Category Archives: What’s it doing outside?

I Ain’t Ready To Quit

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Well it’s been a good Friday and a very interesting Friday at that. It seemed ordinary enough when I woke up around 9:30. A shower was needed to wake up, since there was no coffee to be made. I salvaged what was left of yesterday’s coffee, knowing that I’ve had worse.

It was only half a cup and it was going to have to get me to Washington Street and deal with ‘people’. I slowly drank the day old coffee and read some emails when there was a buzzer at the door. I asked on the intercom who it was and there was no response.

I wasn’t expecting anyone and if it were a delivery they’d usually say loud and clear who they were and what they were doing. I went back to the email and ignored the repeated buzzing. I got my shirts and a suit together to bring to the dry cleaners and also grabbed some canvas bags for a trip to the grocery store.

Knee brace on, I made it down the four flights of stairs. There was a young man standing on the other side of the door. I asked ‘Could I help you?’ and he said he was there to fix the cable on the second floor.

That seemed fishy since Antonia passed away last weekend and she lived on the second floor and I don’t much about the other apartment on the same floor. I asked him if he had some ID and he said he left it in the truck parked up the street. I told him I wasn’t going to let him in and closed the door behind me.

While I walked down the street I turned around and saw that he was still there. It was an odd feeling that I had, odd enough that I decided to call the Hoboken police department. I told them that there was a young man standing outside my building, trying to get in, saying that he worked for the cable company. They took my information and said they would look into it after I described what he looked like and what he was wearing.

I went to the dry cleaners, to Dunkin Donuts for 2 lbs. of coffee, the newsstand and the bagel shop before looping around and heading to the supermarket. I passed by my street, this time walking on the southern part. I looked to see if the young man was still on my stoop but did not see him.

Went to the supermarket and spent money, everything adds up to being about $10.00 more these days and I buy the stuff on sale mostly. In the supermarket I got a phone call from Hoboken PD and they asked for my name and birthdate. I gave them the info and headed home.

No one in front of my building again as I climbed the four flights of stairs with 2 canvas bags of groceries and one bum knee. Sat around and watched TV, made breakfast and the oh so important coffee. About an hour or so later, I got another call from Hoboken PD.

They were letting me know they caught the young man. Apparently he was trying the same thing up the street and they started asking him questions. False name, false ID, with a story rife with holes. And he had an accomplice. The Hoboken PD thanked me and what else could I say but ‘you’re welcome’?

A while after that I decided to head out and walk around. As I was leaving the building a detective approached. He was going next door to my neighbor Chris’ house and gave me a look as he was identifying himself.

I stated who I was and that I made the call. Chris had come outside and apparently one of the things the two crooks do is get some personal info from a victim and order computers and whatnot in the victim’s name, then they wait for the stuff to arrive so they could rip it off.

The detective took my info once again, checked my ID and then stated that I hit a home run. Apparently most people ignore this type of thing and they were glad that I at least did something. He shook my hand and I headed off enjoying a cigar, feeling good.

I’m glad I did what I did. If Antonia was still alive, she might have buzzed them in and then who knows what might have happened? Or Stine and Alexander? I took a chance and could have erred on the side of caution, but it turns out my hunch was correct. Much like Igor I suppose.
An interesting day, no?






I Shall Not Be Moved

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It’s a drizzly and cold Thursday in the spring, March 31, 2011 to be exact. I woke up and heard the rain as well as some mechanical sounds somewhere in the neighborhood. I did not want to wake up and get out of bed, but still that is exactly what I did. I wasn’t too happy about it but something had to be done.

I stepped into the shower after I set up the coffee maker and poured some cereal into a bowl. 5 minutes later I was drying off and hearing the coffee maker beep, alerting me that the coffee was ready. I shuffled about, getting dressed, checking emails and sending out resumes.

When I was growing up in Lodi, I remember seeing a movie starring William Hurt & Sigourney Weaver, Eyewitness. William Hurt played a smart guy who was happy to be a janitor at night and I thought at that time that being a smart guy while doing menial tasks was good enough for me. It sort of still is, but it’s now almost 30 years later and I’m working retail which is pretty much menial in itself.

It was cold and drizzly when I headed out, and the mechanical sounds I heard were of a tree being chopped down outside the nearby public school. Don’t know why they were doing it, it has been going on around Hoboken on and off the past half year. I didn’t stick around to see the damage done.

I enjoyed a cigar and walked up to the bus stop, talking to Bill on the phone as I stayed far away enough from the bus stop so as not to offend my fellow passengers. I’m probably known as the cigar guy around Hoboken these days. And I probably smell of cigars which I think is fine since that generally means no one will sit next to me on the bus if they don’t have to.

On the bus, instead of looking at the gray gray town of Hoboken through the bus window I read instead Keith Richards autobiography which is actually really good and a lot of fun. I’m sure he used a ghost writer, a very good ghost writer since it flows so easily and it’s quite descriptive, reading about growing up in Dartford, Kent in the 1950’s.

But instead of listening to the Rolling Stones, I listened to the Pet Shop Boys as I walked through the bus terminal. The day was OK at the cigar shack. Marcus was back from his vacation in the Dominican Republic and I hadn’t seen Calvin since Sunday.

It wasn’t that busy but for the first time in a week or two, the man cave was filled, mainly with new people. It was too cold and rainy to go outside and smoke cigars so they stayed in the cigar shack. It was an amiable group, most of the guy fascinated by a young woman who sat there telling her tales of Harlem while smoking cigarillos.

Once again I inadvertently had the top sales and once again it was all in the luck of the draw. In this instance, I merely answered the phone and took a phone order. The store as usual, slowed to a crawl, leaving Thomas and myself not that busy.

A customer or two came in but nothing major. I left the shop a little earlier, 5 minutes earlier and since the weather outside was crap, I took a subway which pulled into the station minutes after I descended the stairs.

That enabled me to catch a bus ride home with Hyman Gross who seemed happy to see me. I was glad to see him.

Snow is expected tomorrow but I am hoping that is just a cruel April Fool’s Day joke.