Buzz Kill Post

Okay so it's not that a goal of mine here is to make sure to run down the list of depressing stories and make sure I share them all. But, if I'm to be honest, the shit hits the blog from time to time. And with this being July 4th weekend it's definitely relevant.

Back to our time machine. July 3rd, 1998. I was 21, and living with the parents. Phone rang at about 6am. At the time, this is not something that would normally wake me and if it happen to do so it isn't something I'd usually give a second thought to. But the ring was different or something. Almost immediately I knew something was up. So I made my way downstairs to find out what was going on. The call came from my sister. Her husband, whom she had been separated from for some time and in fact had move to Kansas to get away from, had been in an accident. It wasn't good.

He had been on his way home when he was involved in a one car accident. And he was drunk. We made it to Overland Park medical within minutes. And he wasn't in good shape. I didn't see him till the following day but, we knew that morning that it was just a matter of time.

In the fairness of full disclosure, we didn't have a good relationship. Okay, we didn't really have a relationship. Any guy that gets involved with any women in my life; friends, nieces or sister is held to a higher standard. He didn't score real high on the Hirp test. But, he did father my first niece and nephew. And although he hadn't been the greatest dad to them, he was starting to make an effort. Which goes a long way in my book. Anyway, that goes down as one of the toughest days of this boys life.

July 5th he passed away. And see, this is one part of me I've always respected. I'm able to learn from others experiences. Never even took a sip of alcohol through high school cause I had seen that evil. And in the wake of this, I knew I'd never drive under the influence. And I'm pretty militant about it. I have a lot of friends who have picked up DUI's. And sorry to harsh but that pisses me off. Seriously, just call me. I might be pissed if I have to leave the house at 3am to give someone a lift but, I'm more pissed if I hear about it later.

So, a week later I venture out to Lawrence to hang out with some friends and then stop by a friends 21st birthday. Just a mellow night, hanging out in her backyard and meeting some pretty interesting people. One guy in particular stood out as most interesting. This was the first night I had gone out after the accident, and being around a bunch of people who were drinking wasn't really sitting right with me. And at this time, Hirp was almost always very quiet at parties. This night even more so. So the party broke up, and I left. Nothing too interesting there huh? Next day, maybe it was two days, I hear that the guy that had stood out a bit had taken his own life. Nice fuckin week huh?

Was more of a bizarre thing for me since I had only met the guy once. Very sad yes but, most upsetting was seeing friends try and cope with what had happened. So that went down as one really shitty week. And I'm not sharing to be preachy or anything. Just kinda what comes to mind this time of year.