An Observation....

My observation of the last 24 hours.... I will tell you that I am not shocked over the outcome. In my opinion, what has happened here the people spoke and they were pissed! The people of this country (especially Middle America) have had enough of big money in politics, jobs going overseas, political dynasties and generally being ignored.

Clinton's campaign started off on a bad foot when she was essentially handed the nomination preventing anyone else to have a fair shot. Truth be told, you screwed Bernie Sanders royally and didn't give him a call back the next day! It seemed to me that her supporters were more enthused by the historic implications of her running for office. Oh boy! We're going to have the first woman President! BFD! (if you don't know what that means, ask Joe Biden) That mindset clouded the ugly truth about this flawed candidate. She had so much baggage that JFK International Airport couldn't handle it. What really gave me the "Red Ass" was the parade of celebrities she trotted out to support her campaign. Every single one of them could not even relate to either you or I. That's like trying to use honey to lure someone to eat a steaming pile of..... I'm going to keep track on the celebrities who said that they would leave the country if Donald Trump won. Canada and France are waiting for you. She pandered to minorities and women. Don't get me started about the hot sauce in her pocketbook. It's a proven fact that she tried to discredit all the women that her husband had affairs and trysts with. Supporting women? I highly doubt it. I've spoken about her inner circle in the past and it was just a matter of time before it came back to haunt her. I have not heard one word from Huma in the last 24 to 48 hours. People were saying that this election wasn't about the former President. Yes, that is true but past transgressions puts a person in a "Guilt by Association" dilemma. If she had distanced herself from him long ago, I think she would have fared much better this time around. Anthony Weiner ..... well we'll just leave it right there.

The thing that really stood out with me is the amount of money that was spent. Trump was clearly outspent by a 2 to 1 margin. 450 Million Dollars could have been better spent on things that really matter. This is a prime example of "More is NOT Better" By the way, Super PAC's need to end!!

My harshest criticism falls on the media, so-called experts, pollsters and pundits. Every single one of them (and I'm not exaggerating ) were absolutely totally WRONG!! Television weathermen and women are more accurate. I have never seen so much bias in my life. There were cable news commentators in absolute panic, tears and yelling at one another. Martha Raddatz was holding back tears because of the impending outcome. Chris Matthews head was going to explode. (I wish it did) That is totally unprofessional. The New York Daily News went out of it's way to try to destroy Donald Trump... This will continue nevertheless. The polls were wrong and totally slanted to influence the outcome. Maybe more people are like myself. I'll tell you one thing but do the complete when it comes to polls or just not participate at all. Where do these so-called experts come from? You learn absolutely nothing from these people.

The take away from all of this? Trump is not the perfect candidate by a long shot but the electorate has spoken... Deal with it! I like the idea that a political outsider beat down the establishment. This should teach present and future politicians to start listening to the people that you represent or this will happen to you. Stop handpicking your candidates and screwing over people who are not part of the political elite. Maybe one day a Third Party candidate will have some ideas that everyone will take hold of. Donald Trump whined about the system being rigged but this time around it has worked in his favor. Lastly, this proves that American Dream still exists where anybody can be president. Sorry so wordy carry on with your day people!!

What I Remember About This Day......

September 11th 2001 is a day I will never forget.

 I was living in Norfolk Virginia home of the worlds largest Naval installation. I've always felt comfortable and secure being surrounded by Naval, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Air Force bases and Army Posts. I've always liked working for and with military personnel very nice and cordial. I remember moving into the area and having a Navy Wife bring me a cake welcoming me to the neighborhood. I was totally shocked when that happened. I was thinking "This would never happen in Jersey!"  Anyway that was the beginning of a great 8 years of living in Tidewater.

Going back to that day I remember being on my computer and listening to 790 WNIS-AM and Tony Macrini on my day off. And I remember him talking to a couple of young ladies from PETA, cute and totally misguided. How I know this? I went to work for WNIS a few months later Tony became my boss and met them. How can anyone so cute be so insane? I remember all the fun ended at around 8:47 when Tony read a bulletin off of the Associated Press Wire about what happened in New York. Being from the area, I was thinking that it was just a small plane out of Teterboro that had hit the North Tower not a big deal. But as the minutes passed, it just got worse. So I turned on MSNBC and saw the North Tower with a hole in it smoking. I said Holy Shit? what in the world is going on? My media/history instincts kicked in and I popped in a blank video tape and hit record. I'm sitting there watching all of this when the second plane hit The South Tower. While everyone initially thought it was just an explosion I saw, it for what actually happened another plane hit. I'm sitting there stunned and my phone rang and it was my girlfriend who worked at Bell Atlantic as a 411 operator. She asked me what was going on because all the switchboards were going absolutely crazy at the time. I told her what I saw and at the time we left it at that as being a "New York thing" But as the minutes turned into an hour, come to find out The Pentagon was hit. Not even 5 minutes later I hear screaming coming from downstairs. A Marine who lived in a downstairs apartment that was running out the door into a waiting white van and his girlfriend standing there crying. Again the phone rang it was my girlfriend telling me to get her daughter out of school and bring her home. While I was getting dressed, I glanced over to the television just to see the South Tower Collapse. To be honest with you, I have never felt afraid of anything almost to the scale of like "the end of the world afraid" until then. While I'm driving to get the little girl who would eventually become my step daughter, I'm trying to figure out how to explain to an 8 year old what happened. I've always been pretty honest with her and never spoke baby talk. Driving along I noticed that security had been stepped up at Little Creek Amphibious Base along with Ft. Story. Barriers and sandbags were placed at every entry point . Sailors, Marines and Army Soldiers were posted with heavier than usual arms and uniforms. I'm thinking things are getting really serious now. The military was at Delta all hands had to report, there was a ground stop at Norfolk International Airport and businesses were closing. When I picked up my daughter she had asked me why she was getting out of school early. I gingerly told her what had happened and the reason why mom wanted her to come home. I had an easier time explaining human sexuality to her then death and destruction. We went to Wal-Mart and it was eerily empty like it was overnight. I avoided having her listen to anything on the radio on the way home but come to find out the plane in Pennsylvania. The importance of the military in the 7 cities of Tidewater became quite prevalent when the streets emptied that day and everyone was on alert. When we arrived home I had a message on my phone from my employer saying I was on standby in case there were any kind of evacuations being a city bus driver I understood. My girlfriend came home early and we continued to watch what was going on in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The total confusion and kaos was almost too much to bear but I had to show the girls I was there to comfort and protect them. My mother called me from New Jersey to see if I was ok and I asked her if she thought she would see anything like this in her life time and she said no this is crazy! This is the woman who told me before I was born that she thought the world was going to end during the Cuban Missile Crisis again with the assassinations of the Kennedy Brothers and Martin Luther King after I was born. We always had this false sense of security in this country that nobody is going to hurt us (me included)

That day our world had changed something I didn't want to see or experience and hopefully never again.....

My Name is Xavier

I have had an interesting 3 months. A little four legged tornado named Xavier came into my life. His mother fondly named "Moma Cat" who is an outdoor cat had a litter of 3 kittens. We tried our best to catch her to get her fixed but she is way too smart to be lured into a trap again. She was caught last summer but we had to let her go do to the fact that she just had a litter a few days before and didn't want to separate them yet. She will not go within a mile of one again. This time around she had another 3 kittens which I had stumbled across while I was taking out the trash. I saw something moving in the bushes and what I saw was 3 tiny kittens walking around crying for their mother and their eyes were barely open.

   All their eyes were infected so I gathered them up and cleaned them up and put them back where they belonged.

But as the days progressed, I noticed that one was being totally ignored. He was the smallest and had to fight for food and attention. The great thing was when I went out to check on them I called out to them and only one came to me. And this is the one I kept I named him Xavier. I have named all my pets after X-Men. 

I have had pets named Mystique, Sabretooth and Jean Grey (Which I still have now) There was something about this runt of the litter that reminded me of myself. I have always had to fight my way through life and I always root for the underdog and that he was.    For a while there I didn't think he was going to make it. He had some eye infection issues along with some breathing problems.  After a visit at the Vet, he got 100% better and I was totally relieved. I told myself I wasn't going to deal with another death of a pet.                  

                                                                                                       

This little guy had to be bottle fed just like an infant and required as much attention. It has been a long time since I have done such a thing about 20 years to be exact. I'm glad I didn't have to change diapers again!! I can tell you that I hadn't slept a whole night in about 3 weeks. I had the little guy sleep next to me in his little bed worrying about where he was every waking minute. It's bad enough I don't sleep well as it is but this little guy needed help and I was there for him.                                                                                          

I was so relieved that he was getting better quickly. It was faster than I expected..........                                 

One of my Facebook friends said to me that "You saved that Cat's life". Honestly I really never thought about it that way. I just wanted to give the underdog a fighting chance.                                                           

He is growing up quickly and giving Jean Grey a tough time but what are little brothers for?

                         

A Visit Back Home

Now that I have got my head in order and my body clock reset I can finally start writing this blog. Although it seemed like a vacation, I had a purpose to check on my parents, visit friends some I haven't seen in 30 years and to see if there was anything for me back East.

Overall this visit made me open my eyes to a lot of things. I haven't been home in 4 years and things have changed big time. First my parents, they are getting older and mom is battling diabetes. Her situation has gotten worse over time and I'm really concerned. The temporary blindness and passing out has me wondering if she and my father are not telling the whole story. My sister seems to think so. It has gotten to the point where she is taking the steps to getting to the bottom of it. I still think of my parents as a couple of 30 somethings and never getting old. When I see them now, they are older and frail. Honestly it makes me sad not wanting to think when I will lose both of them. I do talk to them once a week because Mom will kick my ass if I don't call lol. My father really doesn't talk much but my mother is the total opposite. She is a news junkie and I enjoy her spin on world events. Mom was born and raised in the South and sometimes her view on life does not match up with mine but she is my mother and I love her. Now she needs a reality show.

The most enjoyable part of going home was seeing my friends. I stayed with my best friend and her husband. I have known this woman since 1982. I was friends first with her brother from Marching Band and had a total crush on her back then. As we grew older and went in different directions geographically, we remained close friends and I was even her "Maid of Honor" when she got married. She is a total geek like myself when it comes to technology and comic books she is my best friend and will not have it any other way. As I made my way from Cape May New Jersey to New York City, it seemed like I had turned back the clock seeing so many people from various times of my life. It started from my time in Radio visiting the old radio station in the Atlantic City market. I saw friends that I started with back in 1987 who have come back there at the request of the new ownership. We shared some crazy stories from the past, what we have done since and where we are at now. It felt good walking around those studios again and telling the people who work there now that I helped build this place. Radio has always been my "Happy Place" where I could always be myself and enjoy the two things I love the most Radio and music. As you continue to read this blog, I will be commenting on the state of radio. Radio is such a mess where I wonder if it will ever return to it's old glory. Next was my high school friends. My high school friends follow my antics and travels on Facebook. Through Facebook, we all have remained pretty close but I really wanted to see everyone. I really tried to see everyone but time was not my best friend. Someone had an idea to meet in one central place and throw a party for me. She posted it on Facebook and to make a long story short the party was on. It was a humbling experience to see friends take time especially a work night to see me. As I told them it wasn't all about me, it was about getting together and having a good time. It was good to get caught up, meeting wives, husbands and children of all who showed up. It was weird telling them that I had come alone not having a spouse or girlfriend. That's a story for a different day hopefully that will change sometime soon. Anyway I ventured into Seaside Heights to see another one of my high school friends. She runs a motel in Seaside and it was great to see her. We spoke about a lot of things but the thing that stuck out was what happened during Hurricane Sandy. She told me things that unless you lived in Seaside or the surrounding area, you would not have heard of the total kaos that took place. I could sense the sadness in her words and on her face. As I sat in front of this computer watching the storm beat the crap out of the shore, I had no idea how bad it was. I told her she needed to write a book about what her and her boyfriend experienced. It would be quite riveting. During that time in Seaside, I took a walk on the Boardwalk. I remembered what she told me about the area not really being ready. On the outside looking in, it looked like business as usual people enjoying the beach and the amusements but it was not the same. The boards may have been new but not as busy as it should be especially for a hot summer day in August. Sandy did so much damage both physically and economically where people aren't coming in droves this year. I lived there for 3 years and I have a pretty good feel on what it should be happening during the summer. The damage to homes and other structures were still visible and reconstruction was still going on. My curiosity was still getting to me so I ventured to the 200 block of Carteret ave where I used to live. To my dismay, the only thing I saw was an empty lot the two story duplex was gone. All those memories were just washed away just like the building. I never thought it would bother me so much but it hit me pretty hard. Honestly the entire Jersey Shore is economically depressed, rental prices have tripled and some locals who lived there aren't coming back. My last stop on my Jersey Shore tour was Little Egg Harbor Township another area that took a hard hit from Hurricane Sandy. That area was hit so hard by that storm, the shoreline actually changed. This is where I spent my high school years and I have an attachment to that area. Not to sound like a total wuss but this Jersey Shore tour was a little bit too much to take so I had to stop. So much sadness and uncertainty even gets to this toughened Jersey Guy. The last friend I saw happened to be a person I had dated back in the late 90's but have remained friends for all these years. She accompanied me to New York to see how the World Trade Center has progressed. I refuse to call it "Freedom Tower" sounds so "Fox News" to me it makes me sick. We ran our mouths from the time I picked her up till I dropped her off. She has since remarried and that seems to be the only thing that has changed about her, she is the same delightful person I have always known. 

After all of this I had a decision to make, go back home to family and friends or stay here in Northern California. With all the damage to the East Coast, limited housing and job prospects being limited the decision was pretty easy. I love my family and friends but I have to look at the bottom line. I have established some roots now. I may not have everything I want here but I'm learning to live with it. Always remember and never forget I'm still a Jersey Guy and either a phone call or plane ticket away.....