October 17th, 2024

 Today’s quote comes from someone that became famous for improvising.

…and that is what she is saying to us on today’s Morning Chalkboard.

Not only did she improvise on the stage, but she showed the world at the end of her life how to go with the flow and stay strong.

She became famous in life on SNL as a member of the original cast. More importantly she left her legacy after dying from ovarian cancer.

Gilda Radner first made an impact as Roseanne Roseannadanna, but in death she brought awareness for generations to come with her illness. Gilda gave faith to other women going through the same battle.

The most successful people that I’ve met through the years. The happiest people that I’ve met through the years…

…. Are the people that knew how to make the best of it.

Nobody really knows what the fuck is going to happen in life. Take it as it comes and make the best of it.

If you can do that…

… you’ll be alright.

The Full Moon will cross over your piece of the world tonight. The October version is called the Hunter Moon.

But for me it is the one that reminds me to dance and celebrate the ups and downs of life.

Tonight will be a marvelous chance for a moondance with the stars up above and in your eyes.

Tonight is also a fantabulous night to find some romance underneath that October sky.

If only we can dance and improvise like Gilda Radner. Taking the punches in life would be so much easier.

Be astonished, make the best of it and always improvise

October 16th, 2024

 Let’s start Wednesday out with a metaphor… the thorn on a rose.

Life is full of risk and challenges. You have to take a chance if you want your goals and dreams to come true.

I helped my Gramma cut roses in her garden when I was a little boy. I took heed to her warning, but the prettier roses seemed to always be at the back of the bushes.

I wanted to give my mommy the prettiest flower, so getting pricked by the thorns was the price I learned to pay.

My mommy loved her bouquet and that was all that mattered.

The path of life isn’t always smooth and has many detours. Most of the time it’s either under construction or covered with snow.

Just like the thorn on a rose, we may encounter pain on the way.

Today is National Liqueur Day. I’m a huge Frangelico guy myself. I also enjoy a nice Grand Marnier. My dad always brought out a bottle of Licor 43 on special occasions.

My fondest memories from childhood was at My Uncle and Aunties' house outside of Indianapolis. Their house favorite was a liqueur that no longer exists, Cheri-Suisse. It came in a milk white bottle with a long neck and a pointy tip that looked like a Swiss chalet.

One Christmas Eve, Uncle Chris handed me a small cordial glass and sternly told me to sip it.

After that initial sip, I chugged the rest and that was when I realized the importance of an after dinner drink.

Be astonished today, grab the rose carefully and enjoy a nice cordial this evening

October 15th, 2024

 I’m not sure why I took on the challenge of a Freddy Nietzsche quote on a Tuesday morning.

Maybe the German philosopher wants us to let our hair down and enjoy the things that make us happy? It brings into mind the idea of lying in your deathbed questioning if you should have spent less time at work and more time with family.

Never lay in any bed and question yourself!!!

At this point in life I should probably relax and see what the future brings instead of continuing to worry about making sure things fall into place.

This is what we are going to tell Nietzsche.

Life is too short and we spend most of it trying to figure out who the fuck we are and what our purpose is supposed to be. A Tuesday morning is perfect to realize that it’s been YOU this whole time and YOU are doing alright. It is all going to work out in the grand scheme of things.

Tuesday morning never looked so good. Let’s ditch Freddy Nitch and pick up with Freddy Jones. The sun will soon be shining. Take the time to be alone with the sky and enjoy a daydream.

Am I the only one who has realized that Hanukkah and Christmas Day both fall on the same day this year?

Make sure to keep your Menorah candles at a safe distance for your Christmas tree.

Let’s go Chalkheads… Christians, go out and get a menorah. Jews, go get a little Christmas tree. Let’s celebrate ourselves and each other and bring peace into our hearts

Bring peace and astonishment to your Tuesday

October 14th, 2024

 My Oldman had this saying, “The truth is faster.” I had a stage when I lied, but Don Shepley made sure it didn’t last very long.

He had another saying after I lied to him.

“You talk like a man with a paper asshole!”

For years I never knew what the hell he meant by that phrase. I finally figured it out in my early twenties.

It basically means someone is so full of shit, they have to constantly wipe their ass with toilet paper.

I currently have a child in the liar stage and she isn’t very good at it. Her brothers haven’t forgotten that the truth is faster, but she sure has.

Now I can take the low road and start blaming someone for teaching this one Shepkid that it’s alright to lie, but I won’t.

My dad had one more line that he used during my stage as a liar.

He told me liars end up being by themselves. They end up sitting on the couch every night with a bottle or two of wine. Liars end up blaming everyone else for their problems while they continue to live in the past. After a liar has lied to the last person, all they have left to lie to is themselves. They live a lonely life of lies.

That statement had a heavy impact on me forty-five years ago. I hope it had a heavy impact on the Shepkid that heard it yesterday afternoon.

Today is Columbus Day. Since I don’t know any Indians and a huge chunk of my friend base is Italian-American….

…Enjoy your day Paisans, I hope you get your statues back.

To any Native Americans that might be reading the Morning Chalkboard. I hope Cleveland and Washington someday return back to using your names for their sports teams.

I’m just kidding, just kidding!

Just being a Monday morning jagoff talking like a man with a paper asshole.

Stay clear of jagoffs and be astonished

October 13th, 2024

 Today’s quote is by Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese writer and philosopher. The quote captures the spirit of what the Morning Chalkboard has become over seven years.

I’ve opened up and shown Chalkheads that it is alright to be vulnerable. By showing the world who I am, I’ve gotten a better sense of who I am for myself. This fucking chalkboard has become my therapist. Hopefully all the stupid crap I talk about has helped some of you as well.

I’m looking forward to seeing a shit ton of drunk people around ten o’clock this morning. The heavyweights might even roll the early morning Bear game into the afternoon. I kind of like this early kickoff from London, England.

Get the game over early and have the rest of the day for Sunday Funday.

This week brings the middle of October already. In twenty-three days we change the clocks and get three months of sunsets before five o’clock. Which means the Afghan on my couch and I are going to become intimate until mid February.

Enjoy the afternoon walks while you have daylight.

Be astonished and monster the midway baby

October 12th, 2024

  I received an email from the Shepkid's mom yesterday that Fritz will be ready for pick up after work, but Hazel isn’t coming to Riverside until lunchtime on Saturday.

This has been happening more and more lately and it makes me feel sad.

So, I climbed into Betty the Green Blazer and headed west of Mannheim to pick up Fritz only.

I was stuck at the light at Willow Springs road heading west on Plainfield Road. I was about five cars back from the stop light with Amy Winehouse singing on WXRT.

I faintly hear “Dad! Dad! Dad? Dad? Daaaaaaad!”

That sounds like Hazel’s soft, but sometimes harsh little voice. I turn down Betty’s radio and hear it again. Standing in a front yard on Plainfield road is my daughter and a handful of her friends.

On Hazel’s face is a big smile. A smile wider than my rear end and with a little duckling wave I get a “Hi Dad!”

“You okay daughter? You having fun?”

Through that big smile of hers she says, “I’m having fun dad!.!.!”

My sadness went away in a flash of joy seeing my Hazel smiling and having fun.

The light turned green and the cars started to slowly move….

In my booming Chicago Board of Trade open outcry voice…. “HAZEL!”

Sheepishly replying, “yeah dad…..”

“I LOVE YOU HAZEL!”

Off she ran behind a big bush as all her friends stared with big smiles at the old guy sitting in his green blazer driving into the late afternoon sun. As I drove away I can still hear the group giggling as I imagined my daughter looking back at her friends…

“Oh my God! Is my dad gone? He is so embarrassing!”

Yes, embarrassment was my initial intention, but so was the seed that I planted.

I love my daughter, her sixth grade friends now know Hazel’s dad loves her and someday when I being waked…

… those little girls will walk up to Hazel and remind her when they saw Mr. Shepley in Betty the Green Blazer back in sixth grade. They’ll recall how their friend was embarrassed when her dad shouted that he loved her. Hazel’s grief will ease as she remembers how much her daddy loves her.

I drove off in my twenty-seven year old vehicle feeling wealthy. I was given the gift of seeing a happy daughter. Hell yes it’s more fun at eleven to be with friends rather than stinky old dad. I’m good with that because I just want my daughter to be happy.

Today is National Farmer’s Day. The American Farmer is literally the salt of the earth. Baseball and corn crops are the two consistent things that we can lean on every summer.

Thank you for the hard work!

A stranger lately to the Morning Chalkboard appears today, raindrops.

I am always astonished by an autumn rainstorm

October 11th, 2024

 There was a shit ton of Jews working on the trading floor back in the day. It was noticeable on Yom Kippur when they were gone.

Yom Kippur is their holiest of all days. It is the day of atonement. My Oldman explained to me when I was a kid that it was like going to confession all day long. Catholics had to go confess anytime they sinned. Jews only had to go once a year and they didn’t have to say twenty Hail Mary’s when they got home.

When the Jews would return to the pits the next day, we’d tell them about the kegs that we had placed around the floor. We had sexy girls walking around handing out sandwiches and appetizers.

I took it even farther and told my Jewish buddies that “Kool and the Gang” set up a stage next to the bond option pit.

It’s going to be a slow trading day with all the Jews gone, let’s have a good time and celebrate.

Kegs in every pit, dessert tables, mini bars, sculptured ice and the Rockettes dancing around handing out Polish sausage sandwiches.

I fucking loved Yom Kippur at the Chicago Board of Trade. It was like that Eddie Murphy skit on SNL when he became white for a day.

Schlomo, Ari, David, Ira and Adam all knew that we took the liberty of bullshitting them. I miss those fucking guys.

Trading slowly faded away on the floor and like a canary in the coal mine, the Jews slowly disappeared.

I look back at the last day we traded at the Chicago Board of Trade, March 13th in 2020. The floor was going to close for a couple weeks for Covid, but it never opened back up.

We should have had a keg and a smorgasbord that day, but everyone was paranoid about this China flu thing that was closing everything down.

I wish my Jewish friends a peaceful and healthy Day of Atonement.

May we all be astonished and atoned today… Shana Tovah

October 10th, 2024

 I let Hazel pick out the quote for today’s Morning Chalkboard. She picked out a line from a song by Lil Peep.

I Googled this Lil Peep character.

The things we do for our children.

Today’s Chalkboard will be the only one ever to have a Lil Peep quote.

lil Peep and Hazel might be foreshadowing the next few months of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.

You never know where you’ll be in the next minute….

Let’s get through this week and hope our Floridian Friends make it through safely.

Be astonished and be ready for a quick change.

October 9th, 2024

 All of the now’s pile up and create who we are. It is funny what now’s we remember the most and remember them on a regular basis.

Many now’s are good and the bad now’s have a big pile as well. It is the obscure now’s that make you scratch your head and wonder why you thought about that just now.

A now from 1974 or a now from 1989. I can remember a now from thirty years ago, but ask me about a now from earlier this year and I’m clueless.

Many people and places that I shared now’s with are gone, but there are people and places not yet known that will make future now’s.

Every now and then something good happens. Every now and then something bad happens.

What do you want to do now?

Discovering now’s makes life worth living.

Now I need to put my pants on and start Wednesday the ninth of October and prepare for some now’s.

Now is the time to be astonished

October 8th, 2024

 Today is National Pierogi Day.

The Polish have given us the Q-tip, Pope John Paul II, Chopin, clean homes and walkie talkies…

…but their biggest contribution is that fluffy little pillow of flavor.

Have a plate of pierogis and be astonished

October 7th, 2024

 Be strong, Be strong and we will be strengthened.

Every August I have a nervous friend who has a child going to Lollapalooza for the first time.

They a worried about the heat. They are worried about the drug usage. They are worried about fighting, booze and sexual misconduct. Letting your child go into the city with tens of thousands of people is a tough decision.

Now let’s think about Lollapalooza getting attacked by Islamic terrorists?

A year ago today a bunch of parents sent their children to a music festival in Israel. They never saw theme again.

I don’t have the courage today to be astonished. There isn’t a smile on the sun today. October 7th is a day of pain.

Have courage today

October 6th, 2024

 I’m not getting heavy into hatred on a Sunday morning. Hatred is the ugliest device owned by mankind.

Hatred has been around before we showed up and will be here well after our departure.

Try not to hate and don’t worry if someone hates you.

That’s enough about hate…

I was surprised at how warm yesterday turned out. Eighty degrees in October is like a ninety-five degree day in July. Not happy that I didn’t GoldBond up. My hip hop thighs are a little chafed with me today.

Today should be a tad more comfortable. Bears are on the gridiron today against an expansion team.

Bear Down and be astonished

October 5th, 2024

 The other day I celebrated the fourth anniversary of my Oldman going to Eternal Peace. I put 31,003 on the Morning Chalkboard that day. 31,003 was how many days my dad lived.

I thought about 31,004 days. What if I outlive my Oldman by one day?

That would get me to May 20th of 2051. That would be about six weeks shy of my eighty-fifth birthday.

That gives me twenty-six more years of suffering through White Sox baseball and Bears football.

It also gives me twenty six years of making dreams become reality.

What are my dreams?

I’m not one of those “I’m leaving Illinois once my kids are out of college” guys. I don’t want to move to Arizona or Florida for retirement. It’s fucking hot in those places. They have deadly snakes and spiders all over the fucking place.

I don’t mind going through a blizzard every six or seven years. I don’t want to move somewhere that has one hundred and ten degree days for fifty days in a row. I also don’t need to go somewhere that has hurricanes every year.

My dream is right here in the state, the county, the city I was born in 21,281 days ago.

I do dream about traveling….

I’d like to visit France and see the Eiffel Tower. I’d like to take a train around Great Britain from the tip of England to the top of Scotland.

I’d like to take a Winnebago from Chicago and travel across the northern states to Montana. Mozy down through Utah into the southwest and drive back east through Texas and Louisiana. Turn back north towards the Appalachians and visit Civil War Memorials out east. Then point my way back home through southern Indiana and back to Sweet Home Chicago.

Do I risk driving all those miles through parts of the country I’ve never been to? I have 9,723 days to get all of this done.

Before I set off on all of these dreams, I still need to build the foundation of dream makers that call me dad.

Right now I need to quit dreaming and put my pants on. Betty the Green Blazer needs gas. I need groceries, run errands and complete chores.

I also have a shit ton of people that I need to pray for....

mommies in iowa, boobs on the ohio river, brains at 16th and Capital, neighbors on the block, jojo’s in dupage, gramma’s in westchester, uncles in indiana, jayhawks west of mannheim, cousins in hometown…

…and a text I received from a friend at 1:36am. Texting me that he was being admitted into the hospital and asking that I talk to my heaven people for him.

I have 9,723 days of astonishment, risk taking and dream making.

So let’s get it on and get some astonishing in today.

October 4th, 2024

 I’m just happy it’s Friday morning. Let’s learn something new this weekend.

Be astonished

October 3rd, 2024

 “I always feel like somebody's watchin' me”……

That was a line from a one hit wonder in the mid eighties.

I have that feeling though. It isn’t a paranoid feeling, but more of a calm intuition.

Who is watching me?

Dead people!

People who I’ve known that have left for heaven can tune into my life whenever I think about them.

It’s a great way to kick grief to the curb and keep loved ones in your heart.

I think it all started with my parents telling me Santa can see all the dumb shit I was doing, God can see it as well. Then my Grampa died when I was young and he was watching everything that I was doing.

So fuck it!

If you knew me and are in heaven, you can see everything I do…

…and if you want to, you can stand right next to me while I’m doing stupid shit.

Before my Oldman died, he told me he was going to slap my ass the first time he sees me having sex from heaven.

“Moose… I’m going to be very careful not to embarrass the poor girl stupid enough to climb into bed with you, but when I’m in heaven and you’re in the sack having sex…

... I’m going to slap your big ass and let you know I’m watching you.”

So I’m walking around every day with God watching me. I have Santa Claus watching me. My Guardian Angel, Grampa John and his wife are watching me. My mom watches me and my dad is fucking with me.

Not to mention other family members and friends up in heaven watching down over me.

Who has fucking time to grieve the loss of loved ones when they never left?

Four years ago today my Oldman jumped on the Rock Island for heaven. The last thing he muttered to me was…

“You are a magnificent son of bitch…”

Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep. Early the next morning he went to heaven. Later that next afternoon he popped in and let me know that he was settled in.

I don’t mourn death. I don’t grieve loss. I watch what I do and try not to be a jagoff…

… because I have a feeling,somebody’s watching me!

It is going to be a gorgeous Thursday.

Go for a walk and be astonished.

Stop, turn around and catch a glimpse of all the angels walking close behind.

After reading today’s Morning Chalkboard you are going to be like that kid from “The Six Sense.”

I see dead people

October 2nd, 2024

 Humpday….

I just wrote five hundred words about my frustrated Tuesday. When I read them back, I got more frustrated and erased all five hundred words.

I’ll take the advice of today’s quote and replace the frustration with inspiration. It is perfect that today is the day of the year where poetry is used randomly.

A day where you pull some Shakespeare out of your ass or some Walt Whitman. Frost is always good and so is the weird poet, E.E. Cummings.

The one that most of us had to memorize is the infamous line from Macbeth… “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.”

It pretty much summarized the frustration Macbeth himself was going through on a Tuesday in October.

Here is my random act of poetry,

“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.”

I once could recite that whole thing. I couldn’t do it this morning.

No frustration today, just astonishment

October 1st, 2024

 Tuesday morning, never looked so good.

About the quote today…

…live and learn.

Make a mistake and look at it as a lesson in life. My Oldman would make a mistake and say that he’s working on his PHD in Dumbassitry.

Happy 100th birthday to the President of the United States from 1977 to 1981.

It is the first day of October already or like The Loop/97.9fm always called it, Rocktober.

It’s two for Tuesday on the first day of Rocktober.

“Let’s hear a two spot from ZZ Top followed by a couple from Lynyrd Skynyrd on the only station that knows how to rock Chicago!”

Be astonished and let’s rock hard today