Thoughts of a Common Man

I have a confession to make: I listen to Sean Spicer do his White House Briefings every day. He has the absolute worst job in the history of politics, and I find his daily struggling to be almost comical. Confession number 2: I kind of like the guy. He tries his best to answer questions that are almost unanswerable and my favorite part of each day's briefing is when he finishes his prepared statement that is usually well-written and talks about the rights and wrongs of society and how the group is handling the challenges. I can see why Saturday Night Live plucked his daily briefings for comedy gold. Poor Spicey will say something like: "The president yesterday met with ____ to discuss the global policies that shift toward peace and care and overall happiness in a difficult time." Then he hesitates and takes a huge gulp, straining for air. "Now I'll take some questions." The first reporter will say: "There was just a tweet about...

A few years back we were thinking of St. Bonaventure as a school for Matt. Matt and my beautiful wife were selling me a bit of a story on how much it would cost per year. I happened to be whining about it on a job and one of the superintendents, Ed, explained exactly how much it would cost. Ed had a child that was just about finished with her four years in Olean. "I'm just about finished up," Ed told me at the time. "My daughter is graduating and then getting married in a couple of years, and I'll be done. All the kids educated and out of the house. Time to have some fun and save some money. Just a few more years of work." A couple of years later, Ed found out that he had cancer. He called me three months ago to share some good news. He had walked his daughter down the aisle and despite having to retire a little early, he was doing good. "Cancer free!" He exclaimed. Ed died three weeks ago. Around the same time I went to a job and fou...

The brain is a weird thing. Evidently it was time for me to dream about a guy I knew 29 years ago when I was working in New Haven, Connecticut. The names of the people in our office? Joe DeGaetano, Rocco DiGiovanni, Billy Talamalli and Cliff Fazzolari. We were loud! We ate pasta for lunch. We laughed a lot. I don't know why...I hadn't thought of that crew in awhile...but clear as day, when I woke, I saw the face of Rocco in front of me. Perhaps it's because I was thinking of my nephew, Rocco, or maybe it was on the heels of having seen old high school friends, but I saw Rocco D as clear as if he were standing right in front of me. I was 23 back then. Everyone else in that office was closer to 30. They're all pushing 60. (Hopefully). We were extremely thrilled when we finished that job. I remember the topping-out party. Joe, as the leader, had a rule: You couldn't leave the office unless you had one beer with him to unwind. Sometimes, we d...

So, United was in hot water over the weekend because a couple of kids were restricted from flying because they were not dressed appropriately for free travel as per their travel companion program. Kind of amazing to me, actually. I've done a lot of plane traveling over the last few years. I've seen things, man. Bad things. There are people wearing leggings who shouldn't be wearing them. Of course, when worn properly, I don't care. It seems to me that most people travel as comfortably dressed as they can. I'm always in sweatpants, and a tee-shirt with the laces on my shoes loose. Comfort. And yeah, I've seen some people traveling dressed as minimally as they can. To be called out for it, they must have been scantily dressed. Who knows? There is outrage though. "Discrimination against women!!!" "If men can't look at women without going crazy it's the man's fault!!!" I'm sure United will run damage contr...

Went out for dinner & drinks (water for me) for Jim's birthday. We laughed so hard at dinner telling stories about Dad, Jeff and growing up in the big house on the hill that we decided that we better leave the dining area because other people were trying to eat. My face hurt from laughing... ...but duty calls and I had to get the chicken fingers home to Kathy and the boys who were settling in for the basketball games. I was literally leaving when I spotted an old friend... ...someone I had graduated high school with... ...and I remembered that there was an impromptu gathering scheduled through Facebook. The funny thing is that the girls who knew me back in 1982 were well aware what I was thinking in 2017. "You aren't going to come back!" I was laughing because it was true! I had no intention of returning. Yet, on the way home, I decided that I wanted to pay the past a visit. I was so glad that I did! I grew up in a small town. Eighty-thre...

Twelve rounds of golf into Agent Orange's presidency and this is where we are at: 1). Two Muslim bans shut down by the courts. A big lesson here. There are 3 branches of government. It doesn't become law by decree. It actually has to make sense and it takes more into consideration than the fact that brown people bad and white people good. 2). The mentally ill get to keep their gun rights. See. Things did get done. The fact that every time there is a mass shooting we hear about how we need to fix the mental health problem. We did! We armed them!! 3). Repeal & Replace on Day 1!!! Nope. I honestly thought, after hearing about the disaster of Obamacare that the great, wonderful plan would  be a piece of cake. They gave it a great try. 17 days. Couldn't even get enough votes in the house. Ah well, who wants to go golfing??? 4). Flynn, Sessions, Manafort and Russians dropping like flies. As if all the excitement of failing legislation isn't enough......

Growing older is weird when you think of it in context of your siblings. Jim is 49 today. Of course, all of the memories go back to when you're just little kids. One Christmas we fought over a view master. We used to be pitted against one another in boxing matches. We were teammates in the 2 on 2 basketball games in the backyard.  And here we are, all the years later... ...still talking, still making sausage, eating big dinners, busting each other's chops. We decided to all get together tonight... ...dinner... ...a few drinks. Maybe some old stories and certainly a lot of laughs. Happy Birthday,  brother. We love you. You can have the view master back.