andrew61

Confessions of a Slacker
2020-11-26 00:00:00 (UTC)

Thanksgiving

Had dinner with John at Pickwick & Frolic downtown. I felt like I was living dangerously by going to a restaurant for the holiday, but the place was fairly dead compared to previous Thanksgivings, and it turned out I felt safer there COVID-wise than I do on the bus, where too many passengers wear their masks improperly or don't wear them at all, and with no one enforcing the issue even though it is a state mandate.

Anyway, it was good to see John again -- I don't think I'd seen him since before COVID -- even though much of his conversation consisted of annoying BS, as usual. The meal was good, and John picked up the check as usual, so I got a $35 dinner -- plus tax and tip -- for free, which is always nice. Usually our party is about five or six, with John insisting on paying for everything, but this year there were only the two of us.

After dinner was over and it was time to leave, I had just missed my bus and the next one wasn't due for nearly an hour, so I accompanied John on his errand at CVS, then to his hotel room around the corner where I hung out with him for a little bit. John's been spending a lot of nights at downtown hotels lately, in addition to hiding out at his private office, and mostly avoiding his home. The reason, he says, is that if he's home, his landlords will pop over constantly and want to come in to do this or that task. He doesn't want to deal with them. But it seems like he's blowing all his overtime pay on hotel rooms. I don't know how he affords it, even though hotel rooms are relatively cheap right now.

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Been living at Ron's townhouse condo a full three months now. Every morning I come downstairs, make my tea in the kitchen, and then go sit in the living room where he is, and he always says Good Morning to me. But we barely even interact otherwise, and I'm feeling a little awkward about that. Part of it is because he usually has his face buried in his phone, with the TV on in the background. I keep wondering what he's thinking and whether he's sick of me yet. I try hard not to be too intrusive, always cleaning up after myself and doing my best at adapting to his ways, but I have no idea if he finds me annoying or not. Mostly he just goes his way and I go mine. His dog Marlo, of course, is always a delight.

Ron does favor TV channels like MeTV and Antenna TV, with all the old sitcoms and such. Before I lived here, I'd seen maybe two episodes of Father Knows Best in my entire life and didn't care if I never saw another one, but now I'm addicted and must watch the two episodes that air on Antenna TV every morning. I've also become addicted to Leave It To Beaver, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and now, Judge Judy.

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I was going to take legal action against my former landlords/housemates over their illegal self help eviction, but I've put it off and now I don't know if I'm going to do anything. But I still can't shake the resentment and bitterness I've been feeling toward people I once thought were my friends.

I haven't seen or spoken to Joe, either in person or online, since I moved out July 31. Jim does send me texts whenever the stray piece of mail shows up at the old address, and I make arrangements to go pick it up. But I never set foot in their house. Jim at first was bringing it out and handing it to me on the front steps, but now we've settled on him just leaving it in a plastic bag tied to the porch railing. So there's been interaction between us but it's been minimal. Once he asked me how things were going, but it seemed like he was only being polite, not that he genuinely cared. Do they have any sense at all of what turmoil they caused me?

Oh, another interaction. Within the past week or so, Jim posted on Facebook that their dog Luke's tumor has turned out to be malignant and inoperable. It appears the meds to shrink the tumor didn't work. So the dog's time on Earth is limited and Jim and Joe are going to make Luke's remaining days as comfortable as possible. I commented that I had grown to love Luke, and told Jim to make sure they gave him plenty of treats from the dinner table (something they didn't do before). Jim liked that comment.




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