Damp day ahead

Posted on September 12, 2025 by slip60

Bad weather will make you rethink if riding a motorcycle is a good idea.

I awake Sunday morning eager to get this next leg of the trip underway. The plan is to get to Philadelphia early and meet my friend for Sunday football, dinner, stay the night and hit the road early Monday. I take a look out the window and my plan turns inside out as it is raining.

The forecast shows rain coming from the southwest, which is the direction I need to travel, until late morning, so it delays my plan to get to Philadelphia by 10am. Around 10am , a window finally appears where the rain slows enough to ride in it, so I break out the rain gear only to find my new rain shoes are two sizes too small to cover my boots. Lesson learned: always double check your gear prior to needing it.

I have a slight glitch in that I now need to return the rain shoes back to Staples for an Amazon pick up and then order new ones to be sent to one of my stops along the route later in the week. This also doesn’t go off as planned as the clerk in Staples won’t have the correct shipping labels until Tuesday, for the box this needs to be shipped in.

As I walk back to the bike it begins to rain, and my thoughts are now on “how wet will my feet get “since it’s the only part of me exposed to the rain. As I zipper up my coat, I start thinking that maybe I should just call it a day and head back to the house and wait out the bad weather or just leave tomorrow when the forecast is much better. Probably the safe solution but I decided to press on and take my chances that the rain would not get worse.

About halfway into the ride the sky opens up and my feet are now soaked inside my boots. If you have ever ridden a motorcycle in the rain then you know it’s a very harrowing experience. Being wet is one thing but the water tends to also make you cold. Riding a bike while cold and wet makes it very difficult to stay focused on the road. It creates a dangerous situation since you tend to stiffen up when cold which takes away from you reaction time should a quick maneuver be necessary.

I decide to stop at my sister’s house which is on my route, to dry off and change my socks.  The decision is a good one because not only did she dry my socks and my boots but also served me a really good cup of coffee that took away the chill I had.

When I get back to riding, I begin thinking that maybe I am too old to be doing this. Maybe taking this trip wasn’t such a good idea. It’s very easy to scare yourself if you get inside your own head too much.  You start to play all these different scenarios in your mind about what can happen. I think about how many other riders let these thoughts play in their head or if I am alone in this. It’s almost like you subconsciously create these thoughts to scare yourself into not riding. I wonder how I convince myself to ride after having these thoughts. I guess I continue to go forward because riding most days, is a great experience. An experience that is difficult to describe to someone who can’t feel what I do while riding. I’m guessing this will play on in my mind until the day I hang it up.

Today though, the good news is I arrive to my final destination dry and safe, with a few memories to help me better prepare for my next ride.

Just one man’s opinion..

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On the Road again- Florida to Jercee!

Posted on August 29, 2025 by slip60

Really anxious to get going. The wife’s been away for over a week now and I am finally done counting the days til I hit the road. Bags packed, house buttoned up and adrenaline pumping.

I get up at 5am after tossing around the nite thinking about the route to take to the Auto Train. Back road or highway, maybe a little of each. I decide to take 95N to Cocoa and cut over on the back road instead of the “Beeline”. The two lane road I choose although a slower pace, is the more enjoyable ride. No rush as I wind up leaving an hour prior to my plan to head out at 10 am.

The ride over to Sanford is easy and stress free with no traffic and great weather. I threw on my “chill vest” thinking it may be hot and although I probably didn’t need to, it felt great. The wet vest and wind combination kept me cool and comfortable even with the 80+ temperature. This being my first time wearing one, it turns out to be a good choice to buy one for this trip. I regret not having one for the last long trip where we road through some hot weather in Texas.

I pull into the Amtrak station before the gates that allow cars to enter are open. Riding a bike gets you early access around the gate so I take advantage of it and park over where they load the motorcycles on the train. As it turns out I am the first person to check in as the clerk makes sure to mention to me. I figured I would take advantage of her friendliness and ask if I could get a free upgrade to a bigger room but she just laughed and said” nuthins free here honey”. “Nothing ventured nothing gained” I say and we both laugh it off.

Sitting in the terminal I am reminded about the first trip I took on the Auto train 10 years ago and how excited I am to be doing this again. I’m thinking about how I am going to take a nap as soon as I get in the room, have a nice steak dinner and then a hot shower. A very relaxing trip ahead.

As I board the train I make my way through the tight, barely enough room for one person hallway, to my second level “roomette”, where I squeeze into the closet sized, bunk bed laden cubicle. I remember the first trip and how we both laughed at the size of the room. I am quickly greeted by the attendant as she informs me of the amenities and where dinner will be served. Her cubicle was across the hall from mine which gave us plenty of opportunity to chat it up on numerous occasions during the 16 hour trip.

If you haven’t rode a train overnight, it is quite the experience. I really enjoy it and find it relaxing and very interesting in that its a very unique way to travel. Everyone is in such close quarters to each other and sometimes its nice because you have a lot of chance meetings with others and get to pass the time talking about the train ride and why your riding it. Most people tend to be very friendly and seem to enjoy sharing their story with you.

One thing I always say about riding a motorcycle is that people are far more likely to approach me when they know that I am traveling by bike and this trip is no different. At dinner, I am seated at a table with a couple and another woman traveling by herself. She is the first to break the ice and blurts out” Hi, I’m Nancy and I am from Jupiter”! I find this funny how she was so raring to get the conversation started and I quickly respond to her. After some time passes the conversation moves on to why each of us is on the train and what are our plans after reaching our destination. This is when the conversations’ focus turns in my direction where questions and stories of motorcycle related events take over the topic during dinner. The couple made it clear that they travel frequently, have visited many places in the country and were quick to share places they thought I should visit while on the road. I mentally noted some and wrote it down when I returned to my room later that evening.

Being a light sleeper and because of all the movement of the train along the tracks, it is challenging for me to get a good nights rest. The train rocks constantly as it tosses you slightly back and forth. The sound of the train does counter that some as it becomes a white noise that seems to calm me enough to get some sleep during the nights long ride.

Funny side note: Traveling for me makes me think more about my bathroom habits and the timing of reliving myself of the previous days nourishment( if you get what I mean). I don’t want to be on the bike and have to stop to take care of business so as we near the final destination, I begin to get antsy about using the facilities before we reach the station. Okay, so I already mentioned how small the rooms are but they are huge compared to the bathrooms. My arms hit the side walls and my knees are inches from the door when I need to sit. It is not the most comfortable way to relieve yourself and naturally, the minute you sit, someone is knocking on the door to remind you they are waiting in line. Now, I am not one who sits and reads while taking care of my business but I DO NOT like knowing someone is waiting for me on the other side of the door, to finish. Now the pressure is on to not only get thru this quickly but hopefully a courtesy flush will be enough to clear the air of the telephone booth sized room I will exit to the waiting crowd of guests. Thankfully I get through unscathed this time and happily exit the train with an empty digestive track ready for the 5 hour ride ahead of me.

The ride from the Lorton Va. station to my family home in New Jersey is a memorable one. The roads were clear, the sky bright and beautiful and the scenery along the back roads and bridges were enjoyable. All things considered, I make it thru the first leg of my journey in good time with no issues. I consider myself lucky and chalk up another successful ride!

The Regular Guy

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What to Pack?

Posted on August 1, 2025 by slip60

I’m committed to going. I bought my Amtrak ticket for the Auto train to get me out of Florida and into Virginia. For the price of the ticket it was worth not riding up over a two or three day period. Heck, its a lot of fun on that train too. I can get to my private sleeper car and take a shower, catch a little nap then head upstairs for dinner and a movie. Get a good nites rest and enjoy a breakfast while they upload my bike with the rest of the couple of hundred other vehicles. Biggest issue….what do I pack for this trip?

It’s no secret that there isn’t much “trunk” space on a motorcycle so packing can be a real challenge. I can say through experience from the last long trip that its more likely a person will pack too many things than not enough. Traveling by bike and keeping clean clothes isn’t really that difficult. All you need is a couple of pairs of pants, a few long and short sleeve t- shirts and probably cold weather underwear. One of the things that I did last time that I also do when traveling by car or plane: pack as many garments that are made of synthetics like cotton and spandex blend and think in layers.

Today’s synthetic clothing make it easy to wash them in your hotel room and hang them to dry overnight. This helps with the amount of items, especially underwear, that you need to pack. I make a habit of taking my synthetics into the shower with me and wash them out after the days ride( is that TMI?). By the next morning they are usually dry enough to wear again or pack away and use my second set instead. Synthetics also provide water wicking of sweat away from your skin for when its hot out, which helps keep you cooler. They also can provide heat retention when worn under outer layers without the bulk of sweatshirts or thermals. This makes for packing less seasonal clothing for a trip that may take you to colder areas such as the Rockies even during warmer seasons.

The thing about packing for a trip that is a month or so away, is that you spend so much time just thinking about it instead of just tossing everything in a bag and heading out. What I mean is you can’t pack everything and then leave it laying around the house in your saddle bags waiting for the day you head out. I’d like to do that and be done with it but I don’t think the wife would like to see all my stuff spread out over all the rooms in the small house that we have. I guess if I were single, this wouldn’t be an issue!

After I get that all figured out then I have to think about bringing tools and riding gear. One or two helmets, what wrenches would I possibly need in case of a repair on the side of the road. I have to say that having roadside assistance makes it easier to deal with a breakdown if it occurs, although it can be a major inconvenience and set back with making good time between destinations.

All in all its pretty exciting getting everything in place. Planning routes with paper and GPS maps, checking out all the YouTube videos about road trips, thinking about seeing all the country has to offer including meeting people of all kinds. And all the food! One of the best things about traveling the country is experiencing regional food.

Staying in hotels can become very expensive when traveling for a more than a week. Going on the road for a month or more can really cut into your budget but I found that their are fellow bikers all over the world that provide free lodging in their homes for traveling motorcyclists. So far I have found three groups that provide this service and have reached out to many of the hosts, to introduce myself with the idea of utilizing this service for parts of my journey.

So not only am I getting prepared a little more each day but my excitement level is climbing too! I’m just about at the point where I want to head out tomorrow instead of waiting on my train at the end of August, to get started.

Anticipation…hmmm like the ketchup commercial…is making me wait! More to come…

Thanks for following along

The Regular Guy!

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On the road again…

Posted on June 25, 2025 by slip60

It’s time to ride!

It has been way too long, I’ve tried to get my old riding buddies to go on another long trip but I’ve gotten nowhere with them, so I’m just going to pack up and do my first long distance solo ride.

Planning a trip can be exhausting due to the uncertainty of not knowing how long a day will be due to traffic and the type of weather you may ride into at any given moment. Being that you are on a bike it is entirely different how weather affects your ability to get from point A to point B. Traveling by car you can easily get thru rain and wind with little effort but on a bike it could delay you sometimes for days. Planning how far you can ride in a days time always depends on riding conditions. For instance, when mapping a route on Google, it might say total time of 4 hours and 20 mins. On a bike you can safely add 1 1/2 to 2 hrs to that time.

Planning a trip can also be exciting, as you map out sites to see and the best off the highway roads to travel. It is a bit of work to do to ensure that you get in as much as possible while off the cycle so as not to spend all your time just riding between towns and attractions. The difference between riding and driving is indescribable but being out in the open as opposed to in “the cage” puts you in the environment with more than a 180 degree view of everything, not to mention the aromas you experience that are missed while being in air conditioned vehicle.

Like I mentioned earlier, I’ll be riding alone this trip for the first time. I’m not going to tell you that it isn’t a bit scary thinking about all the things that can go wrong and being alone raises your anxiety level considerably. The thing is that I am not alone in feeling this way as many who travel alone always cite this as the first reason they put off doing solo trips but eventually after talking to others, they decide to get off the couch and live life.

Living in fear of what may happen will get you nowhere fast. Truth is, every time we as riders, get on our bike, we think of what can happen to us. Its difficult not to feel this way with all the noise we are constantly facing from friends, relatives and social media about the dangers of motorcycling. Everyone always wants to tell you about a crash they know of which freaks me out! Why does everyone want to tell you about crashes they see or hear of? Do they not realize as bikers we already know about the risk we take every time we ride?

I don’t know for sure if every biker feels this way but every time I saddle up and ride, I feel a little nervous and think that this may be my last time. Its scary and very hard not to have that thought but once I get that wind in my face, those thoughts flee very quickly. I am once again reminded just how much I love motorcycles.

Stay tuned for the preparation and the journey ahead..

The Regular Guy

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WHAT!!!!! Nothing but Meat??

Posted on October 10, 2023 by slip60

It’s 1:30pm on a regular Thursday afternoon, home from work, snacked on a handful of pretzels and wallah, it’s nap time! What the hell is happening to me? This isn’t right. I should not be tired and napping at 1:30pm and I need to get out of this horrible habit!!!

It’s been almost four weeks since that day and my most current attempt, at transforming my life into something better.

Lets go back a month, when I, while trolling YouTube for political videos, found Jordan Petersen. Jordan Petersen is a pod caster/ You Tuber and whatever else you may call him, who opines on a variety of topics, and on this day he was talking about his experience with the Carnivore lifestyle. Petersen found the Carnivore way of life because of his daughter who had been struggling with devastating arthritis. At a young age she needed, I believe, hip and knee replacement and doctors had no idea how to slow down or stop the progression of her arthritis. Desperate to save her body, she took one last leap of faith and chose to change her way of eating. She researched the Carnivore lifestyle and figured what had she to lose since nothing else was curing her.

It turns out that she found the healing properties she was seeking in an all meat based diet., which put her arthritis in remission. Now I know that this sounds crazy and also against everything we have been told about eating meat and how bad it is for us, but it intrigued me enough to start researching this on my own to see what it was about.

But first, a little background on myself and my nutritional lifestyle. I am a 63 year old male who has been fighting my weight with dieting, almost my entire adult life. I thought that I finally found some success when 20+ years ago I discovered P90X and breakfast. Those two things were the main reasons I remain today some 25 lbs lighter than I was prior to that last diet and exercise regimen. Although I have been very happy that I never gained back my weight that was lost, I still continued to fight weight gain, sometimes fluctuating 10 lbs more then finding my way back to my “normal” weight. So where am I going with this you ask? Well after falling asleep on that chair, I finally had a moment of clarity. I realized that the past 20 years I have never felt healthy and found myself almost always in a fog with low energy. I had been wasting so much time in a chair instead of taking advantage of working less and having more free time then in my youth. I had enough!

On Sunday, four weeks ago, I changed my eating habits and took the dive into Carnivore. After watching an endless amount of people swear how their lives were changed by giving up processed foods, sugar and pesticide filled vegetables and fruits, I was all in. This is my journey:

Day one: I began slowly by cutting out what I could the first day even though I went to breakfast with a friend. The idea is to eat nothing but beef, eggs, butter and bacon. Some carnivores also include some dairy, hard cheeses, fish and all other meats. The real key though is to get a pretty balanced amount of protein and fat with every meal. Basically the protein heals and nourishes and the fat satisfies you so you are never hungry. Fat as it is, is very important in maintaining and having success with this lifestyle.

When I began this journey I started documenting everything that I have noticed about my body and the changes, good and bad. I have to say that in the first two weeks, the worst thing is the diarrhea that you will experience due to the changes in diet and how your body doesn’t have any fiber to absorb all the extra fat. The good news is your body rejects more fat than it can absorb. Since you only produce so much bile, the body will not store the extra fat but it will expel it. It takes some getting used to and some have a worse time of it than others but everyone I watched on video stated they got through it pretty easily. Other than that I had experienced dizziness and feeling lightheaded especially while playing tennis and perspiring. This I would find out was due to the decrease in electrolytes in my diet, so I made adjustments based on what others recommended and it soon passed. The good though, far outweighed the bad. Here’s a LIST of what changed for the positive in as little as three days, and thru the first two weeks.

  1. Weight loss of 10 pounds
  2. Eczema condition on my elbows began to regress and heal
  3. Sleeping better with less or no tossing and waking up
  4. No more inflammation of my legs, hands and joints
  5. Blood pressure back to normal numbers
  6. Craving more water
  7. No more cloudiness or brain fog but complete clarity
  8. Energy that makes me feel like I can run through a wall
  9. No more mood swings but generally always happy
  10. Skin feels nourished and never dry
  11. NO CRAVINGS FOR ANYTHING SWEET( this one is paramount!!!)
  12. No body odors
  13. No more tight hamstrings( which I ALWAYS had)
  14. My bicep tendinitis that had plagued me on and off for two years is gone.
  15. Probably more that I can’t remember without checking my journal.
  16. and finally, less expensive shopping list and easy menu..lol

That was just the first two weeks… I am in my fourth week as I write this and I can’t say enough how incredible I feel. The biggest thing about this lifestyle is you are hardly ever hungry and never crave anything. After just a few days, the sugar craving goes away and the fat in your diet keeps you so satiated that you hardly ever look for your next meal. I have gone periods of between 12 -18 hours of not eating because I had no desire or hunger to do so. This is not done purposely but only out of lack of being hungry.

From what I am led to believe, you go into a state of Ketosis whereas it burns fat off your body in between meals which in turn keeps you satisfied and thins your waistline in the process. Whatever it is it works. All those videos I watched for two weeks prior to trying this Carnivore lifestyle proved true. My past dieting and lifestyle never produced such great affect on my life. I am feeling healthier than ever and have so much energy that sometimes I don’t know what to do with myself.

So where do I go from here? I don’t believe I can go my whole life without eating ice cream, sweets or bread, which I love, but I do believe that I can sustain this lifestyle even with the occasional cheat day in there once in awhile. Honestly my goal was to try this for a week and see how I felt but now that I am in full blown Carnivore mode I have no desire to go back. The last thing I need to do is get my blood work done to see if my vitals are still in line or better than what they were prior to Carnivore.

One last thought. If you are suffering from chronic anything, whether it be tiredness, skin condition, IBS or something else, you owe it to your self to look into this lifestyle. You will be amazed at how many people have hopped on board that have benefited with better health and a more productive life from just changing what they put in their bodies.

Just one man’s opinion

The Regular Guy

  • disclaimer.- I am in no way endorsing or promoting this Carnivore lifestyle to anyone but merely stating how this change has affected my life and how it may perhaps, affect yours. Do your homework and always consult professional advice and guidance when making life changes.
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LEGACY

Posted on September 25, 2022 by slip60

I have forever felt the need to do something with my life that would leave a mark. I think about people like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, MLK etc. and how they will be remembered forever for what they accomplished in their short time here on earth. It has always been a wonder for me about why we are all here. Would I waste my time here? Who would know that I was here after I am gone?

Those people I mentioned did things that didn’t take the money of a Bill Gates or Elon Musk. They were great on their merits and their beliefs, their passion to do what was right. There was no twitter or Facebook with a “million “followers or enough money to influence people’s opinions or beliefs.

What do normal everyday people leave behind? How will we be remembered when we are gone?

My mother lived a somewhat normal life as she never invented anything or created a niche for people to follow her but she did do one thing extraordinarily well. She devoted her life to her family. My mom may not have done everything perfectly right raising us but the one important thing she did do, was make us know love. There has never been a moment in my life, that I did not know my mom’s love for me.

I remember my mom telling us how being a mom was the one thing she wanted in her life. In fact, she gave up a promising career as a singer to marry my dad and raise a family. Not much of that going around these days, I can tell you that. It showed up every day in the box score, just how much that was true.

When I was a young boy playing little league ball, my mom would be there every game to cheer me on even though I was terrible. I could hear her yell “confidence “from the stands. Although I tried to hide in embarrassment then, later in life I realized just how much that inspired me to take chances and not fear the outcome.

I believe my mom became who she was despite having the relationship she did with her mother. I believe my fathers family gave her all the love she craved and didn’t get from her mother or siblings and in turn she gave it back tenfold to her family. I don’t mean her immediate family but her ENTIRE family. I can remember vividly how she was always there for my Uncle Shookie during his worst and most embarrassing moments of his life. While most families would have turned him away for his horrible behavior, she would just love him and try to make him understand that he was loved. I know why she was always my Uncle’s favorite person and why he loved her so much, even though he never quite found his way until shortly before his death.

My mom had the unique ability to attract hurting or dysfunctional young people in need of love and friendship. It was amazing to me that despite our chiding her for the way these people found their way to her she just continued her way of comforting them. She would say she was doing Gods work but I believe she truly enjoyed her time spent with each and every one of them knowing that she was giving them something they couldn’t find anywhere else, love.

Over the last three weeks, prior to, during and after her passing, I have done a lot of thinking about her legacy. My family and I have been going through and clearing out her “items” she had collected over her lifetime. “Collected “may actually be the wrong word as “hoarding” might be more appropriate. My mom never threw anything away if she felt she had a connection to it or that she might someday need it in the distant future. When I say “distant future” its no joke. We found everyday junk mail, greeting cards, acorns, clipped hairs, wish bones and newspaper clippings form the 40’s and 50’s.  Thousands of pictures, some of people we have no idea who they were. And journals, personal journals of her life, that we have yet to peruse, more so out of fear of what we will read then lack of time to do so.

But through all our discoveries, I learned about a person’s legacy. I realize now that it isn’t important if the whole world knew you existed. Or if you leave behind a fortune or some invention no one thought of. It doesn’t matter if you traveled the world or just your neighborhood. What matters is if you affected just one person’s life in a way that made it better. In a way that they would remember how you imprinted something in them that changed the course of their life. Made them feel loved when they never knew what that meant. Took time to listen to their stories over and over and smiled like you heard them for the first time. Was a friend because you cared about their soul not just because they drove you to the mall on Thursdays.

This was my mom’s legacy. She touched the lives of so many people we didn’t know and left lifelong impressions on them. We learned this from all the cards and letters she received in her life that she never discarded. Letters from children, some of which, now adults, came from miles away to show their respect and share their stories of my mom with my family. We learned this from the phone calls we received from those too far away but still thought enough to reach out to us and let us know what my mom meant to them. My mom left lasting impressions on almost everyone she spent time with. I believe that my mom, although a hoarder in her own way, left behind all these boxes of memories, not so much for her, but for us. For us to discover and later celebrate her life and all the things that were important to her. Even though we would laugh at how she would save some of the things we discovered, I began to realize that the laughter was a good thing. That even though I am sad from her leaving us, she still had one last way to make us feel loved and happy. She put us in a place where we could learn the things about her that we never knew. Learn of a part of the person she was that we somehow never understood the magnitude of.

When I raised my glass to toast my mom, I asked everyone to not just remember my mom but to never stop telling her stories or teaching their kids and their grand kids about her. In reality, we keep those who passed alive by talking about and sharing their stories and as long as we continue to do so they are never really gone.

This, in the end, is how we keep our loved ones alive, share in and continue their legacy….

I love you mom..

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“Why Blog”??

Posted on January 23, 2022 by slip60

There are infinite blogging sites on the web and access to just about any topic is just a search away. Everyone who blogs has their reason for doing so. Here is mine…..

I started my blog to just give myself a place that I could release all my thoughts without having to speak directly to someone but also to have the ability to speak to anyone interested in listening.

But years later, after giving this some thought, I realized I do this to leave something behind after I am gone. I believe, we are all here for a reason and that we all leave a mark on someone. An imprint, good or bad but something that will live on long after we leave this life.

Our lives are so busy. Friends and family rarely spend time together like in the old days, when weekends were for visiting grandmas house and having dinner with half the family! Those days are long gone and now, trying to just see your family can be difficult when so many of us live a great distance from where we all grew up.

I guess with the point I am trying to make, I should be more specific and talk about my life and experience.

I am a divorced dad, albeit its been decades from when I was married to my daughters mom, but being a divorced dad usually leads to more separation from your child then that of a mom. Most moms get residential custody so they spend time with their child as if nothing changed. They wake each day in the same house, watch television, do homework and eat together. They talk daily about everything that happens in each others life. But as a dad, we often miss all the little things when a child gets to know a parent. This is a major reason why dads often become outsiders or don’t always know what their children want. The early stages in a child’s life is when they learn what type of parents they have. How much can they get away with from one? Who should they go to for help with math homework? Who do they feel safe confiding in? When you are the one always present you become the go to for everything.

The years that my daughter and I spent apart were difficult. There was so much I wanted to share but with limited time, being involved in a business and living an hour apart hindered a lot of the opportunity to bond. Problems arose with communication between us and times were difficult for both my daughter and myself. As a child I would imagine it was hard to say how she felt in fear of hurting my feelings or just not knowing how to express herself. As a dad I didn’t want to hurt her emotionally anymore than I already did by divorcing her mom and moving out. So backing away became the option I chose, in hopes that one day as she grew to an adult, our relationship could become something more than weekend visits.

I started my blog sometime when she was in her twenties and began writing about my life and how different things affected me as a man. Some of my posts were aimed at parenting and relationships. Most were about just being a man and how men look at the world and the people in their lives. Being that I have always had a love of food, the blog also became a way of expressing it. But all those years I never realized the thing that I was creating wasn’t just a blog for others to comment on but a part of my legacy.

Just recently, I sat and thought about the words I have written over the past 13 years and what it all meant. I was having trouble getting back into blogging since my life moved in a different direction and I kind of put writing on hold. But as I sat and thought about if I should continue the blog, I began reading my older posts and it was then that I knew this was for my daughter and my family. I know now that I should keep writing and blogging until the time in my life that I can no longer write.

Legacy….what would I leave behind? What will I leave my daughter when I am gone? We are taught early in life about wills and what tangible items we can pass on but never did I think about leaving my thoughts of what made me who I am, for my family to read and remember me by, long after I am gone. Maybe the granddaughter I may not have a lot of time with now, while she is young will someday want to know who her grandfather was.

The things that I have written over the years have allowed people to get to know me on a different more personal level. What better way for my family to have something of me to pass on to my grand kids and then later, their children.

I wish I had stories I to read that my grandpa could have written. How much more would I know about him if I could have read his thoughts? How much more could I have learned from him?

So after sitting and contemplating ending my blog, I have found a new reason to continue writing and sharing my stories and opinions, not just for those who find me interesting but more so for my daughter and her children.

As a side note, my relationship with my daughter has been wonderful. I am blessed that after the rocky road we traveled separately, came to a fork where we both met and continued on together. I love you Sammi….

Just one man’s opinion

The Regular Guy

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Bring God back in style

Posted on September 28, 2020 by slip60

I know its not fashionable to talk about God let alone believe in such a being, but isn’t it about time we do?

I have never considered myself a devoted Catholic and as my parents can tell you, they had to force me to attend church when I was young. Even so, whose parents didn’t have to force their child to attend church? Kids don’t have any interest in God except that we are told we HAVE to believe in him. Parents actually “put the fear of God ” in you all the time. Think of all the things you did or thought of doing as a kid that you didn’t at some point think about the consequences before carrying out that deed.

So as children we don’t take God or our religion seriously. After all we are too busy just trying to hang with our friends and have fun. Sure, in the back of our minds we think of God and what we are taught and I am sure many of us have not done things we could have if not for our conscience and the thought of God looking down on us and remembering this ill advised move, on judgement day.

So where does that bring me in today’s world. I can tell you that in the last few years, I have recognized what is going on in our culture and that I am totally disgusted and quite frankly scared stiff about the direction we are headed.

America was founded on religious principals. People fled religious persecution to be in America where our Constitution and Bill of Rights demanded freedom of religion to all Americans. So what happened? Our government has been systematically removing religion from our culture. What was once the backbone of our civilization has now become the target for removal by our leadership, from government buildings and interior walls to textbooks and schools.

Where we have turned our backs most notably is in our entertainment media of television and film. It often disgusts me at most and makes me shake my head at minimum, in disbelief, the things we now accept as normal in film but more so in television.

When I was a young child and even so today, I found it very uncomfortable to hear or see something objectionable on television while in the company of my parents. Today I feel the same way when in the company of my daughter, even that she is in her thirties. How is it that every new show or film has graphic language and sexual content? How has this become something that appears in everything we watch today? When I was young we tried so hard just to see an R rated movie in hopes we would see a naked woman. Today you can sit in your living room, turn on network television and see a woman’s ( or man’s) naked body walk past the screen on almost every show. Graphically depicted sexual scenes are common place now and no longer in need of an R rating. Language, cursing and words we wouldn’t dream of saying in the presence of an adult are now part of our everyday life.

So how have we become a nation that accepts this change? How has this move away from what we were taught as children, to be respectful, watch your language and that sexual relationships were private, become the complete opposite. Who decided this is okay?

For me, I believe it goes hand in hand with the removal of God and religion from our lives. I have been reflecting on this and how I may also, have played a part in this turning away from God.

A few years back I read a book, the Harbinger, and in this book it showed the similarities between Israel in the years before Christ and America today. The author points out the path we are on and how as with Israel, we are turned away from God. There are some that believe that Israel was blessed and protected by God until they turned away from God and in doing so may have suffered their demise. What we are doing today mirrors what Israel did centuries ago. We have taken God out of our lives and replaced our beliefs with false idols, wealth and ego.

As I said earlier, I never gave much thought to religion, but now as I age out, I can see how truly important religion is to preserve the goodness of a civilization. The things we are witnessing today with the plague, the riots, the increasing killing of unborn babies, the government and the peoples willingness to remove God from America, all point to a horrible ending. We can’t go on down this path and expect that bad things will not continue to happen to our country.

There is a movement that started this past week to ” return to God”. You probably didn’t even know about it since our press doesn’t find such things important to report on. This movement is just to reawaken people to let God back into their lives. To look at what is happening around us and question why. To get back to how and why people came to America because of religious freedom and the right to believe and practice your faith. To voice how it isn’t alright to remove God from our countries past and present.

I don’t know what moved me to write this but I felt compelled to do so. I felt that it was time I got it off my chest how disgusted I am with how television and film have become so pornographic and how it is widely accepted. How I am no longer going to be part of a silent majority that is afraid to voice how horrible things have become. Maybe for me this is my little way of fighting back. Maybe I get just one person to pick op the baton and pass it to someone else. Maybe one person will read this and think that he/she isn’t alone in feeling this way. I hope that I reach that one person who will in turn do the same for someone in their family or circle.

I used to think I was just old fashioned and that’s why these things bother me but today I realize its not me who’s at fault. Things don’t always change for the better and if this is what we believe is better, there’s something definitely out of whack. Bring back Robert Young and the Beaver. Bring back the time a parent could sit and watch television with their child and feel good about what they see. Bring prayer back to the classroom. Bring America back to its roots and what made it blessed by God.

Bring God back in style..

Just one man’s opinion..the Regular Guy

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Mid Life Crisis…Revisited

Posted on July 16, 2020 by slip60

Read this one from 2009 and just had to repost..

Posted on May 26, 2009 by slip60

Mid life crisis in men does not exist. That’s right, and I am not afraid to shout it out. The so called “mid life crisis” was made up by some pissed off woman who probably worked or wrote for Cosmopolitan magazine. So for those of you Regular guys who don’t know what the term pertains to here is a quick synopsis.

As we age, probably somewhere between 40 and 55, (hence the “mid life”),we “supposedly” go through a depressed state in our lives where we begin to search our selves in hopes of regaining a portion of our youth (remember this part because it will come up again later). In that search we almost always find a younger woman, a sports car or motorcycle, and some times one or more tattoos . Yes, we all know someone like this. The “crisis” part of this happens when we find the younger woman. The “crisis”, as I see it, is a result of an affair with this younger woman or an ensuing divorce that is the result of the affair with this younger woman. Okay, so that’s the short and to the point, quick overview.

My take on this is very different. Yes I do agree that we begin to search ourselves somewhere at this age level, but that is where my agreeing ends. It is my belief, that most men have basically the same wants, urges, desires, and needs that we somehow all acquire at a very young age. This “thing” that we are born with is why women tend to think of us as boys, dirty old men, pigs, immature, and maybe even a little selfish. This isn’t something we ask for but is inherently passed along from generation to generation.

This gene we have that none of us know how or why it’s there, keeps us searching for our youth. It is the gene that makes us desire things like women, big screen televisions, fast cars, sports,etc. It’s partly those desires that we are taught to control from our earliest days and all through life, because as we are told, we will never get a good woman to marry us if we don’t. In our childhood we fight the good fight to be who we are but usually in the end we give in and conform to what women think we should be. We give up the things that make us who we are to marry, support a wife, help raise the children, put them through college, and see them off into their own lives. But all along as we do what we are supposed to do, we continue to fight the urges to be who we are.

Thinking back, we all wanted or for some of us, owned, a car that defined who we thought we were. Maybe it was a 1970 Chevelle Super Sport or one of those “screaming chicken on the hood” Trans Ams from the seventies, but now we have to drive a mini van or if we get lucky we get an SUV. But down deep we all look at those two door BMW’s or that new Corvette and dream about what we would feel like if we were driving that car instead. We remember how those cars made us feel when we were young and miss those days past. Or the better example I like to give is the one I like to call my “convertible wife”. Think back to when you would pick up your girl friend for a date and have the top down or the t-tops off, windows open and cassette tape blasting and she would jump into the car singing and laughing and ready for the night of her life. Now lets take a ride in our time machine and fast forward to today. You and your wife have a Saturday afternoon to yourself and you just finished washing and waxing that new convertible that you finally, after all these years, found a way to make your own.You make plans with her to go to a friends house for a beer and some laughs. You hop in the car and turn up the tunes and anxiously await her arrival. She approaches the car and screams for you to “lower the damn radio will ya’ ” and proceeds to get in. Upon take off, she reminds you to put the top up because she “just did her hair” and the “wind will be too much”. POP!!! HISSSSSS!!! That is the sound of a feel good moment being sucked away from a middle aged  Regular guy. The excitement that once was is now gone because we can not be who we really are.

The thing is, middle age shouldn’t be a “crisis” for men, but should be a celebration. Middle age is an opportunity for us to get back the things in our past life that made us who we are today. By middle age hopefully our kids have grown and so has our disposable income. It is our chance to return to our youth and celebrate what was so good in our lives when it was just that, OUR life. This does not imply that we do not appreciate all the good that has come from our marriage and family but that at this point in our life we can have a little of our own space back. This is one reason why classic cars from the sixties and seventies are so popular today. It is guys like you and me, in mid life, who are trying to get back a piece of our youth that we cherished so much. It reminds us of how simple things were then. When we didn’t have so much responsibility and everything was about what made US happy.

Hooking up with that younger woman isn’t really so much about her age as it is about her attitude. Go back to the story about the “convertible wife” That same woman was probably  that young girl at one time in her life, carefree then, but since changed. Women will argue with me about this all the time. They try to use the excuse that they “grew up” and so should we.

I say is that “grow up” or “grow old”? There is an old saying that I once heard that makes me understand more and more why relationships sometimes don’t work out. It goes like this. “Men marry women hoping they won’t change, and women marry men hoping they will”. This is probably truer than any other single thing in a marriage between a man and a woman. This is especially true when a child is brought into the fold. Something about a woman changes almost overnight when she gives birth and becomes a mom. It is almost like a woman has two different personalities during her life. Somehow motherhood robs them of the carefree approach to life that they had before giving birth.

I ride a motorcycle with a great group of guys I call my friends. There are five of us that ride once a week, every week. We spend one night a week together and sometimes the subject of relationships come up.  The one thing that remains constant through all the talk, jokes and sarcasm, is that we love our wives. The other common thread we share is that our wives don’t understand or appreciate who we are. Especially when it pertains to sex but mostly when it comes to just listening to what we want from our relationships and our life. The story of the “convertible wife” always rings true to the group of men I am part of. They all agree that women change more than men do. They all feel that one of the main reasons a man would cheat is because his wife stopped being who she was when they met. That “younger girl” who they are looking for, should really be their wife. They still want to experience that carefree attitude they shared when they first met and they want to share it with the person they love. Married life has become too complicated and we all just want to make it simple again. You know, just get up and go!

To say that men are experience a “mid life crisis” is totally absurd. We are just looking to get back a part of our life that we gave up to be the responsible husbands and /or fathers that we are today. It’s just men trying to be who we really are. Trying to express ourselves in a way that seems stupid or irresponsible to women but just ordinary to us. This isn’t a “crisis” that we are experiencing just a rebirth of a part of the person we used to be. There isn’t anything wrong with this other than some women not accepting that we are who we are and we will never change. This should be embraced by women because those of you who married us, fell in love with us back when we were who we were. Maybe it’s time to try to understand why we are this way, rather than try to change us into something that we don’t want to be. We are different and there is nothing wrong with that. We can not be like women and it’s really not a bad thing. After all, you have enough girlfriends already…..

Just one mans opinion..

The Regular Guy

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When the Sex goes away

Posted on June 4, 2020 by slip60

Heterosexual relationships, in my opinion of course, go through stages. My idea of such and how I have come to see it…

Dating sex – That first time your both together is very exciting. You both call each other a lot and can’t wait to see each other again and get naked. You wanna try mine???You leave little notes for each other in emails and hidden places.

Move in together sex– the next stage can sometimes be the deal breaker but if it works, it can be both funny and a learning experience. Sex gets better because your around each other more and can find other ways to engage in it and get creative. If you make it past here the next stage is obvious.Lets get it on!

Marriage sex – They say the first year is the hardest. That’s only because of money and not being used to each others habits, and I can’t say for sure especially if you lived together first. But the sex is great. There’s also a saying. “Put one jelly bean in a jar for every time you have sex and at the end of the first year take one out for every time you have sex” In the end the jar never gets emptied. That’s gotta tell you something. Side note: You kiss everywhere and all the time. People tell you to get a room. Sound familiar?

Friends with Benefits sex –  After you realize the jar is still more than half full and your 5 or 10 years into your marriage, you know something isn’t quite right. Your sex life turns into weekends, birthdays and anniversaries and maybe on vacations. The time between becomes longer and longer, so much that you can’t remember the last time. You don’t kiss like you used to. Just pecks hello and good bye.

Room-mates ( no) sex-  when the sex finally stops you become not much more than room mates who on occasion have dinner together and watch television. You can tell when this starts to happen because the kissing will come to an end. Oh yeah a side note about television. Television is perhaps the worst thing for a marriage. Couples not only get complacent because all they do is watch sitcom and reality show night after night but its also a curse because there is more sex and nudity happening on prime time than in their own bedroom. Depressing to say the least. Life passes by without notice because the biggest thing you look froward to at night is the next episode of your favorite show.

Cheating Spouse ( sex anew) – At some point someone will cheat. At the very least someone will think about it and start finding ways to stay away from home. Usually someone at work catches your attention and you begin to like the way that person is with you. The sad part about this stage is your looking for those same feelings you had with your spouse. That spark,that makes everything in your life seems unimportant except being together.

How it feels when it gets bad

Divorce – in the end you will wonder how you ever loved that person. You’ll either be very happy to get your freedom or sad because you failed at something that could have been saved. Either way its over.

“I am only a man. I can not read your mind. I can only make you “happier” but only if you are happy already. I can love only one woman but only if you let it be you. I can fix whats broken but I can’t fix what you don’t want repaired.”

Just one man’s opinion…
The Regular Guy

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