Thoughts of a Common Man

I had the great misfortune of having to spend an afternoon and most of the evening and into the night and damn near into the next day embroiled in a healthcare situation. What a mess we’re in. It starts with the primary doctor who is essentially useless. I don’t even bother to go there for my own health care needs because they do nothing for me. Ever. I had one episode where the nurse practitioner started it all by asking me what “Do you think it might be?” “How the hell do I know? I’m a safety guy and a writer. I feel like crap. You tell me.” She looked as if I slapped her. The primary doctors are also scared of their own shadows. “The insurance company may deny the x-Ray.” “We don’t like to prescribe anything stronger than Ibuprofen. You can may be able to get something over the counter that might help.” I pay a co-pay for that? And of course, prices are ridiculous. If they give you a saline drip it’ll run about a grand. It’s salt water! Back to the latest visit. The receptionist was...

Read a story about a Texas man who took his 11-year-old daughter hunting with him. He shot and killed her. Mistook her for a deer. There was also a story about a man who brought a gun to a kid’s birthday party. It went off and a 10-year-old was shot. There were no charges filed. Every city, every weekend, death. We caught the 48 Hours on the Aubery case. Those 3 men (who were rightly convicted) truly believed that they had every right to hunt and kill that kid. For snooping around a construction site? I have come to accept the fact that there is a large population of people who think much differently than me. Especially regarding the need to bring a gun with them everywhere they go. The fact that the kid killed two people at a protest, and got cleared of all charges was incredibly disconcerting to me. Vigilantism won’t work. There are too many people who are one thought away from immersing themselves into a real life game of ‘Call of Duty’. Rittenhouse fancied himself a cop and a medic...

I’m a man who fights an internal battle each and every day. I have one question that needs to be constantly answered: “Is everything all right?” It’s a question I ask myself in the morning and at night before I go to bed. The thing about life is that most days not EVERYTHING is all right. There are usually some loose threads. When the kids were young that question got obliterated every day. I went to bed exhausted and oh, the clutter! Taught me to be patient. For a little while there. Anyway, I found all sorts of ways to entertain the kids and if something interested them I strongly encouraged it. I got a whole lot of mileage out of Godzilla, King Kong and Alien versus Predator. I made a sort of tactical error when I grabbed the Schwarzenegger Alien movies, though.  I had never seen those particular flicks.  Had no idea that there was strong language throughout. Cut to Sam’s first day of kindergarten at Sacred Heart.  We waited for the bus at the foot of the driveway. Kat...

I was in the 7th grade. I remember that specifically because I had a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt that year. Here’s how the story goes: “Cliff! Let’s go! School!!” It was Dad shaking me awake, which wasn’t unusual. He got us up in shifts so that the bathrooms weren’t always occupied.  It was my turn to be first out of bed. I was foggy, but all my life, my first inclination is to get showered. I’m the same way to this day. I got showered, and headed downstairs. Everything was pretty quiet in other areas of the house, but the kitchen light was on and Dad was at the table. I was wearing that Steelers shirt. (I wasn’t a fan of the team…I sort of liked the colors). That got Dad talking about football…something he knew little about…so it was all a tad strange. 1976. The Bills had Ferguson and Orenthal. I had a bowl of Honeycomb, but I kept drifting back towards sleep. Also strange. “What’s wrong with you?” Dad finally asked. “I don’t know,” I said. “I’m beat.” My wonderful Dad started laugh...

I have to tell this story. In December of 1992, the owner of the company I worked for called me to his office to ask me why I had scheduled vacation days for 12/24, 12/26 & 12/27, “For Christmas,” I said. “Christmas is canceled,” he responded. “You’re going to Sioux City, Iowa on the 18th. We’ll try to get you back for New Year’s Eve.” I kept saying that I wasn’t going, but there I was on the 18th, on a plane, settled between Pete & Mike - two seasoned iron workers who drank beer as if it were iced tea. On the 20th we worked all day, right up to an hour before the Bills-Saints game was set to start. The plan was to grab a couple cases of beer and 3 large pizzas. We also picked up a truck driver, Dan, who had made the cross country trip in a tractor-trailer. Dan had parked the truck and gone straight to a strip-joint where he proceeded to drink a dozen beers while we finished up our work. We grabbed Dan (who was plastered) at the strip joint and had a few beers and then went to ...

  Thanksgiving is all well and good, but today we also celebrate the birth of a legend! My Mommy! Our Mommy! She’s the biggest dog lover of all of us. She may be the only person I know who has read more books than me. She spent so many Thanksgivings making the perfect dressing. I tell my kids about how tirelessly she worked. The Fazzolari work ethic? Dad never missed a day of work out on the sites. Mom seriously outworked him, and the rest of us inside the home. My clothes would hit the hamper, and the next day they’d be back, folded, clean in my dresser drawer. And man, Covid has hurt Mom. We’ve all been afraid to get her sick. We are visiting and calling and Corinne is an absolute 😇 - but when I think of the cost of this damn pandemic I will consider how it turned living into isolation for Mom and for my wife. But today, I will celebrate all the love I feel in my heart for my Mom…Dad, and my mother in law and father in law and my siblings and siblings in laws  Friends too… ...

I’ve always enjoyed Billy Crystal, in movies, on television and for being a longtime Yankees fan. About a month ago I saw a copy of his autobiography in a bargain bin for a dollar. Of course I bought it and I’ve always enjoyed autobiographical stories because you truly feel as if you know the author and it’s kind of a walk through time as you think about their careers. He was Jody on Soap, Harry in ‘When Harry Met Sally’, DeNiro’s therapist and he worked closely with Robin Williams. Let’s not forget, ‘Throw Momma from the Train’ with DeVito. And a good Dad too. What’s funny about the autobiography of the big stars is that they all seem to gloss over the getting famous part. It’s always like it just sort of naturally happened. Good for them, I guess. But there’s always hard work and sacrifice involved as well. He did the comedy show routine and spent time away when his family is young. There is one drawback to reading autobiographies though. I’m always hesitant to read a book by a celeb...