Sorry. This is about the longest drought in posts since we launched USRT here at Western New York Media 18 months ago. But things have been very crazy in my life of late, leaving little time except to compartmentalize a daily “to do” list of things I am in involved in. 

•  To begin with, I own a pest control company, and August is typically my busiest time of year. Except this year. Monsoon season has put a crimp in business, but things have picked up of late and I am on the fly daily.
• I’m up to my eyeballs in Democratic politics this summer season, helping out where I can in races outside of Cheektowaga. And in my home town, we’ve got an all around scrum going for committee seats, of all things, and I am fighting not only to keep my seat, but protect my friends and supporters. It is a time and labor intensive project, which hopefully will yield positive results on Primary Day.
• Speaking of committee races, things have gotten so slimy - court cases and lawsuits over frikkin’ races. Idiots getting up at our last committee meeting and making wild charges of corruption. These macadamias are having a party next Tuesday, calling themselves “The Real Democrats of Cheektowaga”. Sadly, I have lost lifelong friendships over this nonsense. 
• While I’m embroiled in Cheektowaga stuff,  my friend and colleague Matt Pearl is out in Denver covering the convention.Count me as envious! 
• I am working as a part time staffer for the Democratic Majority at the Erie County Legislature. It is an awesome gig and one I enjoy greatly. This past week we revived an old tradition of an annual staff picnic and I was put in charge of putting it all together. It was a lot of work and stress, but the event was a huge success, we had over 80 people show up, including County Executive Chris Collins and his posse. My boss, Chairman Lynn Marinelli, was beaming from ear to ear. When she’s happy, I’m happy.
• Pete and I did a bit of USRT schedule tweaking. It is so hard to plan college football outings, because teams don’t announce start times in many cases until a couple weeks before the game. But we cobbled together an awesome doubleheader on Saturday, September 13. Two great SEC venues - Neyland Stadium and the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville at 12:30PM, then onto Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington and the Kentucky Wildcats for the 7PM nightcap.
• We got lots of props on our story on Offermann Stadium (see post below), including a nice email from Bisons GM Mike Buczkowski. Former groundskeeper and now Erie County Parks Commissioner Jim Hornung was all over me at the picnic saying how much he liked the piece. And oh yeah, we got a call from Frank Offermann III thanking us for the article and inviting us to visit with him to see his photos and memorabilia. We’re going to be all over that one as soon as things settle down and we get the time.
• The Bisons close out their season this week, and (drumroll please) we roll out our annual clunker Pat Listach Award and Jimmy Hamilton Award in this week’s Artvoice. we know you will be making a special trip to your local laundromat or Jim’s Steakout to get your copy early.
• Pete’s a Bills season ticket holder now, and we picked out the games we’re going to - Oakland in September and the NY Jets in early November. Oh yeah, we’re also doing the Bills in Toronto.
• Speaking of Bills in Toronto, we did a quick roadie to Rogers Centre this past Sunday (thanks for the tickets Matty K!). They actually have a special “Bills in Toronto” team store in the area on the track side near the hotel.
• I am totally bummed that Mark Byrnes is bummed about Buffalo’s future. All Things Buffalo is one of the cool sites here at WNY Media. And Mark is one of the coolest guys around. If we show him some love maybe we can get him back on track!

For the record, Pete has been working record overtime of late, so his schedule has been strained as well.

Hockey season is almost upon us, and we’ll again be doing Puck Stop for Artvoice, as well as game reporting on their web site and some stuff here at WNY Media. That’s about it for now in the Life O’ Kulyk. We’ll be ramping up USRT again real soon! 

After Tuesday’s game in Clearwater, Pete and I took a ride down to Treasure Island, one of the beachfront communities in the St. Pete/Clearwater area and a place near and dear to my heart.

Back in 1986, I along with my bestest Cheektowaga political friends Don Wegner, Patricia Jaworowicz and Ray Pugh, along with Pat’s son and my good bud Tim Jaworowicz, did a trip down to this region with one goal in mind - we were going to all chip in and buy ourselves a condo together, a place we could call our own and have for future vacations.

We ended up disagreeing on everything - price we would pay, location, shared rules etc., but we did see some nice places on our quest, and two months later I came back and bought a place on Treasure Island on my own.

Eventually, they all bought down here as well, as did others from the Cheektowaga political family, and this set off a number of memorable shared vacations and travel adventures, with awesome stories and bizarre happenings which endure to this day.

My dear dear friend Don Wegner passed away last summer after a lengthy battle with cancer. He loved so much to come down to Florida and was such a joy to have as a travel partner. As I sat at the Phillies game I saw ads on the outfield wall of places we had been to in Clearwater many a time - Shepherds Pub, Hooters (the original one on Gulf to Bay Blvd), Post Corner Pizza. And Don was such a huge baseball fan, a die hard fan of his beloved Yankees. In 2004 I finagled a media credential for him to a Yankees game at Legends Field in Tampa, and he proudly showed off a picture I took of him before the game on the field at home plate, the Yankees logo at his feet.

So I came to take a ride through the old neighborhood, to reminisce, and to pay tribute to Don, sad at his passing and good days we will never ever have together again, but also happy at the warm memories I embrace of the wonderful times we shared together, along with his wife Pat and the other people who came down to enjoy all that Treasure Island had to offer.

We also dropped into the offices of Resort Realty, the company that managed my property when I owned at Lands End. Owner Rudy Consoni, Office Manager Janet Shields, and the owners of their cleaning/maintenance division, Scott Drown and Rudy Feagley, gave us a very warm welcome and we had a chance to get caught up and renew what has always been a very good friendship. Man I miss those guys! They are all such big sports fans and supporters of the USRT as well.

So Don, you started all this Florida stuff… you and your crazy General Development homesite schemes! Wherever you are, I want you to know that the Florida adventures continue, and you are always in my thoughts and my heart!

Captain Kosmakos restaurant on Gulf Blvd… oh the trouble we got into in this place… the headquarters for the Cheektowaga pols

The main entrance to Lands End Condominium on the beaches, my Florida home for 15 years

The Treasure Island Causeway ends here in the center of town

And for good measure, Progress Energy Park in downtown St. Pete, which will see its final Rays spring game this Friday. The team moves to Port Charlotte next spring