February 9th, 2024

 Let’s finish the week strong and have a nice mellow weekend. Big sporting event coming up with the second round of the Six Nations tournament. Scotland plays France followed by England clashing with Wales and then the perfect Chicago marriage, Ireland versus Italy.

I left the radio on and the window cracked. I should be well rested, but I actually feel more tired. Wrestling a chilly breeze and Dvorak had me tossing and turning. I’m glad it is Friday.

Finish the first full week of February with gusto and enjoy walking your shadow today. It’s Mardi Gras weekend…. So get yourself one last taste before lent.

….and bring a flashlight with you when you walk the dog before sunrise. We are halfway between full moons and it’s dark outside

February 8th, 2024

 Hazel was just turning four when I moved back east of Mannheim Road. From the moment I would pick her up on my weekends, she would be glued to my side.

I was constantly playing with dolls or watching Disney Princess movies. I’d lay down on the couch and she would be on my hip. If I took a moment to sit in my chair to watch an inning of the Sox game, she would be on my lap.

I couldn’t go anywhere from 3:00pm Friday afternoon until 5:30 on Sunday without my little Hazelnut.

“Da? Where are you Da? Oh, there you are Da!!! Whatcha doing Da Da?”

“Hazel…… I’m trying to take a dump here….. can you go find Elsa and make sure she hasn’t frozen Fritz and George please?”

Last night I picked up Hazel. We sat at the table and had dinner and then she went to her room and did her own thing.

Then I heard her door open and she told me she was going to my room to take a shower.

Remember on yesterday’s Chalkboard when I said I was looking forward to getting into a made bed at the end of the day?

My bed was all twisted up and there was a wet towel laying across the pillows and a training bra on the nightstand.

Five hours yesterday and we spent fifteen minutes together. I didn’t have to dress any Barbie dolls up. I didn’t have to use scissors for Hazel. I didn’t have to glue this or tape that…

I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this independent little girl?

I did get a little back rub and neck massage, but that was followed up with…. “Can I have a brownie please?”

The next neck massage I get will probably end with the question….

“Can I have the keys to Betty?”

I was asked another question last night….

"Dad? Who are you rooting for in the Superbowl this weekend?”

I told her that I didn’t give two squirts who wins, I’ll be watching the Rick Steves European travel marathon on PBS.

“OMG Dad… you are soooo old!”

“Oh yeah Hazel!!! Who are you rooting for in the game?”

“Well…. Duh?!?! The Chiefs! I mean come on! I want Kelce to score a touchdown!”

I missed a SuperBowl five years ago to watch Moana. Things sure do change quickly in life. Luckily, Hazel is at her mom’s this weekend and I won’t have to watch any football on Sunday.

It is Fat Thursday! Get yourself a bowl of gumbo and a hurricane!

And remember……. Heart-breakers gonna break, break, break, break, break! And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake! Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off!

February 7th, 2024

  I just erased twenty minutes of going nowhere. Five paragraphs of dipshit sentences that related to marshmallows and kangaroo piss.

It is Wednesday and my feet hurt. I could go for a nice steam and breakfast at Ceres in the Board of Trade.

The only thing I’m looking forward to today is the cake in the icebox at work. Our office mom, Sue made a cake for the boss. The icing is lush, the inside is moist and it contains chocolate chips. That alone will make Wednesday Mo Betta’.

I’m going to go make my bed and see where the day takes me. Good or bad, I’ll be climbing into a made bed tonight.

Happy Wednesday Chalkheads.

Use your turn signal and have dessert for breakfast.

February 6th, 2024

 I’ll see you tomorrow.

How many times have you said that? How many times have you replied to that?

That is a huge promise that can’t be guaranteed.

Again, I’ve turned into my Oldman with something else that he once did.

Whenever someone tells me that they’ll see me tomorrow I reply, “God willing!”

I’m in a boring time in my life right now. When I look at today’s Chalkboard quote, I’m not booking a trip to Paris. I’m not even planning a trip to Twin Anchors.

For me, the perfect moment is when the lines are empty at Costco.

Whenever I see a bumper sticker or a poster that says, “Carpe diem…,” I think, “Don’t bullshit yourself!”

You’re not going to seize the day. You’re not even going to seize 2024.

Then I think to myself again….

All the little things that I do on a daily basis…. That’s what ‘carpe diem’ means.

Going to work, to church, to the grocery, to Labarra for a pizza, to the barber, to the cleaners…. Those are the perfect moments in life.

Going to see the Eiffel Tower or the Grand Canyon only lasts a moment.

But sitting on the same park bench and watching the path of shadows everyday. That is the perfect moment.

Taking the Shepkids on the same CTA Christmas train at the same time every year, that is the perfect moment.

Going to the James Joyce when England plays Ireland. The same people, the same barstool, the same pint of Guinness, the same exhilarating atmosphere…. That is the perfect moment.

The mundane routine of life is the perfect moment.

Mardi Gras is one week from today. Time to take the green, gold and purple out of the closet. It is the perfect moment to go to the same place that I go to every year to celebrate Fat Tuesday. The same hurricane, the same redbeans and rice, the same second line songs and the same faces. It’s the perfect moment to go to Shanahans for some King cake.

Life has some exciting moments through the years, but it’s the daily moments that give life gusto.

So carpe diem your laundry… carpe diem getting gas… Carpe diem thawing out that pork shoulder.

Today is the perfect day for a mundane moment.

Cherish it!

God willing you wake up tomorrow so you can wash your socks and underwear.

February 5th, 2024

 It is Monday morning and I’m at a loss for words today.

“Whatever you are?”

I’m sitting here trying to figure out what that is before I can say if I’m good at it or not.

This weekend I was told that I make the best pancakes. That’s what I’m good at…. Making pancakes.

Whatever you are, you’ve got to be happy about it. Because if you’re not happy, you can’t be good.

On a sad note…. Sorry.

I learned a kid that I worked with on the trading floor killed himself last week. One minute this kid was telling funny jokes, the next minute he was a spiteful prick. One day happy, one day sad.

Mental illness…. It finally became too much for this guy. Mental illness never let this guy figure out who he was. Mental illness never let him realize if he was good.

The world has a huge supply of hatred and mental illness. It’s our job as Chalkheads to be the smile on the sun. We are the dim light that shines through the crack.

I was just getting ready to wrap this Chalkboard up and I smacked everyone with a downer.

Sometimes a bad moment can help us define a good moment and that is how we can determine….

….who we are?!?!?!

February 4th, 2024

 If there is a quote that I’ve repeated on the Morning Chalkboard, it would be today’s words from William Butler Yeats.

Many years ago my father gifted me two crystal beer steins. Etched on the side is this quote about friendship. As I opened the box my Oldman gave me his speech on friendship.

Finding friends isn’t easy.

The hardest part is weeding out a friend from an acquaintance. Ninety percent of the people we know are acquaintances, nine percent are friends and one percent are dear friends.

I have a bottle of Chimay beer made by Belgian Monks that I will drink from my Dad’s glass tonight. A bottle of Chimay was the other gift I received that day and it’s the only beer I pour for special occasions.

…Today is a special occasion.

It’s Billy Hamilton’s birthday today. Billy is a good son, a good brother, a good husband, a good father and recently he has become a good grampa.

But for me and many others… he’s a good friend.

Friendship is a special gift and a key element in the Straight F’s in life. Faith is the food that nurtures our soul. Family is the arm that pushes us through life and friendship is the glue that keeps us in place.

I’m going to call Billy later and wish him a happy birthday. I already sent him a picture this morning of the button everyone wore on his 30th birthday.

I think today…. everyone should call their own Billy Hamilton and shoot the shit with them. Maybe you talked to them last week. Maybe you talked to them during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Maybe you haven’t talked to them since 2013?

Reach out to YOUR Billy Hamilton today and let them know that you care.

A large path will cut across southern and central Indiana on April 8th. Something billed as a spectacular solar eclipse. Make sure to get your protective glasses today.

Enjoy Sunday, February 4th, 2024.

It’s the only Sunday, February 4th, 2024 that you’ll get.

Make it count.

February 3rd, 2024

 The first Saturday of February and there will be a smile on our shadows.

Six Nations started last night with Ireland defeating a strong French club. This morning will have two more first round matches. I love rugby Saturday.

We’ve had a great start to the month Chalkheads. Monday we learned to be patient with the time that we have with each other. Tuesday was a hill climbed with enthusiasm. Wednesday’s was forgive and forget day. Thursday’s lesson was about finding perfection in being a good person and yesterday we realized happiness is all around.

.... and some Beastie Boys for the Saturday quote.

Today I am going to watch the sunrise and be a dad. It’s a great day to surprise someone with a coffee cake. If you have a favorite bakery, mine is Oak Park Bakery…. Buy two coffee cakes.

One for your family and another one for a surprised friend. Nothing makes you feel better than an unexpected knock on the door and a coffee cake shoved into your hands.

Tits Up Chalkheads… get out and spread some good stuff!

February 2nd, 2024

 My mom dragged me away from my home when I was in junior high. She took me from Chicago to a horrible place called Indianapolis. Everyone talked funny and everything was spread out.

I wanted to go home the whole time. I hated every minute I was there and because of that I became a problem child.

Going back to yesterday’s theme of how age brings a different aspect towards life. I look back now and realized that my time as a Hoosier wasn’t as bad as I thought.

I was foolish….

That was the one time in my life that I had the most family around me. The whole time that I was pissed at my mom, her family was at my disposal. Cousins and second cousins, aunts and great aunts, uncles and great uncles and my gramma. I even had a great gramma who lived in an old house in a town called Greensburg.

I was never alone, but that was the only time in my life that I was lonely.

….And here comes today’s quote into play.

The whole time I lived in Indianapolis, happiness was under my feet. I finally realized it after most of those family members left Indianapolis for heaven.

The other day I received a text from the kid I bullied in eighth grade. Yes, I was a bully. Remember… I was a problem child who just wanted to go home. Through the years we have become dear friends. The first thing I did when we became Facebook friends was apologize for being an asshole.

In fact, I had to apologize to a shit ton of Hoosier classmates as Facebook made rekindling old acquaintances easy to do. I apologized to my history teacher. My creative writing teacher and even a priest.

What I realized was that most of us were going through the same turmoil at that age.

Yesterday I learned that I didn’t have to strive for perfection and today the lesson is happiness.

Happiness isn’t miles away. It’s all around you….

Life takes us across an emotional journey that mostly teaches with hindsight.

Life might be a pain in the ass right now, but in ten years from now…

…it should be a fond memory!

It better be!!!

I’m going to get up and make George his lunch. I won’t be doing that in 2034. Later today, I’ll be picking up Fritz and Hazel at school. I won’t be doing that in 2034. Later today, I’ll ask Fritz if he has his homework done, I won’t be doing that in 2034.

Tonight, at night night… I will be asked to sing three songs and rub a back. I won’t be doing that in 2034.

Happiness is under my feet. Even though I worry about bills. I argue with my ex-wife. My parents aren’t around to bust my balls. I don’t travel like I used to. I don’t have a big house or a new car.

Happiness is under my feet and I sure as fuck hope that happiness is under your feet as well.

Wow…. These last two Chalkboards have been very therapeutic for me.

How many of you will be watching Bill Murray tonight?

First weekend in February and the temperatures will be mild and the sun should have a smile.

One last thing…. Happiness is all around you. Go smell it. Go taste it. Go hear it. Go see it. Go hump it.

February 1st, 2024

 With age I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t have to be perfect and with hindsight I’ve also realized that it’s been as close to perfect as it ever will get.

How did I get to the first day of February in the year of 2024?

I made a shit ton of mistakes. Made some wrong turns and pissed off more people than I can count.

Though I was never late.

I still have hiccups here and there. I’ve been around the block so many times that I never make a wrong turn and most of the people that I pissed off… I pray to them daily because many of them are in heaven.

I had a guy reach out to me the other day. A guy about twenty years older than me who told me we were related. His grandmother and my great grandmother on my dad’s side were sisters.

He has sent me family photos and told me about some interesting stories in the short time since our paths crossed.

Long story short…..

All the days that I’ve lived and all the stories of my life will someday be told by someone that I don’t know. A relative of a relative of a relative. Someone that is interested in genealogy will come across a Great great, great uncle of a brother who lived from 1966 into the middle of the twenty first century.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois and worked on one of the last open outcry trading floors at the Chicago Board of Trade. He wrote stories around the time when people went from writing on paper to using the original computers of the twentieth century.

That is it….

Someday that will be all my life will amount to. A paragraph in someone’s genealogy hobby.

They will find my birth certificate, a divorce document and my death certificate. They might find a picture of me at an old fashion football game at a stadium that was once on Lake Michigan.

This future relative won’t know all my mistakes or the wrong turns that I made or figure out who I pissed off.

So, I don’t need to reach for perfection. I just need to strive to be good.

Because that future relative might put together what kind of person that I was. I want that paragraph to read that I was a good person. That I was passionate about my faith, my family and my friends.

It will probably come out that I was a Chicago Bears and White Sox fan during the period when they both sucked. It was two years after John Shepley’s death that they both became frequent champions.

Dry January is over suckers. The February rent check is due and Mardi Gras is next week. By the end of the month the sunsets will be close to six o’clock and our shadows will be closer to our bellies.

Go out today and be imperfect and work on the record books to read that you were a good person who made the world better during your time.

…. and let the good times roll!!!

January 31st, 2024

 It’s Humpday and I’m not going to get wrapped up in today’s quote.

Just don’t apologize if it’s just to appease. Apologetic people are pathetic.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”

If you did something wrong, apologize and move on.

Other than that it’s the last day of January and it’s both National Hot Chocolate Day and National Brandy Alexander Day…. Just have both and don’t apologize for it.

I woke up startled from a dream hearing the last words, “Because I’m in heaven Shep!”

I was trying to make dinner plans with a dead person. I was startled upon wake up after hearing that…

….I’m sorry, but I can’t go into detail.

I put a smile on the sun today and a mild temperature up in the corner. So go move your shadow along a pretty path.

January 30th, 2024

 I’m not sure the mountain that I’m climbing is very glorious right now. It’s more like a sledding hill that has been iced over and I’m trying to carry ten toboggans back to the top.

I’m taking those choppy side steps while wearing tight snow pants and a parka that cuts off my vision.

Everyday is a hill to climb. The incline doesn’t go away by hitting the snooze bar. It isn’t fear or trepidation that holds back that first step. Consequences narrow down with age. Either you climb the mountain of Tuesday or you punt it into a steeper Wednesday elevation.

At the foot of that hill is a motivation that pushes the collection of steps upward.

Maybe the motivation is at the top of the hill? That means faith in yourself will get you up there…

…you gotta have faith in yourself if you want to have faith in anything else.

I’m done being Stuart Smiley this morning, but he did say that we aren’t here to carpet the world. We are human beings and not human doings. That’s pretty good for me!

Some days are comedies, some days tragedies… my days are skits at Second City and I don’t use cue cards.

I just improvise… because I don’t have a fucking clue. I just figure it out as it comes. If you think you’re going to have a tough climb today. Be grateful that you’re not Hillary Clinton’s gynecologist or the person in the flat below mine who’s bedroom is under mine.

At least you don’t have to look into the Senator’s va jay jay or hear me humping and lumbering around upstairs.

Yesterday that sun worked its ass off trying to shine. I picked Hazel up after school and drove west out of the parking lot. The reflection of sunlight on her face was the motivation I searched for on the Monday Mountain.

I’m going to buy some tulips today and give them to Hazel when she climbs into Betty this afternoon.

Flowers and sunlight are always makers of enthusiasm.

I will leave you with a Tuesday earworm….

“Climb every mountain,

Search high and low,

Follow every byway,

Every path you know.

Climb every mountain,

Ford every stream,

Follow every rainbow,

'Till you find your dream.”

January 29th, 2024

 Several days ago I posted a picture of Chicago taken in the early 1950’s. The picture was looking North on Michigan Avenue near Grant Park. A green bus was heading northbound through the intersection. The women in the picture were all wearing skirts, the men brimmed hats. They were all white.

The post read "Chicago in 1954... everybody minded their own business and still took care of their neighborhoods." Close to fifty people gave a thumbs up or a heart. Most of the comments were nostalgic, but two of my friends didn't see eye to eye with me.

Two well educated and successful men that I respect greatly. One of the men is married to a woman of color. They are raising their two children on the near Southside of Chicago in I believe the Bronzeville Area. The other man worked with me on the trading floor and is currently an expatriate living in Nigeria.

They see the historical value of Chicago a little differntly than I do. I see a Chicago with clean streets and well manicured citizens. I see a Chicago that has a faith in itself, in its government and in the services that it provided. Chicago had neighborhoods and Catholic parishes that ran smoothly by alderman, ward bosses, priests and capos.

I look at historic pictures and see neon lights, table clothes and torn down train stations. I see pictures of buildings that once stood and pictures of buildings that still stand, but stand in the shadows of the modern age.

My friends see pictures of hastily built housing projects and expressways that divided neighborhoods. My friend from Bronzeville posted pictures of an uglier side of Chicago. A Chicago seen through segregation and racism. He made his point that not everyone sees Chicago the way that I do.

My other friend who once took a college course taught by James Baldwin said to me, " you are the kind of guy that will celebrate Mandela and then post the above. Think long and hard before you respond."

I didn't start thinking, I just started typing. The first thing that I did was look through my 1,300 Facebook friends. I did a rough count of how many of my friends are of color and counted close to two hundred. I don't know if that is a good amount or not. I thought about those 200 people and wondered if they saw the picture from 1954. Were they offended and did they share similar views with Vincent and Jeffrey?

Here is my conclusion.... if I didn't post that picture, I would have never seen or heard the otherside of the story. History is an important lesson. The common thread that we all have is the history our family handed down to us. Then we went to school and learned more about history and social studies.

Several years ago I took the Shepkids to the 31st street beach. Just north of the beach is a boulder with a plaque for the 1919 Chicago Race Riots. We stopped and read the words on the memorial and talked about what they meant. The Shepkids learned on that beautiful summer afternoon about the ugliness that has lerked in Chicago.

Last week I posted a picture that showed the beauty of Chicago and that triggered a Chalkhead to show us the uglier side of the city on the lake.

Yes, I post about King, Mandela, Angelou and Langston. Yes, I post about the Daley family, the Capone family and the Accardo family and I glorify the machine and the mob.

When that picture was taken on Michigan Avenue, projects were being built in the ghetto. The Dan Ryan expressway was built to segregate the white neighborhoods from the black neighborhoods. I can't go back and change it, but I can make sure the Shepkids won't have to.

Today I quoted Tolstoy... it is hard to be patient in the short lives that we really do have. In the grabber section I counted 10,000 days into the future and 10,000 days into the past. That is just over twenty-seven years.

We all know what we were doing in September of 1996, but we have no clue what we will be doing in 2051.

2051 seems like an eternity, but 1996 was just yesterday.

Don't think about that right now. Think about the later sunset today and that I put a smile on the sun.

.... and be kind!

January 28th, 2024

 Chicagoland is experiencing the first sunset after five o’clock in almost three months today. Next week we will be watching for the groundhog and a shadow. In just five weeks the Forest Park Saint Patrick’s Parade will float across Madison Street.

Four years ago I was marching in that parade with a dear friend who was running for a political office. We had about thirty people in our group and I proudly wore my kilt.

We didn’t know it at the time, but that was the last public event that we would ever participate in before Covid. The next week everything closed down and people locked themselves into crawlspaces.

I was hugging and kissing hundreds of people along the parade route. Not once did I hesitate or fear that I could get The China Flu.

Oh and I called it “The China Flu” on the Morning Chalkboard that spring and one of my lib lab friends got all unglued. She was so mad that she defriended me. Someone that I had known for over thirty years was offended because I called a mysterious illness that originated from a lab in China, “The China Flu!”

Maybe it was my reply when I told her I’d rather call it “The Oriental Illness.” That probably took it over the edge.

The next week after that Saint Patty’s Day celebration, they shutdown my trading floor. It was probably a good thing that the floor finally closed. It was time to shit or get off the pot. The pits were nearly empty those last few years and the glory days were gone just after the turn of the century.

I quoted some advice drawn up by Billy Shakes this morning. I think it’s pretty clear what his point is.

1. Show people love until you realize they are an assclown.

2. Trust is earned… it isn’t a participation trophy handed out like pâté at a cocktail party.

3. Don’t go out of your way and be a jagoff to people.

Take Shakespeare’s advice and everything should be copacetic.

I bookended the Summer of ‘24 in the grabber section. The days are getting longer and sooner than later the grass will be green again.

Those Chalkheads of the Soul Persuasion get an extra day for African American History month in 2024. Besides awesome hair and sweet dance moves… you’ve got February 29th as well.

Oh shit! That last paragraph is going to weed out a couple more lib labs this morning! Too bad for them when they miss the James Baldwin and Maya Angelou quotes next month.

Maybe William should have said, “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none, don’t apologize for something you didn’t do.”????

It’s Sunday Funday… many of you will be watching the scripted football games today. I’ll be watching the “America’s Test Kitchen” marathon on PBS Create this afternoon.

Let’s end January on a high note this week. Please drive for your friends that participated in Dry January. Also, be ready for the alarm clock to go off with that annoying Sonny and Cher song.

Sorry I can’t put a smile on your sun today. These cloudy days are the current trend. We missed the Wolf Moon last week because of this. Don’t worry, it will be back next January.

Go Baltimore, win one for Johnny Unitas. Go Detroit, win one for Barry Sanders.

January 27th, 2024

 It was a Beatles song that said, “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

Most of you Chalkheads are in love or have been in love at one point in your life.

I’ve been loved by my parents and am currently loved by my children. In between, I have fallen in love twice. I think both times I was loved by the other person.

Well, I know the first one was in love with me because she still loves me. Our relationship has evolved through the years and we are still dear friends.

The second one hates my guts, but she gave me three hearts that love me dearly. So her hate pays off.

When my dad was telling me about va jay jays and boners, he slipped in a strong message.

The two most important gifts a man can receive in his lifetime are…. The love of a woman and the trust of a child.

He was right, a’fucking’gain!

But what about saying “I love you” and hearing in return, “I love you too.”

It gets back to the Beatles song…

My kids often tell me that they love me, but I make a point of telling them everyday that this Old Fat Fuck loves them dearly!

I hear them say, “I love you too dad!”

I was born before 1970, so I don’t use “LOL” or “FWIW” or any of the other text message short cuts…

…but with the Shepkids I do use “AOMH.” Only the four of us use that abbreviation.

It means, All Of My Heart. Because I use my whole fucking heart to love and I’m teaching my children to do the same damn thing.

In these last twenty five summers of my life, I plan on saying “I love you” more than hearing, “I love you too.”

The other day a guy moving to Colorado told me that he loves me. Last week my work wife told me that he loves me. Last night before bed, George said, “I love you Big Man” and on Wednesday the Redheads got out of Betty and told me that they love me. That was in earshot of the only person in the world that does not love me. Actually, there are colleagues of mine through the years that lack integrity… they don’t love me either.

Instead of saying “I love you too,” my dad always said, “I love you more.”

Or most of the time he would just yell out “More!”

That drove my mom crazy and on her lower road she would always say that is stupid and that love always balances out. I don’t want love to balance out. I want to love more than be loved.

I hear my parents tell me that they love me every morning when I am praying for all of your sorry ass’s. Someday, I’ll hear it again in the eternal love waiting for me in twenty five years.

Maybe thirty if I skip the trip to Maxwell Street….

I love you…. I love you too…. I love you…. I love you too…. I love you…. I love you too.

Whatever end you’re on, it is a beautiful thing. Before I reach the end…. I’m going to say “I love you” a shit ton of times.

Dont be too disappointed if you don’t hear someone say, “I love you” today. You can call me if you really need to hear it.

But you’ll hear it today when you go out and be your kind self.

So go out and be your kind self and spread love into your world.

Because all we need is love, love… love is all we need!

January 26th, 2024

 Don’t worry, don’t worry…. Don’t let today’s quote fool you. Yesterday was Robert Burns Day and I was up reading a book of his poetry.

Though you can bring up the Joni Mitchell theory of both sides now when reading a love poem.

A love poem looks different when you’re not in love. Robert Burns was a romantic and that’s how I look at myself. I can find romance in anything and it doesn’t have to be a relationship.

All the little things in life are romantic.

The lobby of the Board of Trade is romantic to me. A park bench near Buckingham Fountain. The front seat of a CTA car that lets you watch the tracks rolling underneath your journey. A sunrise on the walking bridge in Riverside. A sunset on my balcony overlooking the Divorced Dad District.

Romance is beauty and beauty is to be relished. Speaking of relish…. A Chicago hot dog is romantic. So is a chocolate eclairs from the Oak Park Bakery and a cheeseburger from the Billygoat.

I find it romantic walking into Sox Park and smelling grilled onions. Going to a ballgame has all the magic of a first date and leaving after the bottom of the ninth brings the disappointment that feels like a divorce.

If a game goes nine full innings at Comiskey or Wrigley, the ending usually isn’t good.

I’ve got about twenty five years left, thirty if I have more salads and less Maxwell Street Polish sandwiches….

…. and I’m going to find romance in every bite, every sunrise and every turn.

Even though…..

……I’d rather enjoy a gyros at Sub-tender today than grool at a nursing home tomorrow.

Many of you will recognize the score in the grabber section today. I bet I go back to the Chalkboard Flashback for January 26th and those same numbers are there.

Oh how great it was to be the forty six on that cold Sunday, thirty eight years ago. Unfortunately since that day the forty six has been haunting and the ten has gone on a successful run.

I look back at January 26th as a day that was the highest of highs and since then it’s been a journey through the lowest of lows…. for Bear fans.

January 26th, 1986…. The older we get the more days of the year become an anniversary.

Life was so simple when Christmas and your birthday were the only days that mattered.

Then age brings you December 7th, July 7th, October 7th, September 11th, May 6th, October 3rd, September 25th and October 18th. You can fill in your own dates.

July 1st and December 25th don’t look as bright like they once did.

So get up and put a smile on your sun and go find romance watching stuff do shit.

Make January 26th count, only this time get thirty four into the end zone.

(December 7th, Pearl Harbor. July 7th, London Bombings. October 7th, hamas attacks Israel. September 11th, islam attacks America. May 6th, my Mom passed away. October 3rd, my Dad passed away. September 25th, my wedding day and October 18th, the day of my divorce.)

January 25th, 2024

 The beginning of my Riverside era clipped the end of someone else's Riverside era.

The end of a marriage brought me to the town on the River. It is the hometown of a person that I met shortly after I arrived.

Now that I’m settled in to my new home, my friend is leaving his. Leaving the town that he was raised in, raised his kids in...

...for the mountains of his twilight years in Colorado.

The highlight of Covid was sitting up on the balcony and out of the blue, my friend would drive by and honk his obnoxious truck horn and yell up, “just checking up on you Mr. Shepley!”

That truck stopped in the Divorced Dad District last night for possibly the final time. The farewell “checking up on you” that ended with a goodbye hug.

My friend told me to keep being a great man and a great father and invited me to visit. Then he drove away in the dusk and fog of a late January evening.

Good friends come and go in our lives. The circumstances of living bring paths together and often moves them apart. Yesterday was a move apart day.

I haven’t traveled very far in the last five years and probably won’t in the next five. That was probably the last time I saw the man that I shared many breakfasts with at Michael’s Pancake House.

At least for the time being.

Today’s quote is an Irish farewell for the dear friend moving to the retirement of pine trees and ski slopes.

This is the full version:

“There are good ships And wood ships, Ships that sail the sea, But the best ships Are friendships And may they Always be!"

Now we go from Illinois to Colorado and from Irish goodbyes to Scottish poets.

Today is Burns Night as we celebrate the birthday of Robert Burns. If you’re not familiar with Mr. Burns… you sing a song he wrote every New Year, Auld Lang Syne.

Today is the last Thursday of January. Go enjoy friendship, the rarest and most important part of life.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot…. Best of Joy and Love to you Mr. Foley.

January 24th Flashback

 2023

I just want to sit on the front stoop at 220 South Lombard and take a deep breath. Maybe reach for my mitt and a rubber league baseball. Put a wad of big league chew in my mouth and throw the bottom of the ninth against the concrete steps.

My dad can come out and yell at me for throwing that god damn ball against the house again.

He never understood….When I pitched that ball against those seven steps it always came back to the pitching mound out on the sidewalk. I don’t know why the hell it pissed him off so much.

I just want to sit on that stoop one more time and enjoy a root beer float and watch the first lightning bugs appear in the front yard. Listen to my dad talk about when he was a kid. How much of a treat it was to have ice cream on the front porch.

I just want to sit on that front stoop and drink my first legal Old Style without sneaking behind the garage….. having my dad call Old Style Panther Piss as he hands me another one from the icebox. I’d do anything if I could have one more cold one on the front steps at 220 South Lombard.

I wonder if the man who owns our house now would call the police if I stopped over and threw a ball against his front stoop. I can tell him the tree in his front yard was planted during the spring of 1984 and offer him one of my Old Style’s before Oak Park’s finest show up.

Whenever I was around that front stoop I never had any problems. I didn’t have any unpaid bills. I didn’t have an ex wife driving me insane. I didn’t have to worry about anything.

If I fell down my dad would pick me up, throw me a clean towel and turn the water on in the shower.

We all need to pay an occasional visit to our parents front stoop. Every once in awhile I'll get into Betty the Green Blazer and do a drive by. Usually I stop by my dad's old White Hen and buy a lottery ticket or go by the Oak Park bakery and get a coffee cake.

The tree we planted is taller than the house. The new owners planted bushes and flower beds all over the place. Any remnants of a baseball diamond or the gridiron made famous at the TurkeyBowl of 1981 are long gone. The third base line has a hydrangea bush on it. The end zone is a rose garden.

I’m tired… I just want to walk up the front stoop and up the stairs. Climb into my bed and take a nap until breakfast is ready.

Not going to happen….

…I often try to remember the last time I threw the ball against the front stoop. I didn’t know at the time that this is it, this is the last inning of my illustrious front stoop baseball career. I’m thirteen, fourteen years old and I’m never going to throw a ball against the front steps ever again.

If I do anything in 2023, I’m going to find a wall somewhere and pitch a couple innings for the 1977 White Sox.

Do they still make hard rubber baseballs?

I’ll probably end up on Tiktok, “oLd fAt dAd dOIng HiS yOUth!”

“Hey kid put down the fucking phone! I need a right fielder!”

Anyway, it’s Tuesday morning and it looks so good. I’m already in a daydream.

In a daydream on the front stoop at 220 South Lombard.

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.

2021

A wintry January Sunday!!! The days are getting longer... I hope your football team wins today!

It’s going to be a nice day to prep for a week of challenge!

Sunday is the day to work on building your FOUNDATION with FAITH and FAMILY and FRIENDS!

2020

Short weeks are always tough! Enjoy your winter tonight and tomorrow! Your beer will be getting warm under the sun before you know it!

2019

Happy Thursday....

2018

Humpday!