Tag Archives: Day off

I Hope They Get To Me In Time

A Monday and a day off. Quite nice, overall though there was a bout of despair, earlier in the day. I don’t understand it, I enjoy having a day off but the past 2 times I had a day off I was miserably depressed. Last week I took a Xanax to deal with it, this time I merely got out and walked around.

Last night wasn’t so bad, I was tired enough to go to bed about an hour earlier, like a little before midnight. At 12:20 I was out of bed and surfing the net. I did fall asleep but I was awoken by my own snoring. At the usual time that I go to bed, 1:00 I was able to fall asleep. I slept alright and woke up this morning feeling somewhat rested.

I went out with some shirts for the dry cleaners and a visit to the supermarket, where I saw the mighty Isis on my way out. Coming back home and after breakfast is when the despair crept in. But it was a beautiful day, a bit windy but alright to go out and run the errand I needed to run.

A while back I bought a Timex watch with a leather strap and after wear and tear over time, the leather strap started to fall apart. I held it together with a rubber band but it looked unsightly. Last Friday I was in midtown and stopped by a shoe maker and had the band replaced with a metal band, sort of like a Speidel watch band, but it wasn’t.

I liked it and that was all that mattered. On Saturday while working at the cigar shack, I looked at my watch and saw that the watch band was hanging together by a metal thread. All it took was for me to touch it when it fell apart. I guess I was fortunate that I was standing still and not walking on the street or something like that.

I tried but I could not get it together, unable to connect one part to another since a piece was missing. That meant I spent several moments looking at my wrist and wondering what time it was. Waking up was difficult since I wear the watch to bed and usually check the watch to see what time it is, rather than actually lifting myself from the bed to look at the alarm clock.

So much easier to lay there, one eye open with my trusty Timex watch one inch from my eye so that I could see its face, so blind am I without my glasses.

I anticipated some difficulty with the shoe maker since it was a cash transaction and no receipt was given or asked for. So I took the bus into Manhattan on my day off and walked over to 39th Street, off of Sixth Avenue. I walked in and they seemed busy, but the guy behind the counter sort of remembered me. Must have been the codpiece I was wearing.

I explained what happened and he took the watch and opened up a box filled with metal watch bands. Finding one that best suited my machismo, he set about taking off the old watch band and putting on the new one. It took about all of five minutes and I was soon back on the street where I ran into my old Rasta pal, Jesse.

After a brief chat it was a walk to the Path train which I rode reading Kurt Vonnegut and listening to Carole King on the iPod. It was a beautiful, yet breezy afternoon and I am glad I was able to get out and enjoy it, if only for a short while.

technical ecstasy, what?







04 In Dark Trees

I Got Stung

A day off for me. And yesterday was a day off for you. You didn’t have to read this blog. Of course you never HAVE to, I mean, it is nice that you do and I’m grateful for it. As far as I know you or someone might have been to this here blog and read SOMETHING yesterday. That’s fine.

Today has been gray and chilly. Not exactly welcoming to go outside. Plus after having to deal with people at work in the world of retail, dealing with people on my day off does not appeal to me.

I think I got the hour that I lost with the daylight savings thing. It was well deserved. Yesterday I worked with Calvin and it was alright. Not much to report on that front. The day did go fast but that was probably because the body was saying that it was 4:00 but looking at the clocks it was now 5:00.

It was an agreeable illusion, but with five days in a row of working at the cigar shack, I was pretty much toast at the end of the day. So today was mainly about recharging my batteries.

And speaking of batteries, last night I decided to listen to some Madonna as I headed from the cigar shack to the bus terminal. I heard maybe 2.5 songs before the iPod crapped out. I originally got the iPod from Bill in 2005 and in 2006 I’m pretty sure I got it replaced since it crapped out then.

I was working for Wolff Olins or McMann & Tate and wound up at the Apple Store on Prince Street. I remember having just purchased Bob Dylan’s Modern Times and soon after that the 2005 iPod crashed. The girl at the Smart Bar in the Apple Store made a remark about Dylan burning out just like my iPod.

I’m pretty sure I wound up getting a new iPod. I’ve had it for a few years now and it has served me well, but now I think it is about to shuffle off its mortal coil. I do have a back up courtesy of Julio & Stine from a few years ago, so it’s not the end of the world, but it only holds so many songs.

I’m going to save my money and get a 160GB iPod to replace the 30GB. I blame it all on Madonna. I mean, I should have known better.

And like I wrote on Facebook, if that is the only thing I have to complain about, then I really don’t have anything to complain about. Not with what is going on in the world today.

The news from Japan keeps getting worse and worse. The nuclear power plants are exploding or melting down. Bad news indeed. Hopefully it will get the US to rethink its policy on nuclear energy.

Kaddafi’s killing the Libyan rebels, Saudi Arabia has sent in troops to Bahrain, Wisconsin and Michigan have been going through labor troubles and I’m complaining about my iPod? Oh boo hoo. Woe is me. And I know the same thing could be applied to my employment situation.

Lots of people are still out of work and at least I still have a job so why complain? It’s true, things could be better managed at the cigar shack and despite some nibbles elsewhere I should be happy with what I got.

‘Easier said than done’ he wrote.

The world continues to spin on its axis, albeit a little more wobbly than it was before the earthquake. I’ve been catching up with Big Love on HBO. A very good show, great acting all around. If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth watching on DVD.

You know who you are.


that's my Bill