to see the Rockefeller Xmas tree. Bill giving his spiel about midtown Manhattan, me interjecting and Mike just listening to our history lesson.

So it was more of the same on Saturday with just me spilling my guts about Hoboken, how it was, and how it is now. I made pasta for the both of us and we finished watching Ted Lasso. Mike works on Sundays so he was off to bed and I too was off to sleep soon after.

Bill wasn’t around so I had Mike sleep in the bed instead of the couch. Mike was up early and off to work. On Sundays, I just stay in bed until it’s time to watch Jane Pauley and Sunday Morning on TV. It was a lonely day and I am just no good on my own.

Bill was on the road and mostly unavailable, Mike was at work and sort of unavailable. I wandered off to the supermarket to get various items. Mike was coming over again, the plan was to have him sleep over so I wouldn’t be alone. Bill agrees that this is a good idea.

We watched the Oscars on TV and texted with Bill back and forth. It was enjoyable, Mike was disappointed that Wicked didn’t win much. I was disappointed that A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan movie got nothing. Bill has a copy of the evening’s winner, Anora which we will watch on his return.

Today was not such a good day. Bill was fine being where he was, Mike was at work, and I was home climbing the walls. There was a drastic mistake of chatting with Mike online before I had enough coffee and it went south soon after. Nothing bad was said but nothing bad was said with me being argumentative and Mike being somewhat accusatory.

Then it turned into Mike saying he was just going to go home, the hanging out here in Hoboken had run its course. I was a bit hurt by that and told him his bags were packed and he could call a Lyft home. The phone call ended badly obviously.

I talked to Bill about it and he suggested seeing Mike and talking about it face-to-face. Mike brought it up earlier and I said no, but after Bill’s idea, I changed my mind and met Mike after work.

We met and it was good. He had a bona fide problem with his work situation so we discussed that. It went well and seemed like a remedy to our conversing on the phone earlier. We came back home and ate some Mexican food, and just talked.

I did my best with advice, knowing that I couldn’t really say much but be supportive. He needs a new job so I will help him with that as I myself look for work. I’ve set him up in the bed again, we cuddled, which he desperately needed. He soon drifted off to sleep as the Brian Eno Bloom 10 app played its notes. I am two rooms away writing on the computer as he sleeps.

Goodbye Stranger

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Earlier yesterday, I set my alarm clock for the morning. I checked to hear what song was playing and it was Supertramp, Goodbye Stranger. Last night as I was going to bed and check once again to hear what song is playing and it was Supertramp, Goodbye Stranger. I thought it was odd, but it actually harkens back to a time when you heard a hit record on the radio several times a day, if not several times an hour. And it was a song that I like so that was good. Yes, I do like some Supertramp songs.

I remember seeing the first Superman movie with my sister and when Lois Lane pulls up to a gas station the song we heard was Supertramp with ‘Give a Little Bit’ to which Annemarie and I both nodded knowingly.

Yesterday was a beautiful day finally, and I would say about a thousand people were strolling the waterfront in the afternoon. I sat and smoked a cigar and read Gilbert Hernandez’ Julio’s Day, his latest graphic novel. I am usually more into Jaime Hernandez’ work, though I do love both of Los Bros Hernandez equally. Julio’s Day was touching and brilliant and I have to admit my admiration of Gilbert’s story and how he handles gay men and their sexual relationships.

And the slinging rock job fell through. Apparently the head honcho saw something I wrote on the Crack Fancy blog and did not like it. It portrayed his illicit activities in a bad light. I should not have written that the head honcho was a dwarflike functioning alcoholic but I did and right then and there I was shown the door. It was a nice door, I have to say. Made of wood I believe.

And of course with yesterday being gorgeous it stands to reason that today would be cold and wet once again. And that was fine by me since I was not standing on a corner slinging rock anymore.

For Memorial Day Bill and I watched Saving Private Ryan. Great movie and brutal. I aksed Bill during the movie if he thought he would be able to do those things that Tom Hanks and company do in the movie. We both agreed that neither of us would be able to do all that. Then again we’re using 21st century thinking and if we were drafted into the army back then, like most recruits we would be brainwashed into meat for the war machine, so perhaps we would be able to kill or be killed though we would really rather not.

And today’s ear worm: