Monday, January 12th, 2026

New responsibilities have started today, including one that involved other people and email, and I have to say I knocked it out of the box, except for the slight mistake of including brackets that I included from a template I was using.

Other than that, it went well. I had my end of the year review for 2025 in 2026. And despite the misgivings I had with Barry McGarry, that’s all in the past and gets further and further away in the rear-view mirror. This review with the company that placed me at the fruit stand gave me a 100% review.

Of course, they would prefer I spend more time dealing with the company that placed me at the fruit stand rather than the fruit stand, but the fruit stand is where I am in the midst.

It was an enjoyable on-camera review with the woman who is usually annoyed with just about everything I do, it seems, but that was then, this is now and here I am in the thick of it. And I am making a noble effort to play according to their rules and forgetting the HBJ charm offensive that I’ve carried for almost 50 years. Holy guacamole indeed.

Mike was supposed to come over on Friday, but did not. He was waylaid by his parole officer and then, at night, went to a bachelor party in midtown Manhattan. Mike has no sense of direction despite my telling him to take an uptown train; he went up to Brooklyn. He called me from Brooklyn and made it sound like it was my fault that he was in Brooklyn.

I was able to get him back on the train into Manhattan and had him call me at every stop to make sure he was going in the right direction. At some point, I noticed Bill had stopped his driving and had Bill contact him since Bill is the MTA Maven when it comes to directions and information.

My friend went to the party, had a good time, and didn’t get home until 4:30 in the morning. Woke up hungover and unable to come over again due to the parole officer. I have no choice but to believe him, though in the back of my mind, the skeptic comes out and says you know he’s not doing that. But it’s none of my business, he has his life I have mine, even though he has more of a life than I do and he’s an ex-con.

And Sunday was more of the same, an expected visit that was canceled due to the interference of what may or may not have been a parole officer. I offered to come over, but he sort of backpedaled and reneged. It did not help my frame of mind; in fact, I was quite despairing just from being alone and not having anyone to talk to.

I did look into things that would get me into trouble and opted not to do them because I’m too old for that bullshit.

Having not really written for about 2 weeks, thereabouts, I don’t think it’s so bad that I’m doing it today or just about every day this week, it’s Friday, it’s January 9th, not really anything to complain about

Had a nice long talk with Mike earlier this morning, over an hour a range of subjects, including religion and the Buddhist monks who are on the walk. Maybe a dozen Buddhist monks are doing a walk for peace, and they’re being hassled by Christians for not believing in Jesus.

That greatly upset Mike. When I came home yesterday, I did ask Mike to leave a window open when he left, and he did. I should have also mentioned to turn off the heat, but he didn’t, and didn’t think about it, so that’s on me.

I turned on my computer and his stuff opened up on my screen, and maybe being a nosy bugger, I took a look, and I saw things that I felt were none of my business, but I looked anyway.

He’s quite a character who has over 10,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, and so many of them want to be his slave, and they come out and say so in writing or in voicemails, and I heard a voicemail, and I read the writings, and it was distressing, and I was thinking to myself, why am I messing around with this guy?

And then I realized I had brought this up to him before, and a lot of these guys are with the other side of the country or another part of the world, and I do have something that they don’t have, and there’s a nice bond between us, so I really can’t say anything about it.

I should have minded my own business, and eventually I did shut it down and did not look at it again

He’s a good kid, and we do have something not necessarily physical but more like emotional and fraternal, for lack of a better phrase, perhaps parental would be the better phrase.

It’s January 9th, Friday, and the temperature is in the 50s. Mark has given me an assignment which I will start on Monday morning and should take less than a minute to do. It is an important task, and I don’t mind doing it.

It’s that time of year when cousin Neil will be sending out an invite for a pizza party down in central Jersey? South Jersey? Nothing yet, it’s probably too soon, but it’s probably in the works if it’s going to happen at all.

I slept really well last night. The past couple of weeks, Mike has been in bed with me, not doing anything, just sleeping and hanging out with me for dear life. He needs to be hugged, but sometimes his need is so great that after a few minutes, I start to lose circulation, and whatever led me, he’s hanging on to what should let you know that it’s definitely not sexual if that’s the case

Joan Baez was born in Staten Island today in 1941

Goil Benti, Charity Williams, and Kate Miller are three bots that have started following me today online.

Fell down the rabbit hole of my past once again, looking up John Nesselt, who lives somewhere in New Jersey, wherever that is. John and I went to high school together, and there was a third, Jim Carley, who dropped out of a heart attack in 1997 while jogging.

Let that be a lesson to you, jogging is not good for your health.
John has maintained a zero internet presence, which is fine. I went to the high school reunion in the year 2000 and hoped that I would see him or Jim, but neither one was there. I did not know Jim had died.

John and I had playful arguments about who is better, Elton, whom I preferred to Billy Joel, whom John preferred. I haven’t seen them since graduation night in 1980, and I suppose that’s fine. We have changed since then, I think Jim Carley the most since he’s dead. John is a registered Republican, which is disconcerting, but then again, it’s been close to 40 years now, and I have no idea what he’s like, and I’m sure he has no idea what I’m like

Sometimes I think of the only person who pays a fare to get on the PATH train