I Can’t Turn You Loose

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Strangeness abounds sometimes. I can usually find it or it usually finds me. Today seems to be one of those days. It started out nicely enough, I had a bemused look on my face as I rode the bus, at least I’m pretty sure I looked bemused.

I didn’t mind going to work and once again felt that I had a grip on things. For some reason all full time staff was in so that meant someone was bound to be the left out guy. That would be me. Still I didn’t mind. I had a decent day sales wise yesterday.

Of course using the crap computers the cigar shack has, means that whomever opens the register for the day has their name over all sales unless you manually change it. And if there is a correction to be made after the manual change it will go back to whomever opened the register.

So that happened a few times, often enough that I didn’t bother to go back and credit myself for the sale, I just kept on going.

I even took a sale from Calvin who said that I took a sale (from a regular customer that Calvin & I had been talking to) so I went back, and changed the sale and gave the credit to Calvin. Like I said, I didn’t really care, I was in a good mood.

It was Thomas and Calvin and Bradley with me today. Bradley standoffish as usual, and Calvin gave us all chores to do. Thomas and Bradley had chores that enabled them to sit down and straighten things out, whereas I had to climb a ladder quite a few times. And it was during one of those times, going up and down the ladder that I hit my head on a cabinet door. And it hurt a lot.

I continued working despite the pain and my good mood swiftly dissipated. I cared even less. Lunch was a bore, despite a good cigar and reading Mojo magazine. I came back to work and went through the motions including some further work on what I was doing when I hit my head. Some difficulty focusing with my mind as well as my eyes.

Throughout my life I have hit my head, sometimes even seeing stars and causing tears to fall. This is just another incident. I’m sure I have some brain trauma and some wise ass will likely say ‘how can I have trauma on something that doesn’t exist?’

Right now I am the only one in the cigar shack. Thomas who is closing just ran over Starbucks. He came back with a double chocolate brownie for me, an attempt to bolster my spirits.

It’s a shame really. I started my day feeling good and relatively happy and now I am just a cipher. I even dressed quite nicely today. I mean if I am saying I look great, that’s saying a lot.

One more day to get through. Maybe I should wear a hard hat tomorrow. Or a bicycle helmet. And where yesterday I was on top of the sales, today I am in the basement. This work day won’t end soon enough. Thomas is anxious to go home as am I.

And now I am home and I hit my head on the bus. Is it over yet?


I Can’t Tell You Why

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New day, new document. It’s amazing how a good night’s sleep can decide the kind of day you will have. Since I slept soundly last night, the day has been going on an alright level. No dark moments of despair while waiting for the bus. No looking for reapers happy or grim or whatnot.

Weather wise I think the day can be described as splendid. An enjoyable lunch hour spent on a bench near the park, reading a book about 1970 by David Browne, in which I found a few errors. It was a decent summer read but ultimately as boring as it sounds.

It was about The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel breaking up, the disarray that Crosby Stills Nash & Young found themselves in along with a lot of cocaine and the rise of James Taylor who was doing a lot of heroin.

I met and worked with James Taylor in the the 1990’s and he was clean and took it upon himself to lecturing me about my then Gauloises habit. Apparently he had a French tobacco monkey on his back as well at some point.

It was back to the cigar shack for me today and it wasn’t bad at all. It was Calvin & Thomas and me, a good team. Things worked effortlessly. Thomas is the great white shark of course and Calvin plays the role of Black Friday admirably. Me, I’m like Gilligan I suppose. Things happen somewhat awkwardly and a few laughs are had. As long as nobody gets hurt it is alright I suppose.

45 minutes left in the shack and I am ahead in sales which puts me in a good mood. Bradley stopped by the cigar shack, his wall hitting hand no worse for wear. Jerry Vale also made an appearance picking up something that he had delivered to the cigar shack.

I am happy to report that as of now, all systems are go for Monday. Bill, my niece Corinne and I are headed to the beach. Plans are to leave early enough, like maybe on the road at 11:00 in the morning. Bill even texted me telling me that he’s looking forward to some relaxation on the beach.

I myself am looking forward to Bill being relaxed and just spending as much time as possible looking at the horizon. And I am pretty sure that Corinne is feeling the same way. Can’t bring Brady the dog with us though. No dogs allowed where we’re going until after Labor Day.

Two more days after today before I get two days off. A goal to reach and attainable. I just made Thomas blanch with my use of an MLK comment that Juan used on me a number of years ago. 34 minutes to go and I’m felling alright. Bananas help.

I watched Stardust Memories again last night. I saw that on it’s opening weekend at the Century Theater in Paramus. A full house on a Saturday night and I was the only one laughing. That sums up my life in Bergen County. Good to watch again and interesting to see how many jokes have made it into my day to day life.

And the establishment that I wrote about previously, where I interviewed in June with the woman with a European accent, well it was the Hoboken Library. They turned me down. I knew it was a 50/50 chance and I also knew that one needed to have an ‘in’ to actually land the job.

I got a poorly written letter from Pina Lodles, the library director. Now as much as I like the Hoboken Library, I was actually hoping to work there and make it something that is not so badly run. The audio visual room is atrocious. Not that I was gunning for Pina Lodles job, but as a director Pina Lodles has surely dropped the ball.

And this bullshit of sending out letters, a waste of money and paper. If you’re going to notify people they did not get the job, then email or a phone call would be more economical. I suppose that isn’t the library director’s concern, then again, neither is writing a letter that is grammatically correct. It’s a shoddy, poorly run operation.

It’s just as well. I suppose that BCCLS doesn’t need a literate person in their employ.

Their loss!