January 31st, 2022

 I have friends moving to Florida, Texas, Arizona and even Colorado.

“I’m tired of the cold weather!”

Or

“I can’t deal with any more commutes in the snow!”

Or

“I’m fed up with these crooked Illinois politicians!”

Since the early iPod days I’ve walked over to a park bench near Buckingham Fountain four times a year.

I sit down and play Vivaldi. I do it in the Spring, I do it in summer, autumn and especially Winter.

Usually in winter it happens after a couple “Tom and Jerry’s” at Miller’s Pub.

I do this because the music I listen to is called “Four Seasons.”

I do it because my hometown is beautiful at whatever angle the sunlight captures it.

The only time in my life I was away from Chicago I did everything possible to get back to Chicago.

Leave for warm weather and beaches? (Overcrowded and Hurricanes)

Leave for better politics and warmer weather? (Snakes and really hot summers)

Leave for warm weather and the desert? (Spiders and No CTA)

Leave for the mountains and laid back living? (Potheads and no grid system)

I will stick with cold and snow in The winter. The cold and snow in the spring. The construction and construction in the summer and bad football and no baseball in October every fall.

Because home is where the heart is…….

It’s also where hot dogs have mustard, pizzas are served in taverns, the streets are flat and have no curves and the lake offers gorgeous sunrises.

The news this morning is working this snow possibility Starting Tuesday thru Friday.

Maybe we should just wimp out and move?

The next line after todays quote is…. "You only truly, deeply appreciate and are grateful for something when you compare and contrast it to something worse." Steinbeck

January 30th, 2022

 The definition of humility is standing in front of a urinal with cold hands.

Parenthood has been a lesson in humility. Starting at a wedding that for some reason we brought a three month old George to the church. I look down and spit up plastered the lapel of my suit.

The first week of February has arrived. Nothing better than a snowstorm to make us humble!

The Year of the Tiger starts this week as well. It’s a year of recovery and healing…. So we have that going for us!

Sunday Funday! Be humble!

I’ve gotta go make pancakes for the Shepkids…..

January 29th, 2022

 I think the only thing I’m scared of these days is if my car doesn’t start in the morning.

….And what makes us wise?

Being philosophical? Being able to debate well? Being diplomatic?

I think wisdom is knowing the lineup for the 1977 Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs.

I think wisdom is knowing where you came from.

I think wisdom is having knowledge of historical events.

I think wisdom is knowing what your body is telling you.

I think wisdom is remembering song lyrics to songs nobody knows.

I think wisdom is deciphering the Chicago grid system….

and knowing where all the good hotdog and pizza joints are located on that grid system.

I think wisdom is knowing when the sunrise and sunset will be today….. 7:06am and 5:02pm.

Lastly, wisdom is a combination of book smart and street smart.

If you have both you have the world and you’ll conquer all fears that you might face.

There are early predictions that we are going to have some snow this week.

A Groundhog Day Blizzard?!?!

Just another opportunity to make chili in your crockpot and love in your bed…. And possibly shovel a foot of snow! Maybe two feet….

I want the Bengals and I want the 49ers…. They played each other forty years ago in XVI.

One last thing about wisdom (or lack of)…. I can name the first twenty five Superbowl champions, but couldn’t tell you who won the last five.

That’s either old age or “who gives a shit anymore.”

January 28th, 2022

 I have a PhD in Stupidity. My education in mistakes has been something that always came easily.

       I can hear my dad saying I have a horseshoe stuck up my backside. Because things have always turned out alright.
                                   Live and Learn Baby!
           It is the last weekend of January 2022. One month in the books.
     Sunsets after 5:00pm and in about five weeks we move the clocks ahead.
            Lake-Effect snow will make for a messy morning commute. Take it easy and or leave early.
          It is blueberry pancake day. Brokers Inn made the best that I ever tasted. Just another restaurant that no longer exists.
             Shepkids weekend and I happily become a short order cook!
      Don’t be afraid to do stupid things. Just make sure you act your age…

A letter to Leanne S.

 Dear Leanne,

     Whenever I hear 'six o'clock already and I was just in the middle of a dream, I was kissing Valentino by a crystal blue, Italian stream." I think of you.... 

          "John Shepley, what do you want to do with the rest of your life?" was the question you poised to me when the markets were loud and we were naïve. I didn't have a firm answer and you continued your life making yourself better as I stood back in the chaos of bids and offers.

     We continued to cross paths in the prairie that Frank Lloyd designed and the buildings near the lake. You would ask me the same question and I still didn't have the answer that you wished for. The real world moved along and our paths still ran parallel through the last years of the twentieth century. 

    The decade of the nineties was nearing an end and my answer to your question was starting to become more clear and more stable. We crossed paths one last time before the havoc of Y2K arose. 

  Your trust in me was stronger with the façade I hid behind which gave you the stability that you wanted from me. Something I did not possess the decade before and I still did not have. 

   We finally kissed.... we finally held each other and brightened the stars above and gave passion to time. I was given purpose and someone to thrive to satisfy and make happy. That was you Leanne..

  The night finally came when we would celebrate the New Year, a new beginning. The neighbor told me you waited at the door for me as I sat alone at the pub. Smoking a cigar and drinking beer hiding from a future with you.

  "Don't you have somewhere to go, someone to be with?" asked the bartender. I waited just long enough for you to drive away in shame. Angry....knowing that John Shepley still doesn't know what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

    The years passed into the twenty first century and I stumbled into a beautiful family. A family started with the next woman that asked me what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I gave her an answer that satisfied her. Our love was built on sand and gave way to the tide.

   I still didn't have the answer, but I had three children that trusted and loved me. I also still lived in a world with manic Mondays and YOU. 

   The next time we talked you didn't ask me what I wanted to do with my life. You didn't ask me why I left you there pounding at the door while I hid. You still gave me value that I didn't deserve. 

   Leanne, our lives might have come together going into the next millennium, but I never had the strength to give it the chance you deserved. It was probably for the better.

   I ask for your forgiveness and I will truthfully answer that I don't know what I plan on doing with the rest of my life. I do know I regret not letting you better my world when the opportunity was given to me.

    I will always tingle when I think of your oval eyes and wide smile when you say my name.

 You make the world a place full of song with sunny prairies and in the center is a cluster of shade trees that I lost on a cold New Years Eve...

   Forever ashamed that I didn't give you the right answer, but grateful to share a moment with you. If our paths cross again and you offer a hand to hold, I will hold it tight and never let go. 

           I hope someday to walk into the auditorium that your voice fills with song.

   
             John Shepley

January 27th, 2022

 My Oldman often said the two biggest gifts a man can receive in his lifetime is the trust of a child and the love of a woman…. “Don’t f*** that up son!”

It’s never to late to care for someone…

Life isn’t complete until the last breath fills your lungs. You can still get things done. You can always care for someone….

Why do you think you keep having that same dream?

The dream where you forget the combination to your high school locker. You are standing there in your underwear and you still go to a Catholic high school!

Completely out of the school uniform… You are looking at five detentions if You don’t get this locker open and get dressed.

Suddenly you wake up… you are fifty five years old… you are on the couch… it’s a Sunday afternoon and the credits are running for a movie you just slept through.

First thing I thought was…. “Whoa, That was a close call!”

I gotta pick the kids up after school on Monday. I can’t get a detention!

No way would their mother believe the text message,

“I got a F’ing detention for dress code violation and have to write the “Our Father” 250x and can’t get kids Monday.”

I keep having that dream as a reminder that it is never to late to keep succeeding.

Keep your clothes on. Don’t forget how to unlock your locker and try to get to class on time.

January 26th, 2022

 Guilty as charged…

The thing is my judgement doesn’t mean a thing and the way people judge me doesn’t either.

….let’s not confuse using good judgement with being captious of others. One is good, one isn’t.

Thirty six years ago today. Thirty six years ago today?

Buddy Ryan’s Chicago Bears won Superbowl XX…

2022 to 1986 has been a lifetime that seems like yesterday.

In 1986 if I thought about 36 years ago it would have been 1950. Now that’s a clip of time I can’t fathom. Biden to Reagan, Reagan to Truman…. Our time on earth really isn’t long at all.

January 25th, 20222

 It is three degrees this morning and the last thing I’m going to try and figure out is how and where my soul is going.

I don’t even know where I’ll be this Spring. So I have no clue where my soul has been nor where it plans on going.

I was born just after Vatican II and in the heat of the Civil Rights movement.

As a little boy I went to mass and Father told me I had a dove in my chest. Well I had a Holy Spirit in my soul and my parents told me My soul was in my heart.

As a little boy I watched a show every Saturday called “SoulTrain.” I don’t know why a chubby white kid preferred Don Cornelius over Dick Clark? I did know that black people had better music and cool hair.

Soul to me is a bird that Jesus arranged for his father to give me. It is also Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone and The Gap Band.

I wish I had a rendition of the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary” sung by Marvin Gaye. Just like he did the National Anthem at the NBA all star game in 1983… that would be spiritual for damn sure.

Today is Robert Burns birthday. This is big if you are a Scot. I’ll pass on the Haggis dinner tonight… many of us hangout with Bobby every New Years Eve.

Stay warm these next couple days… it’s almost February!

January 24th, 2022

 The times we are living in have placed more weight upon our shoulders. Stress has been growing heavier the last few years.

If the stress is caused by your own doing…. Correct it.

If the stress is caused by something that you can’t control…. Two tears in the bucket, Mother F*** it!

Climb the mountains in your life and turn a challenge into an accomplishment…

Easier said than done?

Hell yes it is!

We are sliding into the end of January…. It’s January, it’s supposed to be cold and snowy!

This too shall pass….

…just like the problems that you are carrying right now!

Don Shepley always said, “the things we worry about

Today we will laugh about in six weeks!”

Using hindsight the oldman was spot on.

Maybe not six weeks, maybe not six months…. But when you put the mountain down and jump over it…. Well … it sure feels better!

I’d love to see Cincinnati versus San Francisco! Forty years ago these two teams met in Superbowl XVI.

Forty years ago? Seems like yesterday and all the mountains I was carrying in 1982 are now part of my foundation.

January 23, 2022

 I just erased three paragraphs of things we don’t need to harp on this morning.

The quote is by Maya Angelou… read it, think about it and if you’d like… tell me the feelings Maya stirred in you!

I have tulips in my vase, ribs in my oven, a growler of BuckleDown in my icebox and my Gramma’s Afghan keeping my big ass warm on a snowy Sunday morning.

Carry on and Sunday Funday!

January 22nd, 2022

   Am I the only one that took the direction of a band from Athens, Georgia?

      The last ten years or so I’ve been caught saying that I’ve lost my religion, but my Faith in God has become stronger.
        I haven’t totally lost my religion. I’ve become a regular at 9:30 Mass….. on WGN.
When a guy asks me what parish I’m at I reply, Saint Beads of the Broadcast.
        I think mass started becoming “Look at Me, Look at Me! Front pew baby!”
                                     When really…..
      Going to mass is opening your front door and making everyone you encounter during the day feel better.

      Faith….. no matter how strong it is will always be questioned. That’s why it’s called the mystery of our Faith.
  If you used Logic… the foundation of your Faith would start getting chipped away.
And Logic?
          I started using Logic in 1979 when another band… this one from London told me “There are times when all the world's asleep, The questions run too deep for such a simple man!”

     We might get a little snow here and there…. Betty my Blazer needs a bath! She’s real salty these days.

                                     I leave you with one last question.
 

         Have any of you a clue what the hell Pretty young things do with a tenderoni?
Can you put it on a pizza?

January 21st, 2022

 Let it play out!

Stand to the side if you can’t control the situation.

My long johns were not very happy when I pulled them out of the drawer this morning. It’s always this time of year the stress in our relationship is high.

Playoff Football! Crockpots! Riverside Foods has St. Louis ribs on sale this weekend!

Sunsets are getting closer to five o’clock….

Breaking News!!!! Meatloaf is Dead. I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that…

I would even put ketchup on a hot dog for love….. until your fourteen.

So I guess I won’t do that!

January 20th, 2022

 My Oldman often said that I was going to make mistakes in life.

“You better learn from your mistakes and it better not cost ME any money son!”

It was always the end of the world when I made a mistake around my mom.

“Oh my God! You did what?”

Life experience grows every year we spin around the sun. I make mistakes every week. When I was young I made mistakes ever hour.

Most of you were witness during many of my life experiences….

Don’t be so hard on yourself. Act your age and climb into bed every night with accomplishment.

It really wasn’t bad coming into work this morning. Though I wasn’t waiting for the CTA at the Oak Park Congress el platform. Those were some cold mornings.

Cheese lovers day today! I love cheese, but I’ve been standoffish with our relationship since the night I burnt my Areola at a Fondue party!

January 19th, 2022

 My dad and I planted a tree in the front yard in 1984. We started putting Christmas lights on the branches in 1989. We did so every year until the tree got to tall.

The last couple years my dad put a hook on the end of an old basement stair railing and we used that to get the lights to the top. I’d do anything to stand out in the cold and have my Oldman bitch at me.

Today our tree is taller than the old house and adds shade to the front yard. My dad didn’t plan on helping the current owner with saving on his electric bill on hot summer days, but he did.

I drive by 220 South Lombard every once in awhile to see how she is doing. The poor bastard who bought it paid too much, but someday he will find a hidden treasure.

167 Old Style bottles are hidden behind the plaster wall in the basement. Circa 1986…. The grenade type bottles that we all cut

our teeth on as underage drinkers.

Time is complete when you’ve seen the life

Of a tree….

Bundle up, temps are dropping today!

Spring is 60 days away!!!

January 18th, 2022

 Man of few words today.

Cloud cover hid the Wolf Moon all night and into the morning.

Enjoy the mild day today because another winter blast is approaching.

We are already on the downslide into February.

The sunsets are getting later and in six weeks we change the clocks.

January 17th, 2022

 If I had a DeLorean that traveled in time I’d go three places.

I’d go back and make sure Alois and Klara Hitler didn’t have a baby Adolph.

I’d climb in bed with Marilyn Monroe the night the Kennedy’s had her killed.

…..AND

The last thing of historical change that I would do is make sure today wasn’t made a National Holiday over thirty years ago.

Don’t scratch your head!

I would have walked up the stairs of the Lorraine Motel to tell Martin that his speech the day before was spectacular.

In doing so I would have positioned Jesse Jackson between Dr King and James Earl Ray.

Could you imagine the world if MLK lived into the 1990’s?

I’m going with the answer….

BETTER!

So no “Green eggs and Ham” on SNL in 1988 and no 3 day weekend in the middle Of January.

Tough shit! You can’t go down to Fort Meyers for a quick trip, but in return we would never have heard of Rodney King!

As for my other two visits…. I can only imagine how Mo Betta things would be without a swastika!

And the night with Marilyn…. Well….I’m under the sheets and the Kennedy’s walk into the bedroom!

“Hello Jack! Hello Bobby! I voted for Nixon!”

No Lee Harvey…. no Sirhan Sirhan!

I just eliminated three historical assassins, stopped cousins from having sex in Austria-Hungary and made love to a famous movie star in front of the dead Kennedy’s!

I’ll finish this book report with a quote from the Blue Oyster Cult, “History shows again and again

How nature points out the folly of men….”

Godzilla!

January 16th, 2022

 I woke up this morning to “Dad, do you have a tissue?”

That is definitely a good way to wake up!

Its even better than, “John, I’m going to put my clothes on and make us some bacon.”

Now that I’m happy I need to make a bunch of you happy and then

You pass it forward.

It’s kind of like that commercial when we were kids….

“I told two friends and they told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on and so on…..”

My mom would turn the sound down when that commercial came on. She also hated when Tattoo would ring the bell and yell, “de plane, de plane!”

You light one candle and that one candle can light many more. Sister Francis Irene said this in second grade.

Most kids in class saw this as how Jesus started out the whole Christian thing and why We had to get up and serve 7:15am mass.

I saw it as an excuse to go home and play with matches in the alley.

Speaking of Jesus…. Our Jewish brothers and sisters had a horseshit Saturday. Give them a call. Let them know we are with them!

Hatred and Terrorism just love to blow out our candles!

….buy a bigger box of matches and make Sister Francis Irene happy!

Speaking of happy….. talk around the campfire is Forest Park is having the Saint Patrick Day Parade on Saturday, March 5th!

Shepkids will be with their MomMom that weekend and I’m buying a new blue ribbon to wear under my kilt!

See you at Shanahans!

January 15th, 2022

 I don’t know what the hell normal is…. 98.6?

These poor kids today can’t hold a thermometer to the lightbulb when mom leaves them alone anymore.

You stick the thing in their ear and five seconds later….. they are either normal or running a fever!

Most of us had 105 degree fevers before we figured out how to hold the thermometer just right to the lamp on our nightstand.

I got it down to a science….. the 101.3 to 102.2 range.

Anything under 101.3 and you’re going to school! It was the 1970’s and if you weren’t dying the nuns expected your ass at your desk.

Anything over 102.2 and your mom knew You were trying to jag her around.

I know many of you that are reading this are not normal. Many of you are eclectic, weird, spiritual and theatrical on a daily basis.

How cool is that?

This whole Covid thing has given us alone time or cocoon time to spring out into a post Covid era with a different attitude!

Explore new things… take chances…. Step out of the box!

The day will come!

The day will come and it’s going to be amazing!

This second wave gives us another opportunity to challenge ourselves!

Walk down the avenue and sing show tunes!

That is what I’m going to do!

I’m going to walk over to the grocery singing “If I were a rich man” from Fiddler on the Roof!

Other than that…… put something good in the crockpot and someone you love in your arms….

January 14th, 2022

 The Morning Chalkboard is a late edition today.

I hit the snooze, I talked to my parents, I stared hard at my Farrah Fawcett poster too long and before I knew it…. I ran out without taking a picture of my quote….

Now I’m getting dinner together for the Shepkids and I’m all discombobulated…..

So….. sometimes we have sad periods in our lives. We get kicked in the throat by an event and we start a downhill trend….

Cry…. It’s good to cry…. Then pick

Your ass up and keep on truckin’!

Straight F’s in Life….

FOUNDATION: FAITH- FAMILY- FRIENDS

Things always get better… I mean…. Shit…. Our time here is limited….. skip the rainbow and run for the sun baby!

Blackhawks are a perfect example of the ups and downs of life…. Lose 6, win 4, lose 5, win 2…… take the good days and deal with the bad!

That’s what the snooze bar, praying and Farrah Fawcett are there for…. To take the stress away!

January 13th, 2022

 In August of 2006 my life changed for the better. I was forty years old and I finally became a man. I became a father.....

I was given the gift of a son. A son that was high maintenance right off the bat. I didn't know any better because I was new at this parent thing.

He walked right away, he talked right away (loud and quickly), he was reading right away....

He was also having difficulty sleeping every night, he was putting playground chips in his mouth all the time, he was taking off his itchy clothes all the time and he was pushing his mother and I to our limits all the time.

We couldn't find the right daycare or a perfect babysitter and the stress was getting thick around the house.

One day I told a guy at work that I was starting to understand why crackheads throw their crying babies out of six floor windows.

My ex wife tried homeopathic methods, she tried diets, she tried everything. She found therapists. She got him an IEP and that was a blessing. Finally we took him to get tested.

When the Doctor told us our son was on the Autistic Spectrum my ex wife started crying. "Mrs. Shepley.... the halls at Northwestern and the University of Chicago are full of kids Like George!"

I have watched George go from being a boy on the spectrum to becoming a young man on the spectrum. He has watched me grow older as well.

Many of us have a Special Needs Child. From Autism to Downs Syndrome to Diabetes.

The thing is these are not handicaps... these are lights that shine differently.

We all belong in a category..... all with different challenges.... all with endless possibilities.

Parenthood brings the joy and pain of watching our children grow and without knowing it our children are watching us grow as well.

I hear my dad everyday say, "Did you give them a good example before you blew your top?"

I wonder where he came up with that brilliant theory..... Live and Learn!

Our job as Parents is to leave the world a better us.... I'm better than Don Shepley and George will be better than me....

Monday night everyone should go out and howl at the full moon!

January 12th, 2022

 I’ve met a lot of guys that were born on third base, but thought they hit a triple. Born in to a family that had more advantages than others.

I wasn’t born on third base. In fact I had to take the el to the ballpark and when I got there….. nosebleed seats.

For most of my formative years I lived with my mom. She was a very sad person. Always looking at the past with disappointment and the future with doubt and fear. Not a healthy situation to live in.

Definitely not third base looking at home plate.

My mom could have gone to The Julliard School, but instead went into the family business….. the convent.

Yep, my mom was a nun for five years.

I’ll never know the real story on that decision, but it haunted her for the rest of her life.

So when it came to me and my perspective I learned to leave the anger of disappointment in the past and push forward towards a bright future.

Sometimes I walked myself into a shitshow, but it didn’t stop me and I kicked the crap off my shoes and moved on….

Life doesn’t have to be a thread of hope. It’s a rope and we are playing Tug of War.

Grip hard and angle your fat ass so to have a strong position and control of the momentum of life.

Kiss a Ginger Day! I have the Shepkids on Wednesdays. So I’ll have that chance.

Little warm up in Chicagoland…. The line at the car wash will be long!

January 11th, 2022

       I worked on a trading floor for five decades. Well…. I snuck the last decade in with two and a half months. Then Covid closed it down, but technically five decades.

     If I learned anything it was how to walk through a fire. It was a chaotic work place where you learned to manage time, maneuver markets and catch whatever was thrown at you.

                           We don’t walk through fire very often in life.
                            Though….
    Last month some of us had tangled Christmas tree lights. How did you deal with it?
    Did you go to O’hare for a flight only to find out it was canceled? How did you handle it?
     You are late for work and the train gates just went down….How did you get through it?
These are examples of walking through a fire. Did we come out calm or come out frustrated?

       Yesterday I posted a picture of a peanut butter and jelly smooshed with potato chips. It touched more people than I thought and evoked childhood memories for so many. I was surprised at how many of you guys posted happy stories.
               I also told a story that Took place in 1982.
         So let’s evoke more memories and go back to 1982…
   Olivia Newton John had the number one single. We had a Polish pope. A former actor was our President and Maggie was the Prime Minister.
1982…. A different world!
               Enjoy the later sunset and the rise in temperatures…. Slightly, but something to build a dream on! 

Catholic school lettuce!

Peanut butter and jelly with potato chips!

Monday Lunch!