Thoughts of a Common Man

We have a ravine behind our fenced in backyard. Every once in a while a deer or two will pop up back there, and hang out, and watch Ollie glide through the yard making leaping catches. I wonder what the deer are thinking. The trees that start in the ravine and hang out behind my fence are at least 60’ in the air. There are a half dozen of them back there, and when they start moving in the wind it’s a pretty awesome sight. Lately, I’ve been looking up at the largest tree in the pack. The very top of the tree. Started thinking about those trees and how much they’ve grown in the nearly 30 years we’ve been here. I couldn’t tell you the difference in how they look now as opposed to then, but I thought about us buying the home from an older couple, and their son, The father mentioned, ‘we raised our family here, and now you will too.’ And soon enough, someone else will live here, and gaze up in wonder to the very top of the tree. Those trees will stand up straight and proud after we are gone...

My son was walking beside me when a young, black kid who works construction saw me and started laughing. “What’s going on?” I said to the kid. “Why are you laughing at me?” “‘Cause you’re a funny dude,” he said. “I was in your safety class, and you shocked me. I told the guy sitting next to me that you reminded me of Billy Bob as Bad Santa.” “That’s the perfect description,” another guy standing nearby said. “You’re there for a safety class, and he gives us the Bad Santa talk.” It was a high compliment, and as word got around, a lot of people seemed to agree that I have the old Billy Bob vibe when I speak. And here’s the thing: It’s a safety talk in front of a lot of grown men who have heard a review of the rules a lot of times. About 30 years ago, I was sitting in a safety class that was being taught by a highly entertaining speaker.  As that man spoke, (Bill Bord) I realized he was teaching us the same stuff but doing it in a way that I would remember for a long time. 💡 time. “T...

My son sent along a tale about a woman in Denver who ate the tainted produce and hit the head more than 40 times in a couple of hours as the explosive diarrhea hit her. Here in Western New York we are in a cloud of ash due to Canadian wild fires. The sun hasn’t been around much and it feels a bit like zombies are going to dance out of the cloudy skies and eat our brains. What made all of Thursday even worse was Pedo Pig was promoting the speech he scheduled for Thursday night. None of the networks felt like carrying it because it’s the same garbage. He won, Biden lost, Dumb has a ‘b’ and no one ever knew that. Of course I had zero interest in ever hearing anything he has to say unless it starts with: “It’s terminal.” I’m not a huge fan of social media as opposed to the life we used to live when you only dealt with the people in your life. Strangers were people you saw out there, hanging around, and if you didn’t make time, you never heard their opinions about anything. Now, I usually w...

I listened to Ossoff question Jay Clayton, as a job interview for a high appointment in the sham of a government that we now have. This was the question: “Who won the 2020 election?” A simple question.  Obviously, Joe Biden won by a large margin, and while the loser of that election refused to concede, promised mountains of evidence that it was ‘stolen’ and then could not provide a single instance showing that he was cheated. The failure to concede led to an insurrection that is an incredible embarrassment to the reputation of the country. Pathetic comes to mind. And Clayton couldn’t answer the question. He wouldn’t answer it, I should say, because while he knew the truth, he didn’t want to wind up on the bad side of the Pedophile Pig who is the Guiness Book of World Record holder for the most whining on every subject imaginable. This post isn’t about him. It’s about Clayton. How? Why? Are you freaking kidding me? Everyone who knows this man should be embarrassed for him. He’s a we...

It’s a little weird around here, as Kathy continues to recover, and I had my little bout of whatever the hell got me yesterday. “You should try eating dry toast, or rice, something bland,” Nurse Kathy said. “Nah, I’m going pasta,” I said, “It’s never failed me.” “You’re an idiot,” she said. “Wrote a whole book about it.” And there was a knock at the door. Sam responded, and said:  “She wants to speak to the home owner.” I headed to the door, and a peppy young girl asked me if it was a good time to talk. “Depends what we’re talking about,” I said. She asked me if I’ve enjoyed paying my electric bill lately, and asked if I ever considered adding solar panels. I knew that she was wasting her time with me. I’m not adding solar panels, but I listened and spoke nicely. She finished it all up in about ten minutes, and promised to email me more information. “Great. Have a nice day,” I said. When I returned to the family area Kathy and Sam were having a conversation about I’m a nice guy bec...

Spent the entire day out in the hot sun and it was a long day. Got home and scrambled to make dinner, and play with Ollie, and help the wife. Nothing major for dinner - fresh corn and an assorted sandwich with what I thought were fresh cold cuts. By 7:00 I threw the ball for Ollie again, and then all hell broke loose! Between 7:00 and about 7:50, I threw up no less than 15 times. Absolutely wildest fifty minutes of my life…and I had a passing thought about ‘this is how it ends.’ I could hear Kathy telling people at the funeral breakfast that I was fine one minute and then gone. As it was going on, I was hoping that there would be a funeral because I wanted it to stop one way or another! So, what was it? Food poisoning? Heat stress? I know the signs of heat stress. I talk about it on every job, and I’m good about making sure that I’m hydrated. But…it doesn’t take much to throw the body out of kilter. Now, on the food poisoning angle - it was cold cuts, with lettuce and tomato. Yet, it w...