Thursday, September 8, 2022

September 8th, 2022

    Not much left to be tempted by these days. Yellow lights are always tempting. Cookies are tempting. A glass of bourbon or a cigar.

Free tickets to a Sox game aren’t tempting at this point in the season. Booty calls at 12:42am aren’t tempting with George down the hall and out of town job offers aren’t tempting when you do what you love at a place that you love.
I’m sitting here at 4:00am earwormed with that Squeeze song. You know the one I’m thinking about ! ? ! ?
The temptation of pulling out the crockpot this weekend is huge. Bears kickoff the season and slow cooked meat is calling my name.
Live a little this weekend and flirt with temptation and if it’s a good one…. Call me. I might be tempted to join you……




Wednesday, September 7, 2022

September 7th, 2022

 I have some hindsight now after five years away from marriage. The biggest weakness that I brought to the table was immaturity.

It is a big flaw to admit because it holds you back in all areas in your life. Education, career, relationships….
I look even further in life and I’ll go forty five years to the possible culprit. My parents divorce.
My dad once told me that was when he saw me change. That was when the Altar Boy became a little prick… in his own words.
Due to Don and Cecilia’s failed marriage I changed Catholic Grade Schools several times. I was always jealous of my friends that went to the same school all eight years.
As I got older I realized how
lucky that I was to have met three different groups of friends from three different places.
Fourth and Fifth grade I found myself at Saint Francis de Sales on the Eastside. Long story how we ended up there.
I buddied with a kid named Paul. It was right after my parents divorced. During the thirty months we lived on Avenue E the Cypher family held my fragile hand.
A hard working steel mill family let me eat dinner, sleep over and watch television at their home. They comforted me during that first period of instability in my young life.
Mr. Cypher went to heaven recently and today’s quote was something he said to his family often. It was used in his eulogy.
It just goes to show you how we can touch someone’s life and make it better. In a two year span nearly forty five years ago a family in the parish lent my mom a hand.
That’s the good in the world. RIP Cyph!
Back to the immaturity…. Too late to change. I go to work, I raise my family, I help my friends and I fuck around too much.
I’m your friend with the “I ❤️ Hot Mom’s” sticker on a 1997 Chevy Blazer. Everyone needs a guy like me!
Drink a cold beer today… it’s allowed!





September 6th, 2022

 I always had time to kill after the close when I worked on the trading floor downtown.

It was easier to get 10,000 steps a day in when you can walk out of the front door at 141 West Jackson.
Today would be the day I’d make sure I had my “Four Seasons” CD in my discman. I’d walk over to Buckingham Fountain and listen to a little Tony V and watch Chicago breath.
I had a regular destination throughout my career downtown as well. The stand up bar at Berghoffs, a Tom and Jerry at Millers Pub, a bowl of gumbo at Heaven on Seven or an Old Style and a double cheeseburger at BillyGoat.
Don’t get me wrong… I love getting in Betty the Blazer and being home in twenty minutes. Shopping malls, chain restaurants and theme bars just don’t compare to the Monadnock building or the Rookery.
Hell….I’d even take the Thompson Center over Restoration Hardware.
I guess it’s the passage of life. When you’re in your thirties you can pound five martinis and have a cigar by the time the office people get off work.
“Oh My God! It’s five thirty and all those Board of Trade guys are hammered!”
I’m in my fifties and by 5:30 I’ve watched Jeopardy, taken a nap, finished dinner and cleaned the kitchen.
It’s a new week… the first week of September. The Bears open up on Sunday and it’s two for Tuesday.
It’s a great afternoon to walk down the DesPlaines river and listen to Vivaldi. Stop in the James Joyce for a beer or LaBarra for a cocktail.
George can always “Find my Dad” on his iPhone. He’s like his mother… all I need to do is bring a pizza home by five thirty.




September 5th, 2022

 “Nobody on the road

Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The summer's out of reach
Empty lake, empty streets
The sun goes down alone
I'm driving by your house
Though I know you're not home.”
Cue the Don Henley, it is Labor Day and the days are getting shorter.
I never could understand why Don Henley was so upset about the summer being over, but it wasn’t the summer. It was the tail he was getting that summer.
Maybe she went back to school or moved away to Portland?
Autumn tail is more fun anyway and you get football…
And why in the hell would you put a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac? Though my stepmother wanted to put a Mondale sticker on my dad’s Cadillac in 1984. So things can be worse.
Anyway….. you are earwormed with a great song this morning and yet the boys of summer are still around.
They are around on the Southside torturing their fans with the ultimate letdown. Probably similar to the girl driving around with the top down wearing Wayfarers.
Move along White Sox fans, move along lost love.
What is a good theme song for Autumn?
What comes to mind?
When I think of the fall the first thing I hear is marching band music.
I hear college fight songs! I hear Keith Jackson saying, “Whoa Nellie” and “he’s only a soph o more!”
It is Tailgate season baby, fire pit season, rake the leaves season, sweatshirt season…. It’s time to listen to the little voice inside your head saying, "Don't look back. You can never look back"
The Summer has a fork sticking in its side. No more boobies and bikinis, but something that uses more imagination… the sweater breast!
Write a song about that Mr Henley!



September 4th, 2022

 The flowers on my balcony are tired and weak. Soon their pots will be stacked to the side for the winter darkness.

Yesterday morning George pointed out to me how fast this summer was. Someday I hope I’m around to hear it when he realizes how fast years go by.
If I take really good care of myself I might be able to hear him say,
“Unbelievable how fast the 2040’s flew by!”
Yesterday the boys went to get haircuts and lunch with their grandfather from Hensdale. So Hazel and I went off to find a pet snail.
Yeah, that’s right…. A pet snail.
Just to let you know PetCo and PetSmart don’t carry the MFer’s! So the drama and the meltdown collided in the near Western suburbs of Chicagoland.
“Well can we at least go to McDonalds for lunch?”
This is when I wished I was the kid in the seat and my dad was driving. He’d drive us straight to Gossage Grill. Unfortunately he’s in heaven and Gossage is a taco stand.
I drove to the next best Don Shepley joint…. Parkys on Harlem!
“I don’t want to go here! You’re the worst dad ever!”
I parked the car and dragged the Princess inside for a hotdog. I ordered my hotdog the proper way and I embarrassedly ordered a hot dog for Hazel.
Needless to say I wasn’t an asshole anymore as her majesty bit into the royal hotdog.
Someday Hazel will realize how quickly seasons and years and even decades move along.
I just hope she realizes how hard it was for me to order a hotdog with ketchup on it when she was a kid.
But that’s what dads do for their kids… we sometimes have to break the rules.
Hard to believe tomorrow is already Labor Day. All the things I worried about around the Fourth of July have vanished. So I’m sure the crap bothering me today will be alleviated by Thanksgiving.
Enjoy your Sunday…. Might have to make some Jumbolaya for the Bayou Bengals game tonight!





September 3rd, 2022

 This was the Saturday we all got up early to prepare for the new lineup of cartoons.

“Where are you going with my TV guide and that pen son?”
I’m not the only one that would circle what cartoons to watch. We all did it!!!
All we had was channel 2, 5 and 7 back then for cartoons, but that’s all we needed.
The old cartoons from before we were born were on between 6:30 and 8:00am. Then the schedule planning began. From 8:00 until 11:00am the prime time of cartoons.
Those were the days!
Bowl of cereal followed by another bowl of cereal and if I was lucky my dad bought Entenmann’s at White Hen while I was plotting my cartoon schedule.
After three hours of Scooby, Hong Kong Phooey, Super Heroes and Josie and the Pussycats I’d roll right into Soul Train at 11:00am on channel 9.
That five year time span back in the mid 1970’s was magical.
We are never too old to watch cartoons…. Grab your blanko, your pillow and get ready…. “SpeedBuggy” starts in five minutes.




September 2nd, 2022

     I always thought if I could take a time machine I’d go back to when I was twelve.

Summer before 7th grade… start changing things around during that time in my life. Then things would have been better.
BULLCRAP!
You get the hand you’re dealt with and those are the cards you have to play.
I really should go back even further and just rearrange the whole Ancestry dot com family tree. That would stir things up!
Ah Fuck it!
I know my relationship with God. I have beautiful children and a helluva group of friends.
FOUNDATION: FAITH, FAMILY and FRIENDS.
I drive a 1997 Chevy Blazer with a “I ❤️ Hot Moms” bumper sticker to a job that I love in an industry I’ve been in since the 1980’s. An industry that changed course and my sails were positioned perfectly.
So I’ll pass on the time machine and go with the uncertainty of the future because the past is the past.
Labor Day weekend! Football, fun and food… turn the page from Summer of ‘22 into the Autumn of ‘22 and let’s get it on….




September 1st, 2022

 The ‘ber is on…. We are officially in the ‘ber. September, October, November and December. When it’s all said and done we will be sitting in 2023.

This has always been my favorite part of the year for many reasons. Too many to list.
I woke up earlier than usual because I had to pee. When I laid back down I thought about being the old guy getting up to go pee.
“I’m in the ‘ber months of life!”
Ah what the hell! It’s going to be a gorgeous summer day today!
Enjoy!



August 31st, 2022

 The sunset followed immediately by the crescent moon setting early was a fine ending for Tuesday.

The angles and the path of the sun and the moon are the constant thing we have in life. Everything else is a chapter and an era.
We have our friends, our parents and our children during periods in our lives, but the sun and the moon are there every day from the moment we arrive.... until the moment we leave!
If you can't see the sun and it's angles or the moon and it's shadows... you can't see life.
August is ending in a beautiful fashion. Make sure to eat lunch and or dinner outside today. Tomorrow is the first day of the ‘ber months. Enjoy the sun during these next few months of shadow stretching….




August 30th, 2022

 The one thing I miss about Labor Day weekend is the “Jerry Lewis MD Telethon.” I loved seeing how late I could stay up with my mom and watch the ticker go up on donations.

This one show every early September showed how we can come together and defeat this ugly disease. It gave people hope which gave a chubby little kid hope.
I’d grab a blanket and a couple pillows and my mom would make popcorn and I’d be asleep by 10:30pm. Occasionally waking up and seeing my mommy on the couch watching Sammy Davis singing.
Waking up at breakfast and asking my Ma what the money total climbed to.
Labor Day weekend… it closes one season and opens another. We go from Sox and Cubs to Bears and Blackhawks….
It is going to be a glorious Tuesday…. Sunny and Eighty!
Two For Tuesday