29° on a Sunday afternoon. Not much going on in the past 48 hours. There was a plan to hang out with Mike yesterday but it did not happen as I was a little bit under the weather. I did rally but it was decided that I stay home and take care of myself, which is what I basically do every day and have done every day since that awful week in November.

Now it is February and it’s the usual wintertime bleakness. Bill is off to the gym, Mike is working and I am a solo act again. The only plan I have is to go out and buy some good multivitamins since I may be deficient in some supplemental areas. Resumes go out like bread cast on the water and neither fish nor fowl return in kind.

I shot a few videos the other day which I haven’t posted anywhere. I haven’t checked it out either. I really should. It’s all part of the plan for a webcast. I also had an idea for Mike to do reviews of movies he has seen, maybe lasting for a minute or two.

The plan so far is me reading older posts from this here blog, having Bill ask me questions about what I just read, some video I shoot from around town, short interviews with various friends, and Mike’s reviews. I hope to get it all around 15 minutes.

No idea on how to monetize this concept, so I guess I would just keep working until that happens. If it happens at all. Money is not the goal but if it happens I would not turn it down. I did plan on writing yesterday but could not get it together despite the fact that I was sitting where I write, just like I am now.

The difference between then and now is that I am writing instead of thinking about it. There was an interview with Michael Pain in the New York Times where he was asked about his diaries and how he edits them knowing that they would eventually be read by other people. And I suppose that is what I do as well.

There were a few posts on this here blog way back when and Juan read them and said some were a bit harsh, so they were removed from public consumption.

Michael Palin quote on writing: “Everyone should try it. You don’t have to be a great writer, just writing down what happened the day before- it’s quite good for you. To define what your life is about. The diaries constantly surprise me, how I completely contradict myself.”

And I guess I do just that, but to remove myself from subjectivity to objectivity is always a challenge, at least a challenge to pull it off successfully. Soon I will be out on the street. Buying yet another Mega Millions ticket, maybe a cigar and the vitamins. After that, my day is an open book, albeit halfway done I reckon.

The current temperature in Hoboken is 30°. It’s a Thursday. I am still bothered by the phone call with Billie yesterday. All I can think is that he was a bit drunk. Not 100% sure about it though. The call was about my expulsion from Burton & McGrotty.

He was of the mind that the universe put itself in the direction of my time to find a new job. I explained that I did not want to find a new job and was more than willing to put up with whatever nonsense was coming my way. I still feel that way.

Yes, things had gotten a bit awful towards the end but it was a thousand times better than the way I have been feeling since November 6. I don’t think Billie was able to wrap his head around that. I think he is of the thinking that god only gives us what we can handle.

And if you’ve been reading this here blog, you know how I feel about that theological philosophy. I’m not sure about that and I am not sure there is a god. I know he means well, but for me it was unnerving.

I just had a phone call with Mike. He is at work and while on the phone he is also interacting with other people at his job. Mike wears headphones while calling and I could hear all things going on around him. I wear headphones as well lately when I am on the phone.

Today Mike had mentioned that my voice sounded robotic, like that scientist who was in a wheelchair, Stephen Hawking. So I disconnected the Bluetooth for my headphones and went to the speaker. I don’t care for holding the phone to my ear, I prefer to be hands-free. Then Mike said that I still sounded robotic.

So I surrendered my hands-free method which might have made Mike comfortable while I was not. Conversations went on around Mike and I stated that we should talk later. He started complaining ‘There I go again, trying to get out of a phone call.’

I explained the reason I was trying to get off the phone, bad connection, his work conversations that were going on around him, conversations that he should pay more attention to rather than a robotic voice on the other end. I admit I was annoyed by the fact that despite my explanation, he did not hear a word of that explanation, neither normal sounding nor robotic.

Then he had a call that he could not ignore on his phone and I stated my hasta luego on my end which was received by silence. I do have to see him later this afternoon and I expect it to be awkward. I do have the upper hand though and not that I am planning to use that upper hand, since I do try to be the better man.

Not saying Mike is not a good man but in this instance and his annoyance it should prove to be something out of the ordinary since we’ve never butted heads before. He has a crappy phone. Mine isn’t the greatest but even Mike has stated that I do have a better phone. I do think his phone was the reason for the robotic sounds he was hearing.

Marianne Faithfull has shed her mortal coil today. I saw her with a few friends from Maxwell’s in 1987 at the Bottom Line. An amazing show, with Mac Rebbenack, Bill Frisell, Garth Hudson, Fernando Saunders, and others from the Strange Weather album playing behind Marianne live.

Marianne was wearing a beautiful red dress, chatting and smoking through the show, and was quite a chanteuse that evening. It was a pleasure to see and experience, if only for one evening in 1987. Her songs played in my head all afternoon. Bill asked who she was and as I explained I started to cry.