So in the midst of my internal dialogue on Sunday, I cleaned this fan in the bedroom. A lot of dust had accumulated on it, and I decided to take care of it and brushed it mostly off.

Of course, I did not get everything, and when I went to sleep on Sunday evening at some point, a few hours after I fell asleep, I awoke with my sneezing and my dripping, running nose.

It was not very good, and it disrupted my sleep. So despite my disrupted sleep, I got some in, woke up, and went to work on Monday. I was fine most of the day.

Mike met me at the apartment, and as soon as I walked through the door, my nose started running again, which led me to believe there was dust in the air that had found its way up my nose and irritated my sinuses.

It was annoying, and I had some Nyquil, which helped dry out my nose and enabled me to sleep, but also knocked me out, and by 10:30, I was ready for sleep.

And of course, when I woke up this morning, the first 20 minutes were me debating in my head whether or not to go to work.

Of course, I did go to work since next week is a 4-day work week with the holiday on Monday, being Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Mike is at my apartment. He’ll probably leave when I get home tonight. His beloved will be flying in from San Francisco tomorrow night, so his arms will probably be tired.

I’m in the office, and it’s quiet as hell. If I were busy, the time would fly, but I am not busy; instead, the time is not flying. My end of the year review yesterday went well, and I’m still floating comfortably on that.

But right now I am just looking forward to going to bed tonight, which would probably be about 12 hours from now.

So I got a flu shot the first Sunday of the year, so I guess I am covered, basically if I get the flu, it won’t be as severe as others who did not get the shot. I’m feeling lethargic but not ill. Occasionally, my sinuses will act up, but they haven’t in a few minutes, so I’m going with that at the moment.

I am thinking about having a salad for lunch, which is healthier than Wendy’s. Wendy’s was selected because it was affordable and good-tasting. But I have to look out for myself healthwise, and so a salad might be in order. Salad was the right choice, and I feel a lot better- more awake, more alive

Right now, I feel I could take a nap, and that would be so very good.

I just set up my desk and closed my eyes for a few minutes, and was rudely awoken by Paul McCartney and the Beatles singing I’m Down

5 hours to go and 15 minutes, which should be bearable.

If there was somebody around to talk to, it would make a difference in the energizing, but there isn’t, and so it’s not.

I just had an idea, perhaps for a story that dialing an old phone number that you might have had in the past for example I dialed 845-7822 and my mother answered the phone even though my mother has been gone for 35 years it would have been a weird thing almost like it’s Twilight Zone story I better check with the lawyers first

Okay, I just got a phone call from somebody that I’ve been trying to reach for a while, since Marianne Faithfull passed away. I have left messages and have not had any calls returned.

Just now the phone rang and announced to me jokingly, saying I’d like to speak to the caller who was calling, and then they hung up.

Now this person is not that tech-savvy, and as long as I’ve known them, it’s always an awkward goodbye on the phone. And I realized that as I was saying, but I was saying so, I pumped the brakes only to find them hanging up on me.

I called them right back, only to hear that they don’t have time to talk to me, even though they had just called me less than 1 minute before. Life sure is strange, I would have to say.

Well, they called me back. First time I couldn’t take the call, a minute later they called again, so I took it as I was trying to work, which was a distraction that I probably shouldn’t have done, but there it was. I have known this person since the early 80s. They’re a dear friend of mine, and sometimes they drive me crazy.

Although most of their news was bleak, it was good to hear from them.

They asked me where I was working, and I told them about the Peppermint Lounge, which used to be there. They remembered that we used to go there before 11:00? 10:00? And having to sit there for hours on end waiting for the band that we wanted to see to come on.

Monday, January 12th, 2026

New responsibilities have started today, including one that involved other people and email, and I have to say I knocked it out of the box, except for the slight mistake of including brackets that I included from a template I was using.

Other than that, it went well. I had my end of the year review for 2025 in 2026. And despite the misgivings I had with Barry McGarry, that’s all in the past and gets further and further away in the rear-view mirror. This review with the company that placed me at the fruit stand gave me a 100% review.

Of course, they would prefer I spend more time dealing with the company that placed me at the fruit stand rather than the fruit stand, but the fruit stand is where I am in the midst.

It was an enjoyable on-camera review with the woman who is usually annoyed with just about everything I do, it seems, but that was then, this is now and here I am in the thick of it. And I am making a noble effort to play according to their rules and forgetting the HBJ charm offensive that I’ve carried for almost 50 years. Holy guacamole indeed.

Mike was supposed to come over on Friday, but did not. He was waylaid by his parole officer and then, at night, went to a bachelor party in midtown Manhattan. Mike has no sense of direction despite my telling him to take an uptown train; he went up to Brooklyn. He called me from Brooklyn and made it sound like it was my fault that he was in Brooklyn.

I was able to get him back on the train into Manhattan and had him call me at every stop to make sure he was going in the right direction. At some point, I noticed Bill had stopped his driving and had Bill contact him since Bill is the MTA Maven when it comes to directions and information.

My friend went to the party, had a good time, and didn’t get home until 4:30 in the morning. Woke up hungover and unable to come over again due to the parole officer. I have no choice but to believe him, though in the back of my mind, the skeptic comes out and says you know he’s not doing that. But it’s none of my business, he has his life I have mine, even though he has more of a life than I do and he’s an ex-con.

And Sunday was more of the same, an expected visit that was canceled due to the interference of what may or may not have been a parole officer. I offered to come over, but he sort of backpedaled and reneged. It did not help my frame of mind; in fact, I was quite despairing just from being alone and not having anyone to talk to.

I did look into things that would get me into trouble and opted not to do them because I’m too old for that bullshit.