Tag Archives: Bill

That’s Alright, Mama

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It’s Friday which is a good day for the employed, and yet another day for those who aren’t. No hard feelings here though. I get disgruntled that places that were fairly free of people when the weather is nice are crowded on weekends since the employed come out in droves. I suppose they’re entitled.

Last night Juan came over at a decent hour, he, Bill and I watched The Office and 30 Rock. Well Juan made it for 30 Rock. Both were hilarious, 30 Rock won the funny prize due the High Definition gimmick. It was a good hang.

Juan made connections with some of his friends so he flew the coop around 11:00, after Bill had gone to sleep. I stayed up until maybe 1:00, getting caught up in Craig Ferguson again. He’s so much funnier that Jimmy Fallon.

Whereas Jimmy Fallon struggles with the script and cue cards, coming off as wooden, Craig Ferguson seems to go off the top of his head with usually hilarious results. After that, bedtime for me. Slept really well.

Interesting thing, when Bill left and when I opened my eyes intermittently everything was tinted emerald green. I’d blink and it would go away. Just something interesting. Woke up and walked around Hoboken a bit.

A stop at Radio Shack to see about a cable for the iPods that I’ll be using at the benefit on December 13. Carson, the DJ said they would have it but as it turned out Radio Shack didn’t. I rushed home because my new, free cellphone was due to arrive via UPS. I made it in time for the phone to be delivered an hour later.

It was a nice enough day to go out and play guitar so I headed out to Pier A, after dropping off the loaner phone at the T Mobile store. It was a bit colder than I expected and only stayed out there for about 45 minutes.

Juan called at that time, as I was packing up. He was in Union City after coming back from Hackensack Hospital for a full body scan. Now he was doing laundry which I set about doing once I got back to the apartment.

While I was doing my laundry I called Juan while his clothes were drying for what turned out to be quite a funny phone call, almost an hour long. Very black humor topped with Juan’s mockney Cockney. But that had to end as I was soon off to meet up with Bill at an optician/hearing center.

He was having his ears checked out and I decided to check out some frames. My present pair of glasses fell apart the other morning and that was a lot of fun, trying to reassemble them without being able to see properly, but I somehow managed to get the screw in the hole via tweezers. It was a sight to see, if only I could see.

Would have made a good YouTube video I’m sure. I did find a nice pair of Ray Bans at a decent price which Bill said looked good on my face. He took a picture so I could see for myself and I think he was right. One of these days I’m going to get a new prescription.

Now I’m just hanging out with Bill, waiting to hear from Julio, who’s supposed to call when Alexander comes home. I just want to see him before Stine & Alexander fly off to Denmark tomorrow.

That’s it for the night. Just hanging out. Plain and simple like a pimple. And both Bill & I are are happy with that.

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Mr. Soul

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Well it’s been another strange couple of hours. It was good to participate in the demonstration last night with Bill. Always good to have him by my side as we fight for civil rights. Two can be stronger than one. Came home and settled in.

Soon Bill went to sleep and I just hung about, tired myself when Juan called. He asked if he can come by. I asked how he was going to do that and he said he would walk from Union City. I did tell him that I’m generally awake until 2:00 in the morning so of course he could come over.

And come over he did about 11:00. Soaking wet since he didn’t carry an umbrella in the raging storm . I got him an old pair of sweats and a fresh pair of socks and set his wet clothes by the heater to dry a bit. He was a bit out of it, the rain, his situation with cancer.

He did try to put on a brave face and had quite a ravenous appetite. He basically ate most things in the refrigerator, and drank a lot of juice.

And it was good to hang out with him, but there was something different. It was cancer, it was mortality. It was a 22 year old young man stricken with a disease. The humor was there and the playing of music was there like old times.

Juan was being strong but it was difficult for him and he was obviously stressed, so much so that some regurgitation came up. We wound up taking a walk around Hoboken around 2:00.

Where I used to be on the streets at that hour, it’s certainly been a while. The streets were empty. It was rain slicked and the temperature was 57 degrees, balmy with strong winds from the south. He ran into McDonald’s for some food and I waited outside having a cigar at 2:20AM.

By the time we got home Juan was finished eating and now just wanted to sleep. I tried to get some room for him on the couch, setting up a bucket nearby in case his nervous stomach acted up again. Also left a note on Bill’s alarm clock letting him know that Juan was sleeping on the couch so that Bill wouldn’t be surprised to see him laying there.

I also said it in Bill’s ear as he slept, hopefully planting a subconscious seed. And I also woke up a few times throughout the night to see if Juan was doing alright. He was snoring soundly which I took as a good sign.

Bill asked when he was up at 6:00AM where his trousers were and I sleepily told him. I asked if Juan was still sleeping and he was. I also asked Bill to tell Juan that he can sleep in the bed since there’d be more room in the bed than on the couch.

At 9:00 Juan started getting phone calls. A visit to Hackensack Hospital for some more tests and a call from his mother saying that his uncle was coming to Hoboken to pick him up. So Juan was out a little while after that.

I just puttered about after that like any other day, going out for the paper and whatnot. Saw Jim Mastro again and thanked him ever so gratefully for changing the strings on my guitar and adjusting the neck.

I tried playing Give a Little Bit by Supertramp as well as Take the Long Way Home. I adore both songs and though Give A Little Bit is an acoustic song mainly it has some very tricky timings in it. Take the Long Way home is very much a personal song for me and much easier to play.

When I initially went out the sky was blue with just a few clouds and I thought about going to the river to play, but decided not to when it quickly became overcast and looked like it would rain at any moment. It didn’t but I didn’t want to take that chance.

I think I am going to see the Man Ray exhibit at the Jewish Museum on Saturday. It’s free admission and though Rand expressed an interest, he hasn’t responded to my text from the other day, so ‘forget it brother, you can go it alone!’

Maybe I’ll bring my guitar and perhaps do some busking in Central Park, weather permitting of course.

Here’s a late minute add, some good news. I saw Stine & Alexander this afternoon. Carried the lad up the apartment while Stine had her hands full. I hung out for a little while in the apartment and played with Alexander for a while. His vocabulary is growing, sometimes or rather mostly in Danish, but it’s impressive. The two of them are leaving for Denmark on Saturday for a month.

At one point I asked Alexander, ‘where’s John?’ He pointed and then ran over and tagged me and gave me a high five. Made my day.

And also when I was leaving I waved bye bye to which Alexander waved Bye Bye and said Bye Bye as well. So sweet.