January 17th, 2025

   Two words came into play when I was chalking down today’s quote.

Regret and adversity

(I just erased five paragraphs full of mumbo/jumbo that didn’t belong in words on a Friday morning.)

Let’s avoid traffic jams, long lines at Costco and arguing with assclowns these next few days.

I found a really good recipe for eggplant parm, but I have the Shepkids this weekend.

Pancakes, pizza, Dinonuggies, hotdogs and grilled cheese will be the big requests over this cold wintery long weekend.

I wanted to get Betty washed up, but every Dildo on the west side and his brother-in-law was already in line at the car wash.

Maybe today before it gets cold again.

Be true to your school and let your colors fly. Throw some meat in the crockpot, some favorite music on the record machine and tell a shit ton of people that you love them.

January 16th, 2025

 The hurricane that took a path of destruction from Florida up to the Appalachian coast last September. The wildfires that are currently destroying the Los Angeles area.

Unpopular presidential administrations, Islamic terrorism, violent crime, stock market crashes….

These all come and go, but life must still move along. We must stomp through the darkness to get to the light.

Personal things that hit closer to home like a terminally ill child or the death of a parent.

These are all extreme examples of life’s worst moments. They will continue to come in waves. There will be more hurricanes and wildfires in 2025. Death is always lurking at the doorstep.

I came home to my Oldman’s house for a weekend when he had visitation back in 1983. He asked me what I wanted to do while I was home.

I replied, “I wanna have fun, fun, fun dad!”

His reaction has stayed with me for the rest of my life.

He looked at me with that pissed off, you gotta be shitting me look that he perfected with fatherhood and said,

“Life doesn’t allow you to have fun when you want it. Life gives you a glimpse at fun, that is when you can have fun. Most of the time you are going to get kicked in the throat. You better have your head out of your ass having fun son because a foot is always aimed at your head…”

That speech in the family room at 220 South Lombard has resonated with me to this day.

Wow…… I got all of this from reading over some Hemingway last night and chalking down what I concluded.

What the hell is that Greek or Latin phrase in the Grabber section this morning?

Deus ex machina

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie when something unexpectedly enters at the end of the story?

A person or an event that drastically changes everything all together.

The plot has suddenly changed. The problem is instantly solved. Love has returned, gramma is healed, the lost dog has come back home, the backup quarterback scores, the band gets back together.

Life brings us our own deus ex machina. Don’t expect to find it, you won’t find it…

…it finds you.

It could be worse… you could have woken up thinking today is Friday like I did.

Chicagoland is getting a tiny heatwave before the next arctic blast. Expect long lines at the car wash.

Keep on keepin’ on. The playwright writing your story gave you the perfect part to play.

Sometimes we have a comedy.

Somedays a tragedy...

Be passionate, cry when needed and laugh on cue.

January 15th, 2025

 I caught myself sitting alone watching Lightning McQueen on television last night.

About a week before George was born, Johnny Harrigan stopped me on the trading floor and warned me.

“Jumbo… for the next fifteen years, you are going to watch more movies with talking animals, talking buildings, talking trees, talking cars and talking stars.”

Johnny was right and almost twenty years later, I’m still watching “Cars” whenever it’s on television.

Out of all those silly movies I watched when George showed up and then Fritz and finally Hazel…

…the story about a cocky race car ending up in Radiator Springs is my favorite.

George came out of his bedroom to check on me. He sat down on the couch when he noticed what I was watching on television.

We both sat there watching and repeating every funny line in the movie.

And every time at the end when Lightning helps The King finish the race, I start crying.

Since George had a little boy voice, he would say, “Dad is crying again.”

He said it again last night in a big boy voice.

The movie “Cars” belongs next to “The Godfather.” If it is on television, I’ll stop and watch it.

I am still in a reminiscing mood this morning. Yesterday I was listening to the radio and caught a two’fer from REM. The DJ said it has been forty years since “Fables” was released. Then he played “Driver 8.”

Tuesday was a good day. Lightning McQueen and Michael Stipe brought me comfort on a cold night.

Go be astonished

January 14th, 2025

 The Full Moon is blazing across the morning sky. It was the perfect nightlight when I woke up to use the bathroom at one o’clock.

Hazel gave me a crystal for Christmas and she reminded me yesterday to put it out to get recharged.

I’m not sure how she stopped believing in Santa Claus and started believing in this crystal deal, but I’ll go along with it.

Today is National Hot Pastrami Day. A day when I miss working in the loop. The best place for this heart stopper is Manny’s Deli. We would get them delivered to the Board of Trade often. The pits would smell like a Jewish deli.

I also liked walking over to the old Berghoff when they had the carving station in the Stand Up Bar. That is all gone now, but you can get a arugula salad with a tuna and bean sprout wrap.

Bundle up… these next few weeks are going to be cold. Spring will be here before you know it.

I put a smile on the sun today.

Get some full moon and bright sun in your eyes today..

… and ask the DJ to play a couple from your favorite band.

...It is two for Tuesday after all

January 13th, 2025

 The changing of Presidential administrations often brings volatility to the market. We have seen that on our trading floor in the recent weeks.

I was busy Sunday night at seven o’clock when the markets opened for the overnight session. However, it was the three thousand lot that I was working in my dreams this morning that has brought me to this chalkboard.

The trading floor was open for about two and a half months in 2020. Finally closing because of Covid on March 13th, 2020. Those seventy days or so into this truculent new decade enabled me to say that I worked on the trading floor for five decades.

The eighties, the nineties, the zeroes, the teens and the twenties.

I guess I’m pretty lucky to still work on a makeshift floor to this day.

I ended up getting filled on my nightmarish three thousand lot this morning. I think I had an error doing so and woke up quickly. I abruptly went from prices on a quote board to my alarm clock showing 2:47am.

Fortunately errors in a dream only cost about forty-five minutes of sleep and not thousands of dollars.

I miss the trading cards with the blue side for buy and the red side for sell. I miss the raised octagonal shaped trading pits placed inside an open outcry amphitheater. I miss filling orders by word of mouth and not by hitting “enter.”

The computer screen has taken that all away. Standing on a top step and filling three thousand lots only happens in dreams nowadays.

Well, I better stop chalking and go get my trading jacket.

And ironically, my computer down the hall just made a sound that a big trade just occurred.

Buy low in Chicago and sell high in New York. Get long in London and short in Singapore….

Full moon tonight, it is the Wolf moon, so howl loud.

January 12th, 2025

 The last thing I bought at the old Service Merchandise was a kitchen island/Microwave oven stand.

It is a solid piece that came with an ugly hunter green marble top and rolled around on caster wheels.

I was living in Oak Park when I bought it and my girlfriend at the time helped me put it together. It was a three hundred dollar table that I bought for one hundred and six bucks.

Through the years it has labored as a microwave cart, a bar, a side serving table and when my marriage went south, I took it over to the rugby clubhouse kitchen. I was the team cook for a couple years and I needed the extra counter space.

I brought it home to Riverside and it’s been working incredibly as a kitchen island. I have the pots and pans that I use frequently on the shelves and my Boos cutting board lies on the top.

A couple of years ago a corner of the marble cracked off and the rubber on the wheels started disintegrating. It was starting to bother me.

Service Merchandise closed over twenty-three years ago and this thing was starting to show its age.

My cutting board fits just right on the top of the island without the ugly cracked marble. I had Big George hall the stone down to the garbage.

If this was me and my Oldman asked me to throw it away, I would have taken it straight to my room. It was perfect for bouncing quarters off of. Luckily my son isn’t interested in drinking games.

I made some brackets and glued nonskid rubber on the top frame of my island. The cutting board sits nicely inside the makeshift corners.

Yesterday I went over to Menards and bought new caster wheels. I got home and with my electric screwdriver replaced the wheels and now my kitchen island glides quietly across the floor.

The Service Merchandise is now a grocery store and the old Berwyn Car Spindle sculpture that stood in that parking lot is long gone. You know the one… it was featured in a “Wayne’s World” movie.

That was the main feature of my Saturday, putting new wheels on my kitchen island. A sense of accomplishment that was rewarded with a growler from BuckleDown Brewery.

Look at that bottom left hand corner. Take notice that the sunrise is slowly creeping closer to seven o’clock. The sunset is pushing a little quicker than its counterpart toward five o’clock.

Time to answer the call of the wild.

“Dad? Dad? I can’t sleep, will you rub my back” from Hazel.

Which means, soon I’ll be making pancakes for her and her two big brothers. The perfect Sunday morning…

But before I put this piece of chalk down.

I just want to tell you Chalkheads to square your shoulders, bow your neck, place your feet shoulder width and plow through the middle of January with gusto and love.

January 11th, 2025

 It is easy for Sir Anthony Hopkins to say today’s quote. If you mouth off about him, he will cut your liver out and serve it with fava beans and a nice chianti.

I never gave two shits if people talk behind my back. It usually means that I own the original gossiper and being a mealy mouth gives that person a fake sense of security.

What is there really to talk about anyway? My life is an open book and I’m telling the story everyday on my kitchen chalkboard.

My Oldman had a term for gossiping pricks.

“This guy talks like a man with a paper asshole…”

It took me years to finally figure out that this meant the guy was a mealy mouth.

We have all come across mealy mouths in our lives. I’m sure that I am guilty of being a mealy mouth at one point.

Let’s take Sir Anthony Hopkins’ advice and ignore mealy mouths. It is none of our business.

Today is National Milk Day. I’m a whole milk guy myself, which is obvious by the size of my shadow. I had a glass of almond milk when I was married. I’m not married anymore…

…and how the hell do you milk an almond? Is there a nipple on one end of the nut?

Nuts and nipples… probably a good time to stop chalking and get the day started.

I’m really happy about this Notre Dame and Ohio State deal that is in the works for next week. I’ve rooted for both of these teams off and on throughout my life.

I met Woody Hayes when I was a kid and I talk to Mary Christ everyday. Mary never punched anyone, so I will probably root for the Fighting Irish.

Let’s have an astonishing weekend full of nuts and nipples, crock pots and warm blankets.