"Here you go, primo, another cold one. Damn, you're drinking one to my three, you goin' Jesus on me, or what? You're the one on vacation, and I'm drivin' tonight. So loosen up and get with the program."

"Nah, man. just doctor's orders. Besides, I hardly drink any more, just on special occasions. Like when I go out, which isn't all that often any more."

"I know what your problem is, man, I've been checking you out the whole time you've been here, you ain't your usual self any more, it's like you got a case of the ass."

"I'm just worn out, man. Used up, wasted, blown out on the trail. I'm really tired."

"C'mon man, don't give me none of that bullshit bourgeois midlife crisis crap. Anomie my ass. Well, I know you had some problems at work. but you said they're more or less straightened out now, right?. Your health ok? How you getting along with the old lady?

"Fine, fine, everything's ok. I guess I'm just tired of the same old shit. It probably happens to everybody around my age, reassessing your life kind of thing, right? Agonizing reappraisal."

"Oh, I know what YOUR problem is, man, you got yourself a case of the BLACK ASS! Lighten up, will ya? The world is a beautiful place, remember, you taught me that. Just look at that barmaid's righteous butt, is that not a thing of beauty?"

"She ain't doin' me no damn good."

"You know what I mean. What about your friends?"

I don't have too many any more, cuz. I've been moving around too much, never staying anyplace long enough to put down proper roots, always 'lookin' out for my woman, reachin' out for my dollar".

"Yeah, I wondered about you. Always on the move. Up the line. I been in this town all my life, I still know guys I ran around with in high school, guys from the job, the union, even the Reserves; my family and my old lady's, too. I got my tribe!"

"Well, I gave that up, man. I'm so far up the line I can't find my way back. Most of the family's gone, and my friends are all scattered to hell and gone."

"You get along with your old lady's people?"

Yeah, they're sweethearts, and they love my young ass to death. But they're all up north, and I don't really have that much in common with them. They're all Pittsburgh Polacks. OK people, all right, but they're like aliens to me."

"What about those people you took me to visit yesterday, Bill and Nadine? They really love ya, man, I could tell, they were so happy to see you, it was like you had never left town. And they are really together people too. I really got into them. When we were in school together you had a posse like that around you all the time, you had a fuckin' tribe, dude, remember, the North Tampa Web."

"That was a long time ago."

Yeah, I can dig it. But you never had any kids, either. That would have helped, I really get into mine, and the grandkids, too. But you were never into that family scene, were you?"

"Nope. That never would have worked out for me. Can't stand the little buggers."

"Damn! Worst case of the black ass I have EVER seen!"

"Fuck you, man."

"C'mon cousin. Finish up your brew and let's hit the road. I gotta go teach my class tomorrow and I want you alert so you can properly critique my consciousness-raising among the masses."

"The masses can take care of themselves, man. I got problems of my own."

"It's my job, man. It's what I do. I take it seriously and I'm good at it. And you need to get yourself a tribe. A man alone ain't doing himself or no one else any damn good."