B365V2.53 - Closed

Well this is much needed.  Back on the bench in the park, relaxing and trying to type.  The process would be easier if there weren't kids still on the playground, leaving off horrid sheiks like they are auditioning for a slasher flick.  If only I could be so lucky.

The kidnap victims jacket is finally off of the pole behind the bench.  If ever I could use for someone or something to come out of the woods and abduct some people, this would be the moment.

Not sure what I should be writing about, I am at a loss for words.  I shouldn't say that because that usually leads to an incredibly long blog.  Just not sure I have that in me tonight.  

I could take a moment to mention the Kaufmann's/Macy's closing in downtown Pittsburgh.  The store has been there for better than a century and this is the point where I am supposed to regale you with my memories of it except I don't have any.  I shopped there a few times but it was never a destination for me, a place I had to check out.  I used to go up to the 11th floor and check out there limited computer offerings and the Waldenbooks ( remember them? ) section.  Eventually the computer section and its limited offerings were removed, and Waldenbooks was replaced with a Bradley's Book Outlet.  Then Macy's bought out Kaufmann's and you could see the writing on the wall for the store.  First was talk that they wanted to sell the building and condense their 11 existing floors down to 4 and just leasing the space they needed from the new owner.  Then there was the street level windows.  Every Christmas one of the traditions downtown would be to check out the new Christmas windows at Macy's.  Except they quit changing the window displays, the last few years it has been the same window displays year after year.  And you hardly ever saw customers in the store.  One of the street level windows housed their Lush department, a section that had bath soaps and scrubs and what not.  The section would always be manned by two or three emo looking kids who would be spending their time talking to each other as they outnumbered the customers in their section.

So the store's closing doesn't come as a surprise, more like a foregone conclusion.  

I have been mixing it up on Facebook recently.  As those of you know, way back in my radio days I produced a conservative leaning talk show which was hosted by Jerry Bowyer.  Well a debate has been heating up on some of his posts regarding immigration.  Now that is an issue where Jerry and I agree, but many of his conservative friends do not.  So where Jerry approaches the issue from a conservative perspective, I tend to get there from a liberal one.  Of course that comes with its whole slew of insults for me, such as me being a sycophant, or that I am too busy reading the liberal mainstream media when honestly I can't even remember the last time I have picked up a newspaper.  Now that the Washington Post is scarcer around these parts than Bigfoot sightings, there is very little on the newspaper front that I do read.  As for TV, I haven't turned mine on in three or so weeks.  But I am familiar with how that medium works, hook the audience with teases and fear in order to get them to sit through the commercial break.  Be sure to mix in bold colors to pop eyes and images that reinforce existing stereotypes and you will pop a rating that will keep you profitable.  Give me the Naked News any day, at least that might hold my attention.

Uh oh, my drug truck may be back, as a truck just went down the road behind my bench, which just goes down to a turn around and comes back out.  Whew, he didn't part, he just turned around and left.  Wonder if that has to do me me sitting on the most lit bench here, as opposed to sitting under the pavilion where there are no lights.  

Oh well I should head home, I have a shield up in MPQ that is about to expire and I am about 100 points away from the Professor X card I want.  And I did knock out a couple more levels of Alpha Betty while sitting here.

B365V2.52 - Birthday dinner and guest blogging auditions

Just sitting at the casino, finally enjoying my free birthday buffet.  The food here is okay, nothing phenomenal but okay + free equals a win in my book.  I learned that formula from taking calculus in high school.

So I set about scaring people on Facebook yesterday.  I was at Giant Eagle, as I have previously told you, getting my Amazon gift card for my laptop ( due to arrive on Monday btw ) and I stuck my arm in the blood pressure doohickey.  I don't know why I do it, it is a habit more than anything else.  But I always treat it like the sledge hammer game at the carnival, the higher the number, the more likely I am to ring the bell and win a prize.  Anyway I stick my arm in the cuff and hit start.  It comes back at 191 over 115.  So I posted a photo of it on Facebook, and you would have sworn I was on death's door.  Lots of "you need to see a doctor" posts, when in truth I feel fine, thanks for asking.  Perhaps I am at death's door and someone else will have to post this to my blogger account, as I will be face down in my egg drop soup, with my eye brows littered with Mongolian beef chunks.  That would be one way to get a guest blogger around here.  Though if I were to end up in the hospital, you people would be sick of me, knowing I can do very little but watch TV and type.

The guest blogger position is still open.  I should lay out some guidelines for anyone who opts to take me up on the offer.  There are no rules, save for anything that would get me kicked off Blogger, and since this page already comes with a content warning, it would have to be pretty bad to get me removed.  Other than that, be yourself.  I don't need someone to come on here and sound like me, there is one of me, that is more than enough.  Don't be afraid to pimp yourself, if you have a blog, podcast, or any such venture that guest blogging here may get you additional traffic, by all means go for it.  If you are on my reading list, chances are I already enjoy what you do, even if I don't comment on everything, I comment when I think I can add something, so I am not ignoring you, but say you did a blog post on making pottery, I will probably read it but I don't know shit about it so there is nothing of relevance I can add.

Okay, I am on my second plate of birthday food here, some stuffed shells, chicken parm type thing and a salad.  I spent some time downstairs when I first got here, I am up about $50 for the day, which is good, I still have my house phone bill to pay and Ed owes me $70 for my cell phone, since the store pays it, I already paid for it this month, they just have to pay me back.

In a zen like moment of the blog coming full circle and back on itself again, the dinner music that is playing is Conga by Miami Sound Machine.  You have to read all of the entries, even the shitty ones, to get the inside jokes kids.

Okay, on the bus home now, I turned my casino winnings into losses.  Probably one of the reasons I don't go that often.   At least my belly is full, and my heart continues to pump that Stretch Armstrong like goo through my arteries.

Fuck i swear my bus driver is swerving into potholes.  Good thing I am not writing or this page would look like an etch a sketch of a wound up crackhead.  Got off the bus with most of my major organs intact, no thanks to the driver there, and walked to CVS to pick up a graduation card for a cousin, and also bought a chair for when I am sitting outside, I am no longer sitting on the driveway's pavement.   Go me being productive and shit.

Dinner views

                                          The view from my table

                                        Grandview balcony

                                        More balcony

                                         Still more bacony

B365V2.51 - If the spirits move me

So today hasn't gone exactly as planned.  I pack my backpack ( which I call the Bag of Wholesome Goodness, which they should offer in D&D, but I digress ) with things I think I will need today, including my casino pass and my birthday ticket to my free casino buffet.  I figured after work I would subway hop my way over and grab dinner before making my way back home.  Then the wheels came off the wagon, so to speak and instead I am sitting at Uncle Jimmy's, not necessarily drawing my sorrows in Yuengling beers.

                                          Almost empty, better get another one

I started drinking Yuengling through a convergence of events, the first being going to a Pirates game with Jim and Ronni and learning that that was what they were drinking.  I guess I am a sucker for peer pressure after all.  Second was learning that my watering hole, Uncle Jimmy's considers Yuengling a domestic as far as pricing goes, so out when the Miller Lite's and enter the Yuenglings.  

Anyway, Ed decides to pay me today.  Mind you our checks are usually stamped for Thursday, even though they hand them out on Wednesday, so I was not expecting to have any cash on hand.  Instead I did have cash on hand and thus my dilemma, do I still get my free buffet or do I make efforts to procure a new laptop.  I opted for the latter and hopped my 65 Squirrel Hill, thinking I would go to the Giant Eagle on Murray and use the Coinstar machine to buy an Amazon gift card to cover the cost of my soon to be new laptop.  The cool thing about Coinstar machines is that they do not charge for gift cards.  Unlike cashing change in, where they charge nearly 10 cents on every dollar, you can insert bills for gift cards and there is no charge.  And Amazon acts almost like a bank with their gift cards, you can bankroll gift card money and use it as needed.  This plan keeps my debit card off of ye olde Internet, which is fine with me.  

So instead of the buffet run, I opt for a Squirrel Hill run instead.  First to Giant Eagle, then to the Squirrel Cage for dinner.  I approach the Coinstar machine and go to insert some bills for a gift card and alas the bill acceptor isn't working, so I have to alter my plans and buy a gift card and go through a normal checkout.  Presumably this will benefit my Advantage card in some way, though I doubt it helps me in the long run(usually gift cards are good for fuel perks, since I don't drive I do not reap the bennies) I grab a gift card and put $400 dollars on it.  If my replacement laptop costs more than that I can always add cash later.  

But when I get to Jimmy's I learn it doesn't, as long as I am willing to sell for a Dell refurbished model, which I guess I do, the remainder of my gift card monies is in my account should I require books, glorious books.  I have been slacking for quite some time on my reading, not that there isn't interesting material out there, just that I don't know what it is yet.  I am in the middle of a book, I knocked off three chapters at the Squirrel Cage while eating dinner, but I doubt it is something the masses at large would find interesting.  50 shades of grey it is not, lol.

But I pull out the tablet ( Jimmy's has wifi ) add the gift card to my Amazon account and purchase my laptop.   1st world problems begin when you can't by a laptop with a beer in your hand after all.  Of course it is also open stage night at Jimmy's, which basically means garage rehearsals for the uninitiated.    They start playing then someone coaches someone else on what they are doing wrong.  That being said, it is providing adequate background noise for my typing, so I should shut up about it. 

If the Squirrel Cage was lunch ( and given I hadn't eaten until that point today, the argument could be made) I am thinking of what is for dinner.  The obvious choice would be Larry & Carols just a few doors down from Jimmy's, the only non selling point to that being I used to work there.

Back in my radio days when full time in radio paid shit, I often scrounged to find part time jobs to help pay the bills while I foolishly pursued my dreams.  One such part time job was Larry and Carol's, where I had worked my way up to manager, albeit in a part time basis.  Back in those days it wasn't uncommon to work until 3 or 4 in the morning, go home and sleep for a half hour or so and then make my way back to the radio station.  I'll admit I was a fucking fool to dedicate myself to a radio station who couldn't give two shits about my well being, but that is hindsight speaking.  Back in the day I thought radio was where I would end up.  

So it came as no surmise that when it came to choosing between working at the station versus part time managing a pizza shop, I chose the station, though how it played out wasn't quite that simple.  Dan, who was the owner of Larry & Carols at the time I worked there, asked me if I could come in on a Saturday.  I said that I could drop by but my full time job had me there until al out 8 pm.  Anyone who is familiar with public transit here in Pittsburgh knows how hard it is to get from Greentree to Oakland on weekend schedules, but I made it back and poked my head in the pizza shop.  it wasn't busy at all, they had maybe two orders which the people on duty should be able to handle, so I tell Rich, the manager on duty, that I am going home ( my apartment is literally a two minute walk from Larry and Carols ) and to call me if it gets busy, otherwise I have already put in an 8 hour day at one job and I would prefer not to be up half the night  ( L & C closed at 3 am ) when I had to be back at the station in the morning.  So I go back to my place and close my eyes, sleep is just about to come when my phone rings, it is Dan, saying I need to be there right away.  So I trudge out of bed, make my way to the pizza shop and they have three orders, and three employees on duty.  Meanwhile Dan has made his way to Jimmy's, perhaps in the very barstool I now occupy, so I look at Rich and say " Call me when you are actually busy and not when Dan decides he is thirsty. "  I go back home and not more than 15 minutes later my phone rings again, it is Dan, wondering where I am.  I said that I am at home, if it gets busy, call me.  Otherwise there is no point in me standing around when I have already worked 8 hours today.  Dan proceeds to tell me that I am fired f I don't come in.  Lesson to anyone out there, I don't respond very well to threats.  So I make my way back to the pizza shop, I walk in and look directly at Dan and say, " You know, it is a damned shame that everyone here cares more about this business than you do, you are to worried about sitting on that fucking barstool to give a shit . "  Yes kids, when I leave a job a do so with a bang.

But Dan has since sold the business so there is no uneasy tension when I go in to order something.  Now if I go there it is simply a matter of convenience, it is the closest thing open with food I want.   I doubt any of the current employees even know I worked there back in the day.  

Okay I opted to come home after Jimmy's, with a brief stop by to see Numan at Quck Stop.  Now to eat my chicken salad and post this drivel.