Tag Archives: Bill

I Heard It Through The Grapevine Marvin Gaye

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Home again. Another long day. Not all of them are long days, but this one started early. I had to be in the cigar shack by 10:30, a whole hour earlier than usual. I know, right? I was on time as usual. It was me and Zack for the first hour.

We were putting things back on the shelves that were removed last night so some painters could do some work in the walk in humidor. Things were slow most of the day, so far march has not proven to be as successful sales wise as it was in February. The cigar shack isn’t doing so bad but the numbers in February were much more impressive. Still we are meeting our quotas.

Thomas came in at 11:30 as expected and was not hung over like he was the day before. He was pretty funny sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. We were having a discussion on hate crimes and freedom of speech and I wasn’t quite in the mood for it, but Thomas being 25 years old and full of vim and vigor was in the mood.

While a person does have the right to yell fire in a crowded movie theater, that doesn’t mean that they should. Oh it was such a stupid discussion, but I had to laugh when Thomas mentioned that he was called a honky. I’m 25 years older than him and have lived through the times when honky was actually thrown about and never once was I called a honky.

In fact the only times I heard that word was on television, in the 1970’s and it was on Good Times. I don’t think Thomas grew up in some projects in Chicago in the 1970’s. Connecticut in the 1990’s is not the same thing as far as I know.

Thomas did great on sales today but Zack took the largest sales of all. I struggled in third place since no one I dealt with was looking for a humidor. Still, selling $2000 worth of cigars is not such a bad thing and breaking $2000 dollars satisfied my personal goal. Since I stayed later last night, Thomas stayed late tonight.

We took the cigars off the shelves again so the painters could finish their job tonight. I left at 8:30 tonight, leaving Jimmy Seltzer in the man cave with Jerry Vale who once again is doing the overnight shift. I walked down to the bus terminal like I used to, saved a couple of dollars and time which would have been spent waiting on the subway platform.

I figure once the weather gets warmer I will get back to doing that. Not breaking any records like I did last year, though it did take less than 19 minutes to get from point A to point B. I missed Bill at the bus terminal by a few minutes. He texted me from the bus he was on when I was a block away. Still it wasn’t so bad.

Now I am home. Picked out my suit for tomorrow as well as a green and black tie and my shamrock cufflinks. I won’t be working this weekend which is cool with me, and I won’t be heading into Manhattan for St. Patrick’s day, so I figure I will do my green Irish thing tomorrow.

Opening the store tomorrow and leaving earlier, a nice start to the weekend.



03 Move on

I Hear You Now

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I woke up this morning with Bill hovering over me and kissing me goodbye as he was off to the gym. He took off from work again to clean up his stuff in the apartment again. I went back to sleep for a little while, getting out after hitting the snooze bar twice, before the third hit.

I shuffled about getting my own shit together. A bowl of cereal after a shower and a shave and soon I suited up and headed to the bus stop. Once again I find myself comfortable in my role at the cigar shack and once again something happens which basically is a ‘Not so fast Kowalski’ moment from Mad Magazine in the 1960’s.

I know about that since my brother Frank had it hanging on his bedroom wall for a long time when I was growing up. I met Bill at the bus stop after he was done with the gym and I was waiting. It was the highpoint of my day, being able to spend fleeting, quality time with Bill.

After a kiss I got on the bus as Bill said hello to Shirley, the surly bus driver who seemed a bit nicer after seeing Bill & I kiss. At the next stop was neighbor Deborah and we chatted about the usual things with me adding the fact that I am somewhat comfortable at the cigar shack, and how my writing a blog for the cigar shack seems to be progressing nicely.

A beautiful spring in winter morning as I walked up to the cigar shack, right on time as usual. Everything seemed alright most of the day, it was Zack, Bradley, Thomas and myself. Some work is being done overnight so Jerry Vale was coming in later to stay the night and over see the workers doing whatever it is they are scheduled to do.

Zack mentioned that Thomas and I might have to stay late, which of course we were willing to do albeit reluctantly. Some eye rolling was done which upset Zack greatly. Of course in his time, he would have gladly done whatever was asked of him, as would Thomas and myself. Sure we might bitch but the job will get done regardless.

So there was bad feelings this afternoon which fulfilled my feeling that things would get weird at some point today. Things cleared up but it did leave a bad feeling in my mouth. Zack felt we were taking advantage of Jerry Vale, since he is the new guy, or maybe newish. Funny, he doesn’t look newish. But we’re not taking advantage.

Jerry Vale needs the money, he just moved to a new apartment and mentioned to me, and perhaps anyone else who would listen that he will be working for the rest of the year, no vacation plans in the immediate future. I just talked about it with Jerry Vale and he mentioned that he brought it up and volunteered for the overnight shift.

So no, no one is taking advantage of Jerry Vale.

Don’t get too comfortable.

Shepard's Pi 3.14159265




Angels and Devils