Somehow it feels like spring, and about Dilbeck.

Although the summer is winding down, and the days are getting slightly cooler, I feel like it's spring. I seem to get more sad and hopeless in the winter, and then come out of it in the spring at about the same time the grass starts to turn green again. However, this year has been bright and full of sunshine even on the darkest days. I've turned over a new leaf with each passing month. Progress and learning have been my closest companions and I feel like I want this time of my life to go on and on.

A very good and very loved friend of mine passed away yesterday. His name was Patrick Dilbeck, but I called him Dilbeck. He became friends with Michael when they served together in Fresno, and became friends with me the second I met him. I feel like I should say something about him here, but everyone who knows him, knows him. He was exactly himself with few walls or pretenses. I've never laughed harder with anyone else outside of my family and I never grew tired of his company. He laughed at everyone (including himself) and everything. He worried about the proper way to cook a meringue and order at a restaurant. Even at his darkest times, he would joke around about his trial and tribulations. I loved him so dearly and still love him and look forward to seeing him again. It makes me happy to think of what he can now do without the constraints his ailments and illnesses put upon his body and mind. I will miss him quietly.

Also, once we went to one of his friend's houses and when we got in the car to leave, it smelled like dog poop. Everyone checked their feet and it turned out to be Dilbeck who had stepped in it. He was so mortified he could hardly speak and he just kept wailing "noooo nooooo noooo!". I laughed so hard I was crying. Proper Dilbeck, who had spent an hour deciding which was the appropriate shirt to wear for the occasion, ended up with dog poo on his shoe at the end of the day and he almost died of the shame of it. Then he laughed for like an hour...

sorry folks, i been busy

Michael had surgery last Friday. We are slowly recuperating. Hopefully I'll have time to blog some time soon.