Life can humble you on a daily basis. Take this week, where I tried to change up my workout routine .Got off the treadmill for a day and hopped on my bike. Don’t know about you, but I probably went 10 years without riding a bike but picked it back up when I taught my kids. Anyway, I’m riding with my I-Pod on and feeling pretty good. Rode for a few miles, still felt good, decided to keep going. After a while, I’m feeling really confident —maybe I can do a triathon soon?! But right at that moment I hear something coming and its a pack of Senior Citizen ladies “easily” passing me by on the bike trail—-stay humble my friends……one of many thoughts in this week’s trip in the Naborhood which also includes our first giveaway thanks to our friends at Turtle Wax!
MARGARITA MANSION?: OK– Bacon, Ice Cream and Long Naps–who in this world doesn’t like any of the above? I might add Jimmy Buffett to that list—-I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like the leader of the Parrotheads? But would people like him enough to lead Florida as its next governor? I would love to see it happen, especially given the alternatives. I’m not buying into the Rick Scott experiment. Then you have choices on the other side of the aisle— Bill Nelson to me is the most overrated politician in our state’s history—besides being an Astronaut, not much else of true substance stands out in his decades of public service? Then you have newly found Democrat Charlie Crist–sorry can’t trust the King of flip flops?
No– what we need is the king of the “real” flip flops. The pirate turned possible politician has a proven track record of bringing people together, is a passionate leader on strong issues like the BP Oil Spill and knows this state up and down as well as anybody. If Celebrity govs like Schwarzennegger and Jessie “The Body” Ventura could do it, I feel Buffett could do it better. Let’s throw aside career politicians and think outside the box—give me a Margarita Mansion in 2014!
HANDWRITTEN LETTERS: Its been a casuality in the technology craved world we live in and I’m as guilty as anybody. When is the last time you wrote anybody a letter? Sure an email is nice, you can “like” somebody’s Facebook post or re-Tweet your friends but wouldn’t it be nice to receive a good old fashioned hand written letter? Recently, I read a great article in the LA Times on Peyton Manning (who isn’t on Twitter or Facebook)he prefers to write letters especially to family members and paying tribute to those retiring NFL players he has enjoyed playing and competing against : http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-peyton-manning-letters-20130528,0,7724227.story . I used to write a lot more letters and hope to make it more of a priority in the future. Technology is great on many levels but that doesn’t mean its always the best option.
GOODNIGHT EDITH: Sad news from one of my favorite families. “All in the Family’s“ Edith Bunker has left us but will never be forgotten. Jean Stapleton passed at the age of 90 this week. To me, she was the most talented in a cast chock full of great actors. A serious actor for much of her career–playing Archie’s wife was certainly a different role for her. I loved Archie and Meathead but Edith stole many of the scenes and certainly set up her cast for their classic punchlines. Its funny how the last episode of AITF aired in 1979 when I was only 11, but I’ve enjoyed it many years since. If I’m channel surfing at home or on the road in a hotel, if All in the Family is on–I half to stop and Edith was surely a big reason why. I still haven’t seen a bad episode.
FEHERTY RULES : David Feherty played on both the PGA and European Tours for 17 years and has 10 professional wins but most people know him more behind the mic than behind the tee box. Over the years, the PGA Tour has displayed about as much personality between the ropes as your local librarian, but leave it to Feherty to bring out the best in a long list of robotic and often volatile players. It doesn’t matter who is on his weekly show on the Golf Channel–Feherty always delivers whether its making the gruff Curtis Strange come off as sensitive or showing a different side of the often enigmatic Nick Faldo—its the best programming on the network. I am really looking forward to having him sit down with Tiger AND Sergio—-wouldn’t that be fantastic on so many levels?
GOOD JOBS: I’m a little late to the party on this but just finished Walter Isaacson’s great biography of Steve Jobs. Being semi-computer literate, wasn’t sure if I could get through all the intricate details of this tech filled book but found it was more about people than profits. Jobs certainly had his flaws–was tough to work for, extremely moody and often took too much credit for things he either didn’t invent or advance but I took more positives than negatives from his life’s story.
I most admired the many stories of Jobs beating the odds and the establishment. Whether it was Bill Gates, Disney’s power hungry CEO Michael Eisner or Harvard professors, he consistently proved the experts wrong by doing it his way. His determination at every point in his life was inspiring to anybody like myself trying to build a business. Steve Jobs was successful as an innovator but was the kind of man who really would have been successful at anything in life as he knew how to get things done and and was smart enough to see what many of his competitors didn’t. My favorite story was the Sony CEO who was left so frustrated by Jobs innovation of the IPOD that he told his staff of engineers, “Why didn’t we think of this first?” Jobs was always a step ahead of everyone—its a great book—I would highly recommend it.
TORTS: The news that former Lightning Head Coach John Tortorella was fired this week in the Big Apple didn’t surprise many. His persona fused with the New York spotlight— you figured wouldn’t end quietly. I was hoping he would have more success before he wore out his welcome though. I was always a big fan of Torts even though he was more than tough on the media. I got to see a different side of him working with the team. I will never forget being on the ice with him after the Bolts beat the Capitals in the playoffs back in2003 where we were waiting for our producer to toss it to us for a post game interview—he told me “if you don’t hurry they (Capitals fans) are gonna start throwing stuff at us!!” Thankfully they came to us in a hurry. Torts will find work again and I’m already anxiously awaiting his next press conference.
DAFT PUNK: Welcome to the music portion of the program. I listen to anything and everything–here is proof. Didn’t know a whole lot about the French duo of Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter also known as Daft Punk, until I read their cover article in Rolling Stone this week. These guys hardly the status quo which is always a good thing in music. They hit the stage in Star Wars looking robot costumes and don’t do many interviews in an electronic music genre that brings the Disco Era back to the new millenium. I really like their latest hit “Get Lucky“—its one of those songs that if you hear it once, it will stay with you for days. Fantastic workout song which features Pharrell Williams on vocals and Nile Rodgers on guitar. New York Times says it will be the song of the summer—check it out.
NOBODY ASKED ME BUT: Well another school year is in the books and its a changing of the guard in our household. My oldest daughter Morgan Grace will never be a member of elementary school again which makes me sad yet excited. Sad that I can’t read to her class anymore. Sad that I can’t ride my bike with her to school anymore, but also excited about the new things we can do together that we couldn’t do before. I have learned that we all miss our babies when they were babies but in time they grow up and give us new challenges and experiences that we couldn’t enjoy if they weren’t at a certain advanced age. Its bittersweet being a parent yet I couldn’t be prouder of my oldest girl who is smart, independent and a lot of fun. Soon she will be in junior high—still, I won’t let her date til she’s 30?!
EXTRA POINT: As promised, my friends at Turtle Wax approached me about their recent giveaway which we will help promote and in turn they have assisted in OUR own giveaway. This month Turtle Wax encourages you to tweet a picture washing your car, using the hashtag #waxonshirtoff. They will give away free t-shirts and a year’s supply of Turtle Wax. For all the information–check out their microsite: www.waxonshirtoff.com
As for our promotion and giveaway—congrats to our winner Lori Willoughby. She knew the winning word from this year’s National Spelling Bee (and yes spelled it correctly)??? was knaidel–of course a Yiddish word for dumpling. For her efforts, Lori wins a Naborhood Turtle Wax prize pack.
UNTIL NEXT BLOG,
Mike.