johnozed

The last day of summer, that would be today. It’s been an interesting day, best one of the week as far as I can tell. I could look back at what I had written previously this week but I know it was just overall rather blasé. But where I was subject to the weather, today I was out and about and actually saw a few friends. Like I said, it’s the last day of summer, autumn starts tomorrow morning at around 10:45 I think. I’m not too happy about summer going away but what can I do? Not much at all.

Bill was at the Yankee game last night, came back happy that they one. He went with a classmate that he reconnected with at his reunion. I of course stayed home. Seeing a Yankee game isn’t really for me, a lesson learned a few years ago when I went to a game with Bill and found myself really bored. We were sitting with the bleacher creatures so a lack of back support probably added to my discomfort. I also wore an old pair of glasses which while they looked good on my face, did nothing for focusing on the game at hand.

And now Bill is driving to Atlantic City once again. It’s a good thing he loves to drive a bus. Still I worry, I worry about other drivers doing something stupid, I worry about the passengers doing something stupid. I know Bill won’t do anything stupid, and it’s the other things that are a concern. I expect the usual phone call at around 11:00, letting me know that he has dropped off his passengers and is headed to the depot so he can catch some shut eye. And I will be following him via Google Latitude just to be sure.

The weather was most cooperative today, so much so that I went busking for the first time since last week. I was in contact with my former roommate William on and off through the week, he has been itching to see me playing by the river. I sat and strummed for a while and William showed up. Once he showed up it was more conversation and not too much busking. The toddlers from day care made an appearance and William was going to take some pictures but the minders put a stop to that and I also told him, no pictures.

We hung out for a couple of hours before he hopped on his bike back to Jersey City and I packed up my stuff and headed home. It was great spending time with William.

Walking through Church Square Park, I saw someone with a scarf who looked like Julio’s wife Stine and it just so happened to be Stine. She was with Julio’s sister Maria and cousins Anna and Adela. They all had kids and were wrapping things up, heading to Anna’s house to get some dinner. I headed on home after chatting for a few minutes and got my own dinner.

I texted Julio about who I just saw and he knew already. He asked me if I wanted to grab a beer but I was too hungry and needed to eat. I treated myself to some pizza and now I am just chillin’. It was a good day, a mellow end to the summer. And I hope Annemarie made it to Florida. No news otherwise so I can guess that all went well. I am sure her arms are tired. Not much else to do, not much else to write so I guess I will just end everything right about now.

14 Used To

Another weird weather day. Up earlier than usual and out later than that, I was intending to do some busking. It was quite cool out and there were plenty of dark clouds threatening rain. I ran some errands including a stop at Solid Threads, a T-Shirt shop in Hoboken. Rand and Lisa got me a Jersey Fresh T-Shirt for my birthday and it seemed to be a size too small. I had a gift receipt which allowed for a hassle free transaction. There were other shirts I could have chosen from but I stuck with the original Jersey fresh plan.

From there I walked up First Street and walked over to the river. No buskers around, all quiet on the waterfront. I sat and read the Village Voice since I had nothing else to read. There was an interesting article about Fracking and how big business is doing whatever it wants, including fucking up the environment with polluted water and land. And then there is the nasty problem of natural gas being released through water lines, so if you turn on your faucet and no water comes out but gas does a simple spark can blow your house as well as your neighborhood to bits.

Why they don’t research solar power or wind power is beyond me. An inexhaustible supply is there ready to be used. It’s clean and would provide a lot of jobs, but instead we just concentrate on getting more oil from the ground and polluting the air with emissions. This is where a mash up of The Road Warrior and Koyaanisqatsi would make a lot of sense. Living on the top floor of a five story building I can tell you, there is a lot of wind out there. And some of you reading this can probably say there is a lot of wind here.

Back indoors I was surprised to see a friend from Murdoch daze on Facebook. Ulysses Sankitts, my old friend who saved my ass a few times has made it online. I will never forget the first time I met Ulysses, I started working for Murdoch Magazines a day before him. A friend from Maxwells was getting married that weekend and I was asked to DJ. Alas I had no equipment and the wedding day was just a few days away. I didn’t know what to do but I did know Ulysses and his brother Tony were also DJ’s.

So I asked this relative stranger if I could borrow his equipment, I would even give him my fee in exchange for the use of his turntables and PA. To my delight (and surprise) he said yes. That Sunday Ulysses and Tony arrived and delivered their gear and even set it up since I didn’t not know how to do that. It must have been 1987 since I remember playing Prince’s ‘It’ a few times at the reception. Twenty five years ago and here we are friends again thanks to Facebook.

We always were friends though, it’s not like I never saw him again. We became good friends, I crashed at his house out in Queens, partied with him at several clubs and he made a few appearances at parties that I had thrown, including the infamous basement party that must have had fifty people there, with party crashers. He seemed to get a kick out of my friends as did his brother Tony. Anyway he seemed just as happy to find me on Facebook as I was to find him. That Queens posse of Excer, Ray, Pedro and Ulysses is still around. Tony unfortunately passed away early in the century.