Thoughts of a Common Man

Got the massage gun going after a rapid round of golf on Saturday morning. We were first off the tee and without anyone in front of us, we burned our way around the course. I’ve lost all concept on how to pitch a ball onto a green so it was a disappointing round playing wise, but the temps went from 42 to 60. Bright blue sky. Nearly November, Can’t beat that! And the rest of the weekend was about making dinners, cleaning up, playing with the pets, and watching shows. The Bills didn’t play until 8:20 last night… …so I had zero-point-zero chance of being awake for the end of the game. Those days are over. So are the days when ‘The Weekend’ meant going out for hours and staying up late. On Saturday night, an episode of the show we were watching ended at 10:55. “We watching another one?” Kathy asked. “We aren’t doing anything,” I said. “Maybe you are.” “Geez, it’s Saturday night. Live a little.” “I go to bed now and I’ll be up at six. I go at midnight, I’ll still be up at six.” So, that wa...

The political discourse has possibly hit an all-time low with the home invasion at the Pelosi home in San Francisco. Paul Pelosi, an 82-year-old man suffered a fractured skull after being struck by a hammer by a MAGA fan who was allegedly yelling, “Where’s Nancy?” Those seem to be the facts of the case. Of course, news stories these days end up having 9 or 10 different stories attached. Some believe it’s a plot to garner votes ahead of an election. Others are screaming about ANTIFA, still others are blaming the Pelosi’s and saying that they should’ve had better security. The human response should be: “That poor man.” And part of me wondered if this is the lowest point in political discourse in the history of our country. Recency bias makes it appear that the world is caving in, but Lincoln, JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King and others were killed. Gabby Giffords was shot. So was Scalise. Rand Paul got beat down by a neighbor although that may have not been political. But it’s all horrifying...

Had a couple of projects within a mile of the house so I stopped home for lunch. Ollie met me at the door. He didn’t have to say a word to communicate his intentions. “You wanna’ play ball?” I asked. He went nuts. So, ten minutes of a quick stop home was me bouncing the ball off the garage 50 times - he probably caught 45 of them. A few hours later, I walked back through the door, and Ollie had the same question in his eyes. This time he caught 70. Of course, I was just trying to tire him out so that he’d leave me alone for a few minutes while I tried to wind down. Didn’t work. I drink a lot of water during the evening hours and every time I get up to grab a bottle from the ‘fridge Miller follows me into the kitchen. And asks for some of his cat milk. I get in trouble for giving in… …so I pretended not to give in. Miller asked and I said, loud enough for Kathy to hear: “No more milk today! You had a gallon.” Miller asked again, louder. “Nope. I’m in charge and I said ‘No.’ I heard Kath...

I’ve had a lot of thoughts since the release of “The Barking Lions” - a mostly fictional story and “Life Isn’t  Always Beautiful” a non-fiction, inspirational story about Dave & Carolyn Neisser. Both books were honored at book festivals and landed pretty well… …but I spent some time wondering what was next. I enjoyed the short story format and wrote a half dozen of those - all of which I like - but I also went back and worked on the start of three other stories - all of which seem possible somewhere down the road. Kicked around a ‘Barking Lions II’ as well and I’m excited about a sequel. I have two books completely done as well…just sitting in the can…a mystery and a crime thriller… …but I wanted something funny to come next. Life has seemed humorless for a few years now with a lot of back and forth between people who see themselves as political enemies here in a country where we are supposed to be united. So, I considered what I could use as a source of humor and perhaps I was...

Been watching Mannix reruns. Yeah. Jake walked by the television and said: “Everyone in this episode is dead.” He’s probably right, and man, how television has changed since the 1970’s. A fight scene in one of the old shows is almost comical. You can see that the punch never made clear contact. Everyone was smoking. And the commercials are geared towards older people like me! There is a long commercial regarding the Shriners organization and I know you’ve seen it! “If you donate today, we’ll send you this ADORABLE blanket.” And the kid who utters that sentence is absolutely adorable. The children featured in the commercial have all sorts of dangerous afflictions that are absolutely heartbreaking. There was a child without arms. Another with a missing leg. Kids with cancer and cleft lips. Asking for donations in a country where most of the money is being controlled by billionaires who shift it to off-shore accounts to hide it for tax reasons. Makes me sad. Jake wandered by as the commer...

The Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday night. They haven’t been a participant in the World Series since pummeling the hapless Phillies in 2009. That’s a long time in Yankees land and is made all the more disconcerting because if Uncle George were alive to see them get swept by the cheating Astros he would’ve gone off! We didn’t hear much from the Yankees last night, other than this hurts. We don’t know if their best player, Aaron Judge will be resigned. We have no idea if they will solve the shortstop problem by adding a superstar one or handing the job to a rookie. Aaron Boone? George would’ve fired him long before last night. Brian Cashman? He would’ve been a true Cashman had Uncle George had 20 more years. No way Harper, Machado, Schwarber, Correa or others would’ve signed elsewhere. Now, George wasn’t perfect.  The Yankees went a long time without a title from 1978 to 1996 and the ‘96 -‘00 teams were built when George was suspended. He wanted to deal Mariano an...

I didn’t know if I could get away wearing shorts for the early Sunday morning round of golf. Wasn’t even a question.  I lost the light coat I had by the drive on hole 3. Just a perfect fall day, and the leaves have turned colors. There aren’t many better places to look around at the beauty of God’s hand than on a golf course. The problem being, I used colored balls, and I lost a couple of red balls in areas where leaves had gathered. There was a point though when I looked around and thought… …would t it be nice to have a few more months of this? It’s not going to last, unfortunately. Baseball season is winding down. (Too quickly for the Yankees - who went ice cold at the dish). There will be mornings of scraping ice off the windshield, and swearing about being freaking cold! I got home from golf and immediately grabbed 2 balls and Ollie’s eyes got as big as saucers. “Wanna’ play ball?” I asked. His answer was a no-doubter.