One Less

One of my "fictitious" readers has gone. Thank you Don for all the kind words and the encouragement since I started this thing. I'm putting this up before your noon deadline so you can read it at lunch like usual, wherever lunch is now. Listening to the new Dylan record too. Never did get to ask you what you thought of it. Never will now.

You know, now I couldn't be happier that you beat us in that last game last season. Not that you cared much either way, you always preferred a good game to a blowout win and it was a good game. Hell, I was paying attention to the very end. It must've been good!

Thank you for one of the finest jokes anyone ever pulled on me. I'll never look at a Wild Turkey box again without wondering if there's really a bottle in there or if it's just two cans of Coke.

Thank you for indulging me when I tried to get you back by duct taping your car doors shut while you were "asleep".

Thank you for buying us 'kids" the beer that time in Rochester.

Most of all, thank you for your friendship, your hard work so the rest of us could play, the laughs, the drunken philosophizing (by both of us), and the refusal to take things more seriously than they need to be taken. I miss you more than you could ever know already.

Comments

Cindy said…
He told me many times how much he enjoyed reading your writing. He wanted me to encourage you to write professionally somehow. I know your writing touched him, and maybe that's what we have in the end, the hope that we made someone's life a little better. I miss you already Don.
July 2, 2009 at 10:17 AM
HogBlogger said…
Don was one of a kind. Friendly, fair....did you EVER see him lose his temper? Always willing to lend a hand. Never quite sure how he maintained his upbeat persona even when he was out of work for so long. He used to drag me out to his car to listen to classical music...really knew ALL his music....can see why he liked your stuff, DC. Keep it up. It must be 5 o'clock somewhere...Don's drawing to the button on Sheet #1.
July 2, 2009 at 12:05 PM
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