Timex | johnozed

It’s been a weird couple of days. My Timex stopped working and I figured I would do without a wrist watch. Of course it was not a good idea but I tried to persevere and overcome the feeling of nudity without the wrist watch. It didn’t take and I wound up wearing the broken watch for some semblance of normalcy in my life. Still there are clocks everywhere, the cable box, the TV screen, the smartphone and various clocks in the apartment, on the wall and one on Bill’s side of the bed and one on my side.

And not wearing a watch to bed was uncomfortable since I usually have my wrist an inch away from my eye in the morning so I know what time it is without having to get out of a comfortable position to see the digital readout on the alarm clock. I mentioned to Bill my plan of not wearing a watch and he thought it was not a good idea. In November we had no electricity so most of those clocks were useless. And of course maintaining a charged up phone was inconvenient at best.

And I really did want a new watch. A new Timex, this time without the date on the face since it was a pain in the tuchis almost every month. I was going to go to the mall yesterday and asked Rand if he wanted to go and he politely declined. Then the Credo bullshit occurred and I was in no mood to go, so once again I stayed within the Hoboken borders.

Juan was in town and was planning on coming over last night. I had been in communication with him the past few days and his situation was dire. Bill and I offered our futon to crash on if he needed to, but he was staying with his family nearby. Juan came over and Bill went to bed. And Juan did have a harrowing story to tell, harrowing enough that I yelled at him. It didn’t help but it was my first reaction and I resolved to just shut up and listen.

Words were flying fast and furious from his mouth and I for one am glad he is out of that most unprincipled situation. Juan’s sister came by to drive him home a couple of hours later and a plan to hang out today was set. I slept fairly well or so I thought. Bill told me I was talking in my sleep, coherently but he didn’t remember what it was that I said, and that I also was punching the bed, two things I have no recollection of.

I woke up after Bill had left me with a good bye kiss, telling me it was 6:00. I looked at my wrist some time later and then looked at the clock. I roused myself and started my day. I had the talk with Bill about watches at this point, and following Bill’s advice, headed to the mall.

A major storm is approaching and the river was very choppy. The winds were strong enough to push this guy on the wrong side of 200 pounds around on the sidewalk and pier. I made it to the mall and found what I was looking for, on sale in Kohl’s. I went there since my friend Lois works in Kohl’s out in the wilds of NJ. It’s a nice Timex. Not flashy, quite understated with military hours as well, so when someone says 20-oh hundred hours, I’ll know they mean 8PM.

When I was in Kohl’s Bill called. His friend Tom is getting divorced and needs a place to crash. Since Juan turned down our offer, the futon is Tom’s if he needs it. Thing is, Tom might need to crash for a few weeks, so that should be interesting. Already there has been a slight head bump between Bill and I on this matter and I am sure we will talk further about it when he gets home.

That’s it. More words, this time I had something to say, relatively speaking. And I am getting my Credo bills mailed to me rather than using their online service since apparently their online service is fucked up. I will pay by check.

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.