Category Archives: WTF

I Can’t Stand the Rain

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Well I might as well start writing now while we still have power. And having written that sentence…
Bill and I are safely indoors waiting to the storm to arrive. So far it’s been windy and rainy but it’s not really raining. Some precipitation is falling or rather flying sideways. I went out earlier just for a few minutes to see what was happening and came home shortly thereafter. An hour or so later, the tree in front of our building was knocked over by winds. It was just chopped in two as the picture and video below will show.

We’ve been indoors mostly. I did go out yesterday and checked out the waterfront, where I used to busk. It wasn’t that bad, some white caps on the river and a bit windy. I walked around Pier A and took some snapshots, then walked into the train station for a moment. A couple of hours later the area by the train station was beginning to flood and soon after that, the train tracks inside the station were filling with water. It wasn’t windy, it wasn’t raining, it was the proximity of the river and a full moon high tide with the rising waters from the storm surge.

It was eerily quiet last night when I went to bed. Bill was already asleep. Before falling asleep he called his office to see if they were open or closed today (they were closed). I sent some info to friends in Manhattan to let them know that the MTA was shutting down as well as NJ Transit. Last year while working at the cigar shack, the same thing happened when Hurricane Irene approached. There was no way to get to and from work for anyone so there was no work.

We didn’t get paid for the day but if we were working at the cigar shack Swiss cheese headquarters in Florida and couldn’t make it in, then we would have gotten paid. Since we were mere grunts in suits and ties in New York City, and despite Zack’s impotent attempt we got nothing. So some of those friends got the word, I figured they would tell other people. I couldn’t give a damn if they told the marsupial. I don’t know if possums could swim.

It is now 4PM and there are no cars allowed to drive on the streets of Hoboken. A big construction crane is dangling on west 57th Street due to the high winds. A curfew is in effect in Hoboken at 6PM. And the fucking storm isn’t even here yet. I’ve seen pictures of Ocean City MD, Atlantic City, Ortley Beach and they’re all overrun by the ocean waters. Fire Island has been evacuated and I can only wonder what is going on in Sandy Hook or any of those shore towns on Route 36.

So far we are OK here in Hoboken. We can’t leave the building due to downed wires so we are in for the night. We’re fine with provisions so now we just have to ride it out. Hope all is well where you are.

goodbye tree





Sinatra Park, Hoboken


Between Pier A and Train Station


Ocean City MD


West 57th St NYC

Photo by theboken • Instagram.

Photo by cynthiamarie07 • Instagram.


Ann Peebles I Can’t Stand the Rain

I Never Said I Was Deep

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A rainy Monday. It hasn’t been raining all day, just started a few hours ago when I was off to the bibliothèque to do some volunteering. Just a few hours putting away DVD’s and CD’s and a ton of non-fiction books and also helping out customers who couldn’t find certain items. One guy had an interview tomorrow and was looking for a book on how to ‘ace’ the interview. His thing is at Conde Nast and I wished him well. He kept calling me ‘sir’ which I found unnerving but it is something that I should probably get used to.

Yesterday was also spent volunteering at the bibliothèque. It was a quiet day inside, and I helped in when I could. Saturday was the busy day and I heard several times how grateful they were that I was there to help out. They’re good people and I don’t mind helping them out. The staff there likes me and I like them so it all works out. It would be nice to get a full time job there but we’ll see how that goes. It’s a civil service job and that’s a job one does not walk away from.

There was the chance to work part time but that salary would pay considerably less than the unemployment insurance I get. If I was collecting from NJ then NJ would make up the difference between the part time pay and the unemployment benefit. But since I am collecting from New York State, where I worked, it’s not that easy. For each day you work, it is a 25% deduction from your already low benefit. So if you work 4 or more days, you are screwed. In NJ they’re willing to do the math, in New York State they really don’t want to.

Today I had an interview finally. It was with a staffing agency in midtown, an agency I signed up for years ago, perhaps when I was still living in Weehawken. They sent me out on one gig, I showed up in a suit and tie, working for a publisher that puts out legal newsletters and books. They had me in the mail room and I was dressed more like the executives than the mail room personnel. That made everyone uncomfortable and the job ended only an hour or two later, not the full day I was told I would be working.

It was unnerving, the agency visit. I showed up early, suit & tie, looking fly. The appointment was at 1:00, I was there at 12:45. I brought the attachments they sent in an email, all filled out, plus proper identification and the resume with references attached. An hour later I hadn’t seen anyone. I mentioned that I had somewhere to go downtown at 2:30 and the receptionist said something that I didn’t quite hear since they play Pandora quite loudly in the reception area. Not relaxing stuff, not music, but ‘what the kids are listening to nowadays’.

That meant One Republic, Maroon 5, Gusttavo Lima, Muse and Spoon (whom I do like) all at a really loud volume. People are stressed to begin with looking for work and while they stress out sitting for their counselor, they get to listen to alternative Top 40 radio with songs picked by an algorithm in Kansas. I was certainly stressed when they set me up with some tests and I did not do well at all. I did better than I expected but overall, I was just above a passing grade.

My counselor did come out and we talked. He told me he would send me the test again to do at home and practice to that I could get a higher score. At the elevator he told me to stay in touch, maybe email him twice a week to let him know if I am still looking. It seemed like a brush off but I remain hopeful. So far there is nothing from the counselor in my mail box. I just found it, it wasn’t from the counselor it was from a third party and therefore wound up in the Spam folder. Now I have something to do tomorrow.

Last night Bill did not come home from driving until late. I watched Rent on HBO and it was good, not as good as when I saw it with Bill. A little too earnest and watching the opening 15 minutes I was reminded of the scene from Team America, Everyone’s Got AIDS, because of the first four characters in the movie Rent, 3 of them have AIDS. Still it was good to see Jesse L. Martin singing and it made me wonder whatever happened to the Marvin Gaye bio that he filmed a few years ago. Never released, not even straight to DVD.

last of the sunflowers?