Well, dear readers, these here notes were hacked yesterday. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, we were hacked and cracked and unfortunately it lasted for hours before they finally said, hit the road, hack, and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more, no more. They now have a new guy assigned to get us moved to a new server with top security – it’s complicated for various reasons, but they’ll take the discussion board off-line for two hours in the coming days, merge it with the rest of our stuff, and then begin the moving process. If you missed the notes yesterday, you can read them by going to the column archives. And now, I am sitting here like so much fish, having had a weird yesterday due to the attack of the hack, not the day I really expected to have. I got about seven hours of sleep, got up at eleven, ordered food, found out about the hack and contacted our host, then food arrived. I’d ordered in advance from a new hot dog jernt called Pearl’s Red Hots. Ever since the death of our beloved Oaks of Sherman’s The Wiener Factory, THE best hot dogs ever, it’s been a tough slog, hot dog-wise, with only Pink’s coming close and Pink’s is so far away that it doesn’t travel all that well. Pearl’s is in Studio City and travels just fine. I went to Yelp and read the reviews – mostly four and five stars, with one idiotic and probably BS one-star review, and one two-star review, equally idiotic. Anyway, I decided to take a chance and I got two dogs – The Pearl, which is a chili, cheese, and onion dog, only I didn’t notice the cheese was an extra, and a BYOD (build your own dog) which I built with just mustard and onions. I began with the mustard and onion dog, and I must say it was perfect and right up there with the Wiener Factory. It comes on a poppy seed bun, which I gather is a Chicago thing, but the bun was also perfect. Then I moved onto the chili dog and it, too, was perfect. I just ordered the same thing for today, but with cheese on the chili dog. Prices are pretty much what they are at Carny’s and Pink’s – the chili dog’s ten bucks and the mustard an onion is eight. Anyway, I was a happy me about the food, and an unhappy me that it was taking so long to fix the damn hack.
Then I spent quite a bit of time futzing and finessing the thirteen pages I’d written, then I wrote only two or three paragraphs because my mind was on the hack and I had plenty of time to write new pages. I dozed off for a bit, then the site finally was back, I wrote four more new pages, took a two-hour nap in my bed, then got up and began writing again. I ordered a burger for the evening repast, that came and I ate it, then wrote more pages – I’ve done nine so far and will definitely do two or three more for bed and then I’m in a sequence that will probably run seven or eight pages and where I know exactly what’s going on. But before I began these here notes, I did pass what I believe will be the halfway point of the book.
Today, I’ll be up by ten or eleven, I’ll futz and finesse, I’ll eat more hot dogs, I’ll write new pages, I’ll go to the mail place briefly, come home, write more pages, take a few breaks, write, then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow will be the birthday lunch for Cindy Pearl at noon o’clock, then as much writing as I can get done, then we resume performances of The Altruist. Not sure if I’ll attend all three performances but have to be there for the talkback on Sunday. We shall see.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten or eleven, futz and finesse, eat, write new pages, go to the mail place briefly, come home, write more pages, take some breaks, write, then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: Favorite hot dogs. What was your first? What condiments do you like on your dogs? What’s the best? The worst? Or should that be the wurst? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, happy that we told the evil cretins to hit the road hack and don’t you come back.