fare thee well Brady

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Monday, December 22, 2025

Winter has arrived officially, and all the autumn lovers are silent. Darlene Love sings Marshmallow World. Well, sang actually. Now I am playing Scritti Politti, ‘White Bread Black Beer’.

It’s been a good weekend. Mike came over on Saturday, and it’s been good. He returns to his crib tomorrow. We sat around and talked, Bill, Mike & me on Saturday. Good talk, though, about what I couldn’t remember right now. More than likely, it was about theater and plays, and show business.

Sunday had Bill sitting at home while Mike and I walked around Hoboken. We looked at plants and went to the 503 Social Club, which had an art exhibit with various artists in Hoboken and some musicians playing. It was brief, and then we walked up past Frank Sinatra’s birthplace to the really big supermarket.

We came home, had some frozen pizza, and watched One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson. Bill and I watched, Mike was preoccupied with his phone. That used to bother us, but it doesn’t anymore. Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn, with a great supporting cast. I can see why it made the top spot for a few film critics end of the year poll.

Mike got Bill and me nice Christmas cards with handwritten notes in them. Heartfelt and touching, they hang on the door to the apartment in place of a wreath. Bill was off on the road for a day trip, and Mike and I headed into the city. We are planning on going to Garfield on Thursday for Christmas dinner with Elaine. Very much the same as Thanksgiving, only this time Brady won’t be there.

Brady was a dog that was given to my niece Corinne by her ex-boyfriend. They split up, and she got the dog. Corinne moved to Colorado and was going to take Brady with he,r but her father, my brother Frank, talked her out of it since he had become so attached to Brady.

Frank and Brady were pals until Frank died, and then Brady became Elaine’s responsibility. Elaine did well, taking excellent care of Brady up until yesterday, Sunday. Brady was 98 in human years, and his kidneys were not functioning. Elaine knew what had to be done and scheduled it for today, but things took a turn on Sunday, so Brady shed his mortal coil on the first day of winter.

Elaine is understandably sad, and perhaps having company over this week might help lift her spirits or distract her from them.

So I bought a gift for my grand niece, Shelby, and picked it up with Mike. We picked up lunch, which we ate in my office. I didn’t have to be there and didn’t expect to see anyone. But Jimmy Chile was i,n and we exchanged holiday greetings before heading out once again in the cold.

There has been a plan to have Mike here for New Year’s, but tonight he talked with his beloved, who said he was going to try to fly here during those days. Mike has little faith in it actually happening, but knowing it might be a possibility gave me the blues. That Irish thing, where you have had a great time and all it takes, in this case, was a remote suggestion to sadden me.

And I recognize the bullshit since Mike is not mine, I do like having him here, as does Bil,l and in my mind palace plans were made and suddenly shaken up by something that could very well not happen. I do love Mike, but I am not in love with him.

Part Two ‘This is the Day’

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The The with ‘This is the Day’ plays in my head. Friday, December 19th it’s taken forever to get here, and now it’s here.

The effing rainstorm outside and I am at the little fruit stand having to head into the large fruit stand through this major storm it’s not cold but it’s windy and wet umbrellas don’t really help I stopped by the little fruit stand by some time to change my clothes to have something to eat and now that I’ve changed my clothes and had something to eat I’m about to head up to the major food stamps with Yancy, Kimberly, Anise and Lex Luthor

Took the PATH train to Midtown. I am sitting in the conference room, waiting for my fellow drones. There is no sign of anyone, which leads me to believe that perhaps this meeting was cancelled. It wouldn’t make me happy, but it wouldn’t make me sad either, because that means I can get back to my desk.

And I just remembered I did not post last night. I was at my coworkers’ soiree at a pub in midtown, around the block from the major hive, had one kind of Guinness and three chicken tenders, and was out within an hour and home shortly after that. I just hung up with Bill and watched The Man Who Fell to Earth. Watching the Spaceman, I totally spaced out.

3 minutes to Showtime, don’t know what’s going on.

I suppose that the easy-going days at a job around the holidays are long gone. I do think back to those HBJ days when a lot of employees were basically drunk that final afternoon before the holiday. And then afterward, they would head off to a pub like the Mousetrap and continue their swim to oblivion.

One particular memory is of me heading up to the Garden State Plaza to buy my records. Hall & Oates’ X-Static sticks out in my head, specifically the song IntraVino. I walked past the MouseTrap and poked my head in.

They were still 3 sheets to the wind on my return, and I got a ride home from Gary Pless, who was most certainly blotto and drove down the wrong way of the one way street that used to be Riverview Ave.

He did get home, and as far as I know, no one was hurt. It was 1979, so 46 years ago. Crazy. I was 17 in December 1979, so I more than likely had a driver’s license but perhaps no car. It was a Friday night, so my parents were more than likely having drinks at the VFW. Everyone drank and drove, and it was no big deal. The last work day was Friday, December 21.

Now I am relatively sober. It has stopped raining a few hours ago, and the temperatures will be dropping quite soon. I walked around a bit during my lunch break, over to Fourth Avenue, across from where Farfetched used to be, so I could drop off a Christmas card for Rita since she sent one to Bill and me.

Running down the clock. 90 minutes left more or less. I just want to go home and chill. Jimmy Chile reportedly has a fatty that is supposed to do my head in. That was the plan yesterday. Today, being a new day, might have a different outcome, though that is not how Jimmy Chile operates.

I have to confess I am disappointed with Jimmy Chile. He did talk up a good talk about having some Dynamite weed that was going to melt my face. They brought it up yesterday, and we’re going to do it today, but he left without it, and I think it’s rude to bring something up that was promised that was not delivered, especially when it comes to substances like that.

So I’m looking home with disappointment, but at least it’s not raining, and I’m getting my own shit anyway.