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Blowing Up One’s Life

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I don’t follow college football, but I know that Michigan is one of the power teams. Still didn’t give it much thought when I saw that they fired their coach Sherrone Moore, but I kept getting news flashes about it. So I looked. Seems the married coach and father was having an affair with someone who also worked at the school. After he was fired, he was then arrested. For stalking and breaking in and terrorizing the woman who had suddenly broke up with him. So, now I was hooked. Word was that everyone was aware that the affair had been going on for two years or so. It was against school rules, but a blind eye was turned. Then the woman broke it off on Monday. By Wednesday, he was fired. On Thursday, he stalked and broke in and threatened the woman. Allegedly. I’m not into the gossip of it all, and certainly don’t know any of the people who were involved… …but it amazes me that someone can blow up their life in such short order. We hear about such things when there is a mass shooting or...
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Christmas Parties

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This is the week, I guess for Christmas get-togethers. We had our annual safety guy get-together and it’s always great to see everyone. Had a few laughs for sure with people I’ve had the pleasure to work with for more than 3 decades. And I work with a lot of different companies and they always invite me to their company parties. I don’t go to many. I’ll swing by for lunch if I’m in the neighborhood, but these are guys I see on roofs, in excavations, and on demolition projects. It’s good to shake their hands when they aren’t filthy. Tell a story or two. It’s kind of the best time of the year for just hanging around, and smiling a little. Of course, we’ve been battling a cold snap here and that’s a real bear on the body. “This was a fast week,” Kathy mentioned. “Really?” I asked. “Was less than five degrees every morning. Every hour passed like a day.” “Christmas is only 2 weeks away.” Yep. See more friends and family and loved ones and smile a little bit. Nothing wrong with that. Two mo...
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Can’t We Fix This?

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I have tried hard to steer clear of bashing the Orange turd, but man, he makes it difficult to ignore what has become painfully apparent. He’s out of his freaking mind. Just in the last couple of days: 1). Mentioned Karoline Leavitt’s mouth and lips. Truly creepy. 2). Spoke of his ‘aced’ cognitive tests. It’s a truly odd thing that he is fixated on.  His doctors continue to test his mental capabilities and he hasn’t figured out why, but he is obsessed with the idea that he did better than anyone ever in history. 3). He keeps falling asleep in meetings, and he’s lost as to why people are mentioning it. He also mentions that he works 21 hours a day. (He doesn’t). 4). The economy. He gives the current economy an A+++++ but one breath later explains that affordability is troubling because of Biden. If we are at an A++++ why does he blame Biden? 5). This might be my favorite: “Someone told me that I’m the best President of all time. Even better than Lincoln or Washington, and I said, “B...
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Solved A Goofy Problem

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 Ollie has 12 different balls. Most are of the football variety, but we also throw a round ball now and again to stay in shape for baseball season. He is under strict orders to bring the ball in after each round, but he forgot. Oh, we also name every ball, and we have deep discussions about which one we are using for that particular round. The ball you see pictured is named ‘Goofy’ and for the last few days, we’ve searched high and low for the original ‘Goofy’. The betting line is that he left it outside and then the snow fell. Finding a white ball in a yard buried in snow is difficult. We were both sick of looking so I stopped at Pet Smart and picked up the replacement. Oliver was so excited when he saw it. He caught every one. On another note: I may be losing my marbles.
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I Can’t Explain

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The thing about being a lifelong writer is that sometimes I don’t get a lot of say on how it’s all going to play out. In early November, my sister sent me a text that had a nickname that she has always called me: “Clit.” Made me laugh at the time, but something clicked. Just a six or seven word text kicked it off. That night, I wrote a few pages. Set the story the night before the ‘Blizzard of ‘77’. It snowballed from there. Characters, plot line, the title and the main theme… …it was all there. Typed it as fast as it came to me. There’s a long way to go, but it is just sitting there, and I visit it, an hour here and an hour there. Over the weekend, I didn’t write anything new. Just read what I had. Another little trick is to make sure that I’m not mentally worn out when I’m putting the words down. Reading it was good enough. Woke up yesterday morning, not realizing that more of the story would be sitting there for me to grab. As I made a long drive to the first site, I was TRAPPED in ...
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Irrelevant

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I don’t say it much this time of year, but as I tossed the ball around the yard for Ollie on Sunday morning, one word came to mind: Beautiful. The snow was lightly falling. We heard the PA system from the Bills Stadium as they announced something or other. Then the voices of children.  They were laughing. And that’s what took me back. I visualized the back yard with the sandbox and swing set. Thought about the boys playing tennis ball baseball back there. I could almost hear their laughter. And I thought about a line we heard in a movie we’d just seen. “The payoff for being a great parent is that you become irrelevant in their lives.” We aren’t there yet, and that’s sort of depressing, but it is true. They don’t need us like they needed us 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. But it was peaceful. I thought about the day, I moved a truckload of dirt to set up that swing set. Took me hours, and Kathy opened the window and asked: “What are we doing for dinner? The boys are hungry. I can make you...
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Travis & Taylor

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Since we spent ten minutes in a tour bus, parked in Taylor Swift’s driveway, right next to Travis Kelce’s car, I feel as though I’m sort of an expert on their relationship. Yes, they’re engaged, and Taylor has been at all the Chiefs home games, but this isn’t a typical year for Kansas City. They’re going to have to battle for the right to end Buffalo’s season in the playoffs. As for Taylor?  All her songs are in the top 10 from her new record, and I’ve listened to, and liked a couple of them. So, yeah… …expert. What calls it all to mind is that Travis mentioned that in two and a half years, they have never had even a single argument. Come on now. I’ve been married for who the hell knows how long, and I don’t believe that we ever went more than two and a half weeks without having an argument. Two and a half years? Like 900 days? Nothing???? Hard to fathom. And I’m thinking that if you go that long, holding it in, or biting your tongue… …there will eventually be an explosion of sorts...
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