Tag Archives: Padron

Giant

It’s Wednesday again. An out of the ordinary day. One day left for me this week at work. Last night Bill was doing the sleep apnea test thing and it went well I suppose. I’m sure I’ll hear all about it later. More than likely during the last 5 minutes of Lost which will have steam almost leaving my ears. I do want to hear all about it, but not between 9:00 and 10:00.

Harpy is scheduled to go to the NYU Dental Clinic for dentures. He needs ’em. He’s been getting a little too close to Shane McGowan’s dentistry as of late and this should improve his chances of getting a job and perhaps eating solid food again.

Don’t get me wrong, I love me my Harpy and only want the best for him. This morning I was out on an errand and saw in my building, at the Staples store a notice on the window for positions opening up downtown at Broadway and Vesey Street.

I only glanced and called Harpy to tell him. It probably wouldn’t be his thing so I asked him to forward the info to Susan, former co-owner of Farfetched. The news about Harpy’s scheduled dental visit was posted on Facebook and commented on by Susan and myself.

When I finished my errand I stopped and called Susan who immediately was in attack mode, thinking that I was calling up about the dentist. I had to raise my voice a bit to let Susan know that I was calling to let her know about the possible job info and to help her out.

Still she filled me in about Harpy’s problem which I knew all about from Harpy himself. She dutifully wrote down the info that I recited over the phone, where to log in and apply, where to go for the actual store. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be a madhouse, with hundreds of people lined up around the block.

That’s how it’s been lately. I spoke with my former boss, present friend Risotto see how he was doing. He is in a human resources position and told me how he listed a job for sales and was inundated with a couple of thousand applicants, for one job.

Robert and I made plans to see a mutual friend, Fay Victor singing at 55 Bar on Christopher Street when the weather gets warmer and when Fay returns to the States from Holland.

Work was all deck chairs today. Steve, former co-worker who’s been lingering and using the office facilities to get a new job since he was released from his job in October when he came back from his honeymoon in Greece, came in again.

It seems that he has gotten a new job in Tarrytown, just finalizing the details. He asked me if I wanted to go have a cigar with him to celebrate and of course I said yes. We headed out around 2:30, no one really noticing that I was out of the office, but I left a note letting them know they could reach me on my cell.

He brought along a bottle of Woodland Reserve, a nice bourbon that went very well with the San Luis Rey cigar I picked out. We sat in the lounge at the Cigar Inn on Second Avenue and sipped and puffed with quite a few other men smoking cigars on a Wednesday afternoon.

A nice mellow scene indeed and quite aromatic. Of course that ended about an hour later, Steve was off to his wife and me back to the office, quite buzzed and wondering what the hell was I doing there.

After a half hour of bewilderment I got my stuff together and headed towards the bus terminal. Finally coming down from the cigar/bourbon buzz and not complaining at all, just wishing I had another cigar and more bourbon.

The fact that Steve was able to get a new job, really gives me hope for my other unemployed friends.

You Can’t Catch Me

Well it was back to Southampton today, boarding the White Star Line for the HMS Titanic. Deck chairs all in in disarray. Someone needs to tidy them up, put them in their proper places and it might as well be me.

They have told me that I will have this job until next March, but of course there could always be an iceberg between now and then, between here and there. Today was nothing extraordinary. I was alive, which was a good thing (depending on who you talk to) I guess.

Bill was up before me, and he bellowed that it was 6:45 and his bellowing was more effective than an alarm clock. I shuffled past Bill as he gussied himself up in the mirror, and jumped into the shower. I was out in time to kiss him good bye.

He reminded me he has a sleep apnea test tomorrow night so he won’t be around. It’s a sleep over thing. My brother Frank did it last week and he complained how uncomfortable it was.

I spoke with Frank for an hour this morning which shows how busy I’ve been. There was the usual initial difficulty in connecting but it lasted only about a minute. We talked about a wide range of things. He finds talking to me therapeutic which is fine by me.

We made plans for me to take a train out to Garfield on Friday to play guitars together. I’ll take a train out there, we’ll play and he can drop me off at the train station so I can get back to Hoboken and beat the rush hour. I’m not as intimidated as I used to be.

Playing guitar in front of him was nerve wracking for me at times. A few years ago Bill and I drove out there during the holidays and I brought my guitar. It turned out he wasn’t into playing guitar. I tried showing him a Beatles song that I had taught myself, so proud I was, only to find him saying, that’s not how it goes.

It sounded fine to me. No, I didn’t play the Fmaj7, instead choosing a simple F barre chord. I was discouraged and put the guitar away. Last time this past holiday season I tried it again, with his guitar, played my version of Nick Lowe’s So It Goes, as well as Macca’s Maybe I’m Amazed and he was intrigued enough to suggest getting together and playing sometime.

So I guess that time will be this Friday. Since he had the stroke he hasn’t played that much and I guess he’s itching to play with someone. Even his baby brother. I’m looking forward to it and will bring a few songbooks out.

I reassured him that playing Graham Parker’s Squeezing out Sparks is easy to play since most of the songs are 3 or 4 chords. I’ll even show him some websites that have chords to songs that wouldn’t be in the songbooks.

I took the Path train back to Hoboken this evening, enjoying a Padron on the way. Chuckled out loud on the train as I was reading David Sedaris which probably raised a few eyebrows but I didn’t see them since my nose was buried in the book.

Nice walk back home in the chilly spring air. Saw Stine with Alexander and I was more than glad to help her out by carrying Alexander up to their apartment. Of course I was nervous, ‘don’t drop the baby…careful…now wouldn’t be a good time to fall down’ all running in my head.

Of course I had the camera available and took some shots of Superboy who is now walking, a bit like a drunken sailor, but still- he’s walking. And saying ‘Oooo’ every now and then.

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Me and Superboy

Me and Superboy


Jeezy Creezy- I love this kid!