October 22nd, 2021

 Everybody’s working for the weekend… it’s going to be sweater weather! Do you have your costume picked out for next weekend?

Yesterday was the last day with a 6:00pm sunset until next March. We are knee deep in Autumn of ‘21…

Not much more to say again today…. The quote is from John Coltrane…. ‘Trane nails it!
“So completely, but yet so gently!” That’s all I need!

One last thing…. Between the Bears and Blackhawks….. I’ll be watching a ton more of that British Baking show this season!

October 21st, 2021

 Today is the last Sunset at or after 6:00pm until March of 2022

A rainbow quote without unicorns? Well it’s more a smile quote than anything.

I’m a man of few words today so I’m going to go into the day following the remnants of the full moon into work.

Red Sox have had a couple bad losses and the biggest Boston fan I know went to heaven recently….. someone call them up and tell them to be WAGStrong!

October 20th, 2021

 I woke up and thought to myself, “Christ! It’s already October 20th!”

Even though some of these days have seemed to drag painfully….they are stacking up quickly.
In early April I celebrated my 20,000 day on earth and today is already my 20,200 day.
If you remember at the beginning of summer I said that if I’m lucky I’ll have 30 great summers left…. Well now it’s 29 summers.

I don’t want you to read this chalkboard and bring negativity away from it. I just want to emphasize that like sand through an hourglass….. so are the days of our life!

Backpack, Backpack

I wrote this on 10/19/2018

In the last three years Covid has come and changed things up. It closed the trading floor that I worked on for five decades, 1980's through early 2020's. I no longer take the train into the Loop, but drive my 1997 Chevy Blazer to Oakbrook Terrace. It's a pleasant change at this point in my career.  My trading jacket hangs on the back of a chair collecting dust. Also, my Dad passed away so my memories of him have a deeper meaning. He's gone with the last roll of CTA tokens.......

 I bought a backpack.... I’ve never really carried a backpack to work on a regular basis. I always was the satchel guy.... briefcase guy!

I was pretty lucky when I first started working in the loop. I’d walk over to the Lake Street elevated Ridgeland stop with my dad. He carried a briefcase and looked uncomfortable.
This is back in the day you’d buy a roll Of CTA tokens. He’d grab the Times and the Trib throw it in his briefcase and give the old guy in the booth his token. “Good morning Donald, you got your bodyguard with you this morning!” Everywhere we would go everyone knew my dad. Barbershop, the diner, the bank, the post office and the White Hen.
So I put a lunch in the front compartment.... no the second front compartment. My Cheater glasses, my keys, my flashlight and a couple pens are in the front. I slid a water bottle in one side holder and my coffee traveler in the other one. My tablet, and pad of paper and my library book are in the biggest compartment. I don’t know what I’ll put in the other twenty two compartments?
Well I’m sitting on the bench with my backpack waiting for the Metra. I wish my dad was here to see how uncomfortable I look! He’d probably say, “how much did you waste on that napsack?” And I’d have to tell him “It’s a backpack Dad!”

October 19th, 2021

 Did I really quote Dostoevsky this morning? I hated “Crime and Punishment”

In a way he’s right….. it’s hard to count your blessings and find the silver lining!

Lately I’ve been thinking about all the shit my parents use to worry about. All of it vanished when they died!

I’m not going to use that to become some carefree laid back dude, but I gotta think some of the stress can be alleviated.

My oldman always said the things we worry about today will be nothing in four weeks. He was right when it comes to the small stuff.

Maybe a little .38 Special earworm? We should hold

On loosely, but don’t let go!

Enjoy the last couple sunsets after 6:00pm!

October 18th, 2021

 We are in the second half of October! Don’t let all the good pumpkins get picked.

Sometimes I need an aspirin to get the passion flowing… not this morning!
Feet hit the ground, I told the devil to fuck himself. I said hello to my parents and I’m about ready to go!
Horseshit football game yesterday afternoon… great sunrise though! Today we get another one!
This is the time of the year we have football, baseball, hockey and basketball. We have wake ups at Forty eight degrees and afternoons in the seventies! The best!!!!

Breakfast with Bill

 An older gentleman sat down at the breakfast table next to mine.

As I sipped my coffee he started to tell me about the size of the chicken breast on his sandwich the other day. This was his second time coming to Michael's Pancake House Riverside.

His oatmeal showed up while I was eating my bacon and eggs. The doctor told him he needed to eat more oatmeal due to his cholesterol.

Bill was retired from the CTA and bought his house in Lyons in 1977. Bill went to Morton West as did his kids. He has a daughter in Huntley and a daughter in Orland. He’s actually going to watch the Bears game today with her family down in Orland.

This is part of the path we take… it has purpose. Bill just wanted to shoot the shit with someone and eat his oatmeal. I just wanted to have breakfast at the diner with my dad again.

The reason I told you this story is because no matter how we get there…. This path, this journey of life has all the little things that make the big picture bright.

I didn’t have breakfast with my dad this morning, but I had breakfast with Bill and both he and I had a great start to our day.

October 17th, 2021

 The Daily Do Over!

I try not to take it for granted that every morning I get to see a sunrise or at least daylight….

Yesterday I spent the day all by myself. From breakfast to dinner and a Bloody Mary in between!

Today………? I’m going to watch the sunrise over the DesPlaines river… make coffee and bacon…. CBS Sunday Morning and Bears versus Packers! The annual Grabowski’s versus Hatfields..

Sunny day with exactly 11 hours of daylight….. the shadows are longer, the days are shorter! The summer with Scott and Zelda is over!

Enjoy your week my friends… we are sliding into November real quick!

October 16th, 2021

 The sun is just starting to rise on a crisp Saturday morning. First day in awhile that I put a sun up on the chalkboard!

So get your socks and sweater on and enjoy her warmth and beauty.

Today isn’t a quote, but a title of a poem.

I think happiness is like Walter Payton. It’s quick, it hits us hard, it eludes us, it’s tough to tackle.

When you find happiness it’s a touchdown. That happiness ends when “Sweetness” hands the ball to the referee and another quest of happiness begins.

So get the kicking team out on the field and kick the ball deep and hear the crowd roar! Happy Saturday!

October 15th, 2021

  

It’s Friday and the Ides of October…. Beware in March, but in October be aware!

Autumn makes her first visit this weekend…. Collect your kindling and cut your pumpkins!

The months of Commando end on 10/15…. I think I’m going to wear something underneath with polka dots!

October14th, 2021

 Have you ever noticed when your team wins you’ll hear, “WE won WE won! WE played so well today!”

….. but when the team loses, “THEY Suck! THEY couldn’t do anything right tonight!”

That’s why you need to make sure who your friends are and who your fans are!

I didn’t have any fans during my divorce or when I was unemployed, but I had friends.

Most of those fans are cheering for someone else, but my friends pop in and out of my life win or lose!

The smell of grilled onions and the crack of rawhide off wood seems so far away, but 168 days and it will all be back…. Like a clean chalkboard!

A year away from the Loop

 (I wrote this on October 13th, 2020. It was the last Tuesday that I called Chicago the place I worked in.... after over 30 years on the trading floor)

I walked across the Loop after the close today... the autumn sun angling down on the empty streets. The boarded up and vacant storefronts covered with prearranged graffiti. The bright lights on the Berghoff sign were off and the curtains drawn across the large windows.

State Street...that great street littered with garbage and derelicts in the late afternoon daylight. Chicago squad cars at every intersection rolling their Chicago Blue strobes.

“I’m not going to let this bother me!”

I turned onto Wabash Avenue to more shuttered storefronts and then I let it bother me.... The lights on Miller’s Pub were off. I still didn’t believe it was closed until I pulled on the door handle and it didn't open.... now I was sad!

I walked north as the elevated trains rumbled above my head. I walked by a deserted Palmer House as tears filled my eyes. The Pittsfield building to the north stood out as memories of countless Saturday breakfasts with my mommy and daddy filled my heart. I'd do anything to have breakfast with my parents.

I jaywalked across the street under the tracks and walked into the boarded up door of Iwan Ries. The hard marble staircase up to the second floor was small and covered with dust. The same flight that I took with my dad to get cigars. It once was such a grand trip holding my dads hand.

I smoked my farewell cigar as I walked back across the city on Monroe towards the river. The river was quiet as a half filled boat of tourists passed underneath.... I stopped and waved to them.

I daydreamed that I heard the tour guide say, “that’s the last of the trading floor greats up there puffing his cigar!” Actually I'm just a lucky guy who had a Journeyman career at the Chicago Board of Trade.

It was 2:15 and the "Empire Builder" was leaving on time crawling loudly beneath Union Station. I can see it through the opening along the river.

I’m not going to get my last couple cocktails at Miller’s before I leave for the suburbs... I look back through the train window as the Metra heads west. The bright sun shining off the skyline hides the pain underneath the shadows.

The pain of a urinated sanctuary long forgotten in the months since Covid shut it down.....

I was born here, I worked here and I’ve lived here. This wasn't the way I planned on leaving. No Hoopla! No cocktail party! No confetti falling from the rafters of the Bond Room.....

Now this can only happen to a guy like me and only happen in a town like this.... always will be My Kind of Town!

October 13th, 2021

        If you don’t win the last game of the season you’re still a loser… 10-1 and the end of a roller coaster season. Thanks White Sox!

       Today’s quote is credited to Robin Williams….

       …… I’d take out the word madness and replace it with passion. Never loose that spark of passion that you were born with!
          Passion gets you through happiness, love, pain and despair!
It’s good to have love in your heart, but love doesn’t grow without PASSION!

BB King and a couple white boys with jumper cables.

 In March of 1986 I was an invincible 19 year old at a BB King show in Merrillville... my buddy and I left the show and parked next to us was a sedan with the hood up and three older black men underneath. “You boys got jumper lines?” we replied that we did and jumped their car.

A fourth black man walked out and said, y’all got this old girl runnin’?” And a reply from the three men was “ya BB, these white boys had juice!”

We just jumped B.B. Kings dead battery! B.B. asked if we were heading back up to Chicago and we said yes.... we really were going to head back down to Indy. “Y’all follow us up... we are going to the Checkerboard!”

We showed up to the Southside at 1:30 in the morning with all the confidence a couple naïve punks could possess. We walked in and they were expecting the white boys with the jumper lines.

Four in the morning we pull into the house in Oak Park and my dad didn’t know if he should shit or go blind! I told my Oldman the story and he looked at me in disbelief....

The power of Bloggers and Movie actors

          On a rainout Monday when the Go Go White Sox should have carried their momentum into game four of the playoff series against a very strong Houston Astros, we were introduced to WSD or White Sox Dave.

          I'm a White Sox fan, a well read fan who knows stats and current players and a strong knowledge of Palehose history. I don't know if I should be embarrassed or proud to admit that I never heard of White Sox Dave! Like most of the sports world I was introduced to him when he video blogged his confrontation with actor John Cusack.

        Cusack doesn't know we've been buddies since he played "Gib" in "The Sure Thing." He comes from Evanston and Jeremy Piven's family theater program. He and I were born the week before fourth of July weekend in 1966. 

        I'll admit I was a little jealous when "Gib" was sitting in the premiere seats during the Cubbies 2016 World Series year. He won me back when I found out he was supporting the Sox during this years play off run.

      This is Chicago.... we have TWO teams! It is proper to Love one and Hate the other, but if we have friends that love "the other team" we don't need to hate them! We argue with them, we root against them during the Crosstown, but we don't wish them ill feelings!

     I got on the Lake Street elevated at Ridgeland Avenue in the late seventies and either stayed on it all the way down the Ryan line to 35th street (they were connected until the early 1990's when the Howard/Dan Ryan was formed) or I'd transfer in the Loop and get on a Northbound Howard. I went to both ballparks with lawnmower money in my pocket. Cusack has every right to do the same thing. This week he is a Cub fan rooting for the Sox. Just like when I went to Wrigley rooting against Pete Rose and the Reds or Mike Schmidt and the Phillies!

      Now who the hell is White Sox Dave? He's a Sports Blogger and one of Dave Portnoy's "Yes men." He symbolizes the downward spiral of journalism and the rise of Mealy mouth know it all's.

      Oh how I miss the days of "The Sportswriters on TV" when sports journalism was respected through men like Bill Jaus, Rick Telander, Bill Gleason and Ben Bentley. White Sox Dave is David Williams from Warrenville, Illinois. He played some baseball at North Central College before he got the attention of Barstool Sports. We've gone from four seasoned veterans with a deep knowledge of sports to a drunk kid from suburban Rockford who has Google!

   Let's focus on a White Sox victory today and a trip to Houston! I hope the Gentleman with the voodoo cane casts his spell on the Houston Bats this afternoon! I sure as hell hope John Cusack is sitting in Mayor Daley's seats with a Sox hat, a boom box from "Say Anything" and maybe even Steve Bartman sitting next to him!

October 12th, 2021

 Today’s quote is from Jon Gruden… on the same day he resigned because of 10 year old emails with homophobic and racist slurs I used homophobic and racist slurs in a satirical post.

Could this get me

In trouble in 10 years?

When you hit send on anything electronic it last forever! So the answer is “yes, quite possibly!”

Gruden says that you gotta try to keep getting better!

I promised my dad I’d always try to be better before he died…..He said I’ll get better only if my kids get better and the world that I touch is better along the path I’ve taken.

So another day when the sunrises at 7:00am gives me an opportunity to make the world better! Challenge accepted!!

Let’s go White Sox! Play well and earn a ticket to Houston! The world wants an all Sox ALCS!

It’s gumbo day! Shanahans has the best Gumbo on the Westside of Chicagoland.

Clearing the path for Columbus and Indigenous People

 My conservative friends take the Columbus side, my Liberal friends the Indigenous People side….

Both sides arguing for the extremes have fallen into the trap set for them….

So to mock everyone I celebrate “Heavyset WhiteBoy Day!”

So if you like loving people when the sun comes up and still loving them when the sun goes down…. You celebrate this day!

If you try and leave people with a smile and good feeling rather than a “Fuck you fatass!”

You celebrate this day!

If you enjoy cooking meals for people you like…. You’re in!

If you like to take naps and masterbate….. this day is for you!

If you realize everyone you meet came from a hole between a woman’s legs….. yes, you are with me….. but also realize all of those people are going to die…. Let’s celebrate because the span between these events needs love!

If you like beer….. in!

Cigars…..in!

Pizza……in!

Hot dogs with mustard…… in!

If you believe in Santa Claus….. this day is for you!

If you accept hookers, fags, kikes, spicks, shines, honkeys, retards and the rest of the ugliness in life as something that must be loved and nurtured……. Happy Heavyset WhitBoy Day!

If you like strong coffee, crisp bacon and oral sex to start the day! Happy HSWBD!

I’m setting the table for anyone who realizes life is too short, we all have fucking problems and we don’t need to be further divided from each other…… you have a seat at my dinner table!

Side note

(foul language and racial slurs are not acceptable in the world that I'm raising three children in. I will teach them the ugliness such words possess, but like history or controversial statues.... we must see them for what they are worth and for the hurt they may cause!)

October 11th, 2021

 Settling into October with a warm start makes me think that maybe October is the new September.

Yesterday was a Great day to be Bears and Sox fan…. I like the late afternoon game.