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December 08, 2005

Smokin' Big Cigars

Sometimes I leave my scooter at the office if its more practical for April to pick me up on our way out and about to do something. In the mornings I either catch a ride with or a couple of the other South St. Elmo Copticians. Practically speaking, this does not account for George C. Scott.

Patton was playing this morning when I woke up to catch the news/weather, so I proceeded to watch a few minutes, and by a few minutes I mean 30 minutes, which meant me looking up to see April in her coat ready to walk out the door and unable to give me a lift. No biggie, I've got two safeties in Ron & Stephen.

So I quick grab a shave & a shower and grab my coat to give Ron a call. Right now its about 10 to 9. Its at that point I realize I left my cell phone at the office. Crap. So I'm out the door and round the corner to see if Ron has left yet. No dice, he's gone. Not a big deal, I'm only two blocks from Stephen.

So I pound the pavement on over to Stephens place, at this point its probably 5 after 9. Now I know that Stephen has been hitting some rather late hours lately working on some big projects, and that he can get more work done in the quiet of the wee hours of the night than he can during the chaos of the day, so I dont' want to wake him up. I figure I'll just keep marching down St. Elmo Ave and flag him down if and when he drives by. Well, he does drive by, and doesn't see me. At this point I'm at 49th street.

On block later the St. Elmo Bus comes by, which I had seen earlier going southbound. I initial thought prior to getting a ride w/ Stephen that I might just take the bus. Again, I forgot that the St. Elmo bus driver likes to chill on 55th street & Alabama and have a smoke or two when he hits the south end of his route, which is understandable. So I flag him down around 48th street and hop on. He then informs me its $1.25 to ride. I say, rolling the dice, "I'm just getting off at 40th street." He says "sorry man, bye."

There's something rather humiliating about not having a $1.25 to ride the bus.

So, after another 8 blocks of walking and numerous waves and honks from friends and aquaintances in the 'hood on their way to work I make it into the office. There's no moral to this story other than I'm now going to keep a $1.25 on my person at all times for bus fare and a bull horn for flagging down Stephen.