Thoughts of a Common Man

Happy Anniversary to my beautiful wife! It's funny, but on our wedding day I had turned to my wife-to-be just as we arrived to say our vows. "Twenty and Out," I whispered. "Gotta' take it like a prison term." Kathy laughed. She often reminds me that we are getting close to the end of our run. She also knows that Twenty and Out isn't going to work... ...at least for me... ...because we have had a wonderful run... ... no prison-like-conditions! We have shared so much. We have battled through epic sadness and have enjoyed the best of what life has to offer. When I was just a teenager I walked in on my Dad and Mom doing a slow dance to Kenny Rogers song, Through the Years. Dad, who had a wonderful voice, was singing along with the words. Mom was looking up to him... ... smiling. I can recall how emotional I was at that moment. Just a beautiful moment. And recently I heard the song again... ...and while I thought of Mom...

My Memorial Day memories are of the parades in the small town of North Collins. All of the veterans would march. As a child I was drawn to the uniforms and the formations. I knew that it meant more to our country than what I could comprehend. I also knew that men went off to war and they didn't always come home, and that some who did come home weren't the same as when they left. The looks on the faces of the men was deadly serious. I could tell that the holiday meant more to them than just cooking out in the backyard. And I knew that a lot of those men were friends with my Mom and Dad. But I was confused, of course. Why did there have to be wars? I recall being glad that my Dad never had to go. I remember asking a nun...if it was murder to kill a man...what made it different if it was in war. She stumbled over the answer. And I think of all of those things as an adult. Even now, with all of the turmoil in our own country, with all the back and forth be...

To Memorial Day Weekend. The sun felt nice on my face on Saturday, but there was a lot of work going on at Camp Clifford as we tried to make some progress on the weeds. Thankfully I had boys to handle the heavy bags of mulch and stone, but the two who were with me were very liberals with their breaks and I had to buy a pizza as well. As we worked I thought of how difficult it all would've been for my three boys if my Dad were the one cracking the whip. They wouldn't have survived. And I think that was the reason I was so fired up to make some of the changes to the look around the yard. As a kid Memorial Day Weekend was the official weekend to plant the garden. We used to plant a huge garden. The same words were often repeated over and over as Dad implored is to stop screwing around. I was always the guy who actually sat on the ground and planted everything. I wasn't allowed to try and run the tiller. (I had a complete weakness when it came to operating the e...

I've been driving through Maine a bit over the course of the past three months or so. And it's a beautiful place. Think green and clean. It looks like a great place to camp out, if you're interested in that sort of thing. I'm not. My beautiful wife and my terribly wimpy children aren't either. Yet I have always smiled about the "Watch out for moose in the roadway" signs that are posted along the way. I've also enjoyed my trip through Poland because I'm usually sipping on a Poland Spring as I drive by. Well, this trip made me think a little more because the day before I arrived I read an article about the poor woman, Geraldine Largay, a hiker, a wife and a mother, who got lost on the Appalachin Trail. The poor woman left the trail, got disoriented and was missing for a month before they found her dead of starvation in a spot where she had set up camp just two miles from being saved. It's an awful story. I glanced at the comment...

Bill Cosby will have his day in court. He doesn't want to go to court, mind you, but he will be prosecuted for a sexual assault that was said to have happened in 2004...when he was 67 years old. Some 50 or 60 women later. There are so many disturbing aspects of this story. Let's recount: 1). Cosby was beloved. I'm talking everyone! When he was Cliff Huxtable we all talked about his brilliance. He was one of the top grossing comics on tour. He worked clean! He lectured the black community. He implored the fathers to stand up and be men! Colleges stood in line to award him doctorates and the entire country grieved with him and his wife when they lost a son. 2). Everyone covered for him! People were whispering about him, and in a day and age when some of the accusations could've been investigated and proven...he was allowed to skate! He may have paid his way out. Judges and prosecutors may have just let him slide cause he was famous. It took a fellow...

The 27-Time World Champion Greatest Franchise in the History of Organized American Sports gave Matt an early birthday present last week: They swept the hapless, putrid, desperate, pitiful, vile team in green and gold: The Oakland A's (the 'A' stands for atrocious). Matt had the distinct pleasure of watching one of the four games with me. He actually had the gall to argue balls and strikes. I reminded him that he's a dopey bastard. And he argued. A couple of days after that we talked about the Bills chances for the 2016 season. I'm not kidding here: he thinks they will win the Super Bowl. We argued some more. I taught him to accept nothing, to argue everything... And while that is mind-boggling to me what isn't is that he's grown to be a man in a lot of other ways. He works hard. He treats his family with respect. He is good to his girlfriend. He usually thinks things through. Yet...I would be remiss if I didn't embarrass h...

LeBron James is a terrific basketball player. Just ask him. I watched an interview with him after the Game 3 loss to Toronto (my new favorite team) and in a 3-minute interview he must have said "I" at least 50 times. LeBron loves LeBron. But that's not my least favorite thing about him! In Game 3 there was a bit of a scuffle between a Toronto player and a Cleveland player. Their names aren't important. Well, the Cleveland player threw an elbow. LeBron thought the Toronto player threw it... ...because although it grazed LeBron's chin... ...he flopped as though he had been hit with an impact wrench. I'm not exaggerating! Find the footage!! The point of impact was about 40' feet from where Floppy the Crybaby actually made contact with the floor. That's what I hate the most about him! He has been on record as saying that "flopping is a strategy". How is that different than putting pine tar on the ball to get an advan...