Category Archives: Interesting Things as of Late

isn’t it all?

I Am A Tangerine

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Another day at the cigar shack and another day without the brain dead Bradley, which means another good day. Thomas and Calvin as well as Marcus have all been on board today and it hasn’t been such a bad day after all.

In fact the day started out slowly and then all of a sudden there was a rush, a line of gents and the occasional woman in a queue to buy some cigars and accessories. It certainly made things go faster for a while which made a difference. It all went splendidly, like a well oiled machine.

The day started out with Bill phoning me, telling me he left his iPhone at home. I couldn’t find it, so he had to call and let it ring so I could locate it. That was done then it was a text asking me to find some cables for his phone. Found those cables and I told him I would bring them to him on my way to work.

I figured I was going to be a little late going in and so I phoned the store and told Calvin that I was going to be a bit late. I didn’t figure that the bus I was riding in on would make a right turn and head to 34th street rather than make a left turn and go directly into the bus terminal.

It was a slight diversion but luckily the bus driver knew what to do and a delay of 5 minutes wasn’t so bad. I made it over to Bill office building where I found Bill standing outside waiting for me. It certainly was good to see Bill if only for a few minutes.

Then I headed to the subway to the cigar shack. I was only about 15 minutes late which was better than I expected. Still I don’t handle being late very well and was a wee bit rattled.

Now it’s me and Thomas manning the ship and it’s so far, so good. Thomas is sticking around tonight to begin to learn about closing. He’s supposed to be watching my every move. It should be interesting.

An hour or so later. And it was relatively interesting. Time flew by and before I knew it, it was time to close the cigar shack for the night. My shadow Thomas looked over my shoulder and occasionally out the window looking at pretty girls walking by.

Still he paid enough attention and did what I told him to do, which was basically count this, count that. Count it again, now write this here, check that box and move that there. It was all easy and I wished I had someone like me showing me how to close the registers properly instead of the haphazard way I was taught.

I did have an interesting chat with Marcus and Calvin earlier today about closing the shop and OCD. Marcus had it happen to him as well, not really sure if he closed the shop at night and going so far as to get in his car and drive back to the cigar shack from home just to make sure the door was locked.

I didn’t go that far and it was good to make sure that it was locked with Thomas around.

I also heard from Hyman Gross who had surgery this morning and according to him it went well. He’s looking forward to my visit on Sunday as well as hearing from Bill tomorrow. Bill is presently driving a bus down to Atlantic City tonight and I expect to hear from my beloved in an hour or so.

The weather is quite nice tonight, like an early summer or late spring evening. Turning Japanese played endlessly in my head throughout the day after hearing it on my Ca Plane Pour Moi iPod playlist today. Is it really about masturbation? 30 years later I still have no idea, but man do I have itchy palms and a hankering for sushi.





I Need Your Loving Everyday

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A long slow lazy day has been had and it actually still goes on. Yesterday was spent at the cigar shack, working alongside Calvin and it wasn’t so bad but it certain wasn’t the hijinks that occurred on Saturday with Thomas and The Bradley.

Still, it wasn’t so bad working with Calvin. I lead most of the day in sales, ahead of him by almost $1000.00 before the day was half over. Still he rallied, admirably and soon passed me by about $3000.00. For a Sunday those are excellent numbers.

I also dominated the music. No jazz thank you very much. I got to the shop before Calvin and started the day with the best of the Ronettes after walking up the avenue and picking up breakfast listening to Public Image Limited. After the Ronettes came a smattering of songs by Johnny Cash, followed by Marianne Faithfull and her magnificent album, Strange Weather.

I asked Calvin what he thought about Marianne Faithfull and he felt it was too mellow so I followed that with Ray Charles’ Greatest Hits.

One of the semi-regular irregulars came in, Pollen Zones. Pollen Zones came in the day before and sat by himself in the backroom. I never much cared for Pollen Zones. He was more friendly with Raymond and Sean, one time shaking both of their hands, and when I offered mine, he sneered.

Yesterday when he came in I said ‘Hey Pollen Zones, how’s it going?’ to which he ignored me. I remarked, loud enough for Pollen Zones to hear, ‘Well good for you. I’m happy for ya.’ And walked away.

He’s no longer waited on hand and foot and he must have left sullenly but I didn’t care since I was probably with more conversant people rather than mediocre friends of Bill W.

Since it was just Calvin and I working that meant lunch was to be eaten in the cigar shack. I ran out and got some fast food since Whole Foods is too crowded on weekends. I came back and ate and enjoyed a nice aged cigar while finishing up Suze Rotolo’s A Freewheelin’ Time.

Seems she was friends with Bob after the break up, perhaps he realized that since she knew him before he became ‘Bob Dylan’ and was there when he became ‘Bob Dylan’ she could always be a trusted confidant.

It’s a shame she passed on a few weeks ago, she seemed like she would have been an interesting person to have meet. Who knows? She could have just as well have been a customer at Farfetched.

Today was mainly about errands around Hoboken, dropping off my shirts and picking up Bill’s dry cleaning. And a trip to the grocery store where I ran into Linda, a sweet woman who used to work at the supermarket but retired a year or so ago. I could barely keep up since I had only one cup of coffee in my system and I was coming down fast.

Luckily she saw someone else that she knew so while she was distracted I said good bye and continued shopping before heading home to make a late breakfast.

So mainly it’s been that kind of day. I watched Shameless last night and though I enjoyed it I was a bit whelmed by the ending. And I could not get into Mildred Pierce at all, but then again I didn’t try very hard.

Too much of a showy soap opera for my tastes. I think I saw a spoof of it on the Carol Burnett show way back in the 1970’s. I preferred that.