A Monday again. They come around too often and only a few people like to see them. Today was also a holiday so like I mentioned last night, the commute was easy, not crowded at all. Most of the office was out, they were working from home, though the day they were allowed to work from home was Fridays.

I don’t know the nitty gritty since I don’t have the opportunity to work from home, my job involves physical things like paper and mail.

On the train home, I saw an ad that said ‘Success’. Every time I have to spell success I remember the first time I learned how. Growing up in my neighborhood it seemed there were more girls than boys so my earliest friends were girls.

I am thinking of Donna Augusto. Donna was a year or two older than me, and her family and mine were good friends. Donna was the youngest of four girls and I was the youngest of two boys and a girl. Boy, girl, boy & me.

I remember playing ‘Talk show’ with Donna sitting in snowbanks and chatting in the winter. I played Mike Douglas and Donna was chunky at the time so she was Totie Fields. In the fall we played ‘school’ in Donna’s backyard.

Donna used to be friends with Eileen Grant who lived down the street and were also friends with my family. Eileen used to playfully beat me up in the Augusto’s front yard and would throw me into their bushes much to the ire of Mr Augusto.

Donna graduated from St. Francis and went to Lodi High School and one of the last times I hung out with her, or rather, around her was when she wanted to be a cheerleader. I remember two cheers she memorized with the movements, one was based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s ‘Paul Revere’s Ride’- “Listen my children and you will hear”.

The other was “S-U-C-C-E-S-S / That’s the way we spell success…” So every time I spell success that is what goes through my mind. Having written that down and put it out there, I wonder if that will continue to run through my head. D

onna grew up and moved away and got married. I never had any contact with her again, though I am friends with her eldest sister Lorraine on the social medias. Lorraine was the brains of the four sisters and sometimes when I post something that might be risque I worry about offending her. Offending a woman that I hadn’t seen in person for almost 50 years. But that’s the respect I have for Lorraine.

It’s a chilly Monday night in October. I don’t like it much but there’s nothing I can do about it. I still wonder why these people are so excited about Autumn. I almost wrote ‘The Fall’ but I will equate the Fall with Mark E. Smith.

And the Fall are no more since Mark E. Smith passed away in 2018. One of these days I will write about my experiences with the Fall. All true and somewhat entertaining. Those 20th century days…

Today was a bike ride, to Liberty State Park. Quite a few pedestrians were walking four or five abreast. No whistleblowing but an insistent combination of sounds from the buzzer would get their attention and garnering dirty looks as I pedaled past them. It was a nonstop ride, except for a few seconds when I had some water or took a selfie to send to friends and family.

It was pleasant and uneventful. There was a tentative plan to meet an online friend who is also into cigars. He works on the border of Hoboken and Jersey City and we were chatting last night. His workplace is on my bicycle route so it wouldn’t be too much of a problem and not out of my way.

But he was working later than expected and I was too out of it after riding. Plus Bill was on his way home and I wanted to see him. So it all worked out and the plan to meet up with Mike was off the day’s plan. There will always be another cigar.

It’s mellow right now, Bill and I are watching the reboot of Frasier which we’ve been watching almost every night. It’s a funny alternative to the drama of the daily events. Unfortunately, the escape from reality comes with the price of having to watch commercials about medication, kids who need hospitalization, or political ads.

The Frasier reboot is funny if not a bit clunky. I’ve only seen 2 episodes and we’re on the third episode though Bill has seen most of them already. That doesn’t matter since Bill loves to laugh and his laughter is a wonderful thing to hear.

Now Bill is in bed and I’m watching Almost Famous. I first saw it when Hoboken had a cinema, this one on Hudson Street. Now it’s a health care center and the newer cinema, a multiplex as opposed to the Hoboken Twin, and it is now some type of church where they sing about having an awesome god.

Almost Famous still retains its charm 24 years later. I identified with Patrick Fugit’s character somewhat. Young man enamored with music. Kate Hudson was incandescent. Perhaps it was Cameron Crowe’s best moment. The rest of the cast is very good and Frances McDormand steals the picture with each scene she is in.

Tomorrow is back to work, and fresh hells await. The supervisor’s supervisor is out all week so that will remove some of the stress that is a daily occurrence. I hope so at least. It’s a holiday for some tomorrow so it’s possible the commute will be pleasant and not crowded. Of course, I could be wrong, that happens on occasion.

I hope next weekend will provide some good weather to continue my bike rides, though it is autumn and there is a chill in the air which some people claim to enjoy. But we don’t need to use an air conditioner so that’s nice and it also saves some money on the electricity bill.

And there will always be more Frasier.