[293] Screed City

[293]

07/15/2024 Monday. Cushioned stool on top of table. Room 218. Hampton Inn, Clifton Park, New York.

The Publishers birthday today! HBD, bruh!

Nothing to report, really. Fighting desperately not to turn this into a politics newsletter again. Dont worry, I dont have much to say about it. Somehow the last few major news cycles have pushed me towards the center, with regards to a few things that is and, therefore, like that old bridesmaids rub goes, "Man In Center Of Political Spectrum Under Impression He Less Obnoxious." All I can say is that I am Ridin' For Biden and leave it at that.

Whats the deal with hotel air conditioners? If you set it at 75F on the heat setting you get burned up, but if you set it on the cool setting at 75F you freeze. Am I right? And why dont they have toilet brushes in hotel bathrooms? Are they afraid youre gonna steal the fucking thing? Or are they torturing their staff? I mean, the likelihood of anyone staying at the Hampton Inn in Clifton Park, New York having a high fiber, low fat diet is very unlikely. Maybe they all just love skidmarks. Like its a Banksy long con. You know, every housekeeping jerk takes a picture of the toilet they have to clean and upload it to banksyskids.com?

Its a new world without Junior Mint, RIP. Trains and more trains. Its nice to not have to worry about parking though. I still notice good parking spots. Just yesterday I was walking to my studio and noticed a spectacular parking spot and broke down crying. He would have fit perfect in there, ya know? The company has loaned me the commuter van which smells like death a little bit and there is a mouse infestation, on the floorboard of the passenger side is a loaded mouse trap with peanut butter and what looks like insulation the mice have pulled loose to make a nest. Also, the seats are disgusting. Like someone incontinent has been dribbling lemonade for a couple of years. There is a air freshener that gives the van that desired funeral home smell. Its something else. And now that I have been in a crash, my driving confidence is skewed. Everyone going faster than me is a maniac, everyone going slower than me is a moron. Thats somebody elses joke who I dont remember who, but it is true. Its funny how quickly one regresses. I like the trains. I dont mind waiting. I like to watch people. Even the longer travel is okay. Sometimes. I got up at 5a this morning to make my train coming upstate, the trip was four hours so I was able to take a nap, It could have been much quicker and I could have made more money working, and when I got up to use the bathroom and looked out the back window of the train car I was on, the last train car, when I saw the fucking thing doing max twenty miles an hour, I cant say I loved it, but at least the train was so cold I thought I might get hypothermia and the people around me were jackasses and the $73 for no fucking reason. Oh, right, more people want to travel between NYC and other places. That makes perfect sense. Charge more to take the train. The train from Saratoga to Middlebury, Vermont is $33. The same distance. The same amount of times in a day. Once in the morning once in the afternoon. Demand, you say? Supply, I say. Disincentive. Motherfuckers hate trains.

Professor Curly won a GRACIE award for chicks in media. They mailed a trophy to our apartment in Queens. They have been renovating the apartment next door so I thought the box was hardware for their job. It sat on the stairs for a week before the landlady put it in front of our door, PC has been in Vom since Fireworks Day. Who the hell gets trophies delivered to their apartment? Where the hell is my parade? I must be doing something very wrong, or she is doing something very right. Unbelievable.

A bear broke a hole in the garage door at the Chalet. Ripped a hole loose. Destroyed the door. Its not good. Vermont is a full time job. You cant let your guard down for a second. Paddington was visiting. She got dragged away into the woods and managed to fight herself free, so she is doing okay, but now the bears have a taste for cute old ladies who curse like sailors and have uncouth opinions about certain things. PC had to float her in the hot tub for an hour just to get the smell off. Then she rolled her in carpet and dried her out in front of the wood stove. The last thing I heard Professor Curly had unwrapped Paddington on the lawn to get some sun before she drove back to New Ham. That she was doing okay, she was given a glass of wine and a cigarette to "Normalize," and was last seen on her way to the highway driving ten miles an hour under the speed limit with fifteen cars trailing behind her.

I am working all week near Saratoga. Doing a refurbishment on one school and then going later in the week to do a refurbishment on another school. I think I have work until the end of August. Good work. Prevailing wage work. We go to Wyoming the first full week of August with G and Daddy Dick. I think I am heading to Vermont on Friday to see about the bear hole. In the end it should be a good summer of money. Enough to do this writing project I have been working on? I dont know. I dont want to buy a new car. From the sound of things I can borrow the commuter van as long as I am working up here. The irony being that it is horse season around here and hotels are expensive now. The way that train tickets are expensive between Albany and NYC. Demand, yes. Supply, not so much. But they need workers. I am a worker and I know what I am doing. I dont think I mind so much. It is the promised summer from eight years ago. And seven years ago. And six years ago. And five years ago. And four years ago. And three years ago. And two years ago. And last summer. Weeks and weeks and weeks. All public works. All worth it and simple. Why anyone would even do this job. But we'll see. Things change fast and then they dont change at all.

Happy Birthday, Miette!

[insert hotel room photo]

[insert Onion article about centrist]

https://www.theonion.com/man-in-center-of-political-spectrum-under-impression-he-1819580173