This post has been done for 13 minutes and is waiting on a good title to come to me...

I sat on the patio last evening. It was warm and nice. I smoked a little cigar and listened to my blog friend Jean’s Indians rout my Cubbies. As one of my coaches used to tell me, there is no defense for a walk. There is none for a three-run homer either.

The wife was at the store getting important stuff like toilet paper. The boy’s dog romped in the grass. I could only see the lawn needs mowed, the flower beds need weeding, the shrubs want trimmed. I need a truckload of mulch.

 I need a gardener.

I also need patio furniture. Mine is pushing 20 years old and looks it. The chairs are shot. We did not pay all that much for it to start with and now it is just worn out. A couple of the sling back chairs are ripping, others are sprung. The cushioned chairs have the supporting rubber slings are broken. The whole thing is an embarrassment. Unfortunately, a new set is just not in the budget right now.

I’m reading a book about the legendary Dakota Apartments in New York. It was published in the late 1970’s, before John Lennon was murdered on the sidewalk in front of the building. The tome is mildly interesting from a historical perspective, but the subtle condescension and racism is a little off-putting.

There is a whole chapter about how the building went down hill after they started letting in “the homosexuals “ and how Roberta Flack, repeatedly noted as “the first black resident”, had no appreciation for the historical architecture of her apartment, looking to gut it and make it modern. That would be the apartment that Flack owned. Apparently, Lauren Bacall and “the John Lennons” were not the highbrow denizens of the past the author so admires either.

The author laments the passing of the days when Central Park was the playground of the rich, and the common people knew their betters and appreciated them. You can tell he just wants to type “damn hippies” every sentence.  Rosemary’s Baby was born at the Dakota. The book was free. It is pretty good for the price.  I’m shocked to find there are at least ten books about Tne Dakota listed on Amazon.

Do you think anyone will write a book about life at the Catalpa Apartments on Green Street? I was one of the original renters.

I don’t think so either.