Visit the kelpforest....

Finally, all $12.50 of it - Alaska never did show up in any of our change, so runsamuck finally went to a coin store and bought a couple. This was started by runsamuck's brother as something for the fry. He passed away in 2002, so when we finally filled in all the holes, runsamuck got a nice frame and put a little plaque at the bottom of it in memory of Jay. "In Remembrance of" became "For..." because Things Remembered wanted $3 a word.

I had actually started the little books of these coins that had two spaces for each quarter, so you could save front and back, one from each mint. But the kids were much littler then; they got into them and ripped them all up, scattering the quarters everywhere.

"For Jay, Gone but Not Forgotten..."
Huntington Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
30 January 2009

I think today may be a long day. It's Jay's birthday - today he would have been 41 years old. John really misses his brother; although they never did much for each other's birthdays - "Happy Birthday" and maybe a handshake or a hug - it's the first one since he passed away. And Angus is still making comments which sound angry or rude, because e doesn't really understand the concept of death, which makes it even harder for John. This morning before I left for work he started watching something on the news about Robert Downey, Jr. taking about his heroin use and getting clean and how difficult it is. He suddenly said, " This reminds me of Jay," which I thought was why he was watching it in the first place. His mother said she doesn't want any company or anything today - I'm sure it's difficult for her today too. Her way of mourning is to push everyone away - for Jay's funeral she actually phoned all her Michigan relatives and told them not to come - they basically told her "Screw you, we're coming anyway! He was our cousin/nephew/grandson, too!"

Not to speak ill of the dead, but damn Jay anyway! What made him think he could just try the stuff again after 4 years!