The riches of embarrassment

Having not really written for about 2 weeks, thereabouts, I don’t think it’s so bad that I’m doing it today or just about every day this week, it’s Friday, it’s January 9th, not really anything to complain about

Had a nice long talk with Mike earlier this morning, over an hour a range of subjects, including religion and the Buddhist monks who are on the walk. Maybe a dozen Buddhist monks are doing a walk for peace, and they’re being hassled by Christians for not believing in Jesus.

That greatly upset Mike. When I came home yesterday, I did ask Mike to leave a window open when he left, and he did. I should have also mentioned to turn off the heat, but he didn’t, and didn’t think about it, so that’s on me.

I turned on my computer and his stuff opened up on my screen, and maybe being a nosy bugger, I took a look, and I saw things that I felt were none of my business, but I looked anyway.

He’s quite a character who has over 10,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, and so many of them want to be his slave, and they come out and say so in writing or in voicemails, and I heard a voicemail, and I read the writings, and it was distressing, and I was thinking to myself, why am I messing around with this guy?

And then I realized I had brought this up to him before, and a lot of these guys are with the other side of the country or another part of the world, and I do have something that they don’t have, and there’s a nice bond between us, so I really can’t say anything about it.

I should have minded my own business, and eventually I did shut it down and did not look at it again

He’s a good kid, and we do have something not necessarily physical but more like emotional and fraternal, for lack of a better phrase, perhaps parental would be the better phrase.

It’s January 9th, Friday, and the temperature is in the 50s. Mark has given me an assignment which I will start on Monday morning and should take less than a minute to do. It is an important task, and I don’t mind doing it.

It’s that time of year when cousin Neil will be sending out an invite for a pizza party down in central Jersey? South Jersey? Nothing yet, it’s probably too soon, but it’s probably in the works if it’s going to happen at all.

I slept really well last night. The past couple of weeks, Mike has been in bed with me, not doing anything, just sleeping and hanging out with me for dear life. He needs to be hugged, but sometimes his need is so great that after a few minutes, I start to lose circulation, and whatever led me, he’s hanging on to what should let you know that it’s definitely not sexual if that’s the case

Joan Baez was born in Staten Island today in 1941

Goil Benti, Charity Williams, and Kate Miller are three bots that have started following me today online.

Fell down the rabbit hole of my past once again, looking up John Nesselt, who lives somewhere in New Jersey, wherever that is. John and I went to high school together, and there was a third, Jim Carley, who dropped out of a heart attack in 1997 while jogging.

Let that be a lesson to you, jogging is not good for your health.
John has maintained a zero internet presence, which is fine. I went to the high school reunion in the year 2000 and hoped that I would see him or Jim, but neither one was there. I did not know Jim had died.

John and I had playful arguments about who is better, Elton, whom I preferred to Billy Joel, whom John preferred. I haven’t seen them since graduation night in 1980, and I suppose that’s fine. We have changed since then, I think Jim Carley the most since he’s dead. John is a registered Republican, which is disconcerting, but then again, it’s been close to 40 years now, and I have no idea what he’s like, and I’m sure he has no idea what I’m like

Sometimes I think of the only person who pays a fare to get on the PATH train

Repetition

Repetition

Thursday, January 8th, 2026, is David Bowie’s birthday, Elvis Presley’s birthday, and Yancey’s birthday.

Not too cold going to work this morning, but getting out of bed before the Sun is up is still a drag. Bill is still on the road, probably for another week, which does not make me happy, but what has to be done has to be done.

Michael stepped in and has done a good job of filling in as a companion, but he has to go back to his crib tomorrow, and he might go tonight, or he might go in the morning.

I don’t mind getting a good night’s sleep. I have found that the first 20 minutes of me being awake consist of discussing in my head, going to work, or staying home. Going to work almost always wins

It was a tough battle this morning, but here I am at work.

I’ve been trying to cut down on my cigar smoking, and so far so good, although right now I am jonesing so hard for a cigar, but I’m thinking about running around the block and getting one. We’ll see how that goes.

So it seems that Mike is heading back to his crib today, this afternoon, which means I’ll be back in an empty apartment. Which is not as much fun as it sounds, though it will enable me to do whatever it is that I do when I’m alone. There’s a general malaise in the world today and it’s all over, including my crib.

I am about to yield to temptation. And I’m trying so hard to be here now.

So Mike is going to be away, Bill is going to be away, and I am not. I suppose that’s the natural order of things. I stay put; everyone flies off. Mike says he doesn’t want to, but he has to due to parole circumstances.

But I am glad I have this job, and I’m doing my best to be good at it, and it seems to be working, knock on wood.

Marcus and I finally connected for the first time this year, and we’ve both been extraordinarily cordial to each other, which is nice and out of the ordinary.

Mike has been placed in a Lyft back to his crib, and it’s crazy, but I miss him already. He’s just been very good to have around for the past two and a half weeks. He’s enjoyed it, I have enjoyed it, I think Bill has enjoyed the fact that I got somebody looking out for me like that.

He says he may be back on Saturday, so we’ll have to see about that on Saturday. Tonight, back to the usual routine, pick up some celery. And make some tuna fish for dinner.

Things just seem to be getting worse and worse, and we just got through our first week of January 2026. ICE shot and killed a 30-something young woman in Minneapolis yesterday. They are saying that she tried to run them over the video footage says otherwise.

So now they’re shooting American citizens…

On a lighter note, sometimes things that I have said or done in the past pop up in the middle of my day and leave me with embarrassment and or regret

Union Square partnership