Thoughts of a Common Man

Jake has joined me in the construction safety world and I met him at a site yesterday morning. “Where are you?” He texted. “By the trailer,” I answered. “Talking to William.” William is a lifelong laborer in heavy road construction. He retired at 62 because: 1). He needed a new hip and 2). He had neck & spine surgery. William chatted to me about his love for the Oklahoma Sooners. A lifetime commitment that began when he was just 8 years old. As Jake joined me, William told us about his four children. All successful adults now. “I worked so many long hours. I was behind every paver on every street in the county.” Not easy work! “You gave up your body so that your kids would succeed.” William nodded. “Didn’t think I of it that way, but I was an uneducated, black man. I had nothing to give but my body and my willingness to drag my ass out of bed.” It wasn’t lost on me that Jake was standing beside me. I’ve told him time and again to respect the workers - and he has from his first time...

I was on a bus from the car rental center to the airport. The driver was way too enthusiastic for 6:30 in the morning, and luckily he was talking to a 50-something woman who was seated across from me.  He wasn’t talking to me! “Are you a Chiefs fan?” The driver asked the woman. “No,” she said. “I like the Royals, the NFL is Satanic.” I wanted to high-five the woman. “I’m a baseball fan too,” I said. “The Yankees.” She laughed. “I’d watch a tee-ball game. I played fast-pitch softball as a much younger woman and I just love the game.” “Same here,” I said. “Did you hear about the 13-year old football quarterback?” She asked. “Right here, I think.” “I didn’t,” I said, “But I can guess.” “Sorry to say, he died of a massive head injury during a game. Was dead before they even got him to the hospital. 13 years old.” I bowed my head. “And he ain’t the only one. There have been a dozen kids across the country who’ve died - some because of heat stress. Tough guy coaches. Wouldn’t let the kid...

I am not making this up. I put new tires on my vehicle in May. Four brand new tires that cost me about $900. I bought the warranty. I got a flat. Wasn’t covered. Then they made me buy two - “so they wear properly.” That happened a second time! So I had replaced all 4 tires - none of it covered by warranty. Hit something on the Thruway on August 16th. Got another new tire. Same tire!!!! Same damn - brand new tire - went flat yesterday! I hit the google - tire repair near me - three-tenths of a mile! I coaxed the car there, and as we waited for a new tire to be delivered, I had a long, long conversation with the owner. Just a solid dude. Two men who work hard every day, are the only two employees there. They had me on the way in 20 minutes, and I paid the bill and bought their lunch. No bullshit about buying two at a time - no upselling - in and out and a few laughs. I went about my day… …I’ve had my share of bad tire luck but what can you do? Stopped at the store on the way home. Put th...

It’s a trip I’ve made plenty of times. Hundreds of miles by car. Thousands of miles by air - really rolling the dice that all four flights will go well - and not to mention the work. All inside 48 hours. No big deal… …20 years ago. And that’s the thing about getting older. You think of how it used to go and it all seems doable again, but it catches up. “I’m more tired than I should be,” I mentioned as I finished my day and sat down. “How do you know how tired you should be?” Kathy asked. “Past experience.” Of course, it’s old news to cry about the seats on an airplane but how long will it be before we find out that we have to sit on some stranger’s lap? I sat in the aisle seat with two other people - the middle person was - how do you say it nicely? Portly. Two and a half hours… …same position. Unable to move an arm or a leg or even hold a book. The portly dude went to sleep. Snored inches from my ear - dude has sleep apnea for sure. Ollie gave me three minutes before he appeared with ...

When I stepped off the plane and walked the plank to the airport lobby in Wichita, I kind of gasped. Felt like I was stepping into a boiler. It was just the start of a HOT 🥵 trip. Now, I enjoy this trip because it starts in Wichita, with a stop in Topeka and then Blue Springs before settling in Kansas City. I’ve grown to know the roads and El Dorado always brings a smile because I can almost picture Hoss and Little Joe flying across the prairie. During the drive, I listen to my music as I sift through the fools gold in my mind, searching for peace. I don’t have much more to do than hit a few sites, and appreciate another part of the country. But it was 103 degrees! That’s hot!!! Walking around the sites was a sweaty proposition and then to make matters worse, one of the guys told me about an authentic Mexican joint in Topeka - I stopped by the pretty beat up place and ordered 3 small tacos. (They were $2.49 each!) And they were the best tacos I ever had! I should’ve ordered 6, but dri...

I scheduled the trip about a month ago, and dreaded it because I needed to leave on Sunday morning - which is cherished time - it’s when I swing a club. Having time to prepare had me thinking about getting everything in its right spot in a carry-on bag that my new company got for me.  It doesn’t have any holes in it! I’m retiring the Jed Clampett bag! Jed was a bag that was fairly embarrassing. I also had another bad habit - I liked to travel in the sloppiest clothes I have. I own a lot of sloppy clothes. This trip was going to be different. I packed everything - making sure to keep the things I need to grab in the same compartment. I put on a clean shirt and a new pair of dress shorts. Emptied one of my water bottles and slipped it into the holder. All set! I decided to do one more inspection, all the while wondering why I was wasting my time. As a psycho control freak, surely I was all set. Luckily I had done one more scan - I had forgotten to pack pants! The road is a battle bec...

If there is anything like a royal family here I’m sure the Kennedy’s would be in the running. JFK has had more books written and movies made about him. The photo of JFK Jr saluting as his father’s body went by is iconic. And there was so much more tragedy. Brother Robert was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. Ted had the fateful drunken drive, but spent a lifetime in politics, and of course, JFK Jr. and his family died in a horrific plane crash. There is plenty more, of course, including those who believe that JFK is going to come out of hiding and team up with the orange menace to somehow save the country. Nuts, I know, but this week Robert Kennedy Jr. made the news because he dropped his own presidential run and quickly endorsed the Republican nominee. While I read and watched plenty about the Kennedy clan through the years, I didn’t much follow this saga because the Robert Kennedy Jr. campaign seemed wildly insane to me. There was a story about a bear being left in C...

I have six bookshelves in my house. Three of them are in my bedroom, two are in my office and I had to put another in one of the rooms in the basement. They’re all pretty full, and I’ve been asked, a couple of times to at least think about doing something with them. I can’t! I have books on those shelves that I got in the 1970’s. I have every Stephen King book. All of the Pat Conroy books, almost all Steinbeck, and at least 25 John Sandford books. I have copies of an Atlanta sportswriter - Lewis Grizzard - who wrote very funny books - me and Big Al read all of those back in high school.  Grizzard died young - courtesy of a bad ticker - I feel sad when I see him on the cover of those books that I so loved. There is one cabinet that contains my favorites.  Here are the ones I can think of, off the top of my head, that are on shelf one: 1). To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - a perfect story - an important one - I can’t even fathom that it is a book that is on some of the banned...

Gus Walz is the son of the vice-presidential candidate and the kid was a crying, joyful, mess as he cheered on his Dad. An absolutely beautiful moment caught for millions to see. I knew it would go south quickly. Ann Coulter, who is a known person for some reason, and who is absolutely ridiculous, posted the photo with the caption: “And they call us weird?” Evidently, Gus has developmental issues, but that was pure joy expressed by a child who was unbelievably proud of his Dad. Coulter immediately yanked her post after the feedback was overwhelmingly negative - but the desired result of her action was achieved. The people who back vile behavior were all over the opportunity. I read hundreds of comments that referred to the young man as a ‘retard.’ A morally reprehensible situation by any measure, but man, I am sad that I expected it as soon as I saw the kid and his tears. That is what is obnoxiously sad about the state of the world these days. Instead of admiring the love between a fat...

I think that America has finally turned the corner. They’re sick of him. We’ve grown weary of the constant whining (I was done with it in 2015) and the ‘America is a shit-hole’ speech he gives at every rally. The other day he said that people can’t walk across the street to get a loaf or bread because they will be shot or raped. I’ve bought a lot of bread in the last 9 years… .:.nary a rape nor a gunshot. Immigrants are taking our jobs and migrant, roving gangs are killing us, bigly. Wouldn’t that make the news? His ear was shot off by an AR-15 but there are no marks on said ear because: “I’m a quick healer.” Sick of it. Even the most ardent of supporters has to be thinking: “This dude is nuts.” At least you’d think so. Come November 6th, we will be able to NOT see him… …unless we follow his trials.

I remember my brother John telling us that ‘someday it will all be on your phone.’ I didn’t even know what he was talking about - it was the mid-1990’s - I was still trying to figure out how to get on-line. I guess it’s exciting to have such knowledge at my fingertips, but Obama said something at the DNC last night that brought it all to the forefront. Getting lost in on-line battles has kind of created loneliness in our lives. I thought back to what a Saturday felt like at the big house on the hill. “Grandpa’s here! He brought cukes.” “Mom! The Avon lady is here.” The neighbors dropped by: “Made a pie - made you guys one too.” Seems lost. The phones make us drift away into a world of confusion? “Nobody is nice anymore,” Kathy mentioned on Saturday as we caught a tidbit of news. “There are nice people,” I said, but then I felt my blood pressure rise as I thought about the 40 or 50 beer cans dumped in the woods between the 14th and 15th hole of my favorite golf course. “Someone actually...

It’s August for f**ks sake! I put my jacket on yesterday morning. It was also still dark when I left for work… …so, this is the time of year when I start dreading that we are going to slide our way into a whole bunch of grey days. Now I’m sure that this is an aberration, and it will be nice and warm by the weekend, but I was still hit by the dread. I love the summer because I spend my days outside - there’s nothing like walking a long way on a site with the sun out. Doesn’t even feel like work because I’m walking up to people I’ve known for years and we will most likely exchange a laugh or two. Doesn’t seem quite so wonderful in the cold and snow. I started feeling crippling back pain at hole 3 on Sunday. I was having a lot of trouble walking up to the tee box as every step hurt, but it didn’t matter much as I swung the club. I putted for birdie 10 times! Out of 18 holes. I didn’t actually get a birdie… …JC did and he was pretty fired up… …but I had 9 pars on the day.  Had no busin...

It was Saturday night.  9:30 p.m. The kids out on their own. The dog at my feet, the cat beside me. Ozark (2nd watching) on the television. A blanket over our legs. Each of us in a reclined position. “I’m thinking tomato sandwich,” I said. I had hit Bowman’s stand in North Collins - nothing like fresh veggies. “Absolutely!” Kathy said. As I made the sandwiches I had a thought… …we were excited! The highlight of our weekend was now a sandwich with fresh tomatoes. “We used to go out drinking,” I said. “Now we are eating a tomato sandwich and wondering if we have time for another full episode.” Kathy laughed. We ate our sandwiches - mine was perfect. “So good,” Kathy said. Her’s  was too. I took the plates to the sink. “Big Saturday night,” I said. “This is all right too,” she said. The circle of life.

“I’m better looking than her,” that was one of the talking points of the big presidential rally on Saturday. “Our crowds are bigger than hers.” Those are the big issues set on the table before the November election. I made the mistake of responding to a Facebook post that a cult member put up. He was talking about the all-important issue of who he’d rather have now his lawn - J.D. Vance or Tim Walz. He was trying to pretend that Vance is more of an everyday sort of guy. “Will he be wearing eye liner when he mows?” I asked. It turned into the talking point of the Republican Party as he called Walz ‘Tampon Tim.’ He asked me if I thought it was right that he ordered tampons to be put into the bathroom of the boys rooms. So, I leaned into the issue. There aren’t any tampon machines in any of the boy’s bathrooms in Walz’ state. As far as I can comprehend, a bill was passed in an effort to make women’s feminine hygiene products more available for girls who don’t have access. The products wer...

Four months ago I bought new tires. They’re expensive so I bought the warranty. Almost immediately, Jake hit a pot hole in a parking lot. Headed to the tire shop. “Oh, you have the warranty,” the guy said. “That’s good.” He went in back and called me up to the counter “Bad news,” he said. “The damage was to the side of the tire. That’s not covered under the warranty.” “Bah!” “It gets worse,” he said. “We aren’t allowed to replace just one tire. You need to put two on the car.” Tires didn’t have 1,000 miles on them. That happened again! Exact same scenario about a month later! Bought two more! So I had fully replaced the new tires I had just bought! Cut to Friday morning… …I had to leave the house by 5:30. At 6:00, I watched a tractor-trailer head for the side of the road and slam on his brakes, as if something had fallen off his trailer. 💥  Whatever he dropped… …I hit! “F**^k!” My first thought was: “I hope my tires… …the dashboard lit up! I pulled to the side of the road. Problem...

  That’s the basketball hoop in the backyard at my childhood home. We played so many games on that slab and now there are dandelions growing up through the cracks in the concrete. I can almost hear the laughter when I gaze at that photo. Me and Jim against John and Jeff in ready-made 2 on 2’s. Jeff and I played basketball in school. Jim could shoot but didn’t much care about running. John played full-contact basketball. Every week he’d punch me in the stomach the first time I went up for a shot. His reasoning being: “He’ll think about that every time he considers shooting.” We had endless shooting contests on that rim. My favorite spot was the far right corner - I was automatic from 18’ out. Coincidentally I was listening to ‘Moonlight Motel’ by Springsteen where he goes back in time, hurting about a life that was lost to time. “I pulled a bottle of Jack out of a paper bag poured a shot for me and one for you as well. Then it was one more shot, poured into the parking lot of the ‘M...

I spoke with someone today who is all set with Buffalo Bills tickets when the new stadium is ready and all I could say was: “What the hell is the matter with you?” The idea of a personal seat license was thought up by a rich dude who wasn’t happy enough to take a little of your money a little at a time. Dudes want it all! You have to pay a really large fee to be able to pay a huge fee for a  ticket to each game. The seat license for 30 years was thousands and thousands of dollars. “You ain’t even going to be here for 30 years,” I said, “The seat stays in the family.” Yeah. If you pay a fortune to go to every game! There are 8 home games. Figure $500 a game per ticket! Five hundred dollars! We used to go to Camden Yards to watch the Yankees spank the hapless Orioles… Five bucks a game! Less than 30 years ago! And baseball is a real sport without a pre-determined outcome! When I thought about the dynamics of it all it started to aggravate me. A billionaire gets taxpayers to build him...

Summer can be a care-free time of friends and fun. My weekend had a little of both with the pepper party and a round of golf. Caught the movie ‘The Instigators’ as well and liked it… …it was fun. Yet, life ain’t all fun and games. The Monday bell chimed and I told Miller that it was ‘time to make the donuts’. But I first read the news of today. Oh boy. There’s an orange meltdown happening. A press conference with more than 160 lies… …crying about crowd size. Struggling to come up with a nickname for his opponent. Those are troubling times in that campaign. I can imagine the panic: “The nicknames aren’t sticking!!!!” “How about ‘Crooked’?” He comes back with ‘Crooked’ and they should put him in a padded room. They should anyway. But here we are… …and it appears that the Dems are invigorated by the youth of their candidate. ‘Kambala’ (which was one of the nicknames that fell flat) is about my age, right? Still, she looks like a teenager compared to what was going on. Then I checked the s...

We were paired with two young men yesterday morning. Twenty-somethings. It’s been a bit of a frustrating year because half of our regular foursome has been out of action this summer. So, we are usually put with two people we don’t know, and there’s that moment when you wonder: “Can they play?” We got our answer on the first tee as both men struggled to get the ball to the fairway. The first kid swung and missed at the stationary ball three times. Whatever. We were golfing. Nice enough day. Perhaps we could give them some pointers. We waited to hit our second shot as both of the kids hit 4 times. The first hole took a long time. I birdied hole two and parred the third hole and I was done with the experiment. They had mentioned that we could break away and that they’d play behind us, so we did. And as men pushing 60 we talked about how loose the kids swings were compared to ours, but we felt some satisfaction in knowing we’d crush them if we played against them. As more than middle-aged ...

For the pepper party this year I stuffed my peppers with breaded pork chops, adding feta cheese, Parmesan cheese and cream cheese. I drizzled basil oil on each pepper and made 20 of them. Tried one on Friday night, and declared it the best pepper I’d made for the contest. Had two more on Saturday morning with a couple of fried eggs. Went to the party… …with high hopes. I wanted a trophy. As per usual, Corinne and Chuck set up a wonderful party. We’ve been doing the pepper party for about 20 years now. I knew the competition would be stiff and that I would be eating a lot of peppers. Seeing my siblings, nieces and nephews and cousins along with lifelong friends is the highlight, of course, but I filled my plate to check the competition. A pepper stuffed with peanut butter and jelly. Very good. Peppers stuffed with tater tots… …loved them. A cheeseburger stuffed pepper. A California roll pepper (not a sushi fan), but pepper was well made. A Cubano with bread wrapping the pepper. (Trouble...

“I’m on vacation!” He told me when I scolded him for being an idiot. “I’m not!” He had made the dog bark in the middle of the night. The pepper party is this weekend, and I kept switching from one recipe to another. I’m going to give my initial thought a try and I’m hoping it works out. I finished second last year - I’d like to bring home the trophy this year. For the uninitiated the pepper party is an annual event and we are at least two decades in, I think. We’ve stuffed every possible thing into a hot pepper, and it’s a great get together because o know that I’m going to have at least a dozen peppers this weekend. But back to my dopey nephew. He and Sam are thick as thieves and earlier in the week they went out… …and we didn’t see them for 36 hours. They went to a bar, a house party, and played golf. The only thing I heard from him during that time was when Ollie barked. The photo that is included in this blog is courtesy of me leaving my phone unattended… …he snapped a half dozen p...

Tim Walz definitely brought some energy, no? I watched a clip of the Minnesota governor at the Fair with his daughter and it made me smile. He was being a normal Dad. We haven’t seen that much out of certain politicians. One such politician was asked what he got for his young son’s birthday and he said, “He can look forward to a nice, big card.” How loving! A high school social studies teacher who coached a sport? How much more wholesome can one be??? And he had a bit of a sense of humor that he showed off at his first rally. Refreshing. Of course, the pitchforks immediately came out and I read some crazy stuff about the man. Which is politics at its finest. But eye-test wise… …he seemed a lot more like a regular old American than the gold toilet dude.

Every year I start looking at the bad baseball teams, trying to figure out how many games a team needs to win to avoid losing 100. Going 62-100 appears horrible to me and I secretly hope that teams don’t suffer that fate. This year there’s a team that may not win 40. The Chicago White Sox have lost 21 straight, which tied the record for the longest streak ever in the American League. Imagine being on a team that horrible. I feel like I was! I distinctly recall playing in a JV basketball game - we were losing by like 50. We couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it. I remember looking up at the scoreboard and seeing that there was like 11 minutes left. “Make it stop!” But we had to finish the game, and there was no big comeback. It has to be embarrassing for all the players on that team, and lately I’ve been reading news. “No one in here is going to quit.” “We can’t do anything about the games we’ve lost. We have to take it one pitch at a time.” “This is the pros. No one is going to feel sorr...

It’s been less than a month since a tornado touched down in Eden - just a couple of towns over. I drove by the damage and it was horrifying. Yesterday a tornado touched down in the city - I had been in that neighborhood earlier in the day, but had thankfully headed south. Trees uprooted - big trees and cars flipped over. Thankfully no one was hurt, but I have one question: Why the hell are we getting tornadoes? 🌪️  Aren’t we covered by getting 75” of snow in 24 hours? We have the best summers up here - I spent a summer in Baltimore and man, it was hot and humid. Vegas is regularly over 100 degrees as is Florida. Even the Midwest it gets way too freaking hot and they owned the tornadoes. We don’t want them. Especially when they just show up on an otherwise normal summer day. I played catch with Ollie a couple of times in the afternoon before the thunderstorm hit - about 12 miles from where the twister was spotted. I recall being in Florida when I was 10 years old when a tropical st...

Aaron Judge was intentionally walked 3 times yesterday. He was also walked on 5 pitches in another plate appearance. He ripped a single in his other plate appearance. He has 41 homers and more than 100 RBI - on August 4th, and a couple of years ago he legitimately broke the single season home run record breaking Roger Maris’ record set more than 60 years ago. A couple of weeks ago he hit two balls completely out of Fenway - one was to dead center. I’ve been watching baseball for a long time - never saw a ball clear everything in center at Fenway. “He’s the best baseball player I’ve ever seen,” my son Jake texted me last week. And I was in the first row in Kansas City when Judge first arrived in the majors. He was literally 20’ away in the on-deck circle and I recall texting my buddy, Pops, saying: “He’s never going to make it. He’s too freaking big.” So, I missed on that call. What I like most about Judge is that he learned from Jeter and Mattingly and he does it all the right way. He ...

About a month back, one of the guys in our 4-some sent his tee shot into the woods on the left. “That’s a Thurman Munson,” another guy said. “What?” I asked. “A dead yank,” he answered. “Whoa!” I yelled. “It was almost blasphemy! In the 45 years since the Yankees captain died in a plane crash I’d never once heard anyone say anything bad about him! “Too soon?” He asked.  I just flashed back immediately to that day. I was at the little league field watching my brother Jim’s game. My Mom pulled into the parking lot, lowered the window and broke the news. I can still picture the scene. Mom was as upset as I was - she watched the Yankees games with us each night. “How does that happen?” 14-year old me asked. I worried about the backup catcher not being much of a hitter - the Yankees were 7 games back - they’d never catch Baltimore without Thurman. At 14 years old, I had no idea what sort of life Thurman had outside of baseball.  A wife and kids? That’s why he was flying a plane?? W...

Imane Khelif is a woman boxer from Argentina. She was never a man. She doesn’t quite look like what a hateful person might think a woman should look like… …so her life is being made absolutely miserable by people who are so upset that people who identify as trans are being allowed to participate in sports. It’s a crazy situation and one that has not happened as often as one may be led to believe. As a matter of fact, a lot of the ‘identify as’ stories that are passed around on the internet were never true. Kids didn’t identify as cats anywhere. They didn’t put litter boxes in classrooms. But that’s what happens when there is fear and misinformation and rage involved. Khelif won her match with a quick knockout and the “She’s a man!” misinformation caught fire. It’s amazing to me that people can conjure up such hate for people they don’t know, or even want to know. I’m a nearly 60-year-old man. I get a little confused by a lot of the conversation regarding gender identification, but here...

Did you happen to see the public thrashing of a presidential candidate at the National Association of Black Journalists? Funny thing was the candidate thrashed himself. I usually stay away from such situations but I watched the interview because the candidate - a big, orange blob of stupidity - walked off the stage after 35 minutes because he couldn’t handle the questions about racism. He went on his usual rant about how he’s done more for black people than even Lincoln, and then he pretended that Kamala Harris - his opponent - might not be black - she ‘said she was Indian and then she turned black.’ The questions were rough and instead of trying to defuse the situation with policy procedures he behaved like a petulant child. He attached the journalist who asked the question. He spoke about acing his dementia test and he threw punches at black and Hispanic people without not even knowing he was doing it. He mentioned ‘black jobs’ as though there are different jobs for different races. ...