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Meeting for Breakfast

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A group of safety guys meet for breakfast every now and again. It’s a fun way to battle through the daily grind. We’ve all known one another for about 30 years. Grey hair all around. A little while ago, one guy mentioned a specific company, but he couldn’t quite recall the name. We all knew who he was referring to, but NONE of us could think of the name. “It’s going to bother me until we figure it out,” I mentioned. “I’ll think of it.” But no one thought of it. That conversation took place about a month ago. We sat down at breakfast this morning and the first topic of conversation was about another contractor. “Who am I thinking of?” The guy asked. “We starting this shit again?” I asked. And perhaps, it’s the thirty years of wandering around sites, and seeing hundreds of companies that makes it difficult to remember every detail, but we have a lot of common ground, and the conversation is easy. Around and around. Like in any good group, we all have our roles. We poke fun at each other....
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An American Icon

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Dolly Parton will receive a lot of love in the coming days, and man, does she ever deserve it. A life well-lived. Now, Dolly became a superstar because she was an ultra-talented singer and songwriter. I have a number of her songs on my playlist, and Jolene is simply great. Not sure how Dolly lost that battle to Jolene because she was also beautiful. She had a huge wig. Always dressed wildly, and brought a smile and sunshine to every room. She was in a lot of rooms because we all saw her on television. And yet, the celebrity thing was just a means to an end. She gave her money away to righteous causes. She helped fund the Moderna vaccine during Covid. There isn’t any human being alive who has taught more children to read. Just an amazing example of how to go about living. We’ve made a turn to rage and hate in this nation. People have forgotten how to show empathy. If you’re homeless, you’re also hated by a portion of the population. If you’re fleeing a war torn country to save your fami...
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And Now the News

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I’ve purposely stayed clear of mentioning Pedo Pig here as I’ve tried to enjoy the beautiful summer days, but now and again, one has to check the news. First off, we aren’t great again. The fight with Canada while giving North Korea a break is straight out of the Putin playbook. I think that history will show that the pig was never working in America’s interest. He’s been a Russian asset for decades. The Mueller report showed that, but they did a bang up job of hiding that. History will bring it to light. No doubt in my mind. Mitch McConnell is still drawing a paycheck. There hasn’t been proof that he’s alive. Hard to believe that no one seems to care. The midterm election doesn’t look good for Pedo or his pals, and yet, there’s a true fear that they will try to declare the election null. What else? Callaway is in trouble with the world as they ran an ad campaign that was idiotic and implied that a man was beating a woman. Truly. They pulled the ad and apologized, but come on! That’s t...
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Engaged!

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My son, Jake, and his longtime girlfriend, Maggie, got engaged on Saturday, and man, that seems wild to me. Of course we are thrilled with it because they’re a great couple, and Maggie is coming to our family from a wonderful family. Her Mom and Dad were so happy, and her Dad made a point of telling me how great it was that Jake went to him first to ask for his daughter’s hand. What’s wild to me is that Jake has reached the point in his life where he’s doing such a thing. I guess it’s because we spend every day of our lives with our children. We don’t clearly see them as fully grown, functional adults, but they’re there! “Your life is now,” I mentioned to Jake, and it’s a thought I recall thinking when I was heading toward marriage. This isn’t a dress rehearsal. We’re living our days. My sister and brother in law (Jake’s Godparents) hung out with them for a long while. Jake’s brothers and friends, and Maggie’s siblings partied for a few hours. It was great to see all the smiles. And Ja...
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I Imagine

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So, two rounds of golf with my Syracuse buddies at the Militi-Raulli Open. I love playing with that group of guys and we had a lot of laughs, and some pasta. The golf courses are good ones and I put on a putting clinic the first day (sarcasm). It’s not often that your first putt is a birdie putt and the last putt of the hole is to save a triple bogey. But the fun was this morning. We were on a long hole, and we waited for the group in front to clear the green, and slowly walk to their carts. They pulled away, and I lined up my shot from about 210 yards out. I yanked it left. “That’s near them,” my buddy Rick said, and seconds later we saw a short, heavy guy with a club in his hand running up the fairway. It was 200 yards. Poor guy didn’t anticipate how long a run like that would take. He started walking. When he got within 20 yards or so, he started screaming that I hit him. I apologized. He didn’t hear me because he was too busy yelling. I thought about explaining that I was aiming fo...
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Cringe

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Way back in the 1980’s there weren’t a lot of ways to get a message to your girl. You were forced to put pen to paper, and then you’d have to carry the note around until you spotted her. I was a hell of a note writer, and I often think about some of the cringe things I wrote. Yet, back then my main focus also wrote a lot of notes so we passed the slips of paper back and forth all through the year. One afternoon I bent to get a drink from the water fountain and my friend, Dan, ripped the note, I hadn’t passed, from my back pocket. To my utter disappointment and embarrassment, he started reading the note aloud to the dozen others gathered in the hallway. It’s been 44 years and I recall how pathetic my words, meant only for her, were made public. Thankfully, Butzer saw my distress and he stopped reading it and returned the note. I thought of that when I saw the wild declarations of love from Natale Harp to the Pedo Pig. Now that’s cringe worthy! And what the F? He’s a happily married man!...
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The Grind

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Sometimes it feels that we live to work. You see it on social media. People discussing how they don’t feel as if they’re living a life. Especially in the winter months - it’s dark when they get up and dark when they get home. Those who have long commutes truly suffer. And we do it for decades! It’s a little insane. They call it the grind. I hit a job site this week and the woman in the office stocked the trailer with bowls of candy and there was a huge barrel of pretzel rods. I grabbed two and laughed. “When my middle son was about five years old, I took him to my office on a Saturday. The receptionist there loved these pretzel rods.” The woman was looking at me as if I’d lost my mind. “Well, when Jake saw the pretzel rods his eyes grew big.” “You get free pretzels at work?” He said. He was as excited as one could be. “No wonder you like going to work.” Yep. We all do it for the free pretzel rods.
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