Thoughts of a Common Man

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...

I started listening to Howard Stern back in the 1980’s. I was listening to Bruce in the mid-70’s. So, yesterday was a huge day for me. Bruce had finally agreed to an interview with Howard Stern, and I honestly never thought it would happen because for years there, Howard bashed Bruce for reasons unknown. That all changed once Howard actually listened to what Bruce has spent his life saying. Howard went to the shows on Broadway and absolutely raved about it, and then just did a deep dive in Bruce’s entire catalog of songs. Bruce was relaxed, and spoke openly about his wife and kids and how he writes… …which was infinitely fascinating to me. He spoke of his visits to therapists, his Mom and Dad and how his wife and kids and sisters keep him humble. And it struck me that both guys are filthy rich and reached the very top of of the mountain in their fields… …and yet they made it all the way there with perseverance and talent and all of the emotional baggage that every human being owns. Wha...