Tag Archives: Cigar Shack

I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier

Yesterday since I was off I decided to clean up a bit around the apartment since Bill, ‘the roommate’ was at work at one of his 50,000 jobs. Bill had a very good laugh at that one by the way. Since it had cooled considerably I took the air conditioner in from the window.

No more worrying about it falling out due to hurricanes or earthquakes. Of course since I did that it had gotten quite humid so Bill and I both sweated a bit. Bill was up and out again this morning, off to work on a play that he is stage managing. It should open soon enough.

I was invited to a party by a theater company last night but since I was in Hoboken and not at work I opted not to go. Bill was into it but I think he had second thoughts since I wasn’t planning on going. If I was at work it would have been no problem, but I was off you see.

I rode the bus to work this morning, no vitamin water drinkers throwing empty bottles into the bushes near the garbage cans. I sat and looked out the window, watching random cars get pulled over by the Lincoln Tunnel since a threat alert was going on, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

I’m surprised they don’t pull over buses. Not that I have anything to hide, but they should take into consideration that buses are targets in hot spots like Palestine & Israel. And there were a ton of officers carrying machine guns in the bus terminal as well as on the subway. I did not take the subway but some police officer friends did tell me that.

I walked up the avenue, getting my egg sandwich and arrived early again. Calvin was manning the shop as I walked in, Jerry Vale coming in a half hour later. A pleasant enough day for me to go out and smoke a cigar and reading the New Yorker that I had to purchase since the latest issue was never delivered to the apartment.

It was the 9/11 issue. I still have the issue from 10 years ago with Art Spiegelman’s cover. I remember spending a few days in LaGrangeville visiting Harpy 10 years ago, a few days before 9/11. I probably went up on Friday and came back on Sunday. Most of the time was spent on the deck outside, reading Harpy’s collection of New Yorkers, smoking cigars and recovering from whatever we ingested the night before.

10 Years ago Bill and I went to a party for my friend Donna at a restaurant on 10th Avenue and 44th Street. Afterwards, a torrential downpour had Bill and I running to the bus terminal where we parted way, Bill off to Stuyvesant Town and me to Weehawken.

Of course neither of us had any idea what was in store for us the next day, and certainly, we were clueless as to what would happen and where we would be 10 years later. A different world. Totally.





I Did It All

Another crazy ass day, very interesting to say the least. It started out raining when I woke up, Bill kissing me goodbye. He looked quite nice to my sleepy eyes at 6:30. I got out of bed a while later, shuffled over to the kitchen, making coffee, pouring cereal and stepping into the shower. Soon after that I was fully dressed and headed to the bus stop.

Yesterday as I approached the bus stop a guy was standing there drinking a vitamin water and when he finished it he threw it in a nearby bush with a garbage can merely 10 feet away from him. I fished the empty bottle out of the bush and showed it to him, telling him there was a garbage can for that sort of thing.

He didn’t say much, merely grunted. He got on the 10:15 bus as I smoked a small cigar and waited for the 10:30 bus. He was there again this morning, not drinking his vitamin water this time. I hope I don’t see him every day, two days in a row was enough for me.

A few stops after I got on, Lois’ husband Fred got on. Once again it was Thursday and time for Fred to get his new books. We exchanged stories regarding retail and customers. He won that round. After getting an iced coffee I headed in a little early since Thomas texted me, telling me he was running late. I opened his drawer and started the day off nicely.

Bradley was busy checking stock so I covered the floor until Thomas made it in. Calvin was out somewhere and expected in the afternoon. Some bullshit came through regarding hurricane Irene and corporate headquarters. Are we getting paid for the days we were closed or not. Calvin said yes, headquarters said no.

Thomas took the lead on the behalf of the staff and maintained a very heavy emailing back and forth with regards to all that. It was not raining when I went out for lunch and was able to sit on a bench near the park, enjoying a cigar and reading the latest Mojo magazine.

When I was out to lunch, one of the salesmen that frequents our cigar shack came in with very nice gifts for the staff. Apparently we had done a bang up job in the last quarter and were rewarded quite generously. It was for staff and not for management apparently so it turned out to be a good thing when Calvin phoned and said he was not coming in after all.

The mood had lightened up further when some regular customers came in. Turned out they were away and out of the country, one was in Cuba and the other was in the UK. Good to see them both.

The troll like creature waddled in again, with a fresh haircut on his balding dome and once again talking in a stereotypical 1970’s gay lisp. Supposedly it’s OK for him to do that since he has a brother who is gay and the fat little troll also has a closeted roommate. But it’s not OK with me and I celebrated my two week anniversary of not talking or dealing with it.

A nice bus ride home with Denise who I used to see all around town. Now we’re on different schedules so we don’t see each other often enough. We share a birthday or at least used to share a birth date. We’re both born on the same day, different years but now she is a witness for Jehovah so no more birthdays for her. Still it was very good to see her.

A roller coaster of a day and I am quite glad it’s over.