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 Their outdated software!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 was th

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 families for C

🍿  🎥  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 deal wit

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, or ch

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 anyone to

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 up

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 history of

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 money.

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. And I

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 a deal. I

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 cuts

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 plan… …not g

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 that he ha

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 and there was J

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 we