The last couple of days have been spent cleaning up the remains of my once massive firewood pile. It is likely that I gave away over the past two years about 90 pickup truck loads of firewood. The past two days about 10 pickup loads went in the burn pile. I would haul it over in the tractor loader bucket and add it to the fire. Every hour or so I would have to take a break to allow the fire to burn down a bit before adding more. All that remains now is a large pile of ash. What does all that have to do with death and taxes? Nothing really.
It was during one of those breaks that I came in to get a drink of water and relax while the wood burned down. I checked Facebook and saw a post that one of the guys I worked with had passed away. I had seen him and his wife recently at Big Lots and had done the usual. You know that "Hi, how ya doin'", Enjoying retirement kinda thing. He was enjoying it and looked good. Well as good as any guy can look when he is going into Big Lots with his wife. Tim was a great officer but more importantly a great person. He was one of those guys at work you could count on. He would do the right thing. Handle a problem reasonably and fairly. He wouldn't create a situation where someone would get hurt but if he came on that situation he would do what had to be done. Tim retired after I did and was only 59 when he passed away yesterday. It was one of those things we all know is coming for us eventually. Death and taxes. So, who knew that a chance encounter at Big Lots was going to be a missed opportunity. A chance to do more that say hello. We get so busy with our lives we don't take the opportunity to talk to people when we see them. Oh, there will be a chance again later. This just goes to show, maybe not. My time that day couldn't have been that important. As proof I offer the fact that I was at Big Lots. So, when you see that guy you haven't seen for a while take a few minutes to talk. Let them know that you are interested in how they are and what they are doing. Don't miss an opportunity.
Sorry to hear you lost a friend. 59 is far far too early. Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'. That just keeps rolling in my head like an endless Groundhog Day loop. Let's keep busy livin', old friend.
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