And it’s raining again. There is no surprise in that. I just got back from Manhattan, this time I was prepared. I wore a full body wet suit, pinstriped of course.

I did finally hear from Vivek. He made it in long enough to fill a basket full of rice pudding pops. He actually called me letting me know that he was going into the office to do it.

Presently on the phone with an irate Julio who is trying to use his credit card points to rent a car while he’s in Spain and he is meeting with tremendous difficulty. Of course I hear all about it. I don’t mind. He’ll have to listen to my tales of woe eventually. Took a lot out of me to listen to his aggravation but that’s what friends do.

Last night I heard from Billie in DC and he had his own tale of woe. His car was stolen a while back. That worked out fine, the insurance paid more than what the car was worth. He also invited Bill and I down for a weekend in the autumn which was nice. We’ll have to work that out somewhere down the line.

Today I headed into Manhattan, wearing work boots and carrying a big umbrella. It didn’t look like rain as I waited for the bus, and it was 91 degrees and quite humid. As I walked across town I ran into an old friend, Corey Williams who I used to work with at Arista Records.

Hadn’t seen Corey in a few years. He and his wife Ann Marie had a baby boy a few weeks ago, named Corey. He’s still at Atlantic Records, been trying to get out of there for 6 years. He’s still looking though.

We talked for almost a half hour by which time it looked like it was going to rain any minute now. We parted ways, I wished him and his family well. He’s such a good guy. Hard to believe I’ve known him about 15 years.

He’s also friends with my friend Miriam who just had a baby girl a week or so ago. Baby crazy these people are.

I made it to the office, collected my mashed potato dances and was soon outdoors again just as it started to rain.

I did have a tentative plan to meet an online friend that I’ve chatted with for years at the Cigar Inn on Second Avenue so that’s where I headed. Nice lounge for smoking cigars, I used to go there with a former co-worker when times were better.

Tom was the friend’s name and it was finally good to meet him in the flesh after years of chit chat. He was in town running around and while doing that got caught in the rain storm. We sat and talked for an hour or so, about music and cigars. We like them both.

After that I walked him over to Grand Central Station since I had a big umbrella and he didn’t. I’m pretty sure he appreciated it, plus it was on my way anyhow.

Walked over to the Path which wasn’t as crowded as I anticipated for a Friday afternoon. Had a seat and read The Low Side of the Road by Barney Hoskyns. It’s an unauthorized biography on Tom Waits that I got from the Hoboken library.

I was reading Transformer: The Story of Lou Reed by Victor Bockris but Tom Waits is a much more interesting character, and I much prefer Barney Hoskyns writing to Victor Bockris.

So that’s about it, I’m spent. Tomorrow I’m going with Meghan, Lily & Ruby to All Points West. That should be fun. I’ll tell you all about it, either tomorrow or Sunday.