Thoughts of a Common Man

Those of us who believed that the world would stop being weird in 2022 were sadly mistaken. There were investigations and more crimes exposed and yet no one was arrested. Snow destroyed our community this last month. The blue versus red divide has grown larger. Covid is still hanging around, but now we don’t talk about it. Corporate greed…disguised as inflation…ruled the day. I rang up a carton of eggs the other day and gasped. More chaos. There seems to be a lot of death (but maybe that’s just me getting older and hearing about more of them). I didn’t break 80 this year. Lowest round was 83. Pops beat that with an 82. He got an eagle. I didn’t. But we played a LOT and I was pretty consistent all year. Didn’t release a book. Probably will in 2023. There’s a lot to look forward to… …I suppose. The Bills have a shot. Yankees are always in play. Bruce is on tour this year and may release a 5-record box set. And it seems like some of the lies are being exposed. Maybe 2023 will be the year ...

Southwest received a $7 billion taxpayer bailout. Southwest paid $428 million in taxpayer dividends to their wealthy stockholders. We all know what happened this past week. They canceled almost every single flight, losing everyone’s luggage, and stranding thousands and thousands of people in airports all over the country. On Christmas. I’m sure that they were announcing: “We’re sorry about the inconvenience” every three minutes and offering people a 3 ounce bottle of water and a bag of Cheeze-it’s with 4 crackers in the bag. A $7 billion buyout doesn’t go far these days. And the problem wasn’t that there weren’t pilots or flight attendants available. There were also plenty of planes. Pilots were sitting in hotel rooms, waiting to be told when they were leaving. Wasn’t weather either.  All the other airlines were taking off for all points. The problem? Their outdated software! They couldn’t figure out where to send the planes or the pilots or the luggage. When people got irate it wa...

We are still waiting on the City of Buffalo to open up.  There is still a city-wide travel ban… …a couple of days after the snow finally stopped. There’s a whole lot of blame to go around for the slowish reaction to what we all knew was coming for the better part of a week. “Piss poor preparation prevents proper performance.” On Thursday night, I went to the grocery store late. Didn’t want to chance a Friday trip, just in case the storm arrived early. It did. A lot of people got caught. So far there have been more than 35 deaths.  They found a 13-year old boy and an adult, in a snow bank. So sad. And there’s back-biting taking place. The county executive is battling the Mayor. That travel ban should’ve been posted for 6 a.m. on Friday morning. This wasn’t an ‘iffy’ storm. Speaking of travel bans, the news showed a cute little story about the Bills returning home from Chicago. They played on Saturday night. They were safe in their 5-star hotel but they wanted to see their famil...

🍿  🎥  We watched a lot of movies over this little pregnant pause. I was surprised that I liked the Top Gun II movie - I never even saw the first one and when Kathy put it on, I groaned. Tom Cruise is a tad weird. But it was good. High drama, good story, old guy does good. Movie 2 was a Jake recommendation - Whiplash - J.K. Simmonds was outstanding (won the Oscar for it) but somehow we had missed it. Strongest movie of the weekend! Laughed, cried, thoroughly entertained. Movie 3 was “The Glass Onion” and while we liked it and it kept us guessing, had good actors, some laughs… …it kind of twisted the script a little much to be considered great writing. I had an editor who once told me: “You wrote yourself into a pickle with that character, a sudden tornado is too convenient.” The script just had too many conveniences - I liked the first one better. Then there was the horror flick, “The Smile.” It was brutal! The violence was over the top, but the story was all right and had to...

I got out of my driveway and drove a half a mile up the street to an open gas station. Looks like Armageddon out there. We aren’t supposed to go out yet as the cleanup continues. What a lost Christmas season. And, of course, we are starting to hear the stories of those who lost their life to the storm. More than 25 people here in WNY. Just horrible. Heard an interview with a woman who picked her husband up from work on Friday morning, figuring they’d beat the storm home. Didn’t. They spent 9 hours trapped in their car even though they were mere feet away from a hotel! They couldn’t see it. Car got buried in a drift. I can’t even imagine the horror involved in such a situation. Nasty. “We gotta get the hell out of here,” I yelled as the snow kept falling on one of the days. They’re all running together. “Have good news,” Kathy texted from the other room. “I found 4 movies.” That is good news, I guess. Had enough.

I have a great neighbor. On Saturday morning, I looked out to see that he driveway had been cleared of snow. Twelve hours later, I looked out and saw that the driveway was jam packed with snow again. “BAH!” I said for the hundredth time in 48 hours. Heard some noise that I knew wasn’t Santa. Looked out the window to see that my driveway was being plowed again. And there was some quiet for a little while on Sunday - Ollie spent more than a few minutes out there, racing through the snow. I grabbed a shovel and went out and cleaned off the cars, and cleared snow from just behind the cars. “We’re all good,” when I returned to the couch. Halfway into Tucson King, (Stallone is good in it) Kathy yelled out: “Oh my God.” She wasn’t reacting to me. She was looking out the window. The snow was really flying. It kept going and going and going and going. “He isn’t going to clear the driveway a third time.” We didn’t hire him to plow. We didn’t even know his name.  I would change the channel, o...

Been a long time since we had a normal Christmas. Won’t have one this year either, as the wind keeps whipping and the snow keeps flying. But about 15 minutes ago I heard a truck outside - someone was plowing the end of our driveways. Merry Christmas! And it’s disappointing that we won’t be moving around much, or that we want the kids to stay where they are instead of trying to get here… …but we’ve heard the stories of people being trapped in their cars, or smashing their cars, or freezing to death. Nothing to mess with. Yet, I made some big dinners, and we played with the pets, and exchanged the presents we got in time. Let love give what it gives. Accept it. That’s it. Merry Christmas!

We haven’t had a real Christmas around here in quite awhile. 2021 - Kathy had hip surgery - we were limited. Also, Covid was still a concern. 2020 - Covid 2019 - Kathy had spine surgery. This was to be a more traditional year. Uh-yeah. We’re evidently on the verge of the mother of all storms. Last night I spent some time reading through the weather alerts. Buffalo about to get destroyed - the third huge storm in 30 days. I freaking golfed 40 days ago! And I thought a lot about Dad too, on his birthday. We were going to get together and play cards tonight, but that’s been postponed. My Dad loved when we all played cards, and we spent hours playing a game that was a little like Crazy 8’s. Dad didn’t much enjoy getting gifts. He didn’t want his kids to spend money, but we always did because his birthday was so close to Christmas - we’d feel bad and we’d all go overboard on his birthday. He’s truly missed. And I thought what he might say about the coming storm. He’d be calling all of us to...

Thought of the old Bob Dylan line as as I read about the grifter’s taxes. “Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings. Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and they make you king.” I read through the bottom line in those taxes. Tell me that it doesn’t piss you off! A self-proclaimed ‘billionaire’ who claims to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, over-values assets, doesn’t pay taxes at all!  And gets a $5 million dollar refund! One year I had my mileage totaled… …the state challenged it… …wanted log books. Wanted a mileage check from a maintenance shop on January 1 and another from December 31 so that the mileage could be verified. This dude is writing off millions to charity! Giving ‘gifts’ to his children that are clear exaggerations and there’s a note to his file that says: “We can’t audit this because it’s so preposterous that it’ll take us too long.” Just give him as much money as he wants!! There was a reason why he didn’t want anyon...

They’re talking about another storm a-coming. I saw that they’re calling it an atomic cyclone or some such crap. We can expect anywhere from 3” to 78” of snow to land between Friday and Monday. Just in time to go over the hills and through the woods for the holiday. Sounds like a good time! And Santa? “Just go to the ATM,” is the rallying cry, which kind of takes away the fun of unwrapping presents with the kids. They buy their own gifts. Just need the cash to do it. Ah well. And we’ve discussed the dinner plans. “What are you making?” Is the only help I’ve got from anyone around here. I’m envisioning another 80” of snow in the freaking driveway and trying to find a show worth binging. Only difference from three weeks ago is that there’s a tree in the living room that the cat hides behind.  Maybe I’m wrong and the meteorologists have it all screwed up. Perhaps it will be 70 and sunny and the golf course will open for a quick round on Saturday and then we can all go caroling and get...

I catch some flack around here for wanting every day to be the same. I have my routines! Yet, these next couple of weeks mess me up because I have to do weird things… …like visit people and pretend to enjoy a party. So, I’ve tried to do a few little things to take advantage of the fact that I don’t have to work quite so hard. Like sleeping a half hour longer in the morning. Or not hitting one more job before I go home. For instance, my feet were cold yesterday so I crossed the last job off the list. Ollie was happy about it. Speaking of Ollie… …he’s the only dog we’ve ever had who knows the names of all his toys. We have pinky and bunny and humpy (for obvious reasons). I just have to call out the name of the toy and he will run and get it. “Where’s pinky?” 30 seconds later, it’s in my lap. Sunday morning we ran into a little problem because bunny was locked up in Sam’s room. “Get bunny,” resulted in a trip downstairs, but he came back empty handed because Sam was still asleep. Of cours...

Man, they get worked up about soccer in other parts of the world don’t they? I watched the announcer weeping after the World Cup Game yesterday and that display of emotion came just after he screamed something for a good three minutes. I didn’t watch any of it. Even when the United States was still alive. The Sabres seem to be on an upswing now and have good young talent coming. I don’t think I’ve watched 20 minutes of hockey in the last ten years. The NBA? I’ve watched less than ten minutes of that since the turn of the century. And now football. I’ve only watched Bills games this year and not all of them.  Seems weird to me that a lot of NFL games are settled by referees. I find the injuries to the participants also wildly disgusting. That poor kid with the Jets was demolished and the doctors cleared him to return to the game. A week later, he wasn’t cleared for the next game. The Bills center left the game with a possible concussion and the news report said that “he has a histor...

I had a flashback to my youth when I saw the snowballs flying as the Dolphins got near the goal line. “That’s dumb,” I said. “Chuck Foreman.” Kathy just looked at me. “He was a running back with the Vikings,” I said. “He got hit in the eye with a snowball.” Google had the story, of course, and I was a little surprised that it happened way back in 1975, but I did recall a lot of the circumstances. The Bills were getting pummeled by a very good Vikings team. Orenthal and Foreman were battling for the touchdown and rushing crowns for the year, and Orenthal won because Foreman couldn’t finish the game. Back to last night. The announcers thought it was kind of funny that the snowballs were flying. They went to the ref they have on staff to ask about penalties and he made a joke. Then the game was held up. Of course, Bills fans went crazy believing that Dolphins fans were just whining, and comparing it to the heat from the game earlier in the year. Not the same thing. I also thought of a Yan...

For just $99 you too can own a Trump Trading Card. But wait! There’s more!! By buying a card of the 310-pound former president dressed up like a super hero, you will be entered into a sweepstakes to watch him cheat at golf. I wonder. I wonder what all the people who voted for him are thinking now. He brought the grift right to your doorstep now.  How do you feel? There are millions who will be forever embarrassed (or should be) in voting for the greatest conman that any of us have ever seen. Jimmy Carter has spent decades building homes for the homeless. The man is 97-years old and he gets up on the weekends and pounds nails. To make the world a better place. All of the former presidents and their wives have long-running charities that are designed to give back. Bush, Clinton, Obama… …and all those who came before… …loved this country. They weren’t always right. They all made major policy mistakes… …but none of them stood before you, like a carnival barker and tried to take your mo...

We were flipping through the channels as a Dateline that I hadn’t seen was about to start. Lester Holt (who is a good journalist) was doing a report from an Angola, Louisiana prison cell. The next hour of television was absolutely horrifying. Men in prison for decades for crimes committed when they were children. A 78-year-old man who committed a horrible crime when he was 16. A field filled with black men picking carrots for 2 cents a day as guards with guns at the ready… …made me think of slavery. Men with cancer, their hair falling out, on oxygen, barely able to stand being denied a compassionate release so they can die with a shred of dignity. There’s zero compassion. No thought as to rehabilitated prisoners. The 72-year old man, who served 55 years, was denied parole by a board member who said, “I think you need more time with the prison programs.” How much time does he need? And I know all the arguments against granting any sort of compassion. Not minimizing the crimes. If I were...

It’s always a bad idea to generalize when speaking about a group of people. If you’re a sports reporter it’s a really horrible idea to alienate half your readers or listeners by saying that women can’t think critically about football and are basically just cheerleaders. It’s such a bad take that it can cost you your jobs, as Jerry Sullivan, a writer around Western New York found out. When he was writing for the Buffalo News, Sully had a lot of readers. Probably more than half of them hated him because he was highly critical of the home team a lot of the time. Many of the players aren’t fans either. Just last week Sullivan told Josh Allen that the offense didn’t look like a super bowl capable offense. “Okay,” Allen responded, not taking the bait. I never disliked Sullivan - I got what he was doing - he was being anti-cheerleader for the home team. He tried his best to stir up shit by not always praising the good guys. He baited players and fans alike. I always read his column. This time...

I may have brought this up in previous December blogs, but I’m not a fan of Christmas songs. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by Bruce is the exception, of course, but man, there are so many that just make me cringe. “White Christmas” in particular makes my skin crawl and I bring it all up because I saw Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra do a rendition of it on the old Frank Sinatra Show. Bing was looking out the window, drinking a water glass of whiskey and he just started singing because a few snow flakes fluttered by. Meanwhile, Frank was puttering around in the background looking at Bing and thinking ‘WTF?’ I couldn’t take my eyes off how cheesy all of it was and the lyrics bit into me. Bing and Frank should’ve been here a few weeks ago when I had 8 freaking feet of snow on top of our vehicles. Or this freaking weekend when they’re calling for a shit ton more. Bing sang a few verses and then Frank sauntered over (he was much cooler than Bing). Frank looked out the window and Bing said, “...

A woman on Twitter posted that she called her daughter for breakfast and didn’t get a response. Went upstairs and discovered that her 11-year-old daughter had died. They are telling the poor family that it was a heart attack and a natural death. Insane. I got trapped in the comments and the heartbreak. As a parent you can’t help do the ‘For the grace of God’ - could’ve happened to any of us and it’s the most scary part of it all. Eleven years old! We’ve lost pets and that’s so horrible… …a child? And there are way too many sudden deaths related to drugs in this country - kids who don’t get a chance to live their lives. And that child will be forever eleven and perhaps they will get a real answer as to how it could happen out of the blue in such a manner, but no matter what they find out. There’s no satisfaction in any of the answers. I must admit that it’s a hard way to spend a Sunday - thinking about such heady things, but my son Sam went to the game yesterday and I must’ve asked… …fi...

Want to feel old? Monica Lewinsky is 49 years old. I was scrolling Twitter last night and there was a photo of her and a cup of coffee. Just an innocent, good photo and she was smiling brightly. A normal woman living a normal life after being used and abused as a young woman. I simply thought: “She looks great, and happy. Good for her.” Then I imagined how difficult her life must have become. As a young, ambitious woman she was dragged through the mud and used as a political weapon. Anyone having their life examined and their mistakes exposed in such a manner… …hell, how do you survive that? Then I got brave. I decided to check the comment section, and I got exactly what I expected. Nasty people just taking horrible pot shots at her in an attempt to be cruel, or funny, or something. The lowest of the low. What the hell can be gained by hammering away at a woman for a relationship that she had 25 years ago? Not to absolve anyone of anything, as Clinton certainly took great advantage of ...

Stopped by to visit with my Mom around 11:00 yesterday morning. An episode of Bonanza was just getting underway. Love me some Bonanza. It was the one where Little Joe was framed for pushing a girl off a cliff.  “He didn’t do it,” Mom said. “He’s good looking.” All the women loved Little Joe. Hoss and Ben entered the scene and it was common knowledge when we were kids that Dan Blocker - the actor who played Hoss - had died young. I mentioned it. “He’s dead?” Mom asked, forgetting. “Well, they all are now.” We watched a scene unfold and Little Joe was on a horse. “Little Joe is dead?” “Michael Landon,” I said. “Yeah. He died young too. Pancreatic cancer.” That didn’t go over so well. We watched Ben and Hoss figure out the way to get their bro out of trouble. Had some coffee and reminisced about old small town friends. Ben was able to show the sheriff who the bad guy was and the episode marched to a happy conclusion. For almost everyone. “Can’t believe Little Joe is dead,” Mom said. A...

On Thursday morning I heard the news: “Brittney Griner was being released from a Russian prison and was on the way home.” The first thought I had was: “Good.” Then I forgot about it. Checked in on social media after the work day and man, the rage! By Americans! There seems to be 3 reasons for this rage: 1). Griner knelt for the National anthem to protest a police shooting.  2). A disgraced Marine (was dishonorably discharged) remains as a Russian prisoner.  3). Griner is a black lesbian. I saw a number of photos of Whelan in his Marine uniform. No mention of the crimes he was convicted of or the court-martial. He disgraced the uniform. Whelan was also arrested with 4 passports after trying to buy a USB drive from an agent with $70K in cash. Griner had a vape pen with pot residue. Now, I don’t want any American being held on bogus charges and I’m happy if one is released. Whelan’s family was understanding of the negotiation saying that Whelan was never going to be part of such ...

I recall episode one, season one of White Lotus. “What the hell am I watching?” Was my exact question. Sometimes I feel that way during season two as well, but the show is fun. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but way too many sex scenes… …yet there are two beautiful, young Italian women in this season who are hookers at the resort. I watched the current episode before bed last night, and I woke up, startled because I had a dream about one of them. She was looking my way. The startling part was that her flirting with me was discovered by my wife and an irate Italian guy who had also noticed. I woke just before the guy punched me. And like all good dreams that end suddenly, I couldn’t get back to the story line. The attention I was getting from a 20-something, beautiful girl was gone into thin air. Guys pushing 60, hanging with 25-year old girls? Yeah. Would have to be a hooker situation. And the fact that my beautiful wife was in the dream keeping me in check? “Those girls are beautiful,...

A good buddy sent me a quote from Justin Verlander’s wife that stated that the Yankees offered more money than the Mets but that Verlander went to the Mets because he didn’t want to be on a team where fans boo a star. A horrible quote to send to a Yankees fan. Problem being: It was a fake story. I immediately knew that it was fake because I had fallen for it earlier in the day. Then, late yesterday afternoon, a seasoned baseball reporter tweeted: “Arson Judge to the Giants.” Insane. The guy’s entire job is to report factual stories. This was concerning the biggest free agent signing the richest contract ever. Millions of fans in 2 of the largest cities in the country…hanging on every word and he sends out a 5-word tweet, and spells the man’s name wrong! “Arson Judge!?” And it wasn’t true! He immediately texted out: “Sorry for jumping the gun.” Yet the damage was done. This is the world we live in. Stories are sent out, on purpose, to mislead people. That’s the true danger. There are pe...

  I heard the test chime the other night, and then smiled. Corinne & Carrie had the chance to get together. I could almost hear the laughter. My beautiful, supportive, wonderful sisters sharing laughs, a drink or two and talking about life. And today is Corinne’s birthday! Happy Birthday to my big Sis - she’s always good for a laugh, is always willing to help, and her strength in battling through anything is absolutely amazing. Corinne has done a whole lot of the heavy lifting in working with Mom over the last handful of years and that means the world to all of us. Yet whenever I think of her these days I recall the younger version - the much younger version as I scroll through the Rolodex of memories. “Remember when you slammed the door on me as we were running for the bus?” I asked. Corinne laughed, but I wasn’t sure she recalled it. “I went through the glass of the screen door,” I said, “And heard Mom yell, ‘What the hell was that?’” “You were safer running for the bus with ...

There’s been a whole lot of news on the former president. I’m not talking Jimmy Carter building homes for the homeless either. Let’s recap: 1). A special counselor has been appointed to sift through evidence related to stealing classified documents. 2). The House has the taxes that he went to the Supreme Court to hide. 3). It was detailed yesterday that he failed to declare that he owed $19 million to a North Korea company before he ran for president.  4). He had dinner with a white nationalist and a rapper who blasted Jewish people. 5). His company is on the verge of collapse because New York State is about to declare that it’s a criminal enterprise. So, with all of this in mind: A truth social message was sent out: He declared that all rules and regulations had to be found null and void, including the constitution!  He further declared that he had to be reinstated as president. Immediately! I laughed when I saw it, but when I read about the comparisons to the Hitler game pla...

I’m not a fan of Christmas series and cartoons and movies.  Of course, as a kid we watched all those cartoons over and over. Poor Frosty. The abominable snowman who needed his teeth pulled. I watched parts of Elf a couple of weeks ago, and it didn’t seem funny anymore. Christmas Vacation was also one I liked - Chevy Chase was a big star for awhile there. And of course, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a great movie, but I can live without seeing another Christmas-themed show. The Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies are insufferable. Beautiful, brilliant girl who left the small town for the big city is forced to return to town to help her parents prepare for what might be their last Christmas.  When she comes to town she crashes her car into a truck driven by the guy she secretly loved back in high school who treated her badly. She hates him! She quickly realizes that while she grew up and became an adult, the boy she loved has been stuck in high school… …but she also finds out t...

My nephew John is always asking me to tell him stories about his Dad. Heartbreaking 💔 but we do share the stories and end up laughing.  So all good. Johnny asked me about beat sporting event I saw with Jeff. We went to Cleveland to see the Yankees and had seats behind home plate at the huge stadium on the lake. Miserable place. Guidry was pitching for the Yankees and was still in the game through 8 but Cleveland was up 3-2. The scene was Yankees down to their last strike. All the Indians fans going nuts and shouting us down because we were wearing Yankees gear. Jeff announces: “Rickey is going deep on this pitch.” He hammered it over the left field wall. Tie game. Thousands of Indians fans sitting down. The pitch after Rickey homered, Mattingly homered. Yankees win 4-3. After the game, we were milling about, walking around the stadium.  I lost Jeff!  Then I see him at a door to a room in basement area of the stadium. He’s waving me over in a hurry. I walked in the room a...

Man, I spent a lot of time playing with my baseball cards as a young boy. We had boxes and boxes of cards because my older cousins handed them down to us… …I’m talking thousands of cards from the mid-1960’s to the late 1970’s. The valuable Mickey Mantle card? We had some! Henry Aaron when he was on the verge of breaking Babe’s record? I wore those cards out. We also had a whole bunch of Gaylord Perry cards and we would tease each other because back then Gaylord was a word we threw around. We thought he had a funny, goofy name. But we also knew a lot about him because he pitched for more than 20 years and he was good! Plus he supposedly threw a spitball. Every kid that played little league back then tried to cheat like Gaylord. We put Vaseline on our uniforms and thought it would help us with the break on our curveball. Only problem was that I couldn’t throw a curveball then (couldn’t throw one now, for that matter), but we thought we were gaining an advantage. (I did pitch in little le...

Was weird having so many days off with the snowstorm and then the Holiday. I was actually looking forward to getting back out there on Monday. Made it through Wednesday and damn! I’m tired already!! We need to knock a day off the work week and add a 3rd day off each week. Has anyone suggested that? Let’s get a petition started. Last weekend a city inspector was out on the job for the snow cleanup. I knew the man professionally for 30 years… …as a city inspector, he was tough! But through the years, I learned to get along with him as we were both inspecting sites to make sure they were safe.  We sometimes did that from opposite sides of the equation. During the snow cleanup the inspector ended up in the wrong place, at the wrong time. The worst possible thing happened as he was struck by a large piece of equipment and tragically lost his life. Sixty-seven years old… …he was still out there working. He should’ve been home watching reruns of ‘Modern Family.’ And it made me think… …are...

I’m not complaining that I can walk across the driveway without touching snow… …I’m just pretty amazed by that fact. There was a whole lot of snow there! And of course, the snow and how we all dug out was the main topic of conversation on the job sites. Everyone had a story and they were all about the same: “I had no idea how I was going to clear it!” And that’s the thing about life, I suppose… …just keeps moving forward.  “Maybe that’ll be the one and only storm of the year,” one guy said.  We all laughed. But you never know, right? This grass is making me think about golf… …and Ollie has playing ball on his mind. We tried it in the snow. Didn’t work. He couldn’t leap to catch it and couldn’t find the ball when he missed.

I don’t want to see anything about him, but Elon Musk is all over Twitter… …I guess buying the medium and trying to destroy it will make that sort of thing happen. But I’ve come to a conclusion… …no matter how much money he’s amassed… …he’s a weird dude. It also seems that when you have so many billions that you have plenty of time to tweet and respond to tweets. He’s everywhere. He answered Stephen King the other day and got demolished in the process. He posted a photo of his bed side table with a bunch of empty coke cans and a gun. Great stuff during a timing when there have been a dozen mass shootings in the last two weeks. Big, tough rich guy owns a gun. And that’s the problem with allowing a man to amass such wealth - and before you say that “he earned it” - think about the people who you believe shouldn’t be paid $15 an hour for a ‘piss-ant’ job. Musk ‘earns’ about a hundred grand a minute. As for allowing those who had been banned back on Twitter - that is another disgrace. Prom...

I saw an Evangelical preacher speaking about the mass shooting in Colorado last week. The man was explaining that while he doesn’t condone violence that he isn’t sad about it. In his 5-minute rant he explained that those ‘queers’ got what they had coming to them. That guy wasn’t alone. Mainstream Republican talking heads were also ‘happy’ with the result. The father of the alleged shooter breathed a sigh of relief when he found out that his son was the shooter and not gay. Wow. It’s bad enough that there were mass shootings every day last week, now we have people - and men who claim to be prophets of God - actively cheering the deaths. I’m sitting here thinking about how to even comment on all of this. People gunned down in a social setting and then blamed for their own deaths because of their lifestyle choices. And in the name of God? The ‘pastor’ was dropping the name Jesus Christ in his rant. Must be a different Jesus Christ that I studied and read about. How does my Bible teach me ...

We have a lot of squirrels 🐿 running around here - hate them little bastards. They get into everything. We fixed the soffit so I don’t here them digging to get into my house, but every once in awhile they climb onto the power lines and then into the transformer. 💥  The power is suddenly out. Seems to happen a lot on Sunday mornings when you just want a coffee and to watch a couple of shows. “Want me to sing and dance?” Kathy asked. “Uh. No.” Of course, I had Ollie to keep me moving. We played tug of war with a Nerf toy that cost me $15 and now is simply a rope because he ripped the ball off it and stretched it to 10’ long. All inside of 3 days. Sat down.  Plugged my phone in. “Something wrong with this damn charger,” I said. “I just freaking bought it.” I looked up to Kathy laughing at me. “Power is out, genius.” Then she laughed again. “Know how I remembered that so fast?” I didn’t respond. “‘Cause I just spent 4 minutes doing the same thing.” Easy Sunday morning, I guess. ...

Kathy hasn’t been able to Black Friday shop in years. She decided that this year she would give it a shot. Cost me a fortune. She didn’t stop talking about it in the lead up to it either. But I decided to take advantage and plotted a writing day. Most of the 2023 book is down, but there’s still a lot to do. I went to the computer by 9:00 and outside of a couple of breaks, I stopped myself at 4:00. Big day off, huh? But it’s great fun, of course. And I thought about how exciting the rewrite is going to be. This is a story that is about me. Straight up. No hiding behind characters. No pretending that I didn’t do the stupid stuff that I did over and over again. And the Tracy Chapman song, ‘Telling Stories’ came on as I was writing. Of course the telling of a story is as old as time itself and I often wonder about the memories. Is it exactly how it happened or is there a writer’s embellishment on it? I’m not sure, but I mentioned the manuscript the other day and told Kathy the title. She i...

I filled my plate as I normally do - turkey (dark meat), mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans and corn. I added some gravy. The standard first dish. I usually head back up for extras of a few other things I haven’t tried and maybe a little more stuffing. Not this year! Jim knocked it out of the park again this year - everything was great and he cooked enough for 40 people. There were 10 of us there. I barely finished that first plate. Didn’t even consider dessert. There was also a point where my Mom looked at me and Jim standing side-by-side and said: “What the hell happened? You two are skinny.” After we ate there was the cleanup and Jim put some plates for us to take home. “We won’t eat all that,” I said. “You have the kids. They’ll finish it off.” “They aren’t there anymore!” I said. “Most nights it’s just the two of us, and Kathy would eat a bowl of cereal for dinner if I let her.” And Jim was feeling a bit nostalgic. “It’s sad,” he said. “Remember all the food we’d eat on Thanks...

As we all know, it’s all about the stuffing for me. And of course, I’m thankful that I’m going to get together with family and that we’re all on our feet. Last year Kathy went through the whole hip replacement fiasco and I cooked here. We didn’t see anyone. I’m thankful the snow is melting. Thankful that I’m seeing Mom for her birthday tomorrow and that I’m spending time with my children and some of my siblings. Thankful that Ollie isn’t making the trip with us for the Thanksgiving celebration and that he’ll be here when we get back so we can play. Thankful for friends out there! Stay healthy. Be happy. Eat!

As a young man, the night before Thanksgiving was a huge bar night. Do people do such things anymore? I left drinking behind about 15 years ago. It’s a young man’s game and I couldn’t deal anymore because if I had even a few beers on a Friday I’d feel cloudy until Monday. So, I won’t be going out to a bar this evening. But I have a good memory. There were two ‘night before Thanksgiving evenings’ that stood out. 1). 1985 - college break - we all packed our cars for the week-long break. My roommate George, who was heading in the opposite direction, said: “Let’s grab a beer before we head out.” “One!” I said. About 18 hours later, on Thanksgiving morning, I woke to a ringing telephone in our apartment. George answered the phone. “It’s your Mom. She’s pissed!” I made it home in time for Thanksgiving dinner, but I wasn’t real popular with Mom or Dad that year. We had more than one. A couple of years later, I headed to the bar in the small town where I grew up. Saw someone drinking a Bloody ...

Okay, spent some time in the house. Trapped by snow. One show after another. I cleaned everything. Washed some clothes. A few things I’ve had enough of: 1). People throwing up on shows.  I don’t know why it ever became a thing, but it seems that no matter what the series or the movie is we have to watch the main character throw up. 🤮  Had enough of that the first time I saw it. Seriously, watch for it…every damn show. 2). The drug episode In every season of a show there’s always a drug episode mixed in. Two characters will do edibles, or try mushrooms, or in some cases even do heroin. Then the episode goes straight to hell as we experience the convulsions, and psychedelics.  Wasted episode! 3). The skin of the parinium. I don’t even know if that’s spelled right, but the skin of the parinium is between the crotch and the anus and I know that because it’s a place where you may have a problem if you take a certain drug that THEY WANT YOU TO TRY! The side-effects of the drug...

The sun came up on Sunday morning, and I listened to the wind hammer the side of my house… …and I remembered. Buried. We caught a break yesterday in that we dropped a hundred to get someone to remove the snow from behind our vehicles, but we still had huge problems. “My goal of the day is to get the cars out tomorrow,” I said. “Won’t be easy,” my ever-supportive wife mentioned, and there was a certain amount of dread as I opened my eyes on Sunday morning. Had time passed me by? Eight years ago we were in a similar situation (we got more snow this time) and I had cleared that snow. But 8 years ago I was only 50. That was prior to hip and a couple of knee surgeries and chronic back trouble. Yet. What choice did I have? We have 3 strong sons. Only 1 lives here. He’s been down and out with the flu. “All on me,” I thought. I headed out for a long episode of snow removal. I was dressed properly. The sun was out. 40 minutes later I was back in the house. We watched an episode of Tulsa King an...

 I woke up with a fire in my belly!  I was going to clear snow, be the man of the house, and make sure that we were mobile if we had to be. Then I opened the door to that! There was more than 6’ of very heavy, packed snow. It all fell in a 24-Hour period, breaking records for snowfall all across the country. Ever! I spent 20 minutes…our two cars the big lumps there being my goal. We both left items in our vehicles and I wanted to try and get the doors open. I was breathing heavy pretty quickly. My back was killing me within 10 minutes. An unmitigated disaster! “Do a little at a time,” wasn’t going to work. “It’s good exercise,” didn’t comfort me. “I cleared out our cars,” from someone in another county who got about 4’ less than we did. I returned to the couch and we watched a show. “We’re so screwed,” I said over and over. A few hours later, I made it to our vehicles and retrieved our prized possessions. I checked out the depth of the snow behind each car. At least 5 feet! Th...

We spent a lot of the day watching television. When there is about six-feet of snow falling in a 24-hour period there isn’t a whole lot you can do about it. I’ll put in some effort today, but I’m dreading every second I’m out there. Anyway. This isn’t a snow story. Kathy likes to watch true crime shows. We catch 20/20 and 48 Hours and Dateline. Our favorites are the ones where a spouse gets murdered and they start it off by showing how blissfully happy they were at the wedding reception. “She was so beautiful and intelligent and loving and warm and perfect,” the man will say in the first ten minutes of the show. “And then I strangled her for an hour six years later,” L say. It’s about the end all and be all of it. Yet, what galls me the most about all of it aren’t the murderers (although I’m still fascinated by how they can do it)… …instead, it’s the lawyers who they interview. “My client didn’t do it. No how, no way! I have zero idea how a gallon of his blood wound up in her bathroom,...

On Thursday afternoon I called for Oliver: “You want to play ball?” My poor dog had heard so much about the coming snow that he probably (if he were able) would’ve said: “Where’s the snow?” I ran into guys on the jobs on Thursday who’d already seen the first snowfall. The announcers mentioned something about the snow arriving at 4:00. Then it was moved to 7:00. Finally, I heard that it would be an overnight event. The Sunday Bills game was moved. Job after job mentioned that Friday would be a dead day. Two feet, three feet, four feet, six feet. No one was talking about anything that we’d be able to shovel and go. So, I started talking myself into not worrying about the schedule that I’d set for myself at the start of the week. I wasn’t going to finish everything I wanted to accomplish. Not my fault. Nothing I can do. But the longer it took for the snow to arrive, the more anxious I became. I’m not quite sure how bad this will be, but we have a lot of food in the house. We have bread, m...

Wow! Wasn’t that exciting? Trump announced last night that he’s all in to “Make America Great Again Again!” Isn’t that clever? Remember how great it was when he left? We were all stuck in our homes thinking about taking horse meds or drinking bleach. There were mad men wiping crap on the walls of the Capitol. The Vice President wouldn’t get in the car they sent for him because he was afraid they were going to hang him. And all the accusations! Treason and sedition and golf trips every weekend. He stole the documents labeled top secret. That was great! Women, gays, blacks, Mexicans… …weren’t overly excited with last night’s announcement. You know who else wasn’t excited? Ivanka! She immediately released a statement that said she was out. A whole bunch of Republicans also backed away as has Rupert Murdoch. I believe that I have more of a chance to be president than he does. There was a report that he made $1.7 billion while being president. Most of why he is running is to try and avoid b...

Bah! I golfed less than 2 weeks ago! They’re talking four to six feet of snow starting today and running through Sunday. Four to six FEET! I’ll say it again: BAH!! Here is my biggest problem… …I have to explain to Ollie that ball season is over. That’s not going to go over real well, but here’s the freaking thing. I don’t want cold 🦶 feet! I don’t want 🥶 hands. I don’t want to shovel ❄️ in the driveway or 🧊 off my 🚗  I don’t want any of this 💩  Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! Bah! F****ng Bah!

There aren’t many days that Kathy gets really fired up for, but over the last couple of weeks she has mentioned: “I’m going Black Friday shopping.” Now, for me, such a day out would be akin to torture. People! Jammed everywhere. Hate that. Stores and store clerks! Hate them! Lunch in a crowded restaurant. Bah! Yet, here’s the thing: Kathy doesn’t normally even like to shop! She falls into the trappings of it all… …she gets things cause they’re on sale. And it’s like a sport to her. “Are you donating to my Black Friday shopping fund?” She asked me last night. “There’s a fund? How much are people traditionally donating?” “It’s up to the person,” she said. “We’re looking for a healthy donation from you.” I laughed. “You should do a 5k walk,” I said. “Get people to donate that way.” Black Friday. I’m looking forward to it too, though… …house to myself sort of thing. Best part about it? The boys, when asked what they want for Christmas… …yeah. Cash. The Black Friday fund is going to suffer.

The Buffalo Bills may be snake bit. I’m not breaking any news to any of the people from Western New York. Not truly interested in rehashing the wide right or the music city miracle, 13 seconds, or the 4 straight super bowl losses but when you lose a game like they did yesterday… …well it’s hard not to chuckle. They made a huge stop on 4th down to get the ball back with just 30 seconds left. I walked out of the room! I had dishes to clean up from the fettuccine and red sauce with pork ribs. (Sauce was perfect). And I heard Kathy yell: “What the f**k?” “What?” I asked. “They fumbled. Touchdown.” I didn’t laugh then.  I felt too badly for Kathy - who was truly invested - and the boys - one of which (Sam) was gifted seats at the 50 from my buddy. “Best game I’ve ever been at, and beat seats ever,” Sam texted when it looked like they were going to win. “There’s still time,” I said after the fumble, and I looked prophetic because the Bills DID force overtime. They lost the coin flip and ...

When I used to play video games I was fine if I was winning the game. If my opponent scored, or I were losing I would very often come up with an excuse or ten. “My controller is broken!” “You’re cheating!” “You’re talking too much!” That’s kind of what the week has felt like to me… …people who lost their political races are making all sorts of excuses and making a whole bunch of baseless accusations. That’s a sad deal because free and fair elections are the bedrock of our Democracy and spitting all over that… …is despicable. On Saturday morning, we stumbled upon an interview between Letterman and Obama. It was an amazing hour, especially given the political anarchy that we’ve experienced. To hear a President discuss one subject after another brilliantly and with empathy and kindness was certainly a breath of fresh air. It brought me back to a time before all the anger and rage. When all of America believed in the Democratic principles that we have always stood for. You know what was am...

It was 6:30 the other evening and it had been dark for so long that I mentioned that it felt like it was 2 in the morning. This is the first weekend, since April, that we don’t have a tee time. Ollie & I had to cancel our ball game in the yard because of rain. A puppy doesn’t understand rain delays. Check the temps for next week: 45 degrees appears to be the high end of things… …and with the late break in weather I was flabbergasted when my brother asked about Thanksgiving. “It’s less than 2 weeks away!” So, here we go! Starting the car and waiting for the windows to defrost. Dressing in layers. “What are we doing for Christmas?” And there’s a bit of chaos in the political world, no? Not sure who won either the house or the senate. The MAGA movement may be drawing to a close as perhaps Murdoch has tired of the antics. Which may lead to a blizzard of political unrest as the party grows divided. Should be fun to watch because as Trump is dismissed by some, he certainly won’t go gentl...

Today is the day! New Bruce music! And there are some Bruce fans who are dismissing it as a karaoke project but man, I’ve learned not to underestimate the Boss. I went to Saratoga Springs back in ‘06 to see Bruce and the Seeger Sessions Band - just me. Grabbed a ticket about 25 rows back and as I sat down I wondered: “Will this be any good?” Four hours later… …I was exhausted. Such a lively presentation of great music. Cut to this morning. I opened my eyes and had one thought: “Bruce!” I went to my music - the record was there - hit play and there was the familiar voice that’s entertained me for nearly 50 years. “Only the Strong Survive” Indeed. I smiled. Cause the song was awesome. As I knew it would be.

We watched a crazy movie - on Jake’s recommendation and while it was a little bizarre, it held my interest.  One of the takeaways was how the women were forced to behave under the direction of a male-dominant leader. Think 1950’s women stay at home and serve the man deal. I turned to Kathy as the woman served dinner and then did the dishes. “Women can do that?” I asked. “It’s just a movie,” she said. “It’s all make-believe.” I laughed. The thing is, we are just a generation ago from it being like that. My grandma made sure that she baked fresh bread every day. She served my grandpa his food, but she was not one to stay silent or speak when spoken to… …she was full-blooded Italian after all. Yet, I can’t even imagine how that all went down. He comes home from work to a freshly cleaned home and dinner on the table, and then rubs his feet because he worked all day. Yeah. Make believe. And there are people out there still living or expecting to live that life. I see a bit of it when I ...

The entire Elon Musk buying Twitter ordeal has been irritating at least, and aggravating at most. He’s one of the richest guys in the world, allegedly, and he wants to charge $8 for verification for people who are experts in their field. I find the entire process weird. I actually got an application to become verified a few years back, but was too impatient to even fill out the form. The entire social media deal is kinda’ weird. A whole lot of arguing between strangers.  If you mention that you like something…Bruce, pasta, the Yankees…a hundred people are waiting to tell you how stupid you are. Then a day like Election Day. A thousand people posting: “I voted!” Which leads to a brand new argument because the country is unbelievably divided. Then the rich dude floated the idea that all of Twitter may soon be behind a paywall. I’m out if it comes to that. I’ll figure out how to read news stories somewhere else. I’ve already figured out that the best thing to do is post jokes and leav...

Was walking by the basketball hoop in my driveway and I felt a pang. I used to love playing basketball. Got old. In my mind, I can still shoot it like I did as a young man. But only in my mind. The boys threw me a pass last summer and I put up a 18-footer. Airball  They laughed. As luck might have it, Pops sent me a text about a guy we used to play against… …his DAUGHTER is a big star at a division one school. That got the wheels turning. I thought about starting a game on the night 4 of us shaved our heads and ran into the gym. Our girls were in the stands and they were mad! I hit my first 5 shots that night. All bombs. The opposing coach yelled at his team: “Who’s guarding Charlie Brown?” And I laugh a lot with guys who were on those teams. I was pretty popular with the home crowd. The North Collins faithful would chant: “WE WANT FUZZY!” Coach would put me in with one instruction: “Go score! Don’t dribble!” My teammates always got me an open shot. I would hit a bomb and go sit do...

The Phillies lost the World Series to those cheaters from Houston and most of the country wasn’t fond of that outcome, but there was some good news out of the city. A Philadelphia man decided, on September 28th that he was going to eat a rotisserie chicken every day. He didn’t really have a reason for the strange idea, and he was planning on only going for 7 days, but after easily doing it for a week, he set his sights on 30 days, and then started thinking that his little stunt was good for humanity and that 40 days made more sense. That’s the poster he used to advertise his 40th and last bird to be consumed at noon at a Philly outpost. Hundreds of people showed up. I still don’t know what to even make of this story. I do grab a rotisserie chicken a week for Ollie - I started the tradition with Melky - and the dogs seem to really enjoy it. We have also grabbed a chicken here and there for dinner through the years and Sam is huge on it as the featured meat. But 40 straight days??? The g...

I’m looking forward to the day after the election so I don’t have to see any more ads. I’m 58-years old. I am well beyond ever believing that anyone is truly going to do anything to help the middle class like they promise to. Ain’t gonna’ happen. We always seem to get the stories about immigrants and crime and the other guy stealing our rights. Scare tactics. I read something the other day that showed that both voters for each party believe that if the election does awry for them… …the country will no longer be viable. That’s a huge problem when both parties believe that the other is evil personified. Yet, we should all be making the effort to vote one way or another. I asked my boys about whether or not they planned to vote. “Ain’t nobody doing nothing for me,” Sam said, with zero enthusiasm. We spoke to him about some of the things that have happened over the last 8 years and some of the rights and laws that are on the table. “They’re going to listen to me about it?” He asked.  “...

The outside temperature reading in the car flashed 74. I life in Buffalo. It’s November! Now, not that I’m bitching. We have continued to golf all the way through October and into November - with any luck the winter break will only be about 100 days. And we’ve joked about global warming.  I mentioned to my son that the planet might burst into flames during his lifetime of his children’s lifetime, but that I’d ride the golf weather for the last couple decades of my life and I’d enjoy it. “Eh,” he said. “I’d rather burn out than fade away anyway.” And each week we play the round with the idea that: “This has to be the last go-around, right?” And then we are the temps come up for the following week. 60, 65, 70, 75. Thanksgiving is a few weeks out! I’ll take it.

I have officially retired my coffee mug. For the uninitiated, that is a Buffalo Bills Super Bowl mug from their first trip to the big game. I bought it in 1990, and used it just about every single day for the past 3 decades. I packed it on trips, and bought cups at the convenience store to refill it after my first cup of the day. It moved from North Collins to Baltimore to my bachelor pad apartment to my first house and has been here at our family home since 1996. A couple of weeks ago, I was on a job and a guy leaned in to talk about the job. He saw the mug in my holder and said: “Want me to throw that in the garbage?” “That’s my mug!” I said. “Jesus, dude.” And I reluctantly am retiring it because: A). I can’t fill it enough because the coffee flows over the side. B). The coffee leaks out the bottom. Yet, it hasn’t been an easy thing by any measure because: A). I’m a tad off. B). I hate change. Now, the thing is, it was the perfect mug. I have not been able to find a mug that has tha...

Yesterday morning, I headed out into the driveway and happened to glance down to find that the rear driver’s side tire was flat. Only on the bottom, of course, but a real problem. Thankfully there is a tire shop literally around the corner so I nursed it over there and put 8 quarters in the machine to put 5 minutes worth of air into the tire. I’m well aware of the problem as I had previously spotted the screw in the tire that was causing the leak. I glanced up to see the shop light go on at 7:35.  Perfect. I explained my situation to the shop supervisor and he said: “I have good news and bad news. I have a guy available to do it first thing, but he doesn’t start until 8:00 and sometimes that start time appears to be just a suggestion to him. Sorry.” I went in the store and grabbed a coffee and did a little paperwork. At 7:50,  a young kid pulled in and parked beside me. He didn’t get out. Instead, he peered down at his phone. He was playing a game. The minutes passed slowly. A...

I don’t know what the answer can be, but despite the fact that having information at our fingertips, the lies in every story are so rampant. The Paul Pelosi story is horrific, and not just because an 82-year-old man was beaten with a hammer by an intruder. While the truth was putting on its pants, the lies were racing around the world. The essence of a lie. The Pelosi’s live in San Francisco so someone, putting the story together, said that there was a gay angle. That evolved into a story that Pelosi knew his attacker. And since it wasn’t Pelosi’s first time in a news story - there was a DWI a month or so ago… …the gay guy story and the drunk old man story grew legs. Didn’t matter that there is no truth to it. Despicable people tweeted about it - including the guy who just bought Twitter - and despite the fact that he knew it was a lie - he has a hundred million followers! The truth had zero chance! The police came out and issued a statement that contradicted all of the conspiracies th...