November 2015 – ddileo

Too Much Stuff

With Christmas around the corner and black Friday just in our rearview mirrors, I decided to do some research on financials and numbers on the holiday season.

This started last week while at work. The news was on and all they were speaking of was gift ideas and black friday this and Christmas lay away that. I got thinking; how much money is really spent in the holidays season? What I found was kind of staggering. The statistics are really quite unbelievable.

The average American home has nearly tripled in size over the last 50 years yet, over 50% of us with two-car garages have room for only one vehicle inside. Our homes contain more televisions than people. (crazy)

We spend more on shoes, jewelry, and watches ($100 billion in my findings) than on higher education. And the average American woman owns 30 outfits, one for every day of the month—in 1930, that figure was 9, yes 9. Home organization, the service that’s trying to find places for all our clutter, is now an $8 billion industry, growing at a rate of 10 percent each year. Decluttering is today’s dieting industry and gym membership paradigm. Good intentions, poor follow through.

Our living spaces have become filled with possessions of every kind: our countertops are crowded, our closets are stuffed, our bedrooms are filled, and our drawers are overflowing. And yet, this Black Friday weekend, we have accumulated more stuff. It is estimated 140 million Americans went shopping last weekend.

We spent $50 billion last weekend. And over the course of the entire holiday season, we will spend $600 billion adding more and more things to our already crowded homes.

Let’s start here: Before buying a whole bunch of stuff for your loved ones this holiday season, maybe you should ask if they even want a whole bunch of stuff. You might be surprised by their response.

This money we are spending actually holds within it enormous potential. Consider this: Nearly half the world’s population, 2.8 billion people, survive on less than $2 a day. To put that into perspective, Americans will spend, on average, roughly $400 per person this weekend… in just three days, we will spend more than half the annual income of 2.8 billion individuals.

Which is fine, I think, if we were buying things that actually improved our lives. But, in reality, most of the stuff we buy these days doesn’t.
If you know me personally, you know the thought of excess and extras really bother me. I try and try harder to live simple and efficient. But the pull is strong. As the young ones say, the struggle is real.

This isn’t a “trying to change the world” post. But just food for thought. I think numbers are really interesting. And the numbers and statistics I’ve found on American spending during the holiday season is somewhat crazy and excessive.

Videos

Liam – Age 4

Time is really moving fast now. Liam is in his 2nd year of school, he’s got a little brother now and is having complete conversations (with him usually finishing the conversation).

The last year has brought some significant experiences as well as events, but none bigger then Liam becoming a big brother. Sure our family has been blessed with our own home and while its great to see Liam have his very own room, Its 10 times better to play spectator to him with his younger brother. It really has solidified a lot for me. Liam is an unselfish, always wanting good for people person. I knew that. But seeing him with Luca, all of that was confirmed.

I’m not sure what Age 5 brings in Liam’s case, but if I could make some requests; more of the same. Through all the ups and down, I would change anything about Liam. Me, yes. Liam, no. As Liam grows older I’m learning more and more that he deserves a parent, not a big kid who gets aggravated when he doesn’t act right. A parent who is calm and collected but can still can teach and discipline.

Liam is a one of a kind boy, and Im pretty sure I could speak for Lindsey in saying we wouldn’t have it any other way. Eye opening, inspiring, loving and enjoying; thus was age 4 with Little Liam. Or, not so little Liam anymore.

Happy Birthday buddy

Life

The Team That Stole New York

The truth is, the Mets’ run towards the playoffs and World Series was magical. It was full of moments that I’ll never forget, from Wilmer’s walk-off on that fateful Friday night to Murph’s homer off Zack Greinke in Game 5 of the NLDS. Everything came together at the perfect time to form what I genuinely thought was the “team of destiny.”

But that’s what will make this loss so hard to swallow. The fact is the Royals aren’t some unbeatable super team that matched up perfectly with the Mets. They were more than beatable. The Mets led in every single game of this series, including three leads in the eighth inning or later. They blew all but one.

There is no one specific person or unit to blame. For whatever reason, almost everything that could have gone wrong did. Throughout the series, the offense was as potent as it was in June with John Mayberry Jr. hitting cleanup. It felt like Daniel Murphy was playing every position on defense. Terry Collins‘ job essentially devolved into “how can I avoid using almost my entire bullpen?” That’s not a formula for winning a series, let alone one against an offense that will make you pay for every mistake.

It’s a shame. The brand of baseball the Mets played to get themselves to the World Series was seen only briefly over the last week, through Matt Harvey‘s eight scoreless innings last night. In what was going to be his final outing of the season, Harvey gave the Mets everything he had. He lives for these moments. He gained every ounce of respect back from me last night. He had to be fatigued after being pushed well past the brink, but he didn’t show it one bit. I don’t care how much money or how many years it takes to get him to stay: He needs to be a Met for a long, long time.

Harvey’s outing really embodied what the 2015 Mets were as a team, and not just in the sense that he provided great starting pitching. Even when the Mets were floundering, with their offense looking absolutely pathetic, they were still able to grind out wins. When the offense couldn’t score, the starters stepped up their game. Somehow, despite all the injuries and disappointing performances from Mets hitters early on, they were able to hold on in the NL East race.

This held true even after the Mets acquired Yoenis Cespedes, Kelly Johnson, and Juan Uribe. While they certainly got lucky by finding the hottest hitter on the planet for just one top 100 prospect, the Mets continued to play with heart and passion.

Sandy Alderson will have a lot of work to do this offseason. Daniel Murphy is gone. Yoenis Cespedes is probably gone as well. Juan Lagares clearly needs Tommy John surgery. The bullpen needs to be completely rebuilt. And all of this needs to be done under whatever payroll cap the cheapskate Wilpons set.

That being said, the foundation for a winning team is there. The Mets still have one of the most incredible collections of young pitchers baseball has ever seen, and that’s only going to get better next year with the addition of Zack Wheeler. Michael Conforto looks like he is not only a major league regular, but a budding All-Star. David Wright, while maybe not the David Wright of old, is not going away any time soon. This team should be good for a long, long time. It’s just a matter of plugging in the correct complimentary players.

But the 2015 Mets should not simply be a team with great young pitching, or one that made smart deadline transactions. This year’s team was much more than that.

This year’s team awoke a fan base which had been dormant and frustrated for almost a decade. It united a city behind the Mets for the first time in 30 years. They had charisma. They had a captain who had given his blood, sweat, and tears for this franchise. They had great starting pitchers who didn’t care who they were facing or how many innings they were up to.

I’ve never had as much fun as I’ve had rooting for the 2015 New York Mets. They had every reason to quit. Badly timed injuries, suspensions, or heartbreaking losses could have been used as excuses to just give up. But they didn’t. They loved each other and their fans too much to just roll over. I am so proud to be a Mets fan and to see what 2016 brings.