Thoughts of a Common Man

Most people don’t know what is in the constitution. We are no longer using it as an operator’s manual. I received a text message from a friend around 3:30 in the afternoon. “Oh my God,” was the simple three-word post. “Now what?” I asked. “They berated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.” “I don’t even want to look,” I answered. But I did, and listened to the rantings of a straight-up Russian asset, disguised as the president of the United States. Let’s recap: Ukraine is an ally. Russia is an enemy of democracy. Three years ago, Russia attacked the people of Ukraine and Europe and the United States threw their support where it belonged…. …backing the nation that was invaded. All of that ended this afternoon as two idiots berated Zelenskyy, shouting over the man who is only trying to save his country. Ukraine did not ask for the fight. They’ve lost so many men and women. People are forced from their homes, buildings are destroyed. Putin and Russia invaded a country! We are America… …we haven’...

There are moments in time that stick in your mind. I was at the Javits Center in NYC, signing copies of ‘Counting On A Miracle’ beside Henry Winkler. A weird coincidence for sure. Henry was positioned next to me for the one hour that we were asked to sign. Of course, the line was long - to get Henry’s children book - but I was handsomely benefitted by being beside the Fonz.  Everyone was spilling into my line and I was signing plenty of books. I was also chatting with Henry and when I hear that he’s the nicest guy in Hollywood, I know it’s true. He was great. I made him laugh a few times and as we finished signing, he looked out over the crowd and yelled, “Hey, Gene, you gotta’ meet this guy.” Gene Hackman - who was pretty damn tall - strolled over, a bright smile on his face. I shook his hand while saying, “It’s Lex Luther.” Gene and Henry chatted for a moment and then they were both gone, out of my life.  Henry signed a book that I gave to my sister, Corinne, and I signed on...

The number of veterans who have recently lost their paycheck is staggering. The budget bill seems to include a gutting of Medicaid where about 72 million Americans get their healthcare. SNAP benefits for working people who need food stamps to get by is going to be swept up and one of the GOP’s finest said that people are going to have to get off the couch and put down the popcorn and contribute. A large percentage of people who get food stamps are working long hours at jobs that pay little money. Most of the people who work at Walmart are on Medicaid because they are kept as part-time employees so that they don’t GET benefits! I’m not on Medicaid but I feel for those people who won’t have healthcare. I paid back my student loans before the mafia interest rates destroyed the lives of all who took a loan - those people who paid for decades and still owe more than they borrowed were preyed upon. Car insurance is now downright criminal. Corporations and the rich hide money to avoid paying ...

For a mere $5 million (payable to Drumpf/Musk I assume) you can buy an American citizenship. Seriously. The group throwing out children born on American soil are now selling citizenship to anyone who can meet the price. “Would that include Russian oligarchs?” A reporter asked. “Sure, why not?” Was the response. Wonder how the MAGA crowd, who wants to send everyone back to their country, feels about that? I’m absolutely sickened by the news. Medicaid appears to be gone. Poor people who depend upon Medicaid for health coverage are now kicking back to 8 billionaires who control more wealth than 90% of the country. Read that again. 8 people control more wealth than 90% of the population of the country. Those 8 people will get a massive tax cut. We’ve been sold. The tragic thing is that I’m seeing a lot of posts from people who backed this administration through three elections. They’ve lost jobs, funding, financial assistance, and their healthcare and they’re writing letters to President M...

I was doing training for a client that I’ve had for more than 20 years. It was a great session as we laughed a lot and had a great debate about safety. I mentioned that I’d been checking sites for about 34 years, and looked at a real young kid sitting in the front row. “What were you doing in 1991?” I asked. “Wasn’t even a gleam,” he said. “Well, construction was a lot different back then,” I said. “There are some guys in here who remember, right?” I glanced all around the 40+ people in the room. It kind of dawned on me. “Who here is at least 60?” I asked. There weren’t any hands raised. “Come on!” I yelled. “I’m the oldest guy in the room?” Yet, I didn’t dwell on it. Instead, I felt it in the center of my chest. The oldest guy in the room???? After the class was over, on the ride home, I thought back to my first day on a construction project. I was the kid. I spent years as the kid on the sites. Blinked. And now, the oldest guy in the room? Thing is, I take my job as a veteran serious...

I know a lot of guys who’ve worked for the Federal Government for decades. They’re good guys and conscientious workers. We’ve worked shoulder-to-shoulder in the safety field. I spent part of my Saturday night exchanging texts with them about the memo sent out by President Musk, asking them to write down five things they did last week. Failure to answer the demand would be met with the employee’s termination. My friends with the government didn’t much care for the demand. Much as they didn’t much care for the ‘fork in the road’ letter that asked them to quit. “All the years I’ve worked have been reduced to this. Like nothing I ever did mattered.” That would be how I would have taken that first letter too. As far as reporting what I did last week? I’d also be aggravated with that request as I’m sure there is accountability within each department. Sending a report to an unelected billionaire who ran around with a chainsaw and laughing about firing people? I’d have a hard time answering it...

Ollie made the trip to see Grandma and it was a rousing success. Ollie, unlike any dog I ever had, is not a fan of car rides, but we played a couple of games of football in the morning and rather than let him rest up for a few more, I led him to the car. “Let’s go see Grandma.” I brought the green football and pinky along for the ride, and he absolutely loved running through the backyard. My Mom has always loved dogs, and I saw how happy seeing Oliver made her. They played with the ball, and shared a Rice Krispies treat. Ollie brought his toys to her and dropped them at her feet as Mom had a coffee. “He’s beautiful.” I knew the end of the visit would be a problem.  “Leave him here,” Mom said. “Oh, he’ll come back.” Then I told Ollie to give Grandma a kiss goodbye, and since I have the smartest dog in the history of dogs, I knew he was all over it. Ollie actually kissed Mom goodbye a couple of times. Such a good boy. I opened the door and Oliver ran outside and immediately made frie...

It’s been a hard, cold winter. This afternoon the Yankees beat the Rays 4-0 as Goldschmidt and Bellinger both got hits. I saw the photo of them lined up along the first base line and it made me smile. There has been news too: 1). Aaron Boone was extended as manager. I’m not sure how I feel about this. Boone is a good dude. He handles the media well and his players like him. He’s also very thoughtful, and charitable. In interviews he’s funny. He hit the homer off Wakefield in 2003! Yet, he makes goofy pitching decisions!!! Game 1 of the World Series he went with Nestor over Uncle Tim Hill to get Freeman out. Freeman hit a grand slam. He also yanked Clay Holmes in Game 5 and went to Kahnle - a horrific decision that  I was screaming about because Kahnle had to face a minimum of 3 batters. They all got on base! I believe that Boone is a lot like the Bills coach - good leaders of men. Good guys.  Maybe not great. Then the news came down that the Yankees will now allow well-groomed...

I can’t even begin to imagine what it might be like to be a prison guard. Well, I can imagine it a little. Last summer one of my contractors had a project at the prison where there is a strike currently taking place.  Every two weeks, I had to be there early in the morning so I could be part of the crew that walked through the gate with a few of the guards. Hated it! Had to leave my phone in the car. I couldn’t take any photos and had to be sure that I didn’t have anything on me that could eventually be used as a weapon. The gate procedure took an hour every time. The job was about 2,500 square feet…took me ten minutes to look at…and then I had to begin the lengthy process of begging a guard to walk me back out through the gate. Usually they were having coffee and didn’t want to be bothered. “Buy us a pizza for lunch and you’ll get out faster,” one guy told me. I can’t tell you my answer. As for the prisoners, they spent a lot of time calling me a few names as I passed by. At a dif...

Eight years, ago I boldly declared in this blog that Agent Orange was a Russian asset. Haven’t seen a single thing since that sways my opinion on that, and what he said about the Ukraine-Russia war just verified what so many now believe. In case you missed the dumbest thing said yesterday (and there are plenty of dumb things to choose from each day) the portly pig said that Ukraine shouldn’t have participated in the war. They were invaded!!!! They were trying to defend their homeland and thousands upon thousands of their citizens were slaughtered. To make it worse, the Russian asset explained that Russia should be able to keep the land that they invaded because Ukraine killed a lot of their soldiers. Maybe their soldiers should’ve stayed the hell home! There are so many ways to illustrate that this is a horrible opinion. Imagine Pearl Harbor… …Japan attacks the United States who responds. In this example, Fat Hitler believes that Japan was wronged. “I don’t know how to ignore it,” a bu...

Twenty-eight more days until I feel like I’m ready for Spring. The NCAA Tournament will begin and all will be forgotten. Not sure I can make it! Six degrees when I got in the car this morning, but at least the sun was shining. I continue to read novels, but time is passing slowly. Trapped in horrible imaginations as I think about social security being robbed… …so I went back in time. I picked up the autobiography written by Yankees legend, Mariano Rivera. What a great story it is. Rivera was a fisherman who was aspiring to be a mechanic when he was spotted by a Yankee scout in a tiny little village in Panama. Rivera was an outfielder in amateur ball, who made his pitching debut on the very day that the scout showed up. He threw nothing but fastballs, and admitted that he had no idea how to pitch. The Yankees gave him two grand, and the rest his history.  He is, without a doubt, the greatest relief pitcher ever and the only man who was a unanimous choice for the Hall of Fame. Really...

The nuns beat it home when I was a kid. “Treat others as you’d like to be treated.” My Mom reinforced the idea. “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Thought of some of that over the weekend when I read a story about a trans man being beat to death about 90 miles from here. It’s also coming off a talk with a guy on a site who told me that “we’re allowed to say ‘retard’ and ‘faggot’ again?” I answered him with a “Seriously, dude?” He said, “Musk loves those words.” Easy to dismiss the guy as a one-off, but it’s like the Nielsen ratings… …there are a lot of people who are thrilled that they can use those words again. And then… …I read about the people who have lost their jobs via letter. Many of the termination letters have language in them that say that people are being fired because of poor performance. A group of academics lost their jobs because their jobs were considered part of the ‘woke’ movement. They were helping blind students. Want to talk about...

I don’t know how people deal with life in places that are forever cold and dark through the winter. Buffalo is bad enough, but I’m thinking of the people who live in Alaska, or the town where Jodi Foster was the sheriff in True Detective. Ollie caught 348 passes this weekend, and that’s no small feat because I have to throw them. This dog is too much and he finds it easy to get fired up. “When this episode is over,” I said, as we started watching ‘The Night Agent.’ As the credits rolled, I noticed that Ollie was asleep on the floor, but the start of the new episode brought him to my seat. “Damn, how does he know when the episode is over?” I’m trying here: I made two big dinners, which allowed me to spend some time working on things. I did a little paperwork, finished reading another book, and started the next one. There’s not a lot happening, sports wise and I completely overreacted to Giancarlo Stanton’s sore elbow - 6 weeks before opening day. I also read an article about the Ravens ...

On Friday night, in an effort to be entertained, we watched an episode of 20/20. A story as old as life itself. Man meets woman and they fall in love. We hear about what a perfect couple they are, and we see photos of them in their happiest moments.  Shortly after the wedding, we try and figure out which one murdered the other. I lost this week as I thought the man did it. Yet, this wasn’t one of the run of the mill episodes. The woman set up a business that was a Ponzi scheme, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from her family and friends. She allegedly stole money from a little league! Then, in an effort to cover up her fraud, she shot her husband up with insulin because he was about to figure it all out. “My God!” I yelled out. “She’s pure evil.” Kathy was simply shaking her head. “Seriously,” I said. “They oughta’ hang her up in the public square and tell her family and friends to come by and have at her. Punch, kick, spit….whatever!” For some reason, my wife and many ot...

I know a lot of people who are liberals. I also know a lot of people who are on the conservative side of the political aisle. Know what we have in common? We all want the same things! People on both “sides” of the divide just want to go to work, raise their children, have a place to hang their hat, and a little extra money to go to a game, or fish or hunt or golf or go camping, or to the beach. We want our kids to have a chance. Yet, instead of just enjoying our days, we are spending our off hours fighting about stupid things that we are fed to keep us on one side or the other.  Wages have been virtually stagnant for decades! But we argue about: Trans athletes? There have been about 10 instances of that in the last ten years or so. Colleges being denied federal funds if they back Covid vaccines? Absolutely zero universities or colleges are in that camp. Plastic straws? Who cares!!! Yet there endless social media battles about such things. Know what the ‘Have Yachts’ are doing? Buil...

They should let us know when we AREN’T under a winter weather advisory. It just keeps coming. The latest is a storm starting Friday night and running through Sunday. Four to eight inches possible. But we will be fine on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday when the temperature will not rise much above 10 freaking degrees. Last Friday I struggled through a front 9 that saw me yank a couple of drives, and top a few fairway woods. I was aggravated, but not even one-one thousandth of how aggravated I was yesterday afternoon when I walked directly into the howling wind. I screamed! As loud as I could.  Just one simple word. My head was instantly frozen!🥶 🥶 🥶  I texted one of the guys who was in the trip. “Last Thursday, at this moment, we were at the restaurant, tired from our round, waiting for the lovely waitress deliver our crab cakes.” “This week has been shitty,” he answered. Valentine’s Day. Yippee! Means that there are two more miserable weeks of February left, and my optimism o...

Last week, I didn’t spend a whole lot of time worrying about the downfall of the democracy as I was more concerned with finding my ball and hitting my approach shot straight. I also purposely ignored the news and the demolition of our government from inside the government. Reality is a nasty concept as I had to return to: 1). Miserable weather And  2). Absolute idiocy. Elon Musk trying to speak from the Oval Office as his kid wiped boogers on the desk and told the orange blob what we all were thinking was a Saturday night live skit come to life. Someone last week mentioned that Musk is a genius. Well, he speaks at a 3rd grade level - his kid was more coherent. And the ideas that are being presented are scary, at best. 1). Government workers are being pushed out of their jobs. 2). Greenland is going to be Red, White and Blueland when we steal it? 3). Canada is going to be the 51st state. 4). We’ll go to war to take the Panama Canal? 5). Gulf of America? 6). No more Department of Edu...

I have three Kendrick Lamar songs in my collection on my phone, and I listen to them every time they pop up. In fact, one of them ‘I’ has a great hook, and I turn it up and sing along. The songs were sent to me, by Jake, as something I might like. Jake was just looking for my approval with a few songs he enjoyed. So, when I heard Kendrick Lamar would be the featured act at the Super Bowl I was curious. I was also curious to see what those at the party thought. I was at a table with 5 guys who grew up listening to Frank and Dean sing songs. They liked Elvis and the Beatles as high schoolers as well. “What the f*ck is this?” One mentioned as Kendrick got started. Try as I might, I couldn’t make out the lyrics. “Is he singing in English?” Was the second comment, and later on, another man asked: “Is this just one long song?” “Do they even call it a song?” Another asked. We all watched the halftime show all the way through, and I mentioned that I had a few Lamar sings, but that I hadn’t rec...

  Man, the ravioli and sausage was great. In fact, every meal we had was amazing. I thoroughly enjoy the sitting around the table each year, and that’s when the conversation really gets going. Just don’t make a mistake!  Don’t stutter, or trip over a word. Don’t say something that is wrong or every single person around that table is going to pounce. We laughed a lot, as we went over some of the errant golf strokes. As usual, every golfer had a bad hole, or a bad few holes, and no one got away with it.  Every shot is noticed and analyzed. And of course, so are the good ones, and we catch up on each other’s lives, and talk about our kids, our work, and our future. A couple of those guys I hadn’t seen for a year! We had an epic putting contest one day that resulted in tiny bits of money changing hands. If you owed someone four bucks they rode you hard until you paid up. The contest helped on the course. And I must let the world know that Chippy was straight up incredible on ...

My buddy owns a very nice place and is extremely generous in hosting us to play golf each year. There are enough places for all of us to sleep, but the last two years I’ve taken the cot out into the screened in portion of the house- next to my hot tub - where I sleep under the stars. It’s great, and I also enjoy waking up to the sounds of the birds.  Rough round yesterday as I got off to a horrendous start, but settled in nicely on the back 9. Speaking of backs! Starting to tighten a little, and truth be told, I’ve felt a little of my Catholic guilt because I know it’s miserable back home weather-wise, and we’ve had two absolutely perfect days. We’ve had some great food as well and today continues with the sauce I’m making. A week ago, trapped in the snow and ice, I couldn’t have imagined sleeping under the stars, and a week from now… …don’t even want to think about it. Oh, congrats to Josh Allen… …I’m sure he’d rather be playing tomorrow.

 I had to hit the first drive down the middle! Felt a lot of pressure and my buddies were certainly hoping I topped the first ball. Nope! Split the fairway, but missed the par putt. Which became a theme… …but I didn’t care. So great to feel the sun. Heard it was icy back home… …made me sad!

The sun blasted through the plane’s window shade as we landed. I picked up about 60 degrees in the time I was on the flight, and it just struck me that I went from a world of black and white to living color. And it’s just a short little trip with good friends, and we will eat, drink, laugh and play mediocre golf in the brilliant sunshine. The last week was a real battle as I struggled to get work done, knowing that I’d be out for a few days. Ollie and Miller? They knew it! While Ollie’s intellect is widely established, I was struck by the fact that the cat knew I wasn’t just going to the store. He spent all morning rubbing against my leg and looking for attention. “Don’t go outside,” I told him. “No opening doors!” Kathy and the boys gave me a “See Ya’ salute but damn, the pets love me! And I’ve been imagining that first tee shot for a couple of weeks now… …my muscles are tight from the cold, and I haven’t swung a club since that last round in November. Hard to believe that only 75 day...

The Department of Education. OSHA USAID All getting axed. Not through congressional hearings, but via the rantings of a madman and the richest person in the world. The opposition party has written strongly worded tweets in response. When they come for social security and Medicare and Medicaid… …the Dems will progress to wagging their fingers emphatically. Back when we were kids there was a cartoon bill sitting on the steps of Congress, singing a song about how a bill becomes a law. Yet, that was through times that weren’t absolutely lawless. How’d you enjoy the tariffs? 25% to Canada and 25% to Mexico… …pick a fight with our allies. Then the market tanks and there are a couple of pretend phone calls and the tariffs are called off… …causing the market to rebound and to enrich all those who had inside information and know how to play that game. It doesn’t get much more corrupt than that… …and here we sit… …unable to do anything to disrupt the destruction except to wag our fingers and spe...

A couple of years ago we caught season 1 of a show called ‘Mo.’ It was a show that we found by accident and was an odd one to be sure about a Palestinian man living in Houston, Texas. We didn’t know much about a Palestine man or their culture. Mo was funny, and the show’s plot was fast paced. The end of first season had him stuck in Mexico, unable to get back into the United States. On to season two, and the real news of the day played right into the plot as Mo tries to get back across the border legally. Imagine it. A man of Palestinian descent who is actually an American citizen, trapped in Mexico, and needing to prove that he’s not just trying to illegally enter. It’s a comedy, but my heart sink to see men stuffed into makeshift cages as they waited for their names to be called so their cases could be heard. Dehumanizing. They have access to a jug of dirty water, and are handed a packet of crackers. There was another room where men were waiting that was just wall-to-wall men with an...

On Saturday, I visited with Mom and as usual, we had coffee and watched a couple of episodes of Mike & Molly. I went to the refrigerator to retrieve the milk, and perhaps it was because I looked at some of the photos of days gone by, but my mind played a wonderful trick on me. It flashed an early memory of my life, that I often think of about from probably 1969 or 1970. Mom was working in the kitchen. I had been in another area of the house playing with John and Corinne, and I strolled into the kitchen and stood there, with my back to the refrigerator. Mom turned and smiled. I can still see it clearly. “How’s my little buddy?” She asked. Back to 2025, we sat at the kitchen table. “What city is that?” Mom asked as the camera panned out on Mike & Molly. “Chicago,” I said. “I don’t think I was ever there,” Mom said. “Oh, you were,” I said. “Me and you got drunk at the airport bar there.” “What?” Mom laughed. “We were flying out to California and our flight got delayed. We stayed i...

The Associated Press released a story about the victims of the D.C. plane crash. Relatives and friends shared remembrances of their lost loved ones, and it’s a heartwarming story, but one that left me feeling lost. As I mentioned, I’ve often left for visits to Kansas leaving on Sundays and returning on Wednesday. My lay-over is always in D.C. So, there’s a chance that it was a plane I could’ve been on… …which makes one feel that life is pretty random and way too fragile. There were a lot of young people on that plane, but it’s a shame that anyone - young or old - died in such a horrific manner. A man on a business trip. A group of men out to Kansas on a hunting trip. A woman who booked an earlier flight to get back to D.C. to celebrate her 33rd birthday. A group of figure skaters. Lives cut short and in a world where we have so much technology- what are the odds of a mid-air collision? For years, we’ve heard the stories of air traffic controllers and the difficulty of working in that f...

“Are you going to the scene of the tragedy?” The reporter asked. “The water? You want me to go swimming?” The idiot responded. 67 people lost their lives and they get a glib response? The government agencies went black. Air traffic controllers, government workers and FBI agents were fired. Tariffs are going into effect on Canada and Mexico and China. There’s no denying that prices are going way up. Gas prices, food prices, car prices, housing, drug prices. Will all soar. The Dow Jones is tanking. The handling of a tragedy? Embarrassing doesn’t even begin to describe it, and one look at him: The toupee. The white eyes surrounded by the comical orange face. Elon Musk controlling the purse strings. And it’s only been 10 days. I’ve tried my level best to stay clear of the news. I listen to Dan Patrick talk about sports and then go to my music. I spend the entire work day, oblivious to any and all news, and then I try to settle in and catch up on the news of the day… …and like millions of o...