It’s later than usual. And the desire…the need…the urge to write is persistent. I just had a nice phone call with my dear friend Billie, from Washington DC. We’ve known each other for about 40 years now and a few phone calls do the trick of reconnecting. Lots of laughs.

I sent a video of Malcolm McLaren’s Madame Butterfly via texting and was going to text him a bit about the song. I realized that he had the phone in his hand and I should call him instead of texting. Old school Alexander Graham Bell style.

He had long dreadlocks for about 30 years and in the past April, decided it was time for a change. Chopped off the dreads and shaved his head. Quite a change but he felt it was necessary. And also being the age he is, just a couple more than me means you really don’t care what other people think.

I told Billie about two friends of Bill and me who did mushrooms at the beach one night a while ago. One of them was feeling some intensity which led the other more experienced tripper to alleviate the situation and did his best imitation of the B-52’s Fred Schnieder singing Junebug from the Cosmic Thing LP.

It seemed to work so he then sang bits of Malcolm McLaren’s Madame Butterfly. From what I was told things chilled out considerably.

I also brought up a story from my past, from when I was hanging out with Guyanese Rastas in the nineties. I decided to try and grow my own dreadlocks and for a few days, twisted my straight blondish hair with beeswax. I thought I looked cool but really? No one told me otherwise.

I also developed a rash all over my body. One day I was in midtown Manhattan during the summer. It was feeling like 100 degrees. The beeswax in my hair was melting. I had enough and went to a Korean barber that I went to every now and then.

It was a front for a massage parlor or what is called today, sex trafficking. When you walk through the door, if you make a right, you’re in the barbershop. If you go left, you see women in bikinis on a couch. I of course went to the barbershop. The barber did not know much English so I pointed to a photo on the mirror and said ‘This please’.

I felt better. The rash went away within 24 hours. It led me to believe that I was more than likely allergic to beeswax. But then again what do I know, besides cutting off the hair with beeswax and the rash going away?

It is a nice summer night tonight. A documentary on John Lennon and Yoko Ono is being DVR’d on PBS. Of course, it’s during the pledge drive, so it’s a money beg. If I had the dough I would but all things considered, I really shouldn’t. You should though. Be my guest.

Hello, I’m tired. Slept well last night, and even went to bed a little bit earlier, but all day long I’ve been dragging my ass. Got things done but still, like a marijuana hangover. Not that I would know anything about that sort of thing. The work was OK. I was impressed by something I didn’t do.

A snarky reply to an email that was warranted but went no further than my head. The thought did not reach my fingers on the keyboard. I was so impressed by my lack of action that phoned Bill to tell him about it and he too was impressed.

I may have mentioned the other day about an older gent who sat by my desk for 90 minutes. The older gent did not speak much English and my Spanish is peppered with foul language and I felt it best to find someone fluent in Espanol. For 90 minutes I searched and thought I stumbled upon something that might have been bilingual.

It turned out he was an asshole and responded with one word, ‘Really?’ Oh that set the asshole off and he went running to the inhumane resources director who added it to my list of infractions leading up to ‘two strikes’.

So today there was a response to something I wrote and my first instinct was to write something nasty and snarky but decided not to. I call it progress. Not sure how it would play in Susquehanna but who cares about them anyway?

Lunchtime I opted for a different spot, something by the courthouses in Foley Square. If you’ve ever watched an episode of Lawn hors d’oeuvre you more than likely have seen the setting. It was quiet enough at first as I lit up a lunchtime cigar but soon was surrounded by tourists. And it was noisy.

There is a spot nearby that I generally find myself at for my lunch break and it’s an ominous spot, no one ever goes there. No one but me around 3:00 in the afternoon. But yesterday there were some workers hanging out and the vibe was that much ‘off’. So I went elsewhere and was disappointed.

Tomorrow I will forgo the cigar and just find somewhere else to go. At least that is this evening’s plan for tomorrow afternoon. Anything could happen really. And then again nothing could happen.

A favorite person is leaving the job tomorrow, she’s had enough of the nonsense. She’s younger than me by a few decades, smart, and quite pretty so she will have no problem starting all over again. I’ll miss her and know that she’ll go her way and I’ll go mine.

Being in this modern age, we both have each other’s phone numbers so there’s that. And texting. But I’ve seen this movie before and life goes on, new friendships are made and old friendships fade into the wallpaper. Or not.

I really couldn’t say and all I know is that time will tell. So there!