Not Necessarily Interesting News

Finally went to see Terminator 3 last night. You don’t go to a Terminator file for the story, you go to see shit getting blown up. this movie did lots of that. Story line? What’s that? I wanna see flying body parts and car wrecks. The scene with the crane was one of the better car chase scenes I’ve seen in a while. Ronin still has the best chase scene of any movie ever, followed closely by the chase from Bullitt.

iTunes is currently playing: The Seeker from the album “American Beauty” by The Who.

In memory of my uncle I got a tattoo today. It’s a picture that he used to draw occasionally. My uncle’s nickname was Shurfoot. He got it during a hiking trip down the Virgin River as a teenager. He had trouble staying upright in the swift currents. The drawing is his rendition of ‘Shurfoot’.

Now Shurfoot will be with me always.

As I said a few days ago, my uncle and best friend died. We had the viewing and wake on Thursday afternoon. I stayed up the entire previous night preparing this video for his wake. I think it helped me to make peace with the fact that he was gone. After watching the video there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. I did get quite drunk at the wake. I left the viewing early to get over to my parent’s house to help with the wake. By the time folks started showing up an hour later I was already quite drunk. I stayed drunk all night, the way you should be at a good wake. My drink of choice was Maker’s Mark over ice.

Yesterday/today was probably the worst day of my life so far. My uncle, Roy, died of a heart attack at the age of 42. Only 10 years older than myself. Other than my wife I’d probably consider him to be my best friend. He was more like a big brother than an uncle. He had only gotten married last October. His new wife Joan made him very happy. He was happier than he’d ever been since he met her.

We spent so many good times together I can’t even start to name them.

The time we drove straight through from Lake Powell to Austin overnight without stopping. By the time we were done our caffeine high had us giggling at the stupidest things.

The time he caught a 5 lb. bass using my tackle in a spot I had been working for a 1/2 hour when my back was turned.

Sneaking out late at night with him when I was a teenager to go to a D&D party.

Discussing our dreams of owning a houseboat on Lake Powell but never figuring out where we’d get the money to do it.

Planning a hiking trip down the Escalante River. Setting routes. Making supply lists for that trip we’ll make ‘next year’.

Driving up I-15 somewhere near the NV/UT border and passing a Coke from my truck to his at 75M.P.H., freaking out my wife in the process.

4th of July out at the ranch and having a firework go crazy shooting mortars everywhere and seeing him running for his life in the flashes of exploding mortars.

Christmas shopping for each other consisted of finding something you liked and buying two of them. One for you, one for him.

I can’t say how much he’ll be missed. Godspeed, dear friend.