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Sometimes they hit pretty hard.
Had both kinds yesterday.
Let me 'splain' that.
My buddy Doc lost his Mom, late Saturday night, early Sunday morning. He just lost his Dad in the past couple of months. He's been pretty hard hit this year. I feel for him, he and his family are good people, the best really.
Yesterday was my buddy Buck's birthday. He's been gone three years last December. His son Commander Sam had a nice little post up, I hope some folks still stop by over there. Buck's blog was a daily stop, we had some interesting back and forth over the years. Dude was always on my ass about quotation marks and commas, he was quite the grammarian. Another Old AF Sarge right there.
At work I was talking with a colleague, he works for a different company now, who we subcontract to, but he was a long time employee of my current employer. We were "talking" about another guy and trying to remember what projects we'd worked on with him, when the name of Bill Flaherty came up, great guy, awesome engineer. We lost him to cancer not all that long ago.
But amidst the gloomy memories a ray of sunshine broke through as I remembered a recent conversation with the senior granddaughter (she's going to be eight this year), Little Bit -
"Grandpa, why is Anya scared of me?"
"Gee sweetie, everyone is scared of you..."
"Yeah, true."
As you might have gathered, we were discussing a member of the feline staff, Anya, who is a bit of a fraidy cat. My point being that Little Bit is a pretty tough cookie, she couldn't argue that.
But she and I have lots of those little conversations, I give her a hard time, she slaughters me with her wit, then we move on. But those little moments make life worth living. All four grandkids and I have those little moments. (The time that The Owl took my hand and explained feline behavior to me, in her wee four year old way, still makes me chuckle.)
Kid movies with Big O.
Silly selfies with L'il Sweetie.
It's all good, but in reality it doesn't last forever.
Hug your kids and grandkids.
Hug your significant other.
Hug your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews...
Heck, hug your friends too.
Let the folks close to you know that you love them.
It'll be over way too soon.
"These Days"
Foo Fighters
One of these days the ground will drop out from beneath your feet
One of these days your heart will stop and play its final beat
One of these days the clocks will stop and time won't mean a thing
One of these days their bombs will drop and silence everything
But it's alright
Yeah it's alright
I said it's alright
Easy for you to say
Your heart has never been broken
Your pride has never been stolen
Not yet not yet
One of these days
I bet your heart'll be broken
I bet your pride'll be stolen
I bet I bet I bet I bet
One of these days
One of these days
One of these days your eyes will close and pain will disappear
One of these days you will forget to hope and learn to fear
But it's alright
Yeah it's alright
I said it's alright
Easy for you to say
Your heart has never been broken
Your pride has never been stolen
Not yet not yet
One of these days
I bet your heart'll be broken
I bet your pride'll be stolen
I bet I bet I bet I bet
One of these days
One of these days
But it's alright
Yeah it's alright
I said it's alright
Yes it's alright
Don't say it's alright
Don't say it's alright
Don't say it's alright
One of these days your heart will stop and play its final beat
But it's alright
Easy for you to say
Your heart has never been broken
Your pride has never been stolen
Not yet not yet
One of these days
I bet your heart will be broken
I bet your pride will be stolen
I bet I bet I bet I bet
One of these days
One of these days
One of these days
Written by -
Christopher A. Shiflett
David Eric Grohl
Taylor Hawkins
Nate Mendel
Pat Smear
* A U.S. Navy Grumman A-6E Intruder from Attack Squadron VA-196 Main Battery making a barrier landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65). VA-196 was assigned to Carrier Air Wing 14 (CVW-14) aboard the Enterprise for a deployment to the Western Pacific from 4 April to 30 October 1978. Cause of the barricade engagement was the failure of the right main landing gear to extend fully due to a broken cotter pin allowing a nut on the drag brace to tighten on each cycle of the gear. Crew was Pilot: LTJG Don Conklin, Navigator: LTJG Jerry Nichelson. U.S. Navy Photo
_1978.jpg){kind=link}
Hey Old AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, you gotta pay attention to the people around you, when you(we) get older, our friends start dropping off and crossing over and we are lessened. I try to pay attention to the people around me, especially my friends and family. I have lost enough good friends, I am starting to suffer from survivor's guilt.
I hear ya Mr. G!
DeleteI don;t need reminding, but good points there.
ReplyDeleteI need to remind myself at times.
DeleteGrand kid fix imminent! Leaving tomorrow for youngest son's house for Easter. Oldest granddaughter lives an hour away and is coming with me. New memories to be made.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think about grand children, it gives me hope my life does have a purpose.
I envy you the time with your grandkids WSF. Enjoy!
DeleteYes indeed. Cherish them all while they're still here. Toughest guilt trip I endured was back when my kid sister (of 52 years) who was health care proxy for our mother had a massive MI and passed through the veil one night. That was tough enough but not being able to tell my mother about the passing of her daughter was quite a burden. Alzheimer's is a terrible disease and after consulting with care givers and reaching my own concurring view, I saw no reason to confuse and possibly distress Mom. She passed almost two years later. I was more prepared for that eventuality as the person who was "Mom" was gone long before her body realized it.
ReplyDeleteSarge, thank you for your wonderful site. Happy Easter to you and yours.
That must have been tough. We have a friend who is in the early stages of that terrible disorder. It's distressing to see the changes.
DeleteHappy Easter to you and yours as well.
And thanks.
I am at that point too. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have had to pull back from travelling and hanging with a lot of friends. One of them, someone who was truly a hero to me, and not much older than me, also, died in December, and our one local friend who still stays in touch regularly just off-handedly remarked that he had died.
ReplyDeleteIt struck me like a poleax. Immediately a flood of memories of fighting him and hanging out and all the times he helped me and I helped him and, dammit, there's a big gosh-darned huge friggin hole in my life now and the world is a darker place than it was before. Think how you feel about Lex. That's what Taka was to me.
And my mom is ancient, and 200 miles away, which with circumstances being the way they are, means that she is 3,000 miles away.
And all my friends are getting older. And getting cancer, or diabetes, or divorced, or into wrecks.
Sometimes the call of the wild hermit sounds good. Go some place and cut myself off from everything that hurts. I hate crying, and it seems that I do it more and more over lost friends, lost opportunities, lost hopes and dreams.
To the too best and most heartfelt toasts ever: To absent Companions! and; To Life!
(think cheery thoughts, think cheery thoughts...)
I get that Andrew. I really do.
DeleteTo absent friends and...
To Life!
So...Sarge, it's apparent that we're not the only folks in that boat. It's nice to hear other folks here at the Chant are there also and hanging in. Just back from the airport dropping Little J off for his return to the third world. Trip back was kinda quiet.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I felt the need to just put those thoughts "out there." I kind of figured others probably were in that boat. Sometimes you have to talk about it, well, I do anyway.
DeleteI've done that quiet trip back too many times. Last one was just a couple of weeks ago.
Hold 'em while you can.
Indeed. Tomorrow is promised to no one. Someone once said "When you hold your first grandchild, you will know why you were put here".
ReplyDeleteI cherish my memories. I keep them, and do what I can to pass them on. I try not to dwell on them. The world moves on with or without you. I got that lesson more than once at a very young age.
Our farthest child is a 40 minute drive away. The house we bought is a fixer-upper. I am in the process of painting the outside. As I stand on a ladder 10 feet in the air at 60+ years of age---
(I also use one of these)
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Werner-Stabilizer-for-Ladders/3048127
---I offer up a silent thank you that--
I still have these choices.
I still have a purpose.
Well said RHT447, well said.
DeleteToday's post is yet another example of why this is the best blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post.
Paul L. Quandt
Thanks Paul.
DeleteMore memories. A friend just sent me this link. I know all here will enjoy. Also, check out the book volume set behind the movie projector.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie3SrjLlcUY
I've seen that, great story!
DeleteAs I am wont to say, "Love 'em while you've got 'em".
ReplyDeleteWord.
DeleteYou need a big ol' tomcat. They teach kids about cause and effect, and cat respecting.
ReplyDeleteThat they do!
Delete