Category Archives: Cool Cold Reality

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

Robots

Last night was cool. Juan was in town again and he stopped by and we hung out. Good to have him around again if only for a few hours. Gets lonely on the 5th floor sometimes. He’s such a good guy. We hung out watched some telly, then watched End of The Century: The Story of the Ramones I don’t think I had shown that to Juan. Johnny Ramone was a dick. A task master and they probably would not be as successful as they had gotten if it weren’t for him but still a dick nonetheless.

At 8:00 we switched over to The Simpsons which was funny as usual and King of the Hill will was also funny. Juan left at 9:00 after eating some reheated leftovers which smelled and looked better than they were the first time around. Juan split, needing to get back to school before the expected rains, I watched Michael Clayton which was better than I expected, but then again, there was George Clooney, looking good as a fix it guy at a big law firm. He makes most everything better.

After that I went to bed, slept really well. Certainly did not want to get out of bed this morning, all was gray and rainy. Still somehow I got it together a bit later than usual and was at the bus stop soon enough. Different sort of commuter on the bus at 7:30 than there is twenty minutes earlier. I read last weeks New Yorker as was the woman sitting in front of me. She was a few pages ahead, and I fought the competitive urge.

Got to the office around 8:30, checked my email. Tom Chin wrote that he was ill and was going to work from home. I was glad about that. Made the gray day almost bearable. Some work would be nice to do as well but it is slow again. And it is only Monday. Padma is leaving this week and it’s sad to see her go, but there is not enough money coming in to justify her research. I’ve been helping her clean out her office so that’s been keeping me somewhat busy. Left work around 4:00, most everyone else left already.

Drizzly walk across town, back on the bus, no interior lights working, leaving me to look out the window in the Lincoln Tunnel. It’s pouring now, I’m not going out again today, in for the night. Even if it was dry I would more than likely be in for the night. Bill has a gig playing piano for his friend Rome Neal. Bill was feeling tired from sleeping on the couch in his mother’s apartment and the weather didn’t help matters much. He took off today and I suggested he eat some bananas to give him some energy and chase them blues away somewhat.

I’m also planning a gate sale of my crap in June. Rand and Lois are having their gate sales the same day so we’ll all be referring gate sale shoppers to each other in case the shoppers aren’t happy with what we each might have for sale. I know I have a lot of crap, I just got to figure out what to keep and what to sell. That’s about it for now. Hello to Betty Colatrella and once again to bhikkhu who may be a Buddhist monk. “Know truth as truth and untruth as untruth but do not tell John Ozed who you are.” Or maybe not.

Here’s some Telly.

And I Was a Boy From School

Well it’s Easter and it’s also my niece Meghan’s birthday which to me is more important than mythology. Meghan has also been named Teacher of the Year for Garfield High School which is quite an accomplishment. No bonus, no special parking space, but still a nice citation all around I think. It was a nice day out there in the suburbs and I was glad I could make it since last night I had my doubts. It seems after heading off the bed around midnight last night, awfully tired I came down with a chill. Not a good chill at that, mind you. Just suddenly cold, shivering.

I went into my bedroom intending to dive under the comforter, but I neglected to turn on the heater. So I turned on the heater then stumbled into the kitchen and stood next to the heater I had just turned off yet still warm. I also took my temperature and the thermometer read 98.5. After a few minutes I decided to go back to the bedroom and though still a bit cool in there I went to bed, fully dressed which wasn’t the first time I had done that, but perhaps the first time I had done that sober. As the night wore on and my body temperature became normal I was able to shed the clothes and sleep as normally as I could.

I awoke at 9:00 to the sound of my cellphone ringing. It was Julio who was headed out to get bagels. That was a nice switch and soon he was knocking on my door with bagels and the newspapers. He did have a good laugh as I opened the door in my underwear and I was glad to be able to make him laugh despite my of shortcomings as it were. After a nice breakfast and the reading of the news I checked the schedules and planned my trip out to Garfield. I was on a train at 2:25 after being gouged by the Natural Plus flowers across from Hoboken City Hall. Usually a bouquet of flowers is about $8.00 or $9.00 but today they were $12.99 and up. Whereas I balked a few years ago at this floral skulduggery, this year I kept my mouth shut and paid the price.

On the train it was fairly empty, me and a few people including three people who I was reminded of the characters in Y Tu Mama, Tambien. Just 2 guys and a slight older woman out for a bike ride, leaving Hoboken and going to Garfield. We didn’t chat but were courteous to each other, they allowed me off the train before disembarking avec bicycles. My niece Corinne picked me and and soon we were at the Garfield house. Frank was watching TV, Elaine puttering about the kitchen cooking up ziti and a nice leg of lamb with string beans and baked potatoes. Soon Meghan and Rob joined us and we sat for a very nice meal.

Frank was ok talking wise, mentioning that sometimes he goes off on tangents which we both used to do but where we used to be able to get back to the original point, sometimes he has great difficulty doing so. I asked him that if I see him going off like that would he want me to rein him in and he said he would appreciate it if I did. I’m sure it’s going to go well, since I’ve been doing it for most of my life. After dialing a call to Annemarie in California, the Hillsdale contingent of the family arrived for some cake for Meghan’s birthday. Got a ride home from Corinne and Elaine and now I’m here watching a Hot Chip dvd with Juan who is up for Easter to see his family, headed back down to college later. And that’s the name of that tune.

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Alex P. Kitten
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Where’s my CAKE???

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