Wallace finally called, he’s arriving next Wednesday, on the late flight. He was unable to get in touch with Lois, who “likes to go to Las Vegas”. That means I’ll have to put him up here. That’s okay, there is plenty of room, more if I can get rid of Steve’s stuff. There are at least three tomcats now hanging around outside.
Wallace reports that he recently triple-skunked an opponent in Crib, which I assured him no such thing will happen when he plays against me. The challenge is on. Nobody has skunked me in twenty years, although seven of those years have been in Florida, where nobody plays the game. That I can find.
[Author's note 2016-04-06: I spoke too soon. The first two yahoos in Florida who played the cribbage both double-skunked me on the first game. I think that was in 2011 or so. I was later to find out most people good at such games learned their trade in prison.]
I could not risk a picture, but this lady is wandering around downtown begging for spare change, so I stopped and asked her what gives. She is not that bad looking. I got some story that her boss who [she says] is a policeman instructed her to go panhandle change for the Salvation Army. Ahem. Johnny D. was playing right across the street at the Octopus, so here is a picture of him instead.
All these musicians have a Florida streak in them. He wants you to jam, but not here. He means at his jam session, which is down on Hollywood Beach on Tuesdays. His real motive is to get you down there to buy beer while waiting your turn. It makes economic sense, but is not the way you treat other musicians. He does want to hear my new material. I stuck around for a few tunes. Well, that, and the gorgeous lady in the miniskirt you cannot see off to the right of the picture was wearing bright yellow panties.Pudding, the cat, is starting to get expensive. The flea drops are $6 and I’ve never seen a cat with such an efficient digestive system. A bag of litter herself every four days. Yes, I think it is the “operation” for her, and then she learns to be an outside cat. My bushes can use the fertilizer and she will keep the opossums away. I don’t like them.
Those of you not in debt can be a little smug over what I’m about to tell you. There is this customer who is very religious, always on the cell phone arranging church picnics and such, inviting people. He has one of those Spock Bluetooth phones and gets a call every few minutes. Thus, while I was helping him run an anti-virus app, he was discussing on the phone that he is personally $50,000 in debt over just his credit cards. I cannot imagine owing somebody that much money. (The most I have ever been in debt is $8,000 over a student loan, even my Cadillac I bought with $11,000 cash.)
Now I’ll have to move fast. Wallace will need transportation and a bed. I’ll need propane and a new fridge, or get this one charged up. I forget he also eats people food. Like bacon and eggs. Toast and jam. Donuts. Bread. He wants to rent a car, but maybe I can swing him a deal where he puts new tires on mine he can use that. We’ll work something out, I helped him keep his car on the road back in 1998/99. Apparently that Farren guy will be there also, but I swear I cannot recall anything except that I once met him.
In what I hope is one of my last Friday evenings at home, Luis and I had a very successful practice. Ten songs down by the end of the second practice, and I mean ready to go, not run through a couple of times. He has a natural balance to playing with other musicians and catches on rapidly where the stops occur. He mentioned again that his union job sometimes keeps him busy on weekends. I can work around that, because I myself like to take off on the odd weekend, and I have not had the extra cash to do that for almost three years. JP and have been to Naples a few times, around Okeechobee and to the Keys, but that is it. Oh, I forgot about Everglades and the time I went around the swamp to Clewiston. Up the coast doesn’t count, since you never really get out of the city.
Going over the budget, I see that I have enough for a motorcycle. I’ve always wanted one in this climate. Still, the one I want is a little more expensive, so I’ll wait until mid-summer. If I have more cash I can make a better deal on the dollar. The best motorcycle I ever rode was a Honda 450, but they don’t make them any more. Harleys are okay although you got to watch them. I’ll do some careful shopping.So that you don’t get the impression that gambling is all fun and games (pun intended), I’ll share a photo taken on the bus bench outside one of the new casinos in the area. The suggestion is that it is some loser’s breakfast. There were an abandoned pair of sneakers nearby, actually too new to be abandoned. It is, when added up, illegal to be homeless in this town, so maybe he was, er, forcibly removed? How do I know it was a he? Easy, the sneakers.
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