Author Archives: A garrett renter on Welbeck St.

I could have guessed that I would have to wear a mask, even for simple everyday transactions (picking up paychecks, buying coffee, buying groceries, chit-chatting with the boss’s secretary, securing another quart of bourbon, the usual stuff). I would not have guessed that my own personal sense of the fall of the empire would comeContinue reading “So this is how the end times arrive”

A George Floyd protest rally is occurring two blocks from my house. It is 1:30 a.m., the ghettobirds are circling, “fireworks” are being detonated, I can’t sleep, and what am I doing to calm my nerves? Watching it be live-streamed on my computer while I blog. This world is bizarre for many reasons, but surelyContinue reading “Mediated r(e)all(t)y”

Everything I’m about to say has, of course, already been said. By someone more or less articulate than I. Quite apart from the malfeasance, the naked corruption of the current administration, quite apart from all the attendant death and pain they have brought about through their depraved stupidity, quite apart from all that what IContinue reading “The brutality of Corona time”

I have an appointment with a coin dealer tomorrow, to appraise (and very possibly, liquidate) the coins that have been bequeathed me by my grandparents. Let us leave aside for the moment the fact that my parents have been paying rent on four(!) safe deposit boxes for…well, let’s just say the better part of aContinue reading “The line between sentiment and neuroticism is neither bright nor sharp”

So I deaccessioned the first installment of my grandmother’s coin collection today. This installment consisted of a red toolbox filled to the brim with quarters. Forty-eight rolls of quarters (various statehood commemoratives), plus several dozen little Ziploc bags. Three thousand quarters, plus a few Susan B. Anthonys, several Sacagaweas, and four rolls of nickels. That’sContinue reading “Liquidating patriotism”

My neighbor, being a neighborly sort of fellow, decided to DJ this afternoon (a Saturday), not just for his daughter’s 11th birthday, but really for the delectation of the entire neighborhood. He held a dance party. His daughter’s cousins won. I went over to thank him for his neighborliness. It striking me that (a) hostingContinue reading “Week 7 on Corona time”

Week six, so my spouse tells me, is when quarantine really starts to grind. When people realize that they’re not actually going to get a decent haircut, and so just need to break out the YouTube videos and the scissors, or the electric razor. When they start scrabbling at the windows. When all the resolutionsContinue reading “Week #6”

Lost 10 pounds.  Because walking to work and eating salads every day is gonna turn me into a fuckin’ sandwich brigade girl. Found a new favorite dry vermouth.  As a gift from my dearest, longest-term friend. Drank my way through every decent rose there is on the market.  Why are two of these items alcohol-related?Continue reading “What I did on Corona time.”