What’s it doing outside? | johnozed

It’s a day off today, the first of a few. I am grateful for the time off, had to arrange a few things to get the time off as well as using the rest of my vacation days. It was not so bad working at the cigar shack yesterday and it’s not so bad to have the time off either.

Of course my body clock is a bit screwed up, I just had dinner (or lunch) and it’s not even 5:30. I slept quite well last night, and slept for a long time, waking up much later than I am used to. Once again as I lay there in bed, Bill leaned over to kiss me good bye for the day as well as offering words of encouragement before he headed out to work. I merely rolled over after telling him to be careful.

Eventually I did get out of bed and made some coffee before jumping into the shower. After a cuppa I headed out to the supermarket where I wandered the aisles and ran into Clara Suarez whom I used to work with in the last century..

She was getting things together for her son’s birthday party, a sleepover. She was dreading it, having a few 7 year old boys running amok in her house on Willow Terrace. As she debated whether or not to buy the bag of bagels in the supermarket or to head to the bagel shop, I wished her a happy new year as well as luck regarding a room full of 7 year old boys.

I made my way home and thought about, my plans for the day. It being the last Tuesday of the month I considered going to the Eagle for cigar night. I had done it previously this year and saw some closeted customers of the cigar shack there and figured since I had nothing else to do, it might be a fun night out, if only for an hour or two.

When I came home I checked the weather report and saw that it promised to rain with 50 mile per hour winds to accompany the rain this evening. Now if the Eagle was closer to the subway or the Path train I might have headed in but my once open mind was made up. I would more than likely be better off staying home. Plus since the cigar smoking is on the rooftop deck, with the 50 mph winds expected the whole evening might be closed.

So it looks like I will be staying home. It’s fine with me, plus I’ve been watching old movies on Turner Classics today, starting with Casablanca, I just finished Witness for the Prosecution. It turned out I had seen the last 15 minutes of Witness for the Prosecution in the 1980’s and I did forget about it, but I did remember how an announcer said to not reveal the ending for anyone lest the ending is spoiled. So now Touch of Evil is on, a movie I tried watching years ago but could not get into it.

The storm rages, the wind is hitting the windows and I am pretty cozy and comfy having just eaten my specialty dish, pasta, pesto and chicken. Bill is on his way home I think so tonight we will probably watch some more movies. I am not sure if he had ever seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but it is the 8:00 movie on TCM.

There are a few movies I also have on DVD, one of them I watched the other night, The Music Never Stopped. A decent movie if not flawed. Its heart was in the right place but it couldn’t help but be a second rate movie all around. It did remind me of how sometimes stroke victims or people with brain ailments respond to music, and of course it was inspired by Oliver Sacks who is one of my favorite authors/doctors.

19 Blue Red and Gray

Well today has been somewhat productive and even better, sociable. Having off today afforded me some more relaxation time. That’s what I’d call it since I basically woke up at the same time as when I have to go to work. So I got out of bed and made some coffee. A trip to the supermarket was once again in order since after this pot of coffee there was no more coffee to be had.

So after a couple of cups I headed out, with the shopping bag filled with shirts and trousers to be cleaned. I walked by Mr. L’s, my barber and did not see anyone in Tony’s chair. Once I stepped in I saw that Tony wasn’t their either. His son Nick told me that Tony was at the market getting milk for the coffee. I set down the canvas bag and told Nick I would be right back, and went out to vote.

The precinct is only a few doors down and I was in and out in less than five minutes. When I got back to Mr. L’s, Tony was back and waiting for me, even though by this time there were two other guys waiting for a haircut. Maybe they were waiting for Nick and didn’t care much for Tony’s methods, but in any event I walked over to Tony, shook his hand and sat in his chair.

He asked how the cigar business was, telling me that he had gone to a wedding with his wife and at the reception there was a man rolling cigars. I like Tony’s work, he goes so far as to trim nose hair, eye brows and ear hair, and takes extraordinary measures to get as much white hair out of my goatee, so I don’t wind up barba blanca.

Then it was off to Cary’s Dry Cleaners where I dropped off my shirts as well as Bill’s stuff. Then a trip to the supermarket which was not very crowded but I felt like either I was stalking or being stalked. I would go to an aisle and there would be the same woman each and everytime, eyeballing me.

Perhaps I was being cruised but as usual I had no clue. Came home and texted with Mike Cecchini who lives up the block. I saw him on Sunday at Maxwells and told him then I had a few CD’s from Mojo and Uncut to lend him. He was coming over as I started the laundry so I gather 33 CD’s and put them in a bag and walked them down to the street.

The apartment was a bit of a mess to have him come up and it was a beautiful day outside anyhow. I never even opened some of the CD’s and told him he could hang onto them for as long as he’d like. I did upload some of them but the majority of them have been unheard by me, and it’s mainly since I was not so interested in the genre, be it Heavy Metal or the dreaded Americana. Metal I am almost always ambivalent about and Americana is best served in small doses.

I was out and about in the afternoon and enjoying a cigar as I walked up Washington Street I ran into the always wonderful Thaler Pekar, a very smart and brilliant woman. And despite her saying that she was feeling so tired, she looked great. Her husband Tom is a lucky guy and I’m sure he knows it. He’s a nice guy too. Maxwells people keep popping up.

She was off to the Farmer’s Market which I believe is it’s last day today for the year and I was heading back home. So that’s about it, been a nice day, saw friends, did laundry and now Bill is home too so it’s all good.

Rest in Peace Joe Frazier and Heavy D.

Bobbi Martin – For the Love of Him – 1970