Thoughts of a Common Man

So, who's going to watch the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight? I have not been excited for a boxing match since the times when George Foreman was fighting...or Mike Tyson, right? I really want to see this fight for one reason: I want to see Floyd Mayweather on the deck. He just doesn't fit in with my sensibilities. Last week he said that he's the greatest of all-time...and it wasn't cute like when Ali said it. He was an arrogant jerk about it...which is what he usually is... ...about everything. We all know the Mayweather stories. He went to jail for battery. Of a woman. In fact Pac-Man recently said that he's going to beat up Mayweather for all the women who Mayweather beat up. How can I not root for Manny? And we decided to bite the bullet and pay for the fight. We're gonna' have a pretty full house for the event so the social side of it will make it all interesting. My older brother, John has studied boxing for years and years and he ...

I spent the best summer of my life in Baltimore. I really have a soft spot for the city as my wonderful cousins live there. My sister lives there and my college friends settled there after we left Gannon. So it is truly disheartening to see what's going on there. Yet it is not a reflection on just Baltimore. Things are going on all across this great country. Who ever thought we'd see such scenes played out in the United States...more than a few times a year? Not me. Yet people are becoming disconnected, disenchanted, discouraged and disoriented. And that's disheartening. As it all played out I sorta sat back and just read the reactions. I'm afraid to say anything at all because I'm not a man who is harassed by the police. I'm not a man who has a reason to be, either. Yet the reactions to all of it may be even worse than the tragic issue that is becoming the absolutely strained relationship between those who are supposed to keep the peace and...

Reading a book written by an astronaut, Chris Hadfield. I actually first heard Hadfield speak on the Opie & Jim Norton Show and I found him to be unbelievably interesting...and intelligent, of course. He's been in orbit a whole bunch of times and he spoke clearly about what some of those trips around the universe were like. Hadfield reminded all of us, who are down here worrying about parking spots, what Bruce Jenner is doing, and endless work days, that there is so much more out there to consider. One of the more interesting questions posed had to do with the subject of God. Does Hadfield find spirituality when he makes his trips among the stars? The astronaut was fairly non-committal. He didn't come right out and say that he saw the face of God on one of the adjoining planets, but he did say that what folks feel here on Earth can certainly be enlightened up there. Which I took it to mean that there was more there...or that Hadfield believed as much. Yet, ...

Jeffy rolled a 35-foot putt to the lip of the cup...just missing the par. "Ahh, that's a shame," came from three different mouths. We were all tipping our caps to my bro with one of his best lines. And that's how the early part of the first golf outing of the year went. The scores weren't close. One guy shot a 73...the rest were all right around the century mark. (Yeah, stupid Miller had to show off with an eagle, some birdies and a lot of pars). Me, you ask? I can roll out of bed and hit my drive right down the middle and that's what I did all day. Erratic with the chipping and putting...consistent everywhere else. The thing that about my round is that I might have set the course record for saying: "This is perfect." I love the game. I love wondering what we should do on the next hole, and talking about nothing other than, 'nice shot' and 'which way does it break?' Of course, there was something that I kn...

Was recently reading an article that spoke of a guy named Peter Thiel. He's a billionaire. He is the creator of PayPal...worth $2.2 billion. Good work if you can get it. Thiel was in the news because he's intent on changing the way we live. To be more specific...how and when we die. Thiel said that he was gonna' try and work out a few solutions that would allow for humans to live to the age of...oh...150 or so. Can you imagine? "How old are you?" "I'm only 112. You?" Of course, throwing a billion dollars at it may get us closer to such a goal, but after I finished the article I turned to my beautiful wife. "Can you imagine what sort of shape I'd be in at 120 years old?" She laughed. Not a pretty picture. Yet I do hope that Thiel is onto something. Doubling the life span would allow for a whole lot of changes, right? Imagine these types of Facebook posts: "We're celebrating our 100-year wedding annive...

I miss listening to Paul Harvey do the news. What happened in your week that was? Well...it snowed again. Even as I write this on Saturday morning, I'm cold. Had a great idea last week to set a golf tee-time, thinking that it was time to move around a little. Mid-way through the week one of the Grape Apes sent me a photo of a snow event: "Still golfing on Sunday?" It blows! So, MeDreamy is dead, huh? In all the years I've watched about 6 minutes total of Gray's Anatomy . I was out of town when this week's episode aired, but rumor has it that my beautiful wife was crying in her bed as the episode wound down. The boys thought it was pretty funny. Did you catch the Bruce Jenner interview? I missed it, of course, because much to the aggravation of all I strictly watch baseball from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on most every night. Yet there is no getting away from it. The thing that amazes me about the story is that Jenner was the man . He was the Oly...

There's a horrible story making the rounds in the Buffalo area this week. A local woman allegedly smashed her long-time husband over the head with a blunt instrument, loaded him onto a skid steer, took him to a corner of the farm and buried him in three feet of manure! Then she joined in the search for the poor guy, but apparently 'fessed up when the cops put the heat on. Why did the story horrify me so? Certainly not because I can see my beautiful wife getting rid of me in such fashion. (We don't own a skid steer or a manure pile). But. Man! You live your whole life, work hard, help raise the kids, get up each day and go to work, battle injuries, illnesses, the sadness that living brings... ...and you end up buried under a pile of manure on your own freaking property! What a horrible end to a marriage. And unfortunately we watch a whole lot of true crime drama around our house. Let me tell you the plot of all these shows: 1). Husband or Wife is on...