Category Archives: WTF

Manchester, England

Argh. 98 degrees inside the apartment, says my trusty thermometer. I choose to believe the thermometer. Last night when I wrote it was quite difficult. Couldn’t focus on the keys. Took me a while to get a grip. I was still out of it when Bill came home. I was surprised to see him, he said he told me he was coming home earlier in the day. I forgot, so fried I was. Not that I was caught in flagrante delectico. That happens to other people.

I tried to keep cool with the lights low, he comes home, makes pasta and turns on as many lights as possible. To his credit he bought me a Ben and Jerry’s New York Fudge Brownie pint of ice cream so all was forgiven with but a flick of a switch. We watched the second half of A Hard Day’s Night. Bill thought it was called Ticket to Ride. I corrected him, telling him that he was thinking of Help. He really enjoyed the Ticket To Ride sequence, since it has the music notes on the Alps, a musician to the end.

I was waiting for the documentary on Roman Polanski. It’s been getting a lot of good reviews and as I turned the channel, I saw the opening credits to Hairspray, the musical version. It was cute and I saw it last year with Bill and Billie who was up from DC. I didn’t want to watch it again so I changed the channel again to Deep Impact. Which I had seen before but Bill had never seen it from start to finish. It was enjoyable somewhat each time Elijah Wood was on screen we’d yell out ‘Frodo!’.

When that ended Die Hard 3 came on and Bill was totally revved up for it so I went off to bed and slept a sweaty sleep, despite 2 fans a blowing. The Roman Polanski documentary is on tonight so that’s what I’ll be watching. Went to work this morning, it was 86 degrees, and that felt comfortable, but the nearest star, it’s rays are still quite powerful leaving me to seek sanctuary in the shade.

I had nothing to read, having finished the David Sheff book and the New Yorker. I could only stare out the window and look at all the single passenger cars heading into the tunnel. Such waste. Of course since gas is getting so expensive some people are actually using mass transit making things hot and crowded. I made it to the office, and changed my t shirt.

I called up the insurance company and asked them to explain my bill. They spelled it out, saying that since I had the extractions and the surgery on the same day, instead of getting $600.00 back I’ll be getting $129.00 instead. That sucked as I was planning on using the money towards the next dental appointment which was scheduled for July 2. I called up my dentist and had to cancel that and also ask her to write a letter saying why it was important to have the procedures done on the same day.

Apparently if I had one done on Monday and the other done on Tuesday that would have been alright. My dentist said she would check with her director. And to add a little salt to the wound, the $129.00 check was sent to the school and not to me. Again. They did this last time. If I want to appeal the insurance company’s decision, I have to do it in writing, and that should take about 30 days.

When I asked for the $129.00 check to be resent to me the initial neckbone said it would take 90 days. Then I was told 5 to 10 business days. Fucking assholes. And still no info from my dentist yet. Is this what I get when I go out of the plan and try to save some money? The procedures would cost a lot more if I went to an actual dentist in the plan. The dental school is about half that. Jerk off bastard insurance company.

After that I had errands to walk. Had to go to Saks Fifth Avenue for a director from my office. She’s in Europe and I tried doing it on the phone, but would up going to the store. Snooty but not as bad as I thought it would be and the men’s suits weren’t all that. I also found out and told Juan that we wouldn’t be hiring him for the summer. He was cool about it, he’s collecting unemployment, but I know they’re making a mistake, not but not hiring Juan, but by not hiring anyone at all.

Be My Girl – Sally

I saw Allison Lee with her lovely son Hank. Allison I’ve known for years, she’s also born on September 12. Hank has sprouted up. Last I saw he was just crawling. They grow up so fast. It’s true. I know most of you don’t know who Allison Lee is, she’s a sweetheart and that is basically all you need to know. She’s also married or perhaps partnered with Pat Longo, who is also a sweetheart and he’s a friend of my brother Frank. McSwells peripheral people.

Also got a YouTube link from Cheryl Walsh. Cheryl used to live around the block from me in Weehawken with her late husband Don Brody and their 2 kids Perry and Molly. I knew Don Brody when my ex roommate, Jimmy Lee (no relation to Allison) played guitar in Don’s band, Cryin’ Out Loud. They were a Beat N’ Path band, not up to snuff at McSwells as a band but Don was always welcomed. I babysat for the kids once and was declared to be ‘Cooler than Coolio’. High praise indeed.

Perry has been taking piano classes at the Guitar Bar owned by Jim Mastro and Fred Smith. He’s gotten to be quite a handsome lad and has a great voice which you’ll see in the clip at the bottom. I bet the girls are all over him. He’s a big Beatles fan and you know that can’t be bad. Last night I finally watched Lars and the Real Girl. Very low key, but worth a look. Good acting all around.

I don’t believe I’ve seen Ryan Gosling in anything before, but for a former Mouseketeer he’s pretty good. Hard to describe the movie properly, a lonely guy gets an inflatable doll and falls in love with it. With her. But it’s more than that and not what you would expect I think. I showed Bill the clip of Fred Schneider of the B-52’s on the Daily Show which was pretty funny. Fred seemed a bit timid but I guess that may have been part of the act.Work was ok, though waking up was a drag. Busy at work, making me happy. Helped a former employee clean out her office and that was sad. She was let go at the end of April and it’s taken her this long to get her things in order. Bill stopped by the office. I’m trying to sell 5 portable air conditioners on Craigslist. Actually I’ve been trying since April and started at $300 for each unit, now it’s $175 or best offer.

Vivek said I could have one if I wanted but I offered it to Bill for his mother’s apartment in Stuyvesant Town. If you get a window unit they jack up the rent so a portable unit should go unnoticed. I introduced Bill to Greg Stevens and his wife Leslie who runs a Foundation in one of our offices. Greg was super nice and gave Bill a hearty handshake as did Leslie. Vivek was gregarious and mentioned that he’d seen Bill’s picture on my desk.

I showed Bill the unit that I was going to give him and urged him to research it, find out if there are problems that people may have posted online and maybe find a download of a manual since I don’t have one.

And also in the news, related to the end of last night’s posting, Opponents of the historic decision to make same-sex marriage legal in California failed to derail the June 17 start date when their petition to delay was rejected So if you have a same sex partner in California you can get married starting then. Should these douche bags vote against it in November it will be a mess. Between June 17 and election day in November, perhaps if many people get married they will learn that the sky will not be falling and then wake up to learn that there is absolutely nothing to fear at all.

And now, here’s Perry. I was gobsmacked when I first saw it. Still quite good.