I read a book not too long ago where the main character’s mom went to funeral viewings for people she’d never met because it was such a great place to gather socially. I thought of that after I got home from Buster’s visitation yesterday evening. He would’ve been happy to see his three wives (2 ex and 1 current) talking together without saying a bad word about him. 🙂
Not gonna lie, it was great seeing friends I don’t see often — like Alisa and Ric, and Curt. And there’s not a single person in Buster’s family I don’t like… it was nice seeing all of them as well. Perry knew almost as many people as I did and he’s never at a loss for words.
And then I got stalked by a man with a piece of sausage.
There’s a guy who lived in C’ville for many years by the name of Ivan. I was sitting on a bench outside waiting on my favorite brother and sister-in-law and talking to one of Buster’s daughters when Ivan came over and stood in front of me and stared. He had a piece of sausage in his hand and he was pointing it at me.
He kept stepping closer and finally asked my name. The closer he got, the weirder it got because he wasn’t talking… just staring. Creepy! I could’ve taken a bite out of that sausage without ever raising my butt off the bench. Eventually, I was able to wedge myself up and off the bench without stepping on his toes.
It’s a shame we don’t take more time to see people we genuinely care about.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could see people we like without someone dying? Even if there was a place where you wouldn’t have to deal with sausage wielding stalkers, there would be some reason I probably wouldn’t go unless I felt obligated to. Sadly, many of the people I got to see at the funeral home I won’t see again until someone else passes away. Perry said the same thing and even mentioned trying to see his Mom more often because he knows he should do better. We all should, right?
In my last conversation with Buster, he said that when the pain is bad and it’s a rough day, you lose the will to live… the will to keep fighting. When you know that no matter how hard you fight there’s no hope to recover any type of enjoyable living, it’s time.
Now you know: Despite being in service for 25 years, the F22 has only scored 3 air-to-air kills, the first of which was a Chinese balloon in 2023.