Category Archives: Happy?

I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier

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Yesterday since I was off I decided to clean up a bit around the apartment since Bill, ‘the roommate’ was at work at one of his 50,000 jobs. Bill had a very good laugh at that one by the way. Since it had cooled considerably I took the air conditioner in from the window.

No more worrying about it falling out due to hurricanes or earthquakes. Of course since I did that it had gotten quite humid so Bill and I both sweated a bit. Bill was up and out again this morning, off to work on a play that he is stage managing. It should open soon enough.

I was invited to a party by a theater company last night but since I was in Hoboken and not at work I opted not to go. Bill was into it but I think he had second thoughts since I wasn’t planning on going. If I was at work it would have been no problem, but I was off you see.

I rode the bus to work this morning, no vitamin water drinkers throwing empty bottles into the bushes near the garbage cans. I sat and looked out the window, watching random cars get pulled over by the Lincoln Tunnel since a threat alert was going on, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

I’m surprised they don’t pull over buses. Not that I have anything to hide, but they should take into consideration that buses are targets in hot spots like Palestine & Israel. And there were a ton of officers carrying machine guns in the bus terminal as well as on the subway. I did not take the subway but some police officer friends did tell me that.

I walked up the avenue, getting my egg sandwich and arrived early again. Calvin was manning the shop as I walked in, Jerry Vale coming in a half hour later. A pleasant enough day for me to go out and smoke a cigar and reading the New Yorker that I had to purchase since the latest issue was never delivered to the apartment.

It was the 9/11 issue. I still have the issue from 10 years ago with Art Spiegelman’s cover. I remember spending a few days in LaGrangeville visiting Harpy 10 years ago, a few days before 9/11. I probably went up on Friday and came back on Sunday. Most of the time was spent on the deck outside, reading Harpy’s collection of New Yorkers, smoking cigars and recovering from whatever we ingested the night before.

10 Years ago Bill and I went to a party for my friend Donna at a restaurant on 10th Avenue and 44th Street. Afterwards, a torrential downpour had Bill and I running to the bus terminal where we parted way, Bill off to Stuyvesant Town and me to Weehawken.

Of course neither of us had any idea what was in store for us the next day, and certainly, we were clueless as to what would happen and where we would be 10 years later. A different world. Totally.





I Corinthians, 15:55

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It’s back to work today after a weekend that was all about Hurricane Irene. It wasn’t as bad as the original predictions but still it was a stormy night. I went to bed around 2:00 in the morning. I sit by my computer which is next to a window facing south and I couldn’t hear the storm but when I went to the bedroom it was nothing but wind and rain, both quite loud.

Made for an uneasy night of falling asleep but despite all that I was able to get some shut eye. I woke up hours later with Bill telling me that Dawn Zimmer, Hoboken’s mayor was saying that power might be shut off in various parts of Hoboken for public safety.

That was enough to get me out of bed to make a pot of coffee before going back to bed. I had hoped the power would stay on long enough to brew some coffee and it was. An hour or so later I got out of bed again, no news, no real damage to our neighborhood. But we had power.

I was glad that Bill and I made trips to the supermarket since everything was closed yesterday. We had plenty of water, juice, food and two six packs of Stella Artois, plus I had a few cigars, so we were ready. I had some emails and texts from friends out of the area.

Alirio in Montclair invited us out to his place if we needed to evacuate. Sarah and Bob Pierson did the same, inviting us to Tuxedo, NY. While it was great to hear from friends, we had no way to get there. We were OK on the fifth floor.

Bill was napping when I decided to take a walk outside. I had gotten a text from Lois asking if she and her husband Fred could tag along. I had no objections to that I proceeded to walk uptown in their direction. We passed by a few shops that Lois was friendly with, wanting to make sure they were OK. They turned out to be alright, no damage that we could see.

The three of us walked over to the river and saw whatever it was to see there, walking down from 13th street, down River Road and Sinatra Drive. Uprooted trees, much like the one down my block, only not as large as the uprooted tree down my block. Debris from the river and it’s high tide were left around on the promenade by the river.

We walked past city hall where National Guard trucks were parked outside. A few blocks west of city hall was where the street had filled with several feet of water. A friend, Lisa lived nearby and she had fled town the night before. She was on the top floor and the first floor of her building was flooded. I left her a voice mail and sent her a photo.

She later called back thanking me profusely. I walked around the block with Lois and Fred to make sure that the Guitar Bar was safe and sound and it was. I then called Meghan Taylor, ‘the funniest girl in the world’ and told her the same. It turned out that Jim and Meghan had stopped by earlier in the day to make sure that both the Guitar Bar and Guitar Bar Jr. were OK.

It started raining again and Lois, Fred and I made our way back up Washington Street and to our respective apartments. I showed them the tree that had been uprooted down my block and they were both impressed. I went back home where Bill was wide awake. He certainly slept alot over the weekend. Our broadcast channels were out and on basic cable I watched The Shawshank Redemption. It’s one of Bill’s favorites though he didn’t watch it this time.

He was busy doing something on his laptop. Perfect timing since as soon as Shawshank ended True Blood began. But we weren’t able to get it since our HBO was out with the broadcast channels. We watched Lawn hors d’œuvre SVU until it was time to watch the unwatchable 11:00 News.

Bill went to bed after that and I was able to watch the west coast showing of True Blood which was very good. Only two episodes left and things are being tied up fast.

Home again, back with Bill and quite happy to be home after yet another under performing day with top sales, almost hitting five figures. What will I do with that bad attitude? Any wankers have a clue?