OT - Views on Death (friend died today)

Thanks for sharing that beautiful tribute, Charlie ... I've no doubt you've proved the above to be true words of wisdom. If you don't mind I am going to keep a copy for the next time a personal "hole ... is left in the world".

there's another little quote that i think is appropriate to what this says.

grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have someone to share it with.

i believe that was mark twain but might be wrong, and im not 'quoting' it but the essence is there.

randy

Indeed.

Given that we will all die, I choose to view it much more like your "another way", Charlie.

djb

charlie b wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@accesscom.com:

In all regards, I agree with you, and share your feelings for the family and neighborhood.

We go when we're called. Not every one belives they had enough time to 'get it right'. I belive there's a plan for that...

Patriarch

We all die. That's life. There are just more appropriate places to discuss it. I'm dealing with cancer. Big deal. I'm here to hear and learn about woodworking techniques, presuming anyone in these multiple off-topic ramblings know any.

Bill.

So put the OT in the subject line in your killfile and get on with it, Bill. If your newsreader doesn't support that, download a real one.

So what do you want to know about woodworking? Change the subject line and ask away. Hell, if I know the answer I may even make an illustration or diagram to help you understand. I'm not being sarcastic, I try hard to say what I mean and mean what I say - no interpretation necessary. So ask away.

Want to make handcut dovetails (the Frank Klausz way)?

charlie b

That's a weak answer. You're in a movie theater and people behind you are talking loudly to each other. In fact, a whole lot of people are doing the same thing. ...so plug your ears.

Bill.

No, your radio is on. Change the channel.

I hope your fight with cancer goes well.

I want to steal from PDQ Bach:

Here lies a man of sundry flaws And numerous sins upon his head. We've buried him today because, As near as we can tell, he's dead.

But then I want a wake, not a funeral.

Wow. 36 is pretty young for a heart attack. I'm 36.

You wrote a beautiful epitaph, Charlie. I'm sorry you were in the position to do it.

Yes it is. And perhaps it's related to how many people show up at a funeral. In the Army I was the officer-in-charge (OIC) of more than 30 military burial ceremonies. Taps, the 21-gun salute, the folded flag, the speech to the widow while presenting the flag. Some funerals had 200+ mournful people crowding around the canopy. Several other ceremonies had 4 or fewer. One was just the widow, and we planted one (apparently) mean old cuss that had *zero* come to send him off.

I realized I would like to live my life in such a way as to have at least a few people that will make the effort to come to my funeral because they'll miss me. ;-) You know, people that would come even if a luncheon is not provided.

BTW the last funeral I did was the worst. It was always a job for me to get "psyched up" to get down on a knee, make and keep eye contact, present the flag, and say the required speech without it sounding like a memorized speech -- without getting all broken up myself. There were about 40 who made the journey to the cemetary so the deceased was important to quite a few people. The clergy finished their part, the flag was raised over the casket, 21 shots were fired, taps sounded (as usual several people started sobbing), the flag was folded, the NCOIC handed it to me, I walked over to the widow, got down on a knee, looked into her eyes and saw: "Damn, dude, let's get this old fart IN THE GROUND and go PARTY. I have insurance money to spend!"

THAT jolted me. I was steeled to convey sympathy and the country's appreciation to a grieving, weeping widow. I wasn't prepared for someone who obviously didn't give a rip. The regulation speech got flushed from my brain and what I said wasn't much more than, "Here. This flag is for you."

-- Mark

And even if you DO know, can you understand the 90 column ones with round holes?(G,D & R)

Having recently dealt with the death of some close friends in the last year or so, and watched as my best friend successfully dodged the bullet of a brain anurysm (sp?), I hear you. But you also bring to mind a quote I heard at a retirement dinner for a friend over 15 years ago (and yes, he is still with us):

"We should honor while we can the vertical man, as we seem to honor none but the horizontal one."

This keeps me focused on making sure that from time to time I tell those who I have grown to appreciate, respect and love that I'm really glad to know them and to have them around, and to thank them for their friendship. Oftentimes when someone passes unexpectedly, you have such words left unsaid, to your regret.

Sorry for your loss, Charlie.

Mutt

some kind of gay marriage joke?... (also G,D, & R)

Do you realize that OT in a header specifically means it's off-topic? That is done so uptight people can ignore it if they want to. To take your crappy analogy to at least some degree of relevance, it'd be more like you being at a party, seeing a bunch of people talking off in the corner, hearing what they're talking about, and saying "Hey, this is a football party, you can't talk about woodworking here."

While you're setting up killfiles, you might want to put me in it right away, as I can't see us having much in common.

For Charlie B - - a beautiful tribute to the passing of a friend.

Jo4hn, I should just leave you in suspense, but - - - -

They were Remington Rands answer to IBM. A punch card that actually had 45 columns with round holes, but there were 90 characters, as the card was split horizontally, col. 1-45 across the top and col. 46-90 across the bottom.

When I started with NCR Corp. in 1960, they had a high speed card reader that could feed/read 2000 cards/min., and IIRC, there were 2 in the country that had modified logic to handle the 90 col. cards.

Then I'm sure you remember the 96 column thing that IBM tried on the older S/3 ???

I was trained on old unit record equipment around

That new fangled floppy disk came out and pooooof .... No more punched cards. Now no more floppy disk.

Computer folks have seen a lot of changes in 30 years.

Norman D. Crow wrote: