Thoughts of a Common Man

I always think of the last few lines of “This Hard Land” by Springsteen when I reach the end of a new year and think about the coming year. “Stay hard, stay hungry, stay alive...if you can...and meet me in the dream of this hard land.” Stayed alive in 2018. That’s a big part of it! 2018, on the surface, was a good year. We saw Springsteen on Broadway in March. I released ‘The Big D’ and it actually won in the fiction category at the New England Book Festival. Me, Kathy and the boys enjoyed each other’s company. Melky & Paris went for a ride everyday! I battled leg, back and hip pain, but I ignored it and learned to live with it. I managed it with about 40 massages and spinal decompression. I climbed ladders and played golf on the good days. I played golf better than I had in 15 years and had a blast doing it with my great friends. By December, I released another book, “Everything I Know” and it fits right in with how I wanted to build a career.... ...and the...

There’s a pretty interesting, detailed essay about the rise of Trump as a president due to the reality star existence that we’ve been living for quite some time. There was a lot of attention given to the Apprentice show, which was a scripted, produced show designed to portray the Donald as a leader, and a powerful man. Raise your hand if you never saw an episode. I hope I’m not the only one with my hand raised. Yet, there has been an absolute mess of a discussion about Facebook and their involvement with Russia during the election. Ads were sold to people who were working hard to directly sway people who already in hate with a candidate. Professional writers took a great deal of time in composing fake stories. Then those who benefitted from fake news looked at what is actually news reporting and yelled, “Fake!” A lot of it seems to be water under a collapsing bridge, but this is our world now. How will we handle this moving forward? When there are shows masquerading a...

Years ago, my beautiful wife told me a story about a friend of hers who was going through some marital strife. “She found a bunch of Polaroid photos of his junk. He had a collection of them that he’d pass off to girls that he was interested in.” We had a good laugh. “Did you see it?” I asked. “God no!” She shrieked, but Angelina (fake name) found them and she’s pissed!” “As she should be.” Now, this was well before the phone craze. I must be an old dude because I find it pretty strange that someone might actually think enough of themselves to pass along such a photo... ...but it’s all the rage! The rumor isn’t that Mueller has a nude selfie of someone in the current administration. A lot of attractive women on Twitter send out statements every now and again because they’ve grown weary of seeing so many photos of “junk” from total strangers who are looking for a date. I don’t know any of my buddies who would send out such a photo... ...at least I don’t think so! ...

Malls have sort of fallen by the wayside in the 21st century. Back in the day, a trip to the mall was a full night out. A big pretzel or a cinnamon roll just after you walked through the door, a stop by the arcade for a few games or air hockey, a visit to the music store, and then the food court followed by a movie or the watering hole for a bunch of beer. We didn’t wander out to the Galleria Mall too often because it was a little further, and the car was always unfindable in the parking lot. Place was always packed. Last night, it appeared that Boxing Day was taken a little too literal. “Fights break out.” The news story was a roaring headline. There were reports of shots being fired... ...turned out to not be true, thankfully, but plenty of people were posting video. The fights were said to be gang-related and there’s were a bunch of them. It was pretty nasty and I thought a little bit about the men and women who were just at the mall to return a bum Christmas p...

I once wrote a story about a sad sack guy who always felt as if he were out of place. No matter where he was, he felt like he should be elsewhere. I thought about that yesterday as I returned to work. We all often work thinking about the weekend... ...and then when we get those days off... ...we sometimes wish to be back at work!! That happens to me every now and again. You see, I like routines. When I’m off for a few days, I become discombobulated. There’s no sense to it! “What are we doing today?” I’ll often ask on a day off. “I don’t know!” Kathy will say. All I’m asking for is a plan. I can manage a weekend because there’s enough of a vibe to make that work. I have a routine for a weekend. I don’t have a routine for a part of a Monday and a Tuesday off. I wander around a bit like a lost dog... ...wondering what I should do next. I mentioned it to the first crew I saw, believing that they’d laugh at me. “It kind of feels good to be back at work,” I ...

The Leone’s did the homemade pizza for Christmas Eve... ...crushed it. There was a megaphone. John started it off with a clean, lame joke about Santa. About thirty minutes later we ran out of jokes... ...one was more ‘dirty’ than the next. John’s horse joke made me laugh a few minutes before he even told the punch line. When he hit the punch I was dizzy from laughing. Didn’t think he’d tell that one. There was a book of photos of all of us from back in 1974. Everyone was crying by then. Carrie’s children and my children and Jim’s son... ...busting on each other. I pray they stay close. On Christmas morning, we didn’t get going too early... ...our kids now know that sleep is precious. The one gal who isn’t sleeping is my old dog, Melky. She’s been getting me out of bed in the middle of the night for about a month now. Maybe she heard Santa, but I was out there at 3:15, watching her do her thing... ...and I looked up. At the stars, in the frigid night....

A good buddy of mine texted a Christmas greeting on the 22nd... ...said that the negative thoughts and tweets and arguments were forcing him to go dark. He wanted to bring in the love. Leave the rest. That little text propelled me to think about the good stuff and try so hard to block the stupid things out. My beautiful wife, my adoring children and the two best dogs in the world are all pretty healthy. We’ve been able to be productive members of society... ...and we’ve all enjoyed one another’s company. There are presents under the tree. We painted the walls! Got new carpet! Replaced the dishwasher!! The Yankees won 100 games and next year will be better. I put two books out (with great covers) and might do two more next year. Mom spent a lot of time playing Bingo and eating pasta here. Healthy... ...happy. The year has been unsteady because of the mood of the country. Don’t need to bring that in every day. Merry Christmas to All! Things are all right...