Thoughts of a Common Man

The iconic fictional home of Walter and Skylar White is on the market for $4 million. It’s a 1,900 square-foot home that should sell - in that market - for $350,000 - but the family is asking for the high price (and will probably get it) so that fans finally have access. We were there! And it was so weird to be on that street, looking at that home. It was also odd that the homeowner was in the front yard when I raised my camera to snap the photo. “It’s just a house!” She yelled at me. “It’s so cool,” I answered. And it was weird to me because although I’d never been there before that day… …I felt that I had been. The magic of television. I watched a short feature with the home owners and I wasn’t surprised to hear that Cranston was very gracious and that he had made the pizza toss to the roof on the very first try. I love Cranston. Loved the show. Would love to move west. It’s a nice neighborhood. I’m not paying $4 million for it again.

This out of routine mess is coming to a close. Today should be the last day that the world runs at half-speed. I’m thinking we should all get back to the usual by Monday. Perhaps it was weird that the holidays fell on a Wednesday this year. I spoke to a roofer on Thursday. “We just got the one day, and the way it was set up, if we didn’t come in the day before or the day after, we didn’t get paid for the holiday. Couldn’t even use a vacation day. They excluded that.” “Ah, man,” I said. “It’s weird. You amp up to go back to work and then you get a day. Work at half-speed and two more days.” And the 5-day work week seems a little much when you consider it in the context of your life, but it is what we are used to. When I woke on Thursday morning, I did my internal inventory and I kept thinking it was Monday. When it hit me that it was Thursday I don’t know if I was excited or not about the coming weekend. Also, it didn’t help that 2025 got off to a truly violent, tragic, terrible start. ...

Looked at the box score from the Cleveland Cavaliers game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The two teams combined to shoot eighty-one 3-point shots. They made 27 of them. That must’ve been fun to watch! Baseball made some changes before the start of last season to speed things up and encourage guys getting base hits because everyone was trying to hit homers…and they were striking out at record numbers. Hockey has been unwatchable for a long time as goalies wear pads as big as my bed mattress and everyone is dressed in armor so when the team heads into the offensive zone they have to shoot through 5 goalies. And football? Good Lord! The refs called about 50 penalties on Sunday. The quarterback is protected as he should be, but it’s led the QB’s to cry for a call on every play. I know a guy who plays QB for the team everyone loves around here… …he flops around on any play that goes wrong. 3rd and 15? Incomplete pass? No problem… …just pretend that the guy who touched you hammered you and ...

I didn’t make it. Officially called 2024 at 11:26 PM. Couldn’t keep my eyes open. And I wasn’t quite as reflective this New Year’s Eve because I don’t know quite what to expect for the coming year. I think we have a lot to fear… …Hope I’m wrong. In any regard, I exchanged a whole bunch of texts before 11;26 hit and my eyes started to close. Have the best year you’ve ever had in 2025! You’ve earned it!