Thoughts of a Common Man

It’s the parade that I always think about on Memorial Day.  I’m from a small town and I knew my friend’s parents.  Most of them were friends with my Dad and Mom so we saw them all in social situations where they were all having fun and laughing. I recall the laughter and the beers. But on Memorial Day, a lot of those Dads weren’t laughing. They had serious looks on their faces as they marched in full uniform and saluted the townspeople. They were just regular guys… …but they’d fought in wars. That’s a lot for a kid to comprehend. Also, as a kid there was a whole lot of talk about Viet Nam being an unnecessary war. We heard the stories about men and women coming back and being treated poorly by people who didn’t go and didn’t believe in the conflict. The soldiers didn’t deserve the scorn. As an adult, I’ve been to Westpoint a few times.  I’ve known plenty of veterans. I certainly respect the dedication but have also been saddened by the treatment that returning vets have r...

I rarely take days off which is detrimental to my mental health so a week or so we schemed a Friday for golf. Unfortunately we chose this past Friday. Instead of teeing off, I jumped in the car to grab a few things from the grocery store. The windshield wipers were on full blast and the temp read 39. Thirty-*****ng-nine-degrees on May 28th! I got under a blanket and we watched a few hours of Modern Family as I answered work calls. Wasn’t a whole lot better on Saturday. And there’s not a whole lot anyone can do about it. “It is what it is.” (Which is my least favorite saying). But Memorial Day Weekend as a kid was my all-time holiday. We always planted the garden on Memorial Day weekend. Then it was on! Beers and a campfire. Basketball games, cookouts. A few more beers. Can’t do that in 39-degree weather. But I tried to salvage a little bit. June the 2 is coming up and I’ll be on the road… …and I caught myself thinking of Uncle Jim… …so, yeah, I grabbed a whole bunch of pork chops and I...

Beautiful It’s the word that entered my mind at least 100 times as I attended the wedding of my Goddaughter Hannah and the very lovely, Mike. First off, getting dressed for the night out was odd. “Been awhile since I had these clothes out.” Everything fit nicely because I’ve actually lost weight since the start of Covid. The hall was set up beautifully. The ceremony was beautiful.  The bride was beyond beautiful and I felt a twinge of pure amazement because I remembered the baptismal ceremony all those years ago. Hannah is the youngest child of my dear, dear friends, Kathy and Jeff. I spoke a long while with Jeff’s Mom. I gazed a long while at Jeff & Kathy’s beautiful grandchildren. I stood and spoke for a moment before giving the blessing, and while I was up there with the microphone in my hand I thought about the quick toast I had done at Jeff & Kathy’s wedding some 35 years before. What a wonderful life of beautiful love they’ve all built. An amazing family. But there wa...

The natural thing to do is to make fun of the Friends show and the reunion show they just did. I usually hate something that EVERYONE loves but I never had a problem with Friends. I enjoyed the show when it was on, and I have caught plenty of reruns throughout the years. The characters were great and the joke-writing was terrific throughout the length of the show. As for the reunion show… …I smiled through a lot of it. How could I not? I was young too back when it started in 1994. As I sat there, with an aching back, I longed for the 30-year-old me who enjoyed those shows. It’s certainly difficult to see the actors aged, but that is life, right? The women in that show were the desire of every man back then - just beautiful people. They all still look good, but their faces are a little droopy now. I don’t speak of the sex appeal of the guys, but Joey was a truly funny character and I’ve always liked Matt LeBlanc as a comedy actor. I didn’t miss any episodes back when it aired and I’ve c...

A great question was posed by Governor Newsom of California following the mass shooting yesterday in San Jose. I listened to it all a little more closely because I lived and worked in San Jose for about 8 months back in the late 80’s. It was a pretty cool place even back then. Of course I was initially appalled by the news, but I was shrugging it off a little while later. Why get all worked up over it? It’s going to play out elsewhere in a couple of weeks. Just pray it isn’t in your town. Don’t listen to the usual banter. It’s the same thing over and over. The leaders praise the response. A few people mention that they’re heartbroken. Idiot Senators, who have the power to help, send out ‘thoughts and prayers’ and then it all goes away. “Rinse and repeat,” Newsom mentioned just before he uttered the question of the decade: “What the hell is wrong with us?” It doesn’t happen elsewhere. All other nations have mentally ill people and violent video games. They have every societal issue as w...

LeBron James is a truly polarizing figure. He’s an unbelievable basketball player, of course, and a hard-working, dedicated man. He has also stood up and has been socially responsible. A miss-step here or there, but his heart is usually in the right place. But lately I’ve tried to understand him a little. More specifically, I have tried to figure out the flopping around he does on the court. He’s definitely one of the strongest athletes in any sport but he has truly suffered some unbelievable damage on his way to the hoop. (At least that’s how he reacts). Before the Suns series started Dan Patrick and his crew were discussing it. They talked about a bet - the over/under on LeBron writhing around on the floor as he faked an injury. They settled on 3 - in the seven game series. He rolled around once in game one. He had barely been touched. I don’t get it!!! He’s won four titles and is one of the greatest ever. He is a billionaire!! People idolize him and Cleveland loves him. Miami loves ...

It’s pretty confusing out there, huh? I headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things and while I had my mask around my neck, I stopped and read the sign at the entrance. If you’re fully vaccinated - no mask required. If you are not vaccinated - masks are required. “Huh.” Felt weird, first of all to not pull up my mask although I did when someone with a mask (there were a few) got close. And man, if there’s one thing I’ve hated about all of this (and there’s way more than one) is that everyone is a brilliant epidemiologist. “Masks don’t do anything anyway.” “The mask is worse for you!” “Fauci and Gates have a master plan and if you don’t see that you’re an idiot!” The majority of the people at the store didn’t have masks on. The cynic in me (and he’s grown in the last 10 years) believes that some people without masks aren’t actually vaccinated. Which makes this confusing. Can the variants eventually cause a problem? Are we actually out of it? A young woman was at the meat counter...

Phil Mickelson won the PGA major at 50 years old. I was never a huge fan of Lefty. I don’t know why. I just never truly pulled for him. Until after the Yankees game on Saturday when I flipped it on and watched a few holes. Thought about a 50-year old golfer battling all those kids. He looked a little like he was going to fade on the last few holes.  I’ve been there. Your body gets fatigued and you start pulling up. Or the concentration slips for a little while. Now, I can’t even imagine playing golf at such a level. There’s no way I wouldn’t chunk it 30 yards with all those people standing there. And the courses they play! My God!! Driving it over water with woods and sand traps and every damn other thing surrounding you. Forget about it. But man, it felt good to see an old guy win one. A few of us were sending texts as the round played on. Mickelson hit a 198-yard six-iron to within 6’ of the cup. “I hit mine 160-165,” I wrote. “But nowhere near the cup,” a buddy answered. It was ...

I love the sound of a train whistle in the distance. Or the sound of an airplane as it travels above. I think of the people onboard going somewhere.  Doing important things. Yet the sound in the distance that I hate more than anything else are sirens. Last week we were on the golf course when all hell broke loose. “Something is burning,” someone said. I hoped that was all it was. People usually get out in time in a fire. I was imagining a bad car wreck. Lives torn to pieces. The worst kind of sound, and I do realize that sometimes there’s a bit of overkill involved. I once had a fender-bender and cops, ambulances and all sorts of emergency vehicles showed up. I bring it all up because Saturday nights are the worst. Maybe it’s about being a Dad but I hear all sorts of sirens on Saturday nights. My kids go out from time to time and now… …30-some years later I get why my Dad would say: “Why don’t you stay here?” Even after I was married with kids Dad would call up and ask me over for ...

It’s a simple word that has destroyed so many lives. Cancer. And we have bike rides, 5-k events, concerts, congressional hearings, and pleas for help. For awareness. We are aware! Why haven’t we ever arrived at a cure? It’s a money-maker to be sure. Angers me to no end when I see someone on social media begging for money to pay for medical treatment. I can’t even recall all the people who’ve been lost to cancer in my life. Men and women of all ages. Too damn soon. Way too painful to even comprehend. And life is absolutely incomprehensible when a child is lost to cancer. There’s not a single thing that can be said to offer comfort. Because we don’t have the mental capacity to grasp what is supposed to be some divine plan. I can’t even look at the commercials for St. Jude. I recall every minute of my son’s health difficulties in the early part of his life. We got the miracle we were counting on, but one of the things that stuck with me all of these years were the other children that we m...

Back when I was in college it was all about music videos. I know right where I was when Springsteen’s ‘I’m On Fire’ dropped. I know that I was in the living room of my townhouse and that George, Gorf and Fluff were sitting right there.  (May have been beer involved). We cheered when Mark Goodman said, “Let’s see that again.” The videos for ‘Thriller’ and ‘We Are the World’ were momentous events. A video vixen from a Whitesnake video recently passed away at 59 years old. We all watched that video very closely. And I have to be honest… …I miss the videos era.  Back then the song wasn’t really out until you saw the video. Bruce did a few where he was an actor. The Cars had all kinds of computer graphics. All the hair band guys would jump and lip-sync poorly. I also remember that Billy Squier was a huge star and he made such a horrible video for ‘Everybody Wants Me’ that he quickly fell out of favor. I bring this all up because I watched a video by The Traveling Wilburys and my he...

The House actually passed the bill to investigate the violent insurrection on January 6th. Who knows if the Senate will follow. Moscow Mitch has already made his intentions known. He doesn’t want an investigation because… …well, he had same lame reasons, but it comes down to not finding people of his party guilty. “We know what happened!” I yelled to the interior of my car. And if that were McConnell’s statement that would be understandable, but it appears to me that a bunch of people don’t want any sort of oversight. Because they did it! When I was in college a progressive professor asked us to grade our own essays. I wrote a big fat ‘A’ in the right corner. “Why did you give yourself an ‘A’?” He asked. “Because I didn’t want a ‘B’,” I said. All of the politics involved in that horrible day is downright disgusting. People were badly injured. Others were killed. We watch the speeches that incited the violence. The insurrection was filmed! It was an attack on America, by Americans that ...

We learned about the honor system when we were young… …around Halloween, right? A neighbor would leave a bowl out that would ask kids to take one. The bowl was always empty. I wonder about the farm stands where the vegetables sit out with a locked cash box sitting empty. I heard about the honor system yesterday in regard to mask-wearing or not when talking vaccines. I’m skeptical. Those who never wanted to wear a mask are the ones who won’t get vaccinated.  They aren’t going to don a mask now! And it’s weird. Mask mandates are being lifted. Only 40% of the country is fully vaccinated. I think we’re around 50% here in New York State. But enough about Covid. I’m talking the honor system. I’m skeptical. Played in a golf tourney years ago. The prize for closest to the pin was a new set of clubs.  Good ones! I put my ball less than 6’ from the hole, and I was in the second to last group. I watched the first two guys in the last group tee off and miss the green. Felt really great ab...

I saw a Dateline the other day. The woman who was featured in it was a good-looking 50-something woman.  When the decades old crime occurred she was a stunning 20-something woman. Seeing her age from picture to picture was a little weird. Then there was a commercial with Brooke Shields. When I think of her I picture 30-year-old Brooke. She has wrinkles now. On Sunday I golfed with my old friend Bob. I’ve known him for more than 20 years and golfed with him a few times. He was talking about hitting from the senior tees and he was worried about getting it to the fairway on the longest of holes. It kind of depressed me, and I knew it shouldn’t!  I want to play golf into my 70’s, but over the last few years I’ve actually hit the ball further than I did when I was 18 years old. Just better technique. Still, I’m going to go the other way and probably within the next ten years! Brought me down a little. I definitely need to ice after a round now…here at 56 years old…and my first hour...

  I was sweating. Felt good to sweat. We have scrambled a little for a 4th as our buddy, Scott, has decided to milk his health scare (kidding!) but we got lucky this week as Bob - a retired OSHA compliance officer joined us. He birdied the 2nd hole with a tremendous 3rd shot from about 175 out. I was happy for him. We all celebrate each other’s success and that is demonstrated in the picture of me on the green. That was hole 3 where my 2nd shot from about 180 out landed there - and I made the putt! JC suggested the photo because he was happy with my shot! So, Bob and I caught ⚡️ lightning on back-to-back holes. Pops had a couple of big swings, using my driver, after I had big drives (he drove it past me both times) and we coaxed each other into par on consecutive holes. There were some bad shots too (of course) but I saw the smile on JC’s face when he made a long putt on 17 to par it. Makes it worth it. The sun was shining. Two dogs at the turn. Enjoy your life!

It seems as though we are on the road to full recovery. I’ve still seen masks on most every face in grocery stores, at banks, etc., but vaccinated people can now leave them off in most other circumstances. We are on an honor system of sorts as those who aren’t vaccinated are supposed to still protect others. That’s kind of funny. I’m thinking that those who won’t wear a mask may also lie about their vaccination status. What can you do? I still have a mask and will have one with me for quite awhile, but I’ve noticed some differences as the pandemic hits the home stretch. People’s attitudes have changed. There was a lot of thankfulness for essential employees at the start of Covid but as the pay level lingers below the poverty line some of those workers aren’t enthusiastic about heading back out there. Others have figured out that making money for rich people isn’t quite as important as they believed it was. Still others have re-assessed their life goals. Maybe they lost someone close to...

It’s the 12th anniversary of one of the most consequential nights of my life. I was still in a fog just a couple of months after losing my brother.  All I recall about those days was a profound sadness that truly still has not disappeared, but on May 14, 2009 I was in Albany for work. I ended up getting roped into visiting one more job and it was nearly four in the afternoon when I called home. “I can’t drive all the way home,” I said. “I’m tired. Maybe I’ll drive to Syracuse and do the rest of the drive in the morning.” “Why don’t you stay in Albany and go see Bruce?” Kathy said. “He’s in Albany tonight.” “What?”  I’d been in such a mental fog that I had zero idea. Twenty minutes later, I had a ticket in a section close to the stage. But there was a huge problem.  I couldn’t go in!  I was too grief-stricken to see Springsteen without Jeff beside me. I sat in the parking lot as the clock ticked closer to show time. The phone rang. My old friend, Duke.  Just chec...

Gleyber Torres, the shortstop of the Yankees, has Covid for the second time. Shortly after he’d been vaccinated. Which is a tad disconcerting because I think that people that are vaccinated thought they would be home free. The Gleyber news also comes on a day when the CDC said that vaccinated people don’t need to wear masks outdoors (obviously) or now even indoors in small groups with other vaccinated people. I still have my mask. I don’t wear it much more than when I’m in a grocery store at this point. We’re almost there, but I had a group with 36 students. I asked who was vaccinated. Four hands were raised. One was mine. So, I’m not quite sure how it ever truly goes away. Vaccinated people don’t have to wear masks. People who don’t want to get vaccinated and never wanted to wear masks… …now won’t wear them and if asked will say that they’re already vaccinated. Then people who have been vaccinated and already have had it… …will get it again? “What do you make of the new CDC rules?” Ka...

What a day. Miller got fooled by the crate. By the time he figured it out I had him in it and we were on the way to the vet. I signed him in and then grabbed the crate to deliver him for his day. He was pissed! Banged against the door and got it open. Just as the vet opened the door to the place, Miller was on the move. The woman slammed the door and waved to me.  “We got him!” She yelled and I heard my cat scream out. I took a deep breath, telling myself that he’d be fine, and I concentrated on work. “What time are you picking him up?” Kathy asked. “Bah!” I picked up his crate and brought him to the car. He squealed a hello, and all was right. I thought. I opened the crate and he stumbled out, looking a little like me after Friday night happy hour at the Malamute. He couldn’t stand up! “He’s lit!” Kathy said. So, back in the crate for another hour. “He may eat a little,” the vet had said. I put the bowl down and he promptly ate a ton of it! He also drank a gallon of water. And the...

 I knew it was going to be a problem and it presented itself with a run at my head and a wild shriek at four in the morning. Miller was worked up! And it all goes back to the decision to neuter him. A no-brainer, of course, because there are too many damn cats! But guess who suffers along with him? I don’t recall the discussion to make this my problem. “It’s the 12th at 7:30. I scheduled it as early as I could to make it easier on you.” As the kids say: WTF???? “Oh yeah, he can’t eat after midnight.” Hence, the 4:04 emergency shriek right in my ear. Currently, he’s pacing. Every two minutes he comes to let me know: “SOMEONE STOLE MY FOOD DISH!!! And it’s going to be exactly like this until 7:15 when he scratches the ever living shit out of me as I try to load him in the crate to take him to get snipped. AND THEN I GO WORK FOR 10 HOURS!! “If you need Sam to help you load him into the crate he said it is okay if you wake him up.” REALLY!!!  HOW GRACIOUS!!! Miller is HIS freaking...

Waiting for the sun to show up so that the ball starts to travel out there. It was 47 degrees when we teed-off  on Sunday, and yeah, I got out on Mother’s Day. I asked Kathy what she wanted out of Sunday and she said, “I want you to golf so you’re better mentally this coming week.” Good idea. Yet, the thing about golf… …I was absolutely infuriated on hole 12 because even though I put the ball on the green on the par 3… …I stood over an 8’ putt and promptly made it a 12’ putt because I ran it WAY FREAKING past the hole. No birdie. Missed the par putt. Mental health! I was absolutely furious! I’m pretty sure that we all lost balls in the fairway because they burrowed under the ground. Couldn’t find them! But the worst part was that the ball wasn’t going as far as it should because the air was simply heavy and there was absolutely no bounce. “How’d it go?” Kathy asked as soon as I walked in. “Ahh, gonna’ think about some of the bad shots for a week.” “Just think of the good ones.” Gre...

Seems to me that the battle lines are drawn in all circumstances. There are fights about religion, politics, sports and just about everything else that you can possibly think of. And a whole lot of people are in a constant rage. “Did you hear what they are doing?” A guy said to me. That’s always my favorite. “Who’s ‘they’?” I asked. “Liberals! They don’t want people to eat meat.” “That’s not happening,” I said. “So, try and enjoy your day.” “They’re trying to take our guns!” They aren’t.  They are trying to keep guns away from guys like the dude who broke into a party and killed six people in Colorado Springs yesterday. That’s what ‘they are trying to do. And the fights aren’t just kept to red versus blue. Your sports team cheats. Mine doesn’t. The rich has taught the middle to hate the poor. The poor hate the rich. The rich hates them all. We have black versus white and white versus black and it seems to me that no one is happy unless they’re miserable. And maybe that’s what we ne...

There’s a Chinese rocket hurtling to Earth at 18,000 miles per hour. It weighs 21 metric ton so the fact that it’s coming down is a tad troublesome. Brought to mind the old Skylab space station. I was just 14 years old when that was coming down. I was obsessed with it!  I recall reading every single newspaper story about it, and while there was little information saying that it might land in North Collins, New York I somehow became convinced that it would. America was crazed with Skylab news. There were rewards for a piece of it. I was gonna’ get it! And here’s the kicker. On the night that it was supposed to re-enter the atmosphere there was a catastrophic event on the edge of town. A fire at the chicken farm. My brother John was my roommate at the time. He woke me up at two in the morning. “Look!” I went to the window. I’d never seen such a blaze. We had a fireman’s scanner as my Dad was a volunteer fireman. “You know what that is?” I asked John as we sat head-to-head staring out...

Why do they advertise for drugs on television? Especially some of those that are about subjects that may be a tad personal? The other night I was starting my dinner as a commercial came on with a woman giving a testimonial about her problems in the bathroom. As I worked on the first forkful of pasta she mentioned that she was having problems with oily stools. What the hell is going on? And it’s not like a ten-second commercial! We get a documentary from this woman about how she also has bleeding from the rectum on occasion and her particular condition causes chronic diarrhea. “I’m trying to eat!” I yelled at the television and then I started looking for the remote that - in my house - can be anywhere at all but on the table beside the couch! (Every day is an Easter egg hunt as some members of the family search for the remote - I refuse to look!) Anywhoha… …why do drug companies advertise? Don’t doctors prescribe drugs? Are there people sitting there thinking: “You know! Come to think o...

I must admit that I was seated on the edge of my bed on Tuesday night. The Yankees and Astros were tied at 3 and the Yankees had the bases loaded with two outs & D.J. at the dish. “Let’s go!” I said to the screen. D.J. hit a slow roller that was scooped up by one of the cheaters who threw it wide of first. The dust settled and three runs scored. Big cheer went up at Camp Clifford, and not because everyone here is a Yankees fan. More so because everyone hates the Astros. For the uninitiated, the Astros cheated and won a World Series. Their tiny star, Altuve, stole an MVP because he knew which pitches were coming because other idiots on his team were banging on garbage cans to let him know when a fastball was coming because they used cameras to steal signs. Real scumbag stuff, and instead of owning up to it, they act as if they are victims. So, we all hate them. Yankees fans in the stadium spoke for all of us. They chanted, “Cheaters!” and booed loudly. They turned their backs to the...

The show Blue Bloods has a family dinner scene during each episode. It’s where the problems of the week are discussed over a roast or Chinese or Ham or Turkey. There is one big difference right there. We had pasta each week, of course. We still do around here. But there are plenty of other differences as well. Every now and again at the Blue Bloods table someone will raise their voice and Grandpa (who is insufferable) will lecture them to ‘keep it civil!’ Grandpa would’ve had a heart attack at the Fazzolari table. Corinne impaled John with a fork. John, who sat beside me, stuffed my face into my plate (for fun). At a Saturday meal we all watched Dad eat a dozen ear of Bowman’s corn. 🌽  If there was wine flowing, civil was an impossibility. On Blue Bloods everyone seems to have an assigned seat. It was the same way at our house. I sat at my mother’s right hand because it was as far away as I could get from my Dad! He and I would engage in lively debates on every subject. I smile wh...

 Caught an interview with a Texas Republican who was running for office. He didn’t win.  In fact, he got about 3% of the vote and was booed on the campaign trail because he had the nerve to say that the 2020 presidential election was fair & square. Liz Cheney, it seems, will lose her leadership role within the party because she also stated that the big lie about the election is actually… …a big lie! And of course, the 2020 election is way down on my list of things I’d like to talk about but I truly wonder about the end game. What happened to that party? They stand on absolutely nothing other than what the former guy says? He made crap up… …and they swore to it. It’s so odd. I read a tweet yesterday that said, “There are people out there who took hydroxchloroquine on the word of the former guy but won’t take the vaccine because they think it’s fake.” Meanwhile, all those who are in lockstep with the greeter at the Florida country club have all been vaccinated! Odd. I don’t ...

On Monday a story broke about a 6-year-old girl being paddled because she accidentally caused $50 in damage to a computer. In Florida, of course. The principal called the Mom in and paddled the wailing child in front of her. The Mom filmed it on her cell phone. She was afraid to intervene and stop the punishment. It’s a tad horrifying to me here in 2021, but back in 1970, I was the 6-year old being paddled. Pretty much every damn day! Back then, the nun would line us up and paddle us, making us say, “Sorry, Sister,” just so she could say, “Sorry is not enough.” I have strong feelings about it. I never hit my own children. I certainly don’t want someone else doing it. I also feel that you can reach and teach children through other means. Think about what getting hit teaches a child. 1). Violence is the answer. 2). You’re worthless. 3). Humiliation  I distinctly recall some of those ‘spankings’. The nun actually broke the paddle on a classmate when I was in 2nd grade. A few of us wer...

I’m not quite sure when political parties became rooting interests like following a sports team. It may have been happening when I was a kid, but I don’t think so. I don’t recall my parents all worked up in a lather over what the republicans or democrats were doing. Yeah, a little here or there to be sure, but to the point when they can’t stand a fellow American? I sure as heck don’t ever recall dressing out your truck with the name of a politician. That’s so weird to me. Anyway, with all the disinformation and half-truths out there I think it’s time that we all... ...shut the hell up! I know I’ve been tired of it for years. I learned long ago that I’m not going to persuade anyone, no matter how much truth I have on my side. Because lies carry just as much weight! I’ve heard about pedophile rings being run out of pizza shops, first-ladies being called men who had sex changes, and other blatant lies being spit as truths. Most people are poorly informed and there are way too many shows o...

We watched the new Michael B. Jordan flick. There was a lot of action and he is really jacked. He had his shirt off early on and I waited for it to be said. “Looks like you,” Kathy said. “Exactly.” There was a massive gunfight in an early scene and Creed would’ve died right there but the bad guy’s gun jammed. “That was fortunate,” I remarked. The next scene was a battle with fists and Michael B. took on 4 guys. He took a number of punches himself and a kick to the head, but he escaped the scene by hurtling himself through a skylight and fell 20’ to the concrete below. He got up and ran. “I’ve seen the results of 20’ falls,” I said. “No one gets up and runs.” “Even men in the kind of shape like you and him?” Kathy asked. “I’d even have trouble with that one,” I mentioned. There was another gunfight and three more fist fights. He even threw a grenade that killed everyone else before he escaped the building, jumped in a vehicle and drove away. “He was limping,” Kathy said. “Wimp,” I chide...

 “Monday when the foreman calls time I’ve already got Friday on my mind.” I’ve been singing that line every week since Bruce released ‘Out in the Street’ back in 1980. Seems it takes a month for Friday to get here these days, and for the first time in my working career, I’ve been trying to pick spots where I get a little bit of rest each week. I make my own schedule so I’ve tried to pick a day a week where I don’t leave for work until like 7:30. That’s late! Thursday was a day when I left the house at around 5:30 so Friday was the perfect day to stay in bed a little longer. One problem: Miller! Unfortunately, he’s already indoctrinated so he wasn’t in on my little plan. Bastard had me up before six. So, I left way earlier than I wanted to. The first guy I saw brought it up. “How’s it going?” I asked. “It’s Friday.” “About damn time.” And ever since Covid hit I’ve wondered what the hell I’ve done in spending so many hours at  work. Last March, I made a conscious decision to slo...