Cigars | johnozed

It is now the holiday season I believe. It’s a Monday and with Thanksgiving being last Thursday the shopping season started on Friday at midnight in some stores. I don’t go to those stores and if I did you can bet that it wouldn’t be at midnight. I’ve been local of course and that’s how I intend to keep things. It’s cheaper that way. Just stay home and climb the walls. I have been busy though, clearing, doing laundry. You know- the mundane things. And I have been good at not feeding the trolls, well at least for today.

Yesterday I couldn’t help myself, trying to explain things regarding the woman who flipped the finger at a sign in Arlington cemetery but it was a losing battle. These people wanted blood and that is what they got since the woman in question was fired from her job. But the comments were priceless, most of them revolving around ‘Didn’t she know that soldiers died for her freedom?’ Freedom that they are condemning her for. It was humorous but when seeing a wall of the same comment it wasn’t that funny after a while. And of course, now I am a fascist and a member of the Westboro church.

And things have been weird computer wise as well as things that are computer related. The iPod seems to have lost a channel, so everything can only be heard on one side of the ear buds. Driving down to Baltimore I of course thought it was the car, but no, it was my iPod. So I am going to take it into the city this week and see what could be done about it. From what I’ve read online it’s no big thing, a simple repair but it’s the cost I am wary of.

What else is there? I went to the bibliothèque and helped out a bit. No one asked me to do anything and I didn’t even take off my coat. I saw things that needed to be put away and so that is what I did since I was going to be in that particular room. Other patrons didn’t know what to think, seeing me with books and DVD’s all piled up in my hands and putting them away. After that and talking to the librarians about their extended holidays (full timers got paid/part timers got nada) I headed out.

I walked past the smoke shop where I saw Shlomo. He was busy enough and talking in Hebrew on the phone. I made myself scarce and since I was passing through I asked him if there was anything he needed to do since I was there. He said no and I walked out onto the sunny side of the street back home. I came home and didn’t do much of anything except watch my clothes dry. Of course there are things going on that I am not writing about, things that will be revealed soon enough. Good news I would like to think, but not like what you are probably thinking.

the note for 2R

You’ll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine)

Sugarplum Fairy Sugarplum Fairy, Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker. You might be able to tell where my head is at with regards to that opening line, if not- c’est la vie. It’s the day before a holiday which makes it an eve, however unofficial. Newscasters have been calling it Thanksgiving Eve and you know how right they are. It’s a Wednesday and the Nor’Easter that was predicted seems to have been forgotten. I’m grateful for it. People leaving town for the weekend, lots of buses headed in different directions. Since the Path train is still out of service in Hoboken it’s not that crowded down by the terminal.

I’ve been spending time at the smoke scene in Hoboken. To my chagrin I am becoming ‘one of those guys’, hanging out at a cigar store and chatting with the proprietor. Shlomo seems like a nice guy and I’ve just been hanging out as he tries to get his shop off the ground. It’s fairly new you see. He’s been in the business for a long time and this is an attempt to get something of his own in Hoboken. He’s meddled about here and there but now he is staking out his own turf.

Since I’ve been in the Mile Square City for quite a while it figures that I know a number of people. Some are surprised to see me smoking a cigar, others not so much. I’ve introduced Shlomo to a few people and also identified people from old Hoboken, the ones that use certain phrases that no one really uses anymore. Nothing bad, just a friend greeting amongst the natives, calling each other ‘Comp’. I don’t know if it means ‘Compadre’ or ‘Compari’ or even company or companion. Perhaps it is a mixture of all of those in Hoboken.

In any event, hardly anyone uses it so to hear some characters talking like that certainly got my attention. Shlomo was doing well and that’s what really matters. A few guys were buying cigars to smoke after their Thanksgiving dinners tomorrow and asking Shlomo if he, meaning the store, was going to be open. He said yes they would be. I am not too sure what kind of traffic he would have tomorrow since Hoboken on Thanksgiving can be a ghost town of sorts. Parking should be easy and there were quite a few people with luggage getting onto buses.

Bill is driving tonight and might even be back tonight which is a plus. We’re going to dinner tomorrow at Oscar’s, the same bistro where we went with Hyman Gross two years ago and last year decided to make it a regular occurrence in Hyman’s honor. It’s later in the afternoon than usual which I guess is fine. Bill once again set the whole thing up thinking he would be doing an overnight drive somewhere. But now he is not, in fact I can see on Latitude that he is on his way back to the Garden State.

I’m just going to sit and wait. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.