“Just Feed the Birds and Eat Oatmeal”

  

A very famous person in my 67 years of life said this above statement, I believe we were going to buy a local Restaurant, and we settled at his house for a while. He looked at me and, “Chef, I don’t know where you get your energy from but, I just “want to stay home and feed the birds and eat oatmeal”. That famous person is also my best friend and someone I look up to every day. He has recently been named the 2025 Poet-Laureate of Ulster County, New York. He also happens to be my Brother, who by the way I Love very much.

•             I was driving home from work the other day, and a sense of warmth 

  came over me. That phrase, that fucking phrase, with the birds and the oatmeal, came out my lips. Son of a bitch, he was right again. 

             Life blows these days for many but,  thank God we're not alone.  What keeps me level is that somebody out there has it a lot worse than me. God has blessed me with a great backup my beautiful wife Susan (she thinks I forgot our 24th wedding anniversary in a few days, shh don’t say anything)  My brother Mike, and his wife Emily. 

                   Life throws you a lot of Bullshit, I have found that a good sense of humor beats the use of Narcotics legal or otherwise. Yes, there are times I start singing Roll Me Up, and smoke me when I die . with a big smile on my face.  The first line in my book that I started about 20 years ago was, I have never had a Job, I have always loved what I do, 90% of the time I am laughing and the other 10% I’m smiling. I started this long-winded article with Words to Live recited by my brother Mike.       

•          I will close in the same fashion, I just turned 53, and a good friend of mine Chef Ed came by to wish me a happy birthday, I was setting up for lunch service at the time, and asked him, “You know Ed, 52 was a bitch,I thankfully pushed all the right buttons and thank God we made it through” Now Chef Ed you would swear is a George Segal lookalike, he also is a little hard of hearing, he looks at me and says “Joey, whose says it has to stop? Just keep laughing.           

•          My fingers won’t stop typing. So music plays a major part in all our lives, many songs keep us alive when times are tough, I have about 22 let's call them funeral songs.  Gee at 67 i should get to putting that list together, anyway. I mentioned a sense of warmth went through me yesterday here’s why and thanks for taking the time. Encore, Encore 

 One for my Brother..  This one is for when they put the lid down. Good nite all