And honey believe me, I'd sure like to call you my girlfriend

Heard Pearl Jam on the radio today, can't remember the name of the song - something from their middle period - and I had the same reaction I usually get when I hear them: Yawn. It shouldn't be that way, especially considering their bread and butter is energy, at least as concerns their live shows, but I'm here to tell you that pretty much anything they've done after their debut I find to be pretty lukewarm. I may be in the minority with this assessment, but I can't change the way I feel. What should happen is Eddie Vedder should join The Who. The guy does Daltrey better than Daltrey.

A guy came by to check out the apartment last night. Nice guy; we clicked. Turns out he used to live next door back when Bob TV was taking his sweet time moving out of our place (see earlier posts for more details; will be worth your while) and got to live with him for a week or two when Bob TV crashed on their couch. "Don't be like Bob and we'll have no quarrel", I should have told him. I guess, in a more indirect way, I probably did. That Bob TV was a pip, he was.

By week's end, we're hoping to decide on a new roommate. We're looking forward to the change and so is Rich, I think. The guy needs a change of scenery, to be sure.

No one's coming by tonight. I'll be taking advantage of the free time by watching some Mad Men and maybe some of the Celtics preseason game. I want to do some reading, too. Haven't done much lately and I miss it.

While waiting for my number to be called at the Registry of Deeds in Cambridge this afternoon, the guy sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder and asked me about my phone. I already had a private grievance against this guy because he was in line ahead of me at the security check at the entrance of the building and took forever emptying his pockets of change, keys, more change, and a bunch of other stuff. The security guard looked about ready to scream "Dude, you know you're going through a metal detector - leave some of this shit behind, son!"

Anyway, I tell him about my phone, disabusing him of the notion that it was a Blackberry. "Nothing of the sort", I told him. "Pretty basic." I wasn't in the mood for a chat, but I didn't want to be rude, so I tried to mask my annoyance when he kept talking to me. When someone he knew would walk by, he'd call them over and break into a diatribe about his kid's education or some shit. He obviously couldn't detect or didn't care to acknowledge the body language of his victims, because the second he'd pause for breath, they'd start walking away, only to be called back.

The thing is, this guy seemed pretty nice. If he died today, I bet everyone who knew him would comment on how affable and sweet he was, and they'd probably be right. While alive, though, I bet these same people find him annoying and avoid him like the plague. And they probably feel kind of bad about, like I would, but some people, and I suspect this applies to him, have no off switch. Bob TV had no off switch. He'd go on and on and on.

Speaking of going on and on and on, I'm in danger of doing that very thing, so I'm out of here.

Cheers!