August 5th, 2022

 I’m pretty lucky that I’ve enjoyed going to work everyday throughout my career. Not many can say that and many more would love to be in my shoes.

The work days sure pile up. One day you’re running your first order into the soybean pit and the next day you’re the second oldest guy in the office.

Today is National Underwear Day. This day is always celebrated in early August. I can never take part because I’m a commando guy from Mother’s Day until Columbus Day.

Sometime around the new millennium my girlfriend at the time came over on a Thursday night. I made a lush dinner and we chilled to “Ally McBeal.” Not my pick… I was trying to get laid.

Thursday night was also laundry night. So I’m folding clothes while I entertain.

I was an old school boxer guy in this era. I didn’t find the comfort of boxer briefs until a few years later.

So I’m folding my boxers. I probably had a dozen or so. Plaid, stripes, polka dots, more plaid, leopards, and a couple solid colors.

The girlfriend is sitting on the other end of the couch. She asks me, “Why do you have so many pillow cases?”

I should have known then that this was a red flag… don’t marry this girl!

Anyway… put on some clean underwear and enjoy your Friday!

Dog days of Summer… first weekend of August and another blast from Mother Nature’s furnace!

Be like Jumbo… GoldBond up and let the team dangle.

August 4th, 2022

 Nows…… they add up and we lose track of them all. Now’s melt into a collection of yesterdays, last weeks, last months and last years.

I gotta take a shower now. I gotta get gas now. I gotta go to work now.

These are the kinds of things we are doing right now, but it’s the things we don’t know we are doing right now… those are the ones that matter.

What are you going to do now?

Make it count whatever it is.

August 3rd, 2022

 More and more of us know someone who has a hyphen. A friend, a sibling, a colleague and the hardest hyphen of all… a parent.

Today is one of my hyphen days…

8/3/1937 - 5/6/2016

The hyphen is everyday of our lives. A hyphen is bookended by our arrival and our departure.

If you are reading this you have only arrived. You are still working on your hyphen. A hyphen might look like a straight line dangling in the middle.

Oh, buts it’s more than that! It’s really that long and winding road Sir Paul sings about. It’s love, it’s struggle, it’s wins and it is losses.

You make that hyphen. That hyphen is all you and when you put your departure date up your story is told.

Hyphen!

Today I celebrate the arrival date of my Ma, Cecilia Marie Zoellner Shepley.

I think of the hyphen she created and the grief I felt on the departure. I don’t grieve any longer because I see my mom often. I’m sure she’ll stop by today and let me rest my forehead on hers.

Happy birthday Ma…. I’m still working on my hyphen so you’ll have to wait for my departure a little longer.

It will be heavenly when we celebrate together again….

….and thanks for keeping an eye on the Shepkids for me.

August 2nd, 2022

 Bill Russell retired from the Celtics before I could remember watching him play.

He was the first athlete that I remember my dad saying, “he was a solid basketball player, but he was an even better man.”

Today I used Bill Russell’s quote that my Oldman used often before I left for work as a young man.

Today a close friend from my years down in Indianapolis is another year older.

Both of us were Bear fans, Cub and Sox fans, Pacer fans and exiled to Indianapolis from Illinois because of divorce.

So it was a good fit.

My dad called him Gallipoli and after I moved back home Bobby would visit often.

My buddy left Oak Park after a long Chicago Bear weekend and as he pulled away my dad said, “a good friend is someone that you don’t see everyday, but when you do it’s like that friendship never missed a beat.”

Happy Birthday Bobby Grilliot!

We don’t see each other very much, but I think of you often and our near death adventures.

August 1st,2022

 It’s early on a Monday morning and I’m sitting on the balcony. The wind is blowing gently across the top of the trees. The leaves are starting to sound arthritic with the late summer breeze.

The lions are roaring across the DesPlaines River from their den at Brookfield Zoo.

The week has started off…. Hell, the month has started off with a vomiting child and an overnight error that needed to be covered.

My mom told me if a child lays down and says their belly hurts be prepared for vomit at some point.

My mom nudge me just before the sound of a vomiting throat.

Her soft voice coming down from heaven…..

“Maybe you should have put a bucket next to Hazel’s bed last night?”

The bucket wasn’t there for the first pile of Comiskey Park delicacies. It was there for the second and third sessions.

As for the error….

One of my first bosses, Larry Dorf told me when a broker has an error to get out immediately.

A broker is not a trader. Cut your losses and move along.

So the month of August has started with a debit and a pile of eaten hot dogs…

The Sox are just at 500 and the cubs are back to where they are supposed to be.

1977 was the best year for me when it comes to Chicago baseball. On August 1st, 1977 the Southside Hitmen were 62-39. The cubbies were 61-42. Both in first place.

They both shit the bed in August and September and ended up in third.

I’m in first place right now and don’t plan on ending up in third.

July 31st, 2022

 Best of today…. It’s going to be a sunny Sunday, high of 86 in Chicagoland.

The sun came up at 5:44am and will set at 8:10.

Sox game today with dear friends.

Enjoy this last day of July and the beginning of August.

July 30th, 2022

 It was fun listening to the plans the guys at work had for the Mega Million money.

Boats, baseball teams, cabins, farms, vacations……

I kept my mouth shut and just listened to my work friends. Twenty people assured that they were splitting one billion dollars this weekend.

I always say the odds are better that I’ll bang Julia Roberts before ever winning a big lottery drawing.

I mean they really are….

…. Winning the Mega Millions has a 1 in 303 million odds. The odds of Julia Roberts and Jumbo becoming lovers… 12 to 1.

Just think about it for a minute.

Julia is filming a movie in Chicago. Her limousine drives in front of the Board of Trade right when I’m leaving.

“Driver! Stop! Pull the limo next to that man with that big beautiful booty!”

Next thing you know my trading jacket is balled up in a corner of a fancy hotel and I’m sitting in a bubble bath with a pretty woman eating Mystic pizza.

Anyway… no glazed donuts with Julia and I’m going back to work on Monday.

I’ll tell you what I’d do if I won….

I’d build a Vocational Rugby Academy on the Southside and another on the Westside.

We would teach young Chicago men and women how to scrum, ruck and maul. It would be a school that would educate their students in welding, plumbing, web design, carpentry, construction management, pipe-fitting and electrician work.

"Chicago Rugby Academy" Home of the Warriors. An Indian would be our mascot and success and support would be our goal.

That’s all I’d want…

No Julia Roberts pubes on the roof of my mouth!

Just kids with no future suddenly playing rugby and fixing shitters…

That’s my lottery dream!

…And I’d live in the Edgewater Beach Apartments.

Last weekend of July… the days are getting shorter, but the first week of August brings a heatwave!

Go to Walgreens this weekend and get a fresh bottle of GoldBond.

July 29th, 2022

Miserable people come and go throughout our life. It’s a good practice to know their name when they’re around because you’ll forget it when they are gone.

These are the people that are jealous of your creativity, your integrity and your life.

They bring nothing good to the world and try to leave their misery at your door step.

Keep steady your path because the bad people will return to their lonely world and wait for the next target.

Always remember the worst day of your life is better than most peoples best day.

….. “Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone"

They walk on.

July 28th, 2022

 Everyday we see the post or meme that talks about approaching people carefully. There is a good chance they are going through a bad situation.

These days it sure as hell is true!

If you make your bed in the morning and treat people kindly throughout the day….

….you can put your head on that pillow at night knowing you did your part. You made the world better.

My Dad and I would get in the car and drive to 18th and Damen. On the Northeast corner was a rickety old building and in it was Bishop’s Chili.

Even though there was a Bishop’s at Harlem and Roosevelt, five minutes from our house. My dad had to drive to the one in the city.

“Better chili at this one son!”

He was right…. and they had Green River and Filberts root beer.

I could go for a chili dog, a Tom Tom tamale and a root beer from Bishop’s today. What made it better was the drive with my Oldman. Cigarette smoke and all.

My dad showed me all the great joints in Chicago. He also taught me to be the person everyone seeks when they search for kindness.

Bishop’s has been torn down. My dad drives his Cadillac in heaven, but kindness and chili dogs are still around.

Sometimes they’re hard to find… you just gotta know where to look.

Be Kind and eat chili dogs!

July 27th, 2022

 We have over extended ourselves. We have stretched things out too far.

Last night I turned on the White Sox game and they were playing a purple team that I wasn’t familiar with…
Why can’t it be easy like it was in 1972? That’s when my memory begins with professional sports.
Baseball had 24 teams and the AL played the NL only in the All-star Game and the World Series.
No inter league bullcrap!
…. And Dick Allen was the MVP and he was on our Sox.
Football had 26 teams and even though the Bears sucked… they had Butkus and Buffone.
Hockey had 16 teams and that was two too many… they had two new teams and one was from Atlanta! All the Uncles bitched about hockey in the south!
Oh and the Blackhawks lost in the championship.
Basketball? Well back then there was a team called the Bulls….there was a team called the Harlem Globetrotters and then there was my team.
… and did I take grief in the neighborhood for my team!
“Indiana Pacers? This is Chicago! You can’t be a Pacer fan!”
Well I was and they were the ABA champions….
Let’s just make it simple and eliminate any team established after 1976!
Let’s return the gas lid on our cars underneath the license plate and let’s bring back the “Lawrence Welk Show.”
K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid!
These poor kids are under pressure to remember all these starting lineups for 150 teams…. Some from far places!
So hard these days…. Go White Sox, Go cubs, Go Bears, Go Blackhawks, Go Pacers… everyone else…. Go Home!

July 26th, 2022

 My dad taught me how to roll up a sleeping bag. My mom taught me how to fold a fitted sheet. They were really planting the seeds of how to unfold love.

Teaching your children how to love. Some parents are good at it and some completely ignore it.

Perfect example are the parents in the movie “Love Story.”

You have the wealthy WASP parents that never showed affection or nurtured there son and you have the poor Catholic baker from the neighborhood who showered his daughter with love.

I play the roll of the Board of Trade guy raised by a Railroad Man and an ex nun. My parents loved the shit out of me and I hope I learned to unfold my love for the world to see…

Don’t keep your love folded up and stuffed in the back of a closet!

Today is National Auntie Day… most of my Aunts were nuns. Weird as a kid… the others all had their own personalities.

My favorite Auntie lost me at the Indianapolis Zoo when I was a young boy. She has always unfolded her love for me… Happy Aunt “B” Day Barb McEvoy.

I hope your favorite band plays two great songs on the radio today!

Do you know the song that I pulled todays quote from?

July 25th, 2022

 Well that weekend flew by… here we are the last week of July.

Quote today is from Woody Hayes who coached at Ohio State. I met Coach at a wake when I was eleven. I was sitting on a couch by myself while my mom was paying respect. Parents fresh off a divorce.

Coach sat next to me and took ten minutes of his time to see why this kid looked so lonely.

He asked me about school and we talked about the importance of teamwork. He emphasized more about reading and learning a strong vocabulary. He shook my hand and told me to keep my eyes up.

When he walked away a few of the male parishioners swarmed me and asked me if I knew who that was.

I did not…..

“That is Coach Hayes from Ohio State….”

The next season Coach Hayes clobbered a kid in a bowl game and threw away an illustrious career.

Coach Hayes was a teacher and a mentor. In a split second he lost his cool and all the good he did vanished.

Most of what we do in life is good. Don’t let a bad decision fuck that up.

Today is National Hot Fudge Sundae Day… I would do anything to get in my dads car and drive to Margie’s Candies and have an ice cream with him. I’ll settle for Polar Bear with the Shepkids…

Not a bad replacement!

July 24th, 2022

 I didn’t play golf this summer. No JumboLove sleepovers and no walks to the bridge to watch the sunrise.

I missed graduation parties, block parties and music festivals. I haven’t met the guys for a beer at the Joyce or cocktails at Labarra. No FitzGeralds, No Shanahans, no margaritas by the pool, no late night gyros or steak dinners in the city.

Instead I’ve made countless pancakes and pizzas and snacks. I’ve watched shitty kid movies. Done loads of laundry and cleaned piss off the toilet seat.

All I got back was a bunch of “I Love you dads”… snuggles…. dumb questions…. And back rubs!

I’ve learned about Roblox and listened to riddles that don’t make sense.

I’ve watched breathing little heads with eyes twitching as the sunrise brushed their faces. Blankets pulled to the chin and feet sticking out the other end…

As I enter the last week of July 2022 I don’t regret what I’ve missed, but cherish what I’ve nurtured…

It was a gift not having to say, “alright… get your crap together. It’s time to take you back to your mom’s house.”

I got up at four o’clock this morning and blew up 18 balloons and put them on the floor next to Hazel’s bed… which is my bed because that’s where Hazel wanted to wake up on her birthday.

The taste of a china balloon factory permanently on my lips and tongue.

Enjoy this stormy, moody humid Sunday…. It’s going to be a distant memory very soon…..

……And Lenny Bruce is not afraid!

July 23rd, 2022

Watching a thunderstorm early on a Saturday morning. I hope the pitches dry quickly out in Lemont.

The Chicago Blaze are hosting the Midwest 7’s Championship today.

Saturday is rugby day….

I heard todays quote last night on television. A guy who lost his sight used it. I think it originates from either Proverbs or Psalms.

If it comes from the Bible it means believers in the guy upstairs.

For me it means to believe in ourselves. Believe in those you love while we are alive.

If you can’t believe in yourself. You can’t believe in others and you sure as hell can’t believe in eternal rest.

Whitney believed the children were the future. Micky, Michael, Peter and Davy believed in her face.

I started believing when I received first communion, believed a little more when I earned my first salary delivering newspapers. I really started believing after I read my first chapter book and believing went over the top after that first BJ.

Like Sade once said… it’s never as good as the first time.

So go out this weekend believing in yourself, believe in those you love and believe in something big!

July 22nd, 2022

 I like to sit on the balcony after dinner and have an evening cocktail. I bring a bag of peanuts to feed the squirrels and I watch the sun fade behind the building across the street.

I have about five or six squirrels who regularly join me. I also watch the same seven or eight people walk by with their dogs. I see the relationship between doggie and master.

The love and trust that they have for each other is amazing to watch from my perch. The personalities of the humans is easy to read by watching how they handle their puppies.

Watching the dogs, feeding the squirrels, listening to the birds and having a cocktail is a beautiful way to wind down the day.

I have a friend who lost his dog this week. He posted a picture of his dog and wrote a farewell.

….I’ve actually seen several of you do the same thing….

Dogs are such an amazing part of our lives and families so when they leave it’s devastating.

The Shepkids have Molly back at their mom’s house. Hazel misses her dearly. The hardest part of the summer for Hazel was not having her doggie along her side. So Hazel likes coming out on the balcony to watch doggies and feed my squirrels. It’s still not the same.

We got Molly the winter before Hazel was born. Molly is going on ten and Hazel turns nine on Sunday.

In the next few years Molly will join Burley in heaven. Hazel will grieve and be a pain in my ass during that period.

I will tell her that dogs go to heaven and they patiently wait for us to join them and take them for a walk.

I just wonder…. Do you have to pick poop up in heaven?

July 21st, 2022

 How quickly the summer moves when its being filled with memories.

Last night George was excited when he brought me something home from Farmers Market. He handed me a bag with a big smile on his face.

George got his Oldman a couple small cartons of berries and a small loaf of blueberry bread. This kid is becoming a giver…. Winning.

At “electronics are off” time Hazel wanted us to watch “Pleasantville.” She told Fritz it had time travel, so he was in.

Outside of the mom masturbating in the bathtub… we picked a good family movie.

For some reason Hazel likes this movie. It’s going to be one of those movies she will watch over and over again as she grows up.

It will be her “Brian Song.”

Sitting on the couch with your parents is a great memory to make. I have great memories of watching “Roots” with my mom. She was busy explaining to me American history that week in the winter of 1977.

My dad and I watched “Coolhand Luke” on a rainy night eating loose leaf hamburger. My Oldman always made a great batch of what he called an “Iowa Thing.”

Still plenty of time to make Summer of ‘22 memories.

If you’re looking for yesterday’s chalkboard you’ll need to go straight to my blog… it touched on racism in my gruff approach. A couple of my soul brother friends told me if they didn’t know me I was stepping over a line few can take.

Sometimes I think just because I watched “Good Times” and “SoulTrain” as a kid I have this whole race thing nailed… nobody does.

GoldBond up again today….

July 20th, 2022

 In the early 1970’s when Sly and the Family Stone sang these lyrics I was a little boy coming off MLK’s murder and the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. That was the time that I was born in.

1966….

A black kid walked by my house with a White Sox hat on in 1973. All the other kids that I played with wore Cub hats.

“Hey kid! Do you like Dick Allen?”

“Yeah….. do you?”

That’s when I met my first black friend.

None of the other kids played with my new friend, but to me they liked Bill Madlock and we liked Jorge Orta.

I didn’t realize at the time that black players on the Sox and Cubs were different than the black kids up the block. They were acceptable if they wore pinstripes, but not if they wore black skin.

My dad and mom taught me to be Color Strong and not Color Blind.

The way I interpreted this was simple…. Pick the black kid in the Sox hat over the white kid in the Cubs hat….. Color Strong!

The Shepkids will wake up and see this quote today. It will continue their education on being Color Strong. Each generation must get better with defeating racism.

Their generation has taught them to cringe at the “N” word. I’m definitely going to have a ton of questions when I get home.

My generation was taught to go “enie, meanie, miney, moe… catch a ni**er by their toe.”

My job is to teach my children how ugly that was… my job is to make sure they never use this outdated way to pick the teams for "Kick the Can."

JumboLove is Color Strong! Not Color Blind!

Today is National Hotdog Day. You know my love for the hotdog.

Hotdogs are Color Strong…. They don’t care if you’re black or white… just don’t put ketchup on them!

I didn't put a face on the sun today. the sun shines on everyone.......

July 19th, 2022

 Out of the passion of our youth should grow integrity and a sense of what are mission is in life.

I have gotten to the point where I walk away from the guy who takes himself too seriously. They think they are the town crier, but they are really the village idiot.

The people that turned out alright in life were the ones that shared the red crayon in third grade art period.

Do you think Sister Helena Mary was a dumbass?

She put a bunch of the shitty crayons on your groups table and left only one red crayon.

Then she watched.

She saw who hogged it. She saw who shared it and she saw who stole it.

The guy who stole it is a Congressman now. The person who hogged it is laying next to an unhappy spouse. The one who shared it is a dear friend of yours.

Wake up this morning and share the red crayon. Sing a Bob Seger song out loud. Tell someone where you were when the Space Challenger crashed. Let people talk about stuff and try not to be a jagoff when someone cuts you off.

That’s all Sister Helena Mary wanted to prove.

Nobody cares about your views on abortion or gun control. They want to hear you smile and see you laugh. Be liked because you tell great stories, listen to great stories and make great omelets.

Tonight is the All Star game. All the players that I like are in their seventies or in their graves….still a great summertime tradition.

Gold Bond Up and try catching the band you like on “Two for Tuesday.”

July 18th, 2022

 “Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.” Is the first line from “Vesalius In Zante” by Edith Wharton

The poem is about a man reflecting on his long life as it nears the end. I saw the quote as a perfect way to start off the week.

For many of us Mondays suck. I stopped hating Monday’s on Monday February 20th, 1995.

It was Mardi Gras Season and I woke up on a cot on a balcony at the corner of Toulouse and Bourbon Streets. It was 7:10am and I was wearing just my boxer shorts. My pillow was a pile of Mardi Gras beads and I had a Mardi Gras flag as a blanket.

I woke up to “Honky Tonk Woman” blaring from a bar around the corner just opening up for the day. It was Monday morning in New Orleans and back home in Chicago it was cold and crispy.

I vowed then if I woke up poorly on a Monday I would play that Rolling Stones song. I would think of the lasting taste of hurricanes and the lipstick marks on my chest and belly.

Mondays don’t suck anymore!

The start of the week is a reset button. It’s the beginning of a new seven day period to drink what life serves you. We will never have another July 18th-July 24th 2022 ever again.

Whatever the hell the week brings I’m gonna go with it’s flow.

Life is a Mardi Gras Parade if you want it to be. It can also be a death march if you let it!

If you woke up bummed out this morning think about this and smile.

Picture a twenty eight year old Jumbo in plaid boxer shorts. Still ripped from Sunday night impersonating Mick Jagger. That early morning crowd in the French Quarter sure did love it!

Open your window and welcome Monday morning… sing loud to the world and let it know that you welcome life!

July 17th, 2022

 I’ve seen the sun angle off the side of the Sears Tower throughout my life. I’ve walked under the elevated when the third rail is wet. The passing train sending bolts of sparks that dance towards the sidewalk.

The smell of Ferrara Pan and Brachs and Blommer Chocolate bringing sweetness to the urban breeze.

An Old Style sign hanging over the front door of the corner tavern. The Calder Flamingo and the Picasso Monkey. The five o’clock shadow on Lake Shore Drive.

All of these are my Grand Canyon, sequoia trees and flowered prairies.

I’m from Chicago and the sun and the snow and the clouds and the air are just as beautiful along the blue lake as they are anywhere else in the world.

Today’s quote comes from a book written by Harper Lee. It was taken from the end of a paragraph describing the beauty of summer in the south growing up. You can picture the charming memories in all of her words.

My memories are from the last thirty years of the twentieth century. Some of them have been torn down and replaced, but the angle of how the sun off the skyscrapers is still the same and will be the same for many tomorrows. The shades of blue and of gray shall pierce from Lake Michigan countless tomorrows. The Sox and Cubs will eventually make up the rain out.

I don’t need to travel to Northern California or Colorado or to Appalachia. I see beauty on the flat streets of the Chicago Grid….

This weekend has been mostly cloudy and a movie theater replaces the visit to the public pool.

I love a sunny day with blue skies and faint white clouds, but a grayish summer day has color as well.

Cloudy days take the guilt away from sitting on the couch and watching a ballgame. The clouds can bring a calming comfort and a reprieve from squinting your eyes in the sun.

Reload, recoup and reward yourself on this middle Sunday of July…. Sunday Funday Baby!