Happy Birthday, Susan.

     Can’t say it better than I did last year… Only now… even more is missing.

     Funerals tear me to bits, if for nothing else but the inevitable ranting and raving that always breaks out at “family” functions, so maybe it’s not such a big deal that nobody bothered to tell me that he was dying, much less already gone… But it bothers me, still.  Especially considering this is the second one I didn’t know about, and the fact that my phone number hasn’t changed in years…

     Sorry, Uncle.  I know that you hated having your picture taken.  But this is the way I always remember you…  Much the same way I remember your father… And I hope the others do, too.

(Courtesy of XKCD)

     Another week of Hell down, with the next round starting in about eleven hours.

     Wordpress bugged and posted a completely random draft last night that wasn’t anywhere near complete and made absolutely no sense.  It’s been sitting there for at least a week in draft mode, and was perfectly happy… but this morning at 5-something AM, it just decided, all by itself, to go live.  I know that I didn’t do it and just forgot because I was playing Uno on Xbox Live all night… Ahh, well.  Yet another mysterious bug to track down…

     I had two stupid visitors from Leslie County this week.  I took a souvenir from Friday’s Fool, and left him with a few of his own in the form of pain and bleeding.  Neither of them will ever be back.  Apparently, while either before or while I was busy with that asshat, they messed with my car.  And that, itself, is the ultimate pansy thing to do, and speaks volumes to the severe lack of balls that these idiots possess.

     An old friend and customer of mine died on the 1st after a long battle with cancer.  Fifty-nine years old, the sort of person who treats everyone like they’re her kid.
     I couldn’t bring myself to go to the memorial service today.  I’m not handling things as well lately because I’ve been too on-edge, worried and crushed.

     On a brighter note…

     I slept for the first time in three weeks. 

     And …

     Rich and LissaKay got married last week.  They’re both great people, and they deserve some serious congratulations.  I wish them both the best.

     Happy Birthday, Susan.

     You taught us to enjoy life, live every day like it was our last.

     Sorry I forgot how.

     Last year, the Wildcat celebrated with us.

     It’s just not the same when those you love aren’t around…

     The entity known as Mark Steel began life forty-something years ago.  From an early in life, he experienced a great deal of pain and loss.  And so it was that he never realized that he was alive until Sunday, July 29th, 2007 at approximately 12:30PM EDT.

     On Sunday, March 9th, 2008, at around 2:30PM EST, Mark Steel died.  He was kept alive artificially, left alone and disconnected in a world of rampant emotion and a severe and growing depression.
     On Saturday, September 20th, 2008 at precisely 11:25:02 AM EST, artificial life support was terminated and the entity passed into the ether.  Its last words were reportedly, “I love my Wildcat.”  Unceremoniously, the ashes of the deceased were scattered at Cades Cove, Mount Zion Cemetary, Citico Creek, Indian Boundary Lake, Tellico Plains, Calhouns on the River, below Norris Dam, Cumberland Gap, and the Holiday Inn Express in Harlan, KY.
     The surviving corpse continues to function in most respects, however lacks the ability to harbor emotional attachments or act on moral judgements.