Well, let myself get dehydrated apparently. One thing about the structure of Work each Day is that I tend to drink1.25- 2 gallons of water each Day. Yesterday I drank Coffee, one French Press worth, a couple Martinelli sparkling Ciders 10 oz each. One a travel cup of ice tea with a whole fresh squeezed lemon, a blueberry float made mostly of Perrier, a few chugs off the Lemonade in the fridge but not once did I intentionally take a sip of just plain ol water. It was also the first Day of the predicted “Heat Wave” 80 degrees here. The result is a ponder of a headache; my throat is feeling like I’m fighting something off, need a win on that one. Bolstering with all the herbal tools and water Today. Supposed to hit 81 Today, 86 Tomorrow. Currently foggy as the Heat sucked it in but it will burn off quickly. Watering the Garden is the first order after Morning Routine.
Yesterday, the Pimp in me drove to Santa Cruz and bought 100 pounds of iron and an old barbell off a guy who was in His late 70’s but looked my age. He told me His PR was a 305 pound pull over and He carried about half the weights I bought off Him to the truck easily, still a Beast. The stack of plates were on Craigslist for$15.00. I figured I would scoop them up and flip them at Play It Again Sports (PIAS) for store credit which is 75 cents a pound (50 cents cash). So, 75 bucks in store credit maybe a couple bucks for the bar works minus 15 bucks, time and gas, call it 50 dollar gain towards my next purchase at PIAS. I operated like that for a good 20 Years pimping anything I saw a profit in. My Pimp Mentor Michael Peters taught me well. We were the best of Friends for 17 Years but we had a falling out over money of all things and although I did my best to fix it, things were never the same between us. Michael and I would locate British and Italian sports cars, airstream and similar trailers; I still have a 45’ long Spartan Imperial Mason from our adventures. I would get my workin roll up to 30 to 40 grand but start to live a bit higher on the hog big shooting dinners or snagging a Shiny and spend my roll down to around 9 thousand when Pimp Panic would set in and I would hustle hard to fatten it back up. I never made that jump of doubling the roll when it was at its fattest. I knew how to do that illegally but didn’t have any interest it going down that Path and trying to double the roll through legal channels didn’t come along with instant gratification so it just never happened. With the advent of the Interwebs, “everybody” thinks everything they have in their Yard or dresser drawer is valuable so profit margins shrank, competition grew and along with being older and more financially solvent through always having a straight job and Cin working all these Years, I drifted out of the game; the Hustle is gone but the Flow is still happening. Having written extensively in the past about Michael, our relationship, His death and my grief, I’m gonna move along. The weight plates turned out to be from 5 different manufacturers from various past decades,
nothing terribly rare or worth more that a buck fifty a pound but, they are interesting enough to me to refurb them with a little wire brushing, some paint and add them to the retaining wall display which supports the Garden. The barbell is super old fashioned, useless to me in regards to working out but I will clean it up as well and incorporate it into a garden structure. On the way back to Watsonville, I got a Hot Pastrami Sandwich and caught a Noon AA Meeting in Soquel where I announced having 40 Years, fuckin Dinosaur
Lots of old Friends in there and I gave my number to a Newcomer, talked with several people after the Meeting. Good stuff.
Listening to Malaya Blue this Morning,
new to me, really dig Her stuff.
Cin got Home from Work in the early Evening in time for Dinner. I grilled up some Steaks that I had thawed from the case that T scored for me last weeken
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They were quite tasty. Cin ate at the Castle but, Boo and I sat down to check out a show someone had told Him about so over our Steaks we watched the first episode of Dead Boy Detectives which we both enjoyed and certainly will be our “Dinner Show” fro a bit.
Today is the 4th of July and while my mind is full of memories of years of celebrations with the Kids and Friends, Parades and Parties, it is feeling really low key Rond here right now. I haven’t heard from Whit since Tuesday although I did try to call Her Yesterday; not sure if She and Mark are in town or if they have plans; Whit usually participates in the Aptos Parade deemed The Shortest Parade in the World, it is anything but. I much prefer theWatsonville Parade as it is an Americana Mexican Medly of Hotrods, Tractors, Dancing Horses, Low Riders, Kids riding Bulls, and of course Boy and Girl Scout Troops, 4-H Kids, Bands and Bikes both Motorcycles and every kind of bicycle, Fire trucks and old Cop Cars, parade floats, really the Best.
Over the Years we participated in all kinds of blowin shit up but, anymore, just being at the Castle with Lil Bear (4th of July being the worst Day of the Year for Dogs) is the most likely Evening scenario regardless of the Day time activities.
Grateful for all the memories of past 4th of July’s many spent with Bill&Becky in the Days of the Kids being little. Many with the Chambers Family down on Hill Street. Grateful for Celebrations, BBQ and The Blues. For Time with Boo, our shared enjoyments of gardening, cooking, eating and catching a show on His big screen. For Whit who is in this chapter of Relationship with Mark. For Cin , soon to be retired from Her Career. For Lil Bear. For Fiends and Fellowship. For this Day to Practice and to Continue.