Tag Archives: Bill

Reasons to be Cheerful Part 3

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Well it wasn’t raining today and I’m pretty much happy about that. It was a bright and sunny day, a bit on the cool side but who’s complaining? Besides the usual people, who? I was even out for a walk into the city were I met Harpy for a few minutes.

It was nice to get out and about again. A lot of people around Herald Square where Harpy was doing some bookkeeping work. It was only for a little while.

Last night was different. I was on Bill’s Mac doing whatever it is that I do online. Bill came home earlier than expected, in time to watch game one of the World Series. Me? I didn’t care for the World Series.

That makes me a minority at this time of year in this metropolitan area.

I just closed the door and continued doing what I do. I was going to watch Rachel Getting Married on Bill’s Mac but Bill said he wasn’t going to watch the whole game. He’s feeling achy. His knees, his back all giving him pains.

These could all be related to some extra poundage but if I said anything about that, he wouldn’t hear it. Some people have mentioned that might be the case and I couldn’t help but agree.

Last night while that was going on, Rand texted me, telling me the PC was up and running. I was about to run over and get it, but wisely asked Rand when would be a good time to pick it up. I phoned him since I didn’t want to text. He said he was fine with me getting it this morning and we agreed to speak at around 10:00AM.

I told Bill about it but he seemed a bit sad that it was being fixed. He seemed to enjoy being able to help me out with letting me use his Mac. I have to tell you, the Mac was fine, I was getting used to the Mac commands that are slightly different from a PC, but the spinning rainbow beach ball of death was pissing me off more and more.

I also told him I appreciated his helping me out and I really did.

He went to bed midway through the baseball game and I came out and watched the news, then Easy Riders, Raging Bulls on the Sundance Channel. I didn’t stay up and watch the whole thing since I knew how it ended.

I fell asleep to the sound of Bill breathing through his sleep apnea mask. Woke up, trying to find a reason to not go back to sleep when I remembered that I was getting the PC back from Rand this morning.

Luckily for me, I have taken steps to make this apartment a little more livable and a little less shabby. We were heading towards Collyer Brothers territory and I started the day after Stine was here with Alexander. Not that she’ll ever allow him up here again, but I had to do something.

So papers and whatnot have been shredded bit by bit, page by page. The dual cassette deck that hasn’t been used in quite a while was dismantled and put away. Bill was impressed enough that he even did his bit on Saturday last weekend.

And today being paper recycling day meant that even more paper and corrugated boxes were left at the curb. Who knows? Perhaps next year it won’t be so embarrassing to have Annemarie visiting and wandering around this four room railroad flat.

The PC is working fine, though there is a slight melancholy, from not using the Mac. It is back under a dust cover, shut down. Bill hardly uses it, only when playing his keyboards. It’s good to know it’s there if and when I need it again, and I hope that won’t be for a long long time.

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Dream On

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Another wet, gray day in Hoboken. Yesterday wasn’t so bad. In fact the day was pleasant enough that I took a walk. I walked by Vampire Coffee where I noticed that they had a Help Wanted sign in their window. I was on the phone at the time with the baby broker/used car salesman, Casey Chasm so I didn’t stop by.

After I got off the phone with Mr. Stork, Casey Chasm, I went into the Guitar Bar like I sometimes do and chatted with Jim Mastro for a bit. I mentioned the situation that I was in and brought up Vampire Coffee. It seems the owner is a friend of Jim’s and so Jim suggested that I mention his name.

I then walked over to Vampire Coffee where Jeff was behind the counter. I’ve written about Jeff before. Nice guy, his band is playing McSwells the day after Thanksgiving. He gave me a piece of paper and I wrote down my contact info, also mentioning that I was a friend of Jim Mastro’s.

Came home after that and didn’t do much of anything, except shredding some more papers. Had a nice dinner of penne, pesto and chicken, which is my ‘go to’ meal.

Bill came home and that was a lot of fun. Seriously, no snark involved. Made me laugh out loud a few times. I watched Heroes which was rather lame again even while drinking some wine.

That probably helped with the crazy dreams I had last night. The only dream I can remember had me flying around and running into Aerosmith who did not have Steven Tyler with them. Not one of my favorite bands at all and I only remember seeing them, not much conversation involved.

I’m pretty sure that dream occurred just before Bill was kissing me goodbye for the day. It being rainy and gray outside made it easy to stay under the covers and I didn’t get out of bed until 10:00 and that was because I heard my cellphone ringing in the next room.

I missed the call from Vampire Coffee and after having a cup of coffee myself I called them back. Spoke to the proprietress and we had a quick little chat on the phone.

She asked if I ever made espresso or cappuccino and I mentioned that the last time I did that as about 15 years ago when working at Right Track. I mentioned my 12 years of retail experience at Farfetched but I don’t think that mattered.

What mattered was the fact that I had no real experience making coffee. And that’s totally understandable. We made arrangements to meet around 1:00 for an informal interview.

I got there around 12:50 and hung out talking to Jeff and politely turning down his offer of a free coffee. The owner was in the office interviewing someone else. It certainly is a busy store. No real downtime, always some customers coming in.

The previous interview ended and I was soon talking with the owner. It was an awkward conversation for me. I wound saying that it was totally understandable that they would hire someone with experience over someone like me.

The owner mentioned that I had only came in for the summer when it’s a bit slower, they would have had the time to train me, but as it is later in the year, it’s just too busy for something like that.

She would keep me in mind she said and we parted ways when there was a knock on the door from an employee needing to ask her about something. Part of me thought it was a prearranged knock, after 10 minutes come knock on the door and get me out of this interview.

It was only a part time gig, a few hours a week and it doesn’t seem likely that I would get it.

Tonight Bill and I are taking the 5:55 train to Hillsdale to see my niece Hillary in her school’s talent show at 7:00. I plan on checking out the Westboro Baptist Church’s picketing outside of City Hall beforehand.

So here’s an early entry for today, October 27.