
I'm working construction in NYC. Greenwich Village at NY University. There is a power plant inside of it, we are expanding it. I'm torching beams, rigging and welding together and assembling massive ducts that are snaking through impossible passages.
I'm living uptown on 173rd street so every morning, I get on the A train and take it down to west fourth street. I've got to say that it is the best commute to work I think I will ever get.
Usually I drive my truck out of new York on the GW Bridge, down the NJ turnpike to any specific power plant or refinery. That could be the powerhouse at Ridgefield Park which is like ten minutes away from my apartment or all the way to down to the Salem nuke plant, which is a two and a half hour drive. I haven't made it down that far, but our local covers it, so one of these days I'll get called down there and have to live out of a motel. Which won't be that bad at all, time on the road is time away from the normal pace of things and you get time to read, write, drink and miss your girl.
It's funny how these things are good for us, working hard and being way from your girl for awhile, it makes you realize that she is your girl for a reason and that you.
I have it good now and I'll have it good for another month or so, then the job will be over and I'll go back in the list and wait for my hall to call me back out to work. That's the cycle of things, work for a little while, maybe six weeks, eight weeks, a year, who knows...then get laid off and collect unemployment for a little while and then the phone rings and the hall sends you out to another job and it's some guys you've worked with before and some you've never seen before. Some of them are your friends, almost family, some of them will steal your shit when you aren't around or beat you up in the parking lot for whatever seems like a good reason at the time. It doesn't really matter either way, the jobs are never too long and there is never a problem finding people to the bar with you during those fat times.
Typically when I get off of work I'm in the industrial wastelands of NJ, now inexplicably, I'm working out of the NYC local as a guest and I am getting off of work in arguably the most beautiful and welcoming neighborhood of New York. It seems like a gift from a God I can't say I ever believed in.
Hey buddy, now that I know you're up there, I'm gonna start doing what I can for you too.
Everyday when I get off of work I go walking around th neighborhood looking for bars and places to get coffee and little French restaurants and Italian places to get pizza and I look close at all the buildings and neon signs and everyday I walk past the Blue Note and I think of Miles Davis.
Motherfucker, when I die hundred of years from now, I want you to bury me in Greenwich Village.







