Thoughts of a Common Man

Those of us who believed that the world would stop being weird in 2022 were sadly mistaken. There were investigations and more crimes exposed and yet no one was arrested. Snow destroyed our community this last month. The blue versus red divide has grown larger. Covid is still hanging around, but now we don’t talk about it. Corporate greed…disguised as inflation…ruled the day. I rang up a carton of eggs the other day and gasped. More chaos. There seems to be a lot of death (but maybe that’s just me getting older and hearing about more of them). I didn’t break 80 this year. Lowest round was 83. Pops beat that with an 82. He got an eagle. I didn’t. But we played a LOT and I was pretty consistent all year. Didn’t release a book. Probably will in 2023. There’s a lot to look forward to… …I suppose. The Bills have a shot. Yankees are always in play. Bruce is on tour this year and may release a 5-record box set. And it seems like some of the lies are being exposed. Maybe 2023 will be the year ...

Southwest received a $7 billion taxpayer bailout. Southwest paid $428 million in taxpayer dividends to their wealthy stockholders. We all know what happened this past week. They canceled almost every single flight, losing everyone’s luggage, and stranding thousands and thousands of people in airports all over the country. On Christmas. I’m sure that they were announcing: “We’re sorry about the inconvenience” every three minutes and offering people a 3 ounce bottle of water and a bag of Cheeze-it’s with 4 crackers in the bag. A $7 billion buyout doesn’t go far these days. And the problem wasn’t that there weren’t pilots or flight attendants available. There were also plenty of planes. Pilots were sitting in hotel rooms, waiting to be told when they were leaving. Wasn’t weather either.  All the other airlines were taking off for all points. The problem? Their outdated software! They couldn’t figure out where to send the planes or the pilots or the luggage. When people got irate it wa...

We are still waiting on the City of Buffalo to open up.  There is still a city-wide travel ban… …a couple of days after the snow finally stopped. There’s a whole lot of blame to go around for the slowish reaction to what we all knew was coming for the better part of a week. “Piss poor preparation prevents proper performance.” On Thursday night, I went to the grocery store late. Didn’t want to chance a Friday trip, just in case the storm arrived early. It did. A lot of people got caught. So far there have been more than 35 deaths.  They found a 13-year old boy and an adult, in a snow bank. So sad. And there’s back-biting taking place. The county executive is battling the Mayor. That travel ban should’ve been posted for 6 a.m. on Friday morning. This wasn’t an ‘iffy’ storm. Speaking of travel bans, the news showed a cute little story about the Bills returning home from Chicago. They played on Saturday night. They were safe in their 5-star hotel but they wanted to see their famil...

🍿  🎥  We watched a lot of movies over this little pregnant pause. I was surprised that I liked the Top Gun II movie - I never even saw the first one and when Kathy put it on, I groaned. Tom Cruise is a tad weird. But it was good. High drama, good story, old guy does good. Movie 2 was a Jake recommendation - Whiplash - J.K. Simmonds was outstanding (won the Oscar for it) but somehow we had missed it. Strongest movie of the weekend! Laughed, cried, thoroughly entertained. Movie 3 was “The Glass Onion” and while we liked it and it kept us guessing, had good actors, some laughs… …it kind of twisted the script a little much to be considered great writing. I had an editor who once told me: “You wrote yourself into a pickle with that character, a sudden tornado is too convenient.” The script just had too many conveniences - I liked the first one better. Then there was the horror flick, “The Smile.” It was brutal! The violence was over the top, but the story was all right and had to...

I got out of my driveway and drove a half a mile up the street to an open gas station. Looks like Armageddon out there. We aren’t supposed to go out yet as the cleanup continues. What a lost Christmas season. And, of course, we are starting to hear the stories of those who lost their life to the storm. More than 25 people here in WNY. Just horrible. Heard an interview with a woman who picked her husband up from work on Friday morning, figuring they’d beat the storm home. Didn’t. They spent 9 hours trapped in their car even though they were mere feet away from a hotel! They couldn’t see it. Car got buried in a drift. I can’t even imagine the horror involved in such a situation. Nasty. “We gotta get the hell out of here,” I yelled as the snow kept falling on one of the days. They’re all running together. “Have good news,” Kathy texted from the other room. “I found 4 movies.” That is good news, I guess. Had enough.

I have a great neighbor. On Saturday morning, I looked out to see that he driveway had been cleared of snow. Twelve hours later, I looked out and saw that the driveway was jam packed with snow again. “BAH!” I said for the hundredth time in 48 hours. Heard some noise that I knew wasn’t Santa. Looked out the window to see that my driveway was being plowed again. And there was some quiet for a little while on Sunday - Ollie spent more than a few minutes out there, racing through the snow. I grabbed a shovel and went out and cleaned off the cars, and cleared snow from just behind the cars. “We’re all good,” when I returned to the couch. Halfway into Tucson King, (Stallone is good in it) Kathy yelled out: “Oh my God.” She wasn’t reacting to me. She was looking out the window. The snow was really flying. It kept going and going and going and going. “He isn’t going to clear the driveway a third time.” We didn’t hire him to plow. We didn’t even know his name.  I would change the channel, o...

Been a long time since we had a normal Christmas. Won’t have one this year either, as the wind keeps whipping and the snow keeps flying. But about 15 minutes ago I heard a truck outside - someone was plowing the end of our driveways. Merry Christmas! And it’s disappointing that we won’t be moving around much, or that we want the kids to stay where they are instead of trying to get here… …but we’ve heard the stories of people being trapped in their cars, or smashing their cars, or freezing to death. Nothing to mess with. Yet, I made some big dinners, and we played with the pets, and exchanged the presents we got in time. Let love give what it gives. Accept it. That’s it. Merry Christmas!