Monday Moaning (Questioning Our Humanity)

Happy Easter all! I hope the Easter Bunny was good to you and yours! When I got home from work Saturday night, I had to do my job of playing Easter Bunny...The wife had all the stuff stashed...But I had no idea just how much...Some things are getting lost in the communication, because we text more lately, since we work opposite schedules...Well, she went a bit overboard...There are still a few bags of candy stashed, that will be taken to our respective work places to get rid of it all...Damn these kids are spoiled...But seeing just how excited Molly was, and even Little Beeze who lead the scoring in the egg hunt, made it worth it...Even if it was too early to wake up....

So, I'm still very much out of the loop when it comes to news and sports...When I get home from work, I may catch a bit of a late NHL Playoff game, or a west coast baseball game...But I mostly nod off in the chair with that...Although Chicago and St. Louis' 3 OT playoff game kept me up...Way too late!

So I thought I'd get into a topic that has been on my mind for awhile now...I pretty much have always been willing to share anything in my blogs, but I've held back a bit lately...I had an incident a couple months ago that slightly rattled me...And since, has had me questioning where we are as a society, and where I am as a human...

It was a Saturday night...My daughter had a couple friends sleeping over...We had eaten a mess of Chinese food...Then, around 8:00PM my wife remembered our son was suppose to go to a birthday party the next day, and we hadn't gotten a gift for his friend...So I ran up to the Wal-Mart that's less then 5 minutes away...When I was walking back to my car, A guy popped out, and demanded my phone, and wallet...I had my keys in my hand, so I was already plotting what to do...I didn't see a weapon, and told him I didn't have a phone, and had no cash...He demanded again...I told him my cards were all maxed out, it's not worth it...(Give me credit for trying to at least defuse the situation)...He got agitated, and demanded again, and stepped closer, I reached toward my pocket, with the hand that had my keys, and then I swung and unlocked his face with a key...He bounced off the car and ran...

Some one saw a bit of  it, ran over and called the police...They were there in seconds...I gave them a description, even saying he has a keyhole in his face...I went home, put an ice pack on my hand, and sat alone in the kitchen, trying to calm down...I'm pretty sure I broke something in my hand, but I never got it checked...My wife came in and kept asking what was wrong...I kept trying not to tell her, because I didn't want her worried, plus I didn't want the kids to hear...Eventually, I told her, which lead to her worrying, and saying, "What if he had a gun?" My first response was, "Then I would have kept punching him."  Now, if I actually saw a gun, I would have reacted differently...I assume...But calming myself down, turned into calming her down...So the tension lasted for a longer then I would have liked...

Now, I've never been a very trusting person...And I would classify myself as cynical...But I feel like I've become worse since this event...A couple weeks ago, I was driving to the store, and a older woman, older then my mother, was walking across the street, holding up a finger, asking me to wait...I rolled down the window, and she asked where I was going, which lead me to abruptly respond, "What do you want?"  She said her "mother fell in her apartment and needs help, could you give me a ride there?"  I very rudely said no and drove off...

As I was driving, this was my thought process...'what was this little old lady going to do to me'...'what kind of scam is she really pulling off? What an asshole I am!'....'wait, how the hell old is her mother?...fuck that, something shady is going on.'

Later in the evening, I thought about it more, and really wondered, 'what the fuck is wrong with me?' Then, a week later, coming the opposite way down the same street...There she was, doing the same thing, stopping cars, and asking for a ride...I felt validated...'Old bitch is running some fucking scam!'

As I drove by, and noticed multiple car ignore her, I had two thoughts...'Does everyone in this town know about this lady?'  followed by, 'What is wrong with all of us, that we are so unwilling, or afraid to take an old lady at her word, and help her out?'

Is this really what we are, or are becoming? I won't deny being a negative fucker most my life, but it's gotten worse since some piece of shit tried to rob me...The thing that really bothers me, is I know, there is so much to be happy and positive about...My kids show me that every day...But the evil shit seems to be doing it's best to stuff the good shit down...And I know, I'm not alone...I saw other people blow that lady off...

There was a time, including in my lifetime, that I or some one else wouldn't have had a second thought about helping that lady out...Now we say fuck her...What happened?

The Beeze.

Monday Moaning

So, this week is a major adjustment period for me...Getting use to my new position at work, which was an old position I had...I live in a world different from many...I tell people I got  a promotion at work, and they don't get it means I work nights and all weekends now...but that's a different topic for a different blog...

Baseball season started, and I missed is so far...Taking the promotion also means I give up coaching Little Beeze's Baseball team again...I thought it was going to bother me more then him, but I'm not sure now, since he's saying he doesn't want to play...

I've also been missing the crunch time of hockey...But I came across a topic Sunday night after getting home from work...The NYPD and FDNY had their annual charity hockey game...And tied 3-3, a huge, bench clearing brawl broke out...


That guy has a few more clips on his Instagram...





I watched this video a few times...First thing I felt was, 'some one shut that annoying bitch up!...Holy fuck throw her down on the ice and let tell those cops "PD Sucks" to their face...And I get it...I trust a Fire Fighter probably more then I trust a cop...But that's because I my personally skewed opinion of Police based on relatives that I have who are Police officers...I'll never forget my one uncle, still wearing his police uniform and telling us, "never trust a cop!"  And there was that douchebag that pulled me over last year...Dude was total full of shit...Dirty fucker trying to make his Lindale quota...Clevelanders know what I'm talking about!

But I know not all cops are bad...I know Police officers put their lives on the line every day, just like Fire Fighters do...So hearing the crowd bash the cops annoyed me...Although the "Dunkin' Donuts!" chant was pretty funny!

And I get that there is a built in rivalry between Police Departments and Fire Departments...And I know playing hockey against rivals, whether friendly or not, can get heated...But so often, we hear the talk about how celebrities, and athletes "should" behave, because "they're role models"...But if you're raising your kids to look at Selena Gomez, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, and LeBron James, as role models,  you're doing your job wrong...Having your kids look up to the Police, and Firefighters, along with Teachers, and Doctors Without Borders, is a much better way to go...Let alone showing them that bridge, that their great grandfather helped build...

So seeing these two teams of men I would want my kids to consider role models, brawling during a charity hockey game, depressed me a bit...Am I holding these men to I higher standard then I should?  They're human...They need to blow off steam like the rest of us...But it was a charity game...You can play a good, and even physical hockey game without a brawl breaking out...Should they have tried to remember it was a charity game? And that it's 2014, where nearly everyone in  this arena has a camera on their phone?

Never before have I talked, or written about fighting in hockey in a negative manner...But I guess I am this time...I could have taken it if two guys dropped the gloves and had a normal fight that was justified...But a bench clearing brawl...And from those close clips on Instagram, you could see it got ugly...Right now, I feel a bit disappointed...But also happy I'm not a New Yorker...

By the way, the NYPD won 8-5...Their first win in five years...

What do you think?

Have a week...

The Beeze.