Category Archives: Interesting Things as of Late

isn’t it all?

Big Sister’s Clothes

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Well this is a first. I’m writing and my sister is about four feet away from me. She’s watching the first episode of True Blood from this season. Of course she’s hooked. It’s quite good.

Earl isn’t here. He went upstate with his father Rex, to see Rex’s mother and sister. It’s been a nice day. Almost went bicycle riding, nothing too much, just local.

I arranged for Annemarie to borrow Stine’s bike, but it looked like it was going to rain so we just walked around Hoboken.

Basically covered the waterfront from 14th Street down to the train station. A nice walk with a balmy breeze. Lot’s to talk about too.

My sister is just great and one of my closest friends. Hard to believe but I’ve known her all my life. It was a lot like when I was growing up, Annemarie and I would go out for long bike rides, not telling anyone where we were going, just riding through Rochelle Park, Saddle Brook and Paramus.

This was before cellphones so there would be no way for anyone to get in touch with us if they had to.

Other times during the summer, Anne would take me for a day trip to Darlington County Park up by Mahwah. She’d drive in her red Volkswagen Beetle and we’d spend the day just swimming, paddle boating and listening to music.

Anne moved up to New Hampshire a few years later and I would sometimes take a bus trip up there for a week. We would go blueberry picking, or a trip to Maine to go swimming in the ocean or a nearby lake.

Sometimes we would drive to Brattleboro, Vermont which was the cultural hub of the area. We saw the movie Annie there as well as the Wrath of Khan.

Sometimes I get the two confused.

Wrath of Khan features a space orphan having some sort of insect being inserted into it’s ear, didn’t it? Great songs too. In Brattleboro, I would also stock up on used vinyl records, buying Beatles records with the original Capitol Records label, with the rainbow around the edges of the label for $1.00 a piece.

Annemarie would drive me back to Lodi, a long drive with me playing the DJ which is probably where I got that started. I was just discovering a lot of the music that Annemarie, Frank and Brian were playing when they were growing up.

Not so much Emerson Lake and Palmer though, sorry Brian.

It was a great day yesterday and today was just as good except for Earl being away from us with his dad. But Annemarie, who spends so much time with Rex and Earl in Arcata, welcomes the time apart and I was glad she chose to spend that time with me.

I’m quite lucky to have such a great sister and a good friend. And I’m not writing that because she’s sitting four feet away from me.

Well now I just walked her to her rental white Volkswagen Beetle and I could wright just about anything that I want to. And I will.

Best. Sister. Ever.

Annemarie!

Annemarie!


Me!

Me!

Stranger In Moscow

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Once again, tonight’s entry is brought to you by Bill’s Mac, for when your own computer just won’t do what you want it to do, use Bill’s Mac.

It’s Thursday again. Been raining on and off for the past 5 hours. And it’s been raining hard. Bill just texted me, apparently he was on a bus with the bus driver from hell. A short message with the bus number, driver’s ID number and how many passengers.

He thought he was going to die in a bus accident and wanted me to have the information in case the worst happened. It’s not often that Bill will complain about a fellow bus driver, so you know that this was probably a white knuckle ride in the rain speeding down slick ramps into the Lincoln Tunnel outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

I’m in that netherworld after taking a nap and waking up and it’s just muggy inside with the windows being closed because of the rain.

Right now Bill is repeating from a TV commercial whatever they are asking him to repeat.

I had a strange dream with me driving a car I parked in the intersection of Riverview Avenue and Essex Street. I was doing something not far from where I grew up.

Juan was in the dream as well, oddly silent. We were heading into Manhattan for some reason. And the car was one of my broken down jalopies or the van I used to drive for HBJ.

It kept changing. It was a dream after all.

And I wasn’t too keen on driving. I don’t miss driving at all. Being a pedestrian I see bad, terrible drivers all the time.

This afternoon crossing Washington Street, a driver just couldn’t bear to wait at the red light and felt it was alright to inch out into the intersection and make a left turn.

I can understand a right on red, but a left on red just is bad news. Nothing happened though it should have. I see it a lot on my way to work, especially at the corner of 49th Street and Park Avenue.

A few months ago when Vivek and Sanjay were all hot and bothered for their movie box scheme, one of their plans were for me to drive around the tri-state area and visit various hotels and motels, such was their belief in me as a salesman.

That dream was dashed when I showed my incredulous face, telling them I don’t drive. That was ok with them, they would pay for driving lessons.

I explained to them that I knew how to drive, I drove back and forth to California, to Texas and Florida as well as to Washington DC, and driving back and forth from Saddle Brook NJ to 757 Third Avenue, about 100 yards from where I was sitting with Vivek and Sanjay.

I guess they never met anyone in the United States who did not want to drive. I guess I’m an urbanite. If it’s not within walking distance or available via public transportation, why bother?

The last car I had went up in flames and I had a premonition that the next car I owned would be the car I died in. So in order to achieve immortality, I don’t drive anymore.

I took a quiz on Facebook, What Michael Jackson Song are You? I was told my song was Stranger in Moscow, which was a song I wasn’t familiar with and I wrote that in the comments section.

An online friend said it was a really good song, no hiccups or yelps, which were sometimes distracting in Michael’s songs so I sought it out. It turns out it really is a nice song, beautiful even and I since purchased it via iTunes.

A decent song that isn’t overplayed and is a good song to remember Michael Jackson by. I can’t say that I was a major fan but I did have a few of his songs online, had Off the Wall and Thriller like everyone else, but I did mention to a few friends months ago that Michael Jackson’s songs where more enjoyable to me than Prince’s were.

Of course I am disappointed in Prince lately and took all his songs off my iPod. Not so much because of his music, but because of his latest Jehovah’s Witness beliefs about gay people.

Well, John said ‘Enough’ and that was that.

It didn’t help that he hasn’t released anything worthwhile since Sexy MF and that was 17 years ago. I would be interesting to hear what the Purple Imp would have to say about Michael Jackson though.