Category Archives: What’s it doing outside?

I Keep Forgettin’ (Everytime You’re Near)

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Well yesterday turned out to be a washout. It started with me sleeping in bed, Bill hovering over me at 6:45 telling me we were going to have to get a move on. I told him my alarm clock was set for 7AM and to leave me alone for the next 15 minutes. I was able to get another few minutes of slumber in before I trudged through the apartment and into the shower.

Bill had the cereal all set up for me as well as some coffee brewing. I showered and got myself together and threw on a pair of jeans. Outside it was gray skies all around. Soon we were waiting for the bus under threatening skies. Bill had butterflies in his stomach, I had coffee and raisin bran. We walked over to the subway once we got off the bus and out of the terminal.

A 7 train was waiting for us and soon we were en route to Flushing. People getting on and off as we sat there staring out the window. We got off at Willets Point/CitiField, with no one else getting off there. We walked to the Gil Hodges entrance after a few cursory photographs, and were told that we had to wait until we heard from the guy who Bill has been communicating with.

We waited, it drizzled. Bill talked to his cousin Carmen on the phone and I looked around the empty parking lot. Finally Bill got in touch with the guy and we were finally allowed in at around 9:45. We were escorted to the Guest Room and Bill did his warm ups and I read the New Yorker. I also had a cup of coffee thanks to Bill who had to take a walk just to get out of the claustrophobic room.

The guy Bill had been dealing with reappeared and it was time for the sound check. Bill did great in the sound check, sang the National Anthem and God Bless America. They threw God Bless America at Bill at the last minute and Bill was up for the task. It’s a lousy song by the way and I much prefer This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie, written in response to Irving Berlin’s God Bless America.

I did record the sound check and tried to upload it to Facebook and the internet but it didn’t take, in fact I lost everything. My smartphone has been acting up lately much to my dismay and I was upset at the loss. About 45 minutes later with a knock on the door we were told that the game had been called due to rain.

So it was back outside to the subway, past hundreds of fans trying to get their Tom Seaver bobble head dolls. We were both disappointed but not surprised. All week long the forecast had been for rain and now it was raining. A bus ride home, and some bagels were bought once we were back in Hoboken. I ate breakfast and Bill relaxed.

He was fine most of the day, even going so far as to be ME in dealing with my phone service. It turned out I had a corrupted SD Card which we replaced after a walk to Radio Shack. Bill handles the customer service reps better than me. I seem to come down with Tourette’s Syndrome when I have to deal with these people. The day ended with some Grimaldi’s Pizza. It was good to spend the day with Bill but overall we would have preferred to have heard him sing in front of thousands of Mets fans.






02 – Dancing Barefoot

I Heard You Say

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I can’t go on. I’ll go on. It’s been an out of the ordinary 24 hours for me. Obviously I didn’t post last night. Got home too late and was not into it. I know, sometimes you just have to do it, but after a dental appointment followed by a cigar event that I had to attend it was a long drawn out day and the hours of not being home were about the same as if I was at work.

I left the apartment yesterday around 1:30pm for a 3:00 appointment. And it went well, a good cleaning and a check up to see how the last procedure was doing. The hygienist was really nice. Her birthday is September 11 and mine is September 12 so she figured that was why we were getting along so well. I left with a CARE package, a toothbrush, some floss, some toothpaste.

After that it was a walk to the cigar shack. Zack was in top form, entertaining 2 head cheeses that were in town for the cigar event. Bradley, Thomas and Jerry Vale were there as well. I was off yesterday but Zack mentioned a week or so ago that it would be a good idea to go to the event and take photographs for the cigar shack blog that I write.

I figured I could do that for a few hours and then slip out and go home. Of course that was not to be. I rode in a cab with Zack and Bradley to the Top of the Sixes and watched some guys in suits, some handsome- most not so handsome smoking cigars and doing whatever it is that they do. In Bradley’s words though it was a case of too many chiefs.

Zack and 2 other cigar shack management types were there, each with their own idea of what to do. Soon I was taking the cellophane from the cigars and placing them on trays. Trays which I held along with two other guys and as various guests arrived we made sure they got a free cigar.

They deserved a free cigar since the guests did pay close to $300.00 for a chance to smoke cigars with a geezer who’s name is on the box. It was the geezer’s 86th birthday and the occasion for the release of a new cigar in the geezer’s name. Appropriately enough, the cigar is called ‘The Geezer’.

After I gave out my cigars I was able to roam around a very smoky room and take some very smoky pictures. After some smoky pictures I helped some buxom young women take more cellophane off of more cigars which the buxom young women distributed. Something about zaftig women and cigars drives most heterosexual men ka-razy.

Thomas and Jerry vale joined the festivities, thinking it would be a party but they too were put to work. I was hoping to be out of there by 8:30 but did not actually leave until 10:30. I wasn’t happy about it but I was getting paid. I had to open the store today so I wanted to be home earlier but wound up getting home closer to midnight.

I went to bed a little after that, Bill fast asleep. He offered to stay up until 10:30 but by 9:00 I knew I wasn’t getting out of there anytime soon so I called and let him off the hook. Bill was up and out after a goodbye kiss and some passionate words and I got out of bed shortly thereafter. I shuffled about and was soon on the bus headed into the city.

Jerry Vale and I were opening, Thomas (who posted how hung over he was on Facebook) and Zack were coming in later. Thomas was grumpy again. I didn’t say anything since I was so morose the other day and Thomas seemed genuinely concerned. Still it was a long day. I was able to enjoy a cigar on a bench near the park at lunchtime, a couple of hours earlier than usual.

But the last hours crawled. The store did well, everyone had high numbers. I left a few minutes later than expected and took the subway, avoiding the mistake I made last week of walking to the bus terminal as the theater crowds started rolling in for Broadway. It did not matter since the bus did not show up on time.

In fact 3 buses that were scheduled did not show up at all. And once again I had disdain for most of my fellow commuters. But I made it back to Hoboken and just had some dinner. Now I am tired and did not really expect to write over 800 words tonight, but there you have it.

I did see Harpy today so that was quite nice. It was brief though. He’s as sexy as ever.

spot the geezer





1 – Up, Up and Away