Piper free. No thuggish representatives from Local 154. I was good yesterday. Laid low then, laid low today. The only contact with the outside world was this morning, getting some bagels and the papers. After that, indoors all day. I chatted online with some people but does that really count?

Too damn cold out to do anything either. Just read the papers and watched crap on TV. Not much else. No offers to do anything anyhow. So far, so good. The essence of chilling out I suppose. I am not complaining and no one else should be either. Now the sun has gone down, the sky in the west getting fainter, in the east getting darker.

Bill returns from Detroit tomorrow and then we have our Monday session with Philip Beansprout. There ought to be a buy back, but who am I kidding? There no buy backs on Thursday night either. Buy backs seem so few and far between. No big deal.

Finally hooked up one of the lamps that Billie sent for the holidays from DC. This one is a beautiful lamp, I hope he didn’t put himself out when he sent it. Nice desk lamp with a funky glass shade. I called him on Thursday while in the smoker’s lounge but haven’t heard from him. The plan to go visit over the Easter holiday is still in place up here in Hoboken, need to get Billie’s input on whether or not he can do it then.

Just reading the Sunday papers, and Uncut magazine. A music magazine. A lazy Sunday in Hoboken. Most Sundays this year have been lazy. Oh let’s face it, every Sunday in my life since I moved out of Lodi 22 years ago has been lazy. The days of sitting around the house waiting for my father to get his shit together so we can do whatever chores he had in mind are in the past.

He would usually announce on Friday night that my brother Brian and I would have to be around all weekend to help him out on whatever project he had in mind. Sometimes he wouldn’t get out of bed until late, everyone else in the house walking on eggshells so as not to disturb him, because if he was bothered and awoken before he wanted to, oh there would be hell to pay, sometimes paid out of one’s hide.

After he decided to get out of bed, he’d eat then sit around for an hour or two before finally putting clothes on and setting about whatever he wanted us to do. Of course Brian and I would’ve been up and ready for hours. And a few times when he finally got it together, the sun would be setting and we’d have to try again for the next day.

Brian would almost always get into an argument with my father and storm off. That would leave me holding the bag, both literally and figuratively. Dinner would be fraught with tension and resentment. More often than not, my parents would drive off to the VFW and spend hours drinking with their friends.

Which would make my father sleep late again. It was an endless cycle. And so I don’t do much at all on Sundays.

The news is on, and it’s the usual bad news.

Big snow. Lot’s of it. Been up since around 8AM, at least a foot and a half outside so far. White out conditions. It’s crazy, and I love it. Tomorrow will be a different story of course. It won’t look as nice as it does now. Soon will be slush and ice and treacherous conditions. But I enjoy it for what it is right now.

Walked out to get bagels and the papers. Sidewalks impassable, so walking in the middle of the street is the way to go. No cars out really so it’s relatively safe. The bagel shop was not crowded at all, neither was Davis Stationary where I get the papers, and Dunkin Donuts was empty as well.

Got the papers for Julio and a bagel. He was quite supportive on what appeared to be a suicide mission. Of course he was. He wanted his bagel. The streets being empty but for a few hearty souls like myself, made it wonderful.

Reminded me of a storm in 1975 when my father and I trucked from our house to the supermarket. Took about an hour. I was surprised my father actually walked. He wasn’t the snowball throwing type, more like a target if I only had the cojones. The walk, which usually took about 20 minutes from the door on Riverview Avenue to the A&P, took over an hour.

A few years ago, almost 3 years ago to the day was president’s day a three day weekend and we got whomped by a major snowstorm too. This is worse. Or better. The glass is half full, with snow.

I don’t drive so that aspect doesn’t bother me. Walking is a challenge, but achieved with occasional difficulty.

The reporters on the news this morning are all basically third string. These knobs out in the snow finally earning their six figured salaries, not saying anything intelligent, just standing in the snow and trying to talk to people that smartly want to get away from them. Of course there is the occasional Bernie, in his Cadillac Escalade driving through the snow talking to some neck bone with a microphone.

These reporters are really the bottom of the barrel. The ones that had to come in. This is their turn at bat. In the stations, the anchors are commenting on the amount of snow piled up next to cars. Like they had never seen anything like it before. Who is to blame for the inane commentary? The directors or the reporters. I can’t blame the writers because this all seems so badly ad libbed.

On one hand they are urging everyone to stay indoors, and on the other hand they broadcast a press conference with Mayor Bloomknob about hosting a winter carnival in celebration of the first snowfall of the season. You should stay in they say, but if you must go out, go roll around in the snow in the city parks.

I can’t believe that people need to get their common sense from these nut jobs on TV.
Looking out the window, I can’t see past 100 yards. Time to stay in, hunker down, and catch up on the back issues of the New Yorker that I have fallen behind on. Now they have some knob outside the Path trains where people are actually leaving their apartments to say hello to the reporter in the snow.

I stay in and give them the bird. Actually gave into Bill’s idea of submitting some snaps I took this morning and submitted them for broadcast. I am such a media whore. I had the idea of Bill and I storming the studios to get these idiots off the air and taking over the airwaves. Cool, huh?

But no, we’ll stay in. If we need any provisions the supermarket, yet another A&P, is only two blocks away. And the liquor store is between here and there. Got to keep my priorities gay, or straight, but really gay.

Just got a call from Julio who ventured out and was at the A&P. Asked if I needed anything I said coffee and chicken. So I’ll make some dinner. Think I’ve had enough coffee for the day. I keep mentioning to Bill that it might be fun to go outside and take some pics but he isn’t having it.

Comfy and cozy is he. Bill putters around the apartment, getting ready for his trip to Detroit on Tuesday. Looks like it stopped snowing but still quite windy out. I surf the net, turning down requests.

Just made dinner for Bill and Julio, the role of June Cleaver ably played by me, sans pearls. Not enough for seconds. Just some good chicken and pasta with tomato sauce and cheese. It was good enough for seconds but it wasn’t to be….