Took a little time off. Not sure why. I’ve got all my dogs back, and even boarding Cocoa tomorrow. A four night stay. Not sure what he is. A little something or other, but a cutie. I’m having a new bed put in now. It’s going to be nice. A friend is setting it up. She says she likes doing it. Ok . Yes, I have that kind of pull. I did take out the old one, with frame, and dumped outside. It wasn’t exactly no work. After that, I had time to watch my Hammers best Chelsea, 3-2, in a nail-biter. With a schedule suited to them in the next six games, we should steer clear of relegation, but its no guarantee.
An old friend of mine was friends with an umpire, and we had plans for Peter Lugers Steakhouse after the day game. This is many years ago. I saw the ump after the sixth inning, and said,” WTF dude? We gotta 5:30 reservation. You gotta start ringing out some people. He gets in my face, and says,” Fuck off you asshole, look at me. 100 fuckin degrees. I’m dying behind the stick.” Lo, and behold, he starts ringing out people, right and left. Rings out Bobby Bonilla, and they have words at the plate. At dinner, I asked what was said. Bobby: “What the fuck was that?” Ump:“ It was a fucking strike Bobby. Now go sit the fuck down. WTF are you going to do about it? “ Bobby: “ I guess I’ll go sit the fuck down. “Many hours after this, my friend and I were at Peter’s Bar about 2 am, are watching the Mets replay at the bar, and waiting for the encounter. Sure enough, the camera focuses on each guy, and we can see the exact words being mouthed. 🤣🤣 Ump had a terrible temper. Larry was his name.

I’ve always wondered if Cathy Berberian was a real person. Readers may remember her from Your Gold Teeth, by Steely Dan. Turns out she was an American Mezzo-Soprano singer, and composer in Italy. That would go under the “ you learn something new every day” category. I’ve been listening to a lot of the Dan, and the Allman Brothers. Great bands.

Another outlet during this pandemic is Netflix. Just started the third season of Babylon Berlin. It’s set in Berlin in the late twenties, and the focus are a couple of police officers. It’s pretty good. Some typical German debauchery, and some crazy scenes. The third season opens with men killing themselves at the German Stock Exchange in October of 1929. Just finished the third season of Ozark. Everyone loves that.

Beautiful day in NYC. Hanging in Central Park with Eddie, Penny, and Parker. Trying to stay away from the news. Nothing good. Pandemic. Floyd. When will the second wave hit? There are a lot of people walking in the park with no mask. How many people in St. Louis who were in the pool in the Ozarks have it now? And who are they passing it to?

Looks like no baseball, but the Premier League starts June 17. Can’t wait. Go Hammers!!

I was sitting outside of Santa Fe restaurant last night, amongst mostly regulars, and inter-mingling, with the people next door at Polpette. Great to be slowly getting back to normal. Very slowly. I don’t know the name the owner, but he has a pit bull named Nyla. Coincidentally, I dated a woman in the eighties from Latvia named Nyla. Both very pretty. I was struck by how people react when a pit is around. Nyla is a bit of a lunger, which isn’t great for a pit. She’s six, and she’s a rescue, who the owner has only had for two months. I could tell after a few minutes that she was a cool dog, who just wanted to play. I think it took other people a bit longer. Especially the ones who had a dog. It was hilarious to look at their faces when first confronting a Nyla lunge. In the end, everyone was cool, and no one said anything to the owner. Except me. It had nothing to do with Nyla, who I was petting, and having a good time with. But the owner at one point was inches from me, and talking towards me, with no mask. I didn’t have mine on either, but am careful not to talk directly at people. I just politely asked him to give me a little room, and he apologized, and did so. Tell the truth, I just don’t like people on top of me, virus, or no virus.
I have a very bad feeling about what these protests are going to lead to. Not much distancing going on there. Many are wearing masks, and they are outside, which is a good thing. This damn thing isn’t going anywhere. We may have a lull, but fall is after summer, and I’m afraid we have only come to the end of the beginning. Can you believe all this is going on, with the Pandemic? Trump with a bible was just unbelievable. The WH actually thought that whole thing was going to make him look tough. Pepper spray peaceful protesters to clear a path, so Trump and guests can march to an old church, where he can stand there like a rock, holding up a bible. It’s a good time for a Marx Brothers movie. I think they are on tonight on TCM. Adios.

June 1, 2020

I seem to have developed a bit of writer’s block the past five days. I think it’s the combination of this pandemic and the rioting going on everywhere. Enough is enough already. If I’m losing my sense of humor, I’ve got to get it back. I don’t have much else. Ok. It’s slowly coming back. I just viewed a funeral service from the Newcastle area. Not sure exactly where. RIP Elsie Hardy. She was the mother of my good friend from Sunderland, Dave Hardy. My condolences to Bernie,Dave,Sean, and the rest of the Hardy clan. You learn something every day. Hopefully. I now know that Geordies are only people from Newcastle. Sunderland folks are Makems . Now you know too. So, now what? Block coming back. 

I did meet some new dogs, while I was hanging outside of Polpette last night. Distancing of course. Had a couple of Widow Jane bourbons, while waiting for a take-out of Chicken Scarpiello. Wow, was that good. Only had half. Nicky Meatballs serves up a big portion. The new dogs were Barbara, and Rio I think. Real cute. Rio was found under a car in San Antonio nine years ago. Ten now. Still a bit skittish, but real cool. Dogs will help us get through this crap we are going through now. So, it was just nice to sit outside, and be around people for a change. Meanwhile, a couple of miles south of me, idiots were looting Soho. Very pleasant up by me. Not so much down there. Two different cities. Hence the title of this post. Get it? How is that honoring the memory of George? Ok. Enough for now. I’ll be funnier next time. I promise. Or ironic. Or sarcastic. Something. 

Awesome day in Central Park. I’ll have to start taking some pics of the people that run, or bike by Dean’s Bench every day. It’s quite a group. People have really settled into a routine in this pandemic. There is the mid-eighties couple that run by every day. They look alike. Their arms flap in the same rotation. It’s great. There is Red Sox Jimmy King, who is a legendary bar manager on the West Side. When he was at Caprice Cafe, I can’t tell you how many times I saw De Niro, Danny Aiello, and Paulie Herman holding court. Jimmy has to be close to seventy, and has an adorable two year old boy. He runs by me every day, and yells,” I gotta make it to the kids high school graduation.” There are all sorts of contraptions people ride by on. I don’t even know what you would call them. Today I had Parker, Eddie, and Penny the Corgi with me. What a trio! If I let them off leash, it wouldn’t be a good day for the squirrels. Hard to catch them, but if they do, it’s over in a snap. Neck, that is.
Anyone check out the party people in the Ozarks over the weekend? Could you get any closer? If I lived in St. Louis, I wouldn’t want to be near any one of them. Outside is supposed to be better, so I’m not as concerned about the beaches, as long as there is some distancing. It’s the bars that worry me. Drunk people singing, slobbering over each other,etc. I get it. I like it too, but not in the middle of a pandemic.
I don’t know if anyone is watching the History Channel’s Grant? Really good. Seems accurate. Grant reminds me of what we should do during this trial in our lives. After The Mexican War, he was essentially a failure. He went through a series of jobs, and was a clerk in his Father’s store in Galena, Illinois, when The Civil War broke out. It was his actions at Shiloh that remind me of today. He was known for never losing his cool in battle. Able to think clear-headed, about what needed to be done next. After being pulverized by P.G.T. Beauregard, once Sidney Johnston went down, he organized a movable, working defense, that held the rebels at bay. At the end of the first day, Sherman said to Grant,”Well Grant, we’ve had the devils own day, haven’t we?” Grant replied:” Yes, lick em tomorrow though.” That’s the attitude we should have now. A disciplined organized defense, with the idea that we will lick it later. A great series, but kind of annoyed me that there was no mention that Sidney Albert Johnston was wildly considered the top Confederate General in the war at that time, and it was a huge blow when he went down. Lee was big then, but his genius came later.

So begins the last day of the first week back in this pandemic. I’m not even sure I knew this word before it all started. I’m supposed to be in Worcester, Massachusetts,this morning for my niece Caroline’s graduation from Holy Cross. That’s not happening. It’s nice to be back working, though I’ve lost a couple of dogs. Probably get them back at some point. Very grateful to the customers that continued to pay me during all this. Also grateful to Shamrock Liquors in Highland, New York, for giving me something to look forward to at 7pm every night. The UPS charge has gone up from $26 to $42 since April 1. Is that gouging? I think it is. They are probably busier. Why do they have to do that? Thank God for the dogs. Only thing that is keeping me sane through all this. Them, and Shamrock Liquors from Highland, New York. I took off from my dog walking business from 4/1-5/17. The first week of April, I found myself having a pour of tequila by 3:00 in the afternoon. After a week had passed, I realized that this is a bad idea. So, I moved it to 7:00 pm. Note the pm. In the late afternoon, I started walking around the ball fields in Central Park instead of imbibing. Good idea, yet still up twelve pounds since we started social distancing. Just what I need. Well, it could be worse. If I wasn’t knocking out 8k in steps, and stretching, it could be a whole lot worse. A whole lot.
So, I’m at Polpette’s last night waiting for my spaghetti and meatballs. Great place. Nicky Meatballs lets a couple of people sit at the bar, while you wait for your food. Everyone is social distancing, and playing it safe. I’m having a Widow Jane’s bourbon, straight up, and Nicky Meatballs goes to pour more wine in Hardy’s glass. Instead, he pours it into mine. “ Did I just do that?” You did, I say. As he takes my glass away, I say,” Wait a minute. Let me make sure we didn’t stumble upon the next greatest concoction.” I had no high hopes, but for the laugh, I had to take a sip. We hadn’t. I wouldn’t say disgusting, but wouldn’t recommend. Liz and Chrissy stopped by. It was good to have some kind of social interaction, albeit safe. Have a good weekend.

As I’ve mentioned, I have a small dog walking company. I started back this week. Today is the day that I keep Penny the corgi for a good part of the day. I have a roommate, who is a charter school teacher/administrator. He’s now working from home, and was a little worried about the Penny/ Eddie combo, while he has work Zooms. Eddie is a terrier, who is normally here all day, but the owner is a bartender who was laid off. They go at it all day long. It’s really Penny harassing Eddie all day. Anyway, Penny was an angel all day. I’ll get pictures of the dogs, once I figure out the mechanics of this blog stuff. 

Now to the Things part of the blog. How badly do we miss sports? The Jordan thing on ESPN was incredible. He was unbelievable. Funny story: My sister’s daughter Meghan, who is my goddaughter, went to grade school with Jordan’s kid, Jeffrey. They had a thing where if a parent showed up at school, that parent could read the weekly fable. My sister was off work that day, and raced over to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears to the kids. Jordan beat her. So competitive. So, Julie asks him if it’s OK if she hangs around, as he was first. He says, “You want to stay and hear me read this? OK.” So, she stayed, and Jordan was reading the fable, and would look at Julie and shrug during a particular sappy part. When they got up to leave, my goddaughter says, ”This is Jeffrey’s dad.” Jordan says,“ Hello, Meghan’s mom.”

A beautiful day in Central Park on Sunday. I was hanging with Carol and Giffs, Richard and Becker, and I brought Parker. A cute little Frenchie named Nyla stopped by Dean and Wallys Bench. Dean was a friend of mine who died five years ago, and his girlfriend Karen bought him a plaque on a bench near the lawn bowling field. During The Nastiness as I call this pandemic, I’ve been taking Parker and Eddie to the bench every day of the week around one in the afternoon. Very relaxing just hanging there.

So, to the dentist. He’s actually an oral surgeon. I had a tooth pulled on Thursday. Fun stuff. So, on Wednesday, I noticed my dentist had not sent my ex-rays to the oral surgeon. I called to make sure they did, and checked the office, and the woman said they had received them. I’m nervous the whole night before, and day of, and I get to the place, fill out the damn twenty minute application, stare at the aquarium for ten minutes, and finally get the call in. The guy tells me we are going to take ex-rays first. WTF!! I went through all that so I wouldn’t have to pay twice for the same ex-ray. Now as I’m in the chair, I’m waiting forever, and texting old grade school friends in Chicago. I’m telling them this must be a dentist conspiracy with the old ex-ray hide them trick. The doc shows, and do we start going? No. He spends twenty minutes talking about the Yankees. Ok. I wound up loving this guy, but I can talk baseball anytime. Take the damn tooth out. Actually, it was fine. I was blabbing on as much as he was. Great guy. And the estimate? When are you happy with the final cost, versus the estimate? Like, never. Estimate was $2800-$3300. Final cost was $2845.00. I’ll take that in a New York minute. That never happens. Maybe I’ll go back next week, and get another taken out. There was a blonde that was kind of cute. Even behind the mask. Until that time Eustis. Until that time.