Category Archives: Happy?

I Hear You Knocking

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Another day another what? It’s Tuesday and the weather is spectacular. It’s March and it was 72 degrees when I had lunch. It was in the upper 50 degree range when I woke up this morning and it wasn’t easy getting out of bed. Some difficulty falling asleep last night you see.

Bill was up and out as I lay in bed, I have no idea what time that was. I lay sleeping with one hand hovering above the alarm clock, ready to strike when the alarm went off. I did get out of bed eventually and got myself together. Always a hard thing to do especially after having a day off that was as nice as it was yesterday.

I played guitar last night after being inspired by young Tim. The other day I was playing Black & Blue by the Rolling Stones. I don’t think I ever played it all the way through from start to finish, it really is a good record. So I spent some time figuring out how to play Hand of Fate. I think I got it.

I also tried to figure out how to play Outlaw Blues by Bob Dylan which I heard young Tim play yesterday, but by then it was too late, Bill came home and we were watching Game Change, the HBO movie about Sarah Palin and her candidacy with John McCain.

There are moments were she does come off as sympathetic. It certainly is not a hatchet job. Julianne Moore certainly looked like her, as did Ed Harris as McCain and Woody Harrelson was excellent as Steve Schmidt, McCain’s campaign manager. Of course it was all a fiasco and though that team lost, it wasn’t a happy ending since it was the rise of Sarah Palin that lent credence to the tea bagger movement.

I had some hesitation about going to work. Not depression, no apprehension, just a weird feeling overall. The uneventful bus ride thanks to Shirley the grumpy ass bus driver. I did see my second favorite bus driver the other night and he said he will be back on the route in April so I definitely look forward to that.

At the cigar shack it was Zack, Bradley, Jerry Vale and me. A decent team. Yesterday was Zack’s birthday and he’s sliding towards 40. I wished him a happy birthday yesterday via text and today I shook his hand. Apparently I had a few customers looking for me.

One of them, a renowned broadcaster sent his regards, another was calling in from Central NJ and another was in from DC and wanted to see me. I did what I could to fulfill their cigar needs and it was a pleasure to meet the guy from DC, someone I had only communicated with via email. A handsome chap in a very nice suit.

And it was such a nice day that I was able to have my lunch on a bench near the park. A brilliant afternoon was spent smoking a cigar and reading about Johnny Cash by Sylvie Simmons and Barney Hoskyns in the latest Mojo.

The afternoon went by with Bradley feeling a bit unwell. he left at 6:00, Zack left around 7:00 leaving Jerry Vale and myself to run things. It went well, Jerry Vale filling me in with regards to a run in with Thomas last week when I was out. Zack read the blog I wrote for the cigar shack and he really liked it and encouraged me to write some more. I have to admit I was a bit worried that he wouldn’t like it. Thomas read some of it, mainly the second entry and sniffed that some things should be taken out. I left them in and I seemed to have cut the mustard.

Now I am home, Bill fast asleep in bed. I was hoping to talk to him when I got home and I figure I could still do that, only he wouldn’t be paying much attention. C’est la vie.






snoop-dogg-sensual-seduction-instrumental

I Have A Dream

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A Saturday in the cigar shack and I am happy to be here thank you very much. It’s also Fake Patrick’s Day in Hoboken. I believe I was at one of the first Fake Patrick’s Day parades in Hoboken in 1991,but headed down to Manahawkin instead. That was a trip in itself.

Each year in Hoboken it has been getting worse. Drunken twenty somethings roaming the streets going to bars and pubs and house parties and peeing or vomiting on the streets. This year since it had gotten so out of hand, the powers that be decided to cancel the parade hoping that it would curtail the drunken behavior.

Well that caused a bit of a to do, some people (idiot clergy included) saying it was defaming to the Irish, how unfair it all seemed to be. So Mayor Dawn Zimmer decided to host an Irish Heritage day on Pier A, which I have no idea what that meant. Still it should have kept her political enemies quiet, but no it didn’t quite work that way.

Mayor Zimmer’s enemies have stopped short of blaming the fire at 3rd and Washington on City Hall, since the fire department had a few trucks helping a fight a fire in Jersey City. The fire was put out but the firestorm towards Dawn Zimmer raged on.

A gathering was held last night at a local bar to help the victims of the fire, and even that was under attack from the old school Hoboken politicos, saying that the money was going into the pockets of the organizers and not the people who were the victims. Even with the Rotary Club involved they still spewed their nonsense.

In any event, I am happy to be out of Hoboken today, though I am anticipating some difficulty getting home. I do hope I am wrong. While waiting for the bus this morning I saw groups of young people carrying cases and six packs of beer and funnels heading to house parties.

Julio took it upon himself to text me about how disgusted he was with these young drunkards. Of course he is disgusted. He has a kid now and does not want Alexander to see adults behaving badly. Julio could not help but compare us to the youth of today, annoyed with the youth going to pubs at 10 in the morning dressed in green. I reminded him that we were ourselves, probably green back in the day and leaving Maxwells at 10 in the morning. He didn’t respond to that text which leads me to believe that I might have hit it too close to home.

Thomas is antsy to get out of here. He came in at 10:30 this morning which means he leaves at 8:30 and now it is 8:27. And now it is 8:30 and Thomas has flown the coop, leaving me as a solo. Not a good idea since I just had 2 guys in the humidor and 2 other people came in to look at some pricey items.

I couldn’t leave the guys in the humidor since everything is within reach and fits into pockets too nicely. So the people looking at the big ticket items were ignored and left, leaving me with the 2 guys who just bought individual cigars. That’s the nature of the beats I suppose.

Now I am back in Hoboken. A 15 minute wait for the bus back to Hoboken wasn’t so bad. I killed the time playing solitaire on my smartphone. The ride was uneventful until we got to Hoboken where the drunk girls got on, dressed in green and looking a bit green around the gills.

I got off the bus at a stop early so as to avoid the pub near my usual stop. It’s a rowdy pub most days and on Fake Patrick’s Day night it promised to be even rowdier. So I got off at 8th Street and of course there was a belligerent drunk outside the 8th Street Tavern, some kid drunk off his ass looking for a fight. Any fight with anyone.

Sirens were approaching so the drunk kid vanished with his friends who were doing a terrible job staying out of trouble. I’m home now after stepping around a few puddles of puke, none the worse for wear. Glad to be here and also glad I’m not in my 20’s anymore.



02 African Night Flight