Atlas Battles

Sitting at the desk, 9:53 AM. Listening to Atlas by a band called Battles. The last time I heard it was in 2007 walking to work at Bio IB through Bryant Park and it seemed to drive me to a nervous breakdown. Perhaps I’ll cut it but it was disorienting at best.

So here it is 18 years later and I’m finally hearing it again and it is an odd song and it’s 7 minutes and 7 seconds long. The vocal is a bit sped up sort of like the Chipmunks by Alan Sherman.

Marcus is an odd duck. Sometimes he’s distant and irritating another time she’s somewhat humble. It’s hard to tell it changes like the weather every hour on the hour.

I had a lovely time talking to Mike on the phone last night. Bill was at rehearsal. Mike is genuinely worried when Bill and I are traveling between work or rehearsal to home. Mike considers us elderly and potential victims for bad deeds to happen.

It was touching and here’s Mike calling me right now. The ringtone had an arrow of desperation to it. He needs to “borrow money“.

Yes I know I’ve been down this road so often that I remember when it was all farmland before it was developments. If I can do it I will do it and I can do it but it’s not going to be too much…

It certainly stormed quite a bit last night so much so that the windows were closed and made everything stuffy for a few hours. Much of the storm relented and windows were opened.

It is Thursday and I am happy that there’s just one more day left. We’re in the middle of Thursday now but might as well write it off as being completed although anything could happen the next couple of hours to make me look like an idiot with egg on his face.

So I ordered the salad online this morning for 12:30 pickup and at 12:23 I got a message that the order was ready so I took my time going over there and took the long way to the salad joint only to find there was no salad. Somebody apparently stole it off the shelf.

This is what people do and they’re hungry so I stood around and waited for a new salad to be made which was okay I suppose but it wasn’t too overwhelming right despite the fact that it is an attempt at healthy eating. And that I had pizza yesterday and today a salad.

That was a topic that Mike brought up last night on the phone that I eat like a bird and I told him that I try not to lose actually try not to put on weight I try not to eat past 7:00 at night at the very latest 8:00 just the food just lies in your stomach and doesn’t burn away sigh…

I am old enough to remember that some guys mainly got tattoos because they were tough guys but now that tattoos are legal and anyone can get one so everyone is getting them and generally they’re not so tough. Even my nieces have tattoos! And they’re not tough! Or are they?

I just played the Zombies, Odyssey and Oracle. I heard so much about it for years and years and finally played it from start to finish. It’s a good record, not the landmark that I thought or was told it was. Still it was enjoyable, Time of the Season is still an amazing song.

Now I am listening to The Who, Tommy. It’s been decades since I’ve heard this one from start to finish and I’ve just started so who knows if I will finish. I finished and knew almost every word.

I have spoken to my men at lunch time, Bill and Mike. Bill was effusive. Mike was in the middle of the video thing for the job, so there was that.

I hesitate to say it on August 13th 2025, a Wednesday, so I’m not going to say it but it’s awfully hot outside and I say that not having been outside since 7:40 this morning haha

I know I should not take it as a personal affront when I’m riding in the elevator and somebody gets in I prefer to be alone hahaha

It is 1:02 P.M. I am in my spot lighting up a mini cigar and talking to my phone dictating tonight’s entry.

Last night I went home Mike was there since he had some things to do with regards to his onboarding orientation at that circular Penn Plaza thing and I thought he was going to stay over and do those things but he decided to take a lyft home which was fine.

Bill had come home before he had left and so the story was told about Mike’s Day and it was a good day. We are very happy for him. He might be working the 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. shift which is what he wanted which might mean that we won’t be saying much of Mike going forward as his schedule in our schedule or not the same, but there are days off.

I don’t know whether or not he will have that schedule where he has two days off in a row. It might be one day here, one day there.

It was good to see Mike, he is a good guy, he has driven me crazy in the past but he has made up for it in many ways and I intend to exploit that way this weekend if and when he comes by again.

It is slow in the office at the moment. It’s late summer. The dog days I suppose. Not much going on not much coming in, not much going out. I am in charge of swag today. Various fruit tree employees are entitled to some swag for completing something that revolves around a device that tells time.

Some people get the package of swag and some people do not. It is quite an interesting situation to watch them try to figure out how to open a door. I did have to put a post-it on the door stating that reception is closed for 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. which will undoubtedly cause some toes to be stepped on, some tears will be shed.

But I’m outside right now. It’s very warm out but I’m in the shade in my usual spot which has not been occupied today so that’s a good thing.

I do love the summer and I was explaining to Mike how much I do not like autumn. How it meant to return to school at the end of summer fun despite the fact that my birthday is in the month of September it is not my favorite month.

But all I can do is get through it and proceed going forward because there’s no other way around it.
For some reason, earlier I decided to look up someone from 45 years ago, someone I hadn’t spoken to since that time and as I started to look at the information online I asked myself, “Why?” And went no further.

They really have no media, social or otherwise, so that made it easy with less information. My life actually got better after the end of the friendship.

My brother ran into them once in the ’90s, and they asked about me, and I explained to Brian why I am no longer friends with that thing.

Today is a day I usually go to the farmers market nearby and pick up some chocolate bread but they raised the price on chocolate bread so I think I am going to get those cookies that I got last week that were so very good and so very rich that I can only eat one out of two save the second one for the next day.

I just called Mike, but he was unavailable, which leads me to believe he’s having fun or working on his apps for the job, or he’s shooting videos with his crappy Asylum cigars.

David Alicia, and Rocky Morales were never in the same room together at the same time.

”I did not want to write, but I had to resign myself to it in the end.”
— SAMUEL BECKETT, Malone Dies