Hello to All and Farewell to a Friend

Each day that we live, we rise in the morning, we retire in the evening. And everyone does this excepting perhaps those that are grave yarders, and work at night and sleep during the day. But those too, rise and retire every day. This is the cycle of our days. During our waking hours we do things that we take so much for granted. We walk. We talk. We see. We hear. We touch. We smell. We taste. We do all of these things without thought. We take for granted that tomorrow we will do these things again. And most of the time, indeed tomorrow we will again repeat each of those things, and again we will repeat them without thought. But for each and everyone of us, there is coming a day that on tomorrow we will not do those things. Because for each of us is coming that day that we won't retire, but instead expire.

Last week, late on Friday night/early Saturday morning we lost a friend. Did I know him well? Well, yes, I did. Did he know me well? Well, no, he really didn't. We lost a friend that for so many of us brightened many of our days. A man that made the phrase "keeping it real" mean so much. And when everything was said and done, and I absorbed the immediate reality of his death, the only thing I could say was "Just Damn".

Royal Marshall, Engineer and Associate Producer of The Neal Boortz Show was stricken with a massive heart attack and at the age of 43 died.

I met Royal a couple of times over my years at The Georgia World Congress Center. He was there on each occasion for some event being hosted at The GWCC. If you were to take all of the time I spent talking with him on both occasions and added it together, you might have a total of about 5 minutes. So for me to say that he knew me would be a stretch, even if you used the most liberal imagination. He did not know me. But I knew him. I knew him from 17 years on The Neal Boortz Show. I knew him from his own couple of years with his show "The Royal Treatment". I can make the same statement about Neal Boortz, or Belinda Skelton. I've listened to Clark Howard now for many, many years and feel like I know him too. Scott Slade is someone that I spend almost every morning with, so I feel I know him as well. But I have to say that over the years I had grown to really respect Royal and so much looked forward to whatever he would add to Neal's' show each day.....and over the years he added so very much.

I am 53 years old. I have in my lifetime known death on many levels. Over the last few years not only have I lost my Mother to Cancer, but my older Brother as well. My Dad passed away when I was 19 years old. My oldest sister had two sons that was born with problems that prevented them from living lives beyond just a couple of years. I've lost friends that I was close to and that did know me well. Almost all of my aunts and uncles are passed away. And there has been numerous acquaintances over the years. Yes, I can honestly say that I know what it is like to experience the death of someone close to me. But with Royals' death I have to say that somehow it has affected me somewhat differently.

Life is in fact very fragile. I know, I know. This is not an original thought. This is not the first time that anyone of us has read or heard that comment. But the reality of the comment seems to have hit me hard. I have come to the very real knowledge that at least I take so much for granted.

When was the last time that you stood and gazed with absolute wonder and awe at the glory of a sunrise? How about a sunset?

When did you last stand and listen to the stillness of the night? Or maybe looked upon a stream or river and find yourself in amazement when you realized that all of those sounds that you heard.......the water flowing, the birds chirping, the many sounds of nature as they were lifting their voices praising our creator. I'm reminded of an old song that has the line in it "if I don't praise him the rocks are gonna cry out, glory and honor, glory and honor". Yes all of those sounds that we hear in nature I do believe is nature singing loudly to the Glory of God. It is nature having a praise service. And sadly, while I can't answer for you, I know that most of the time, I don't even notice the wonderful sound of praise going on around me; I just take for granted that tomorrow I will stop and listen, after all, the river is going to flow tomorrow, the birds are going to sing tomorrow. Right?

And I have to ask myself this question.... When was the last time that I picked up the phone and just called an old friend, someone that perhaps I just haven't talked to in a while and asked them how are they doing? I'll admit that very often I think to myself that I need to call so and so, that I haven't talked to them in a while. But of course, I'm busy when I think of it, but I tell myself that tonight, once I'm home, I'm gonna call. Then a few days later, they cross my mind again. I realize that I never did call.

You know, you probably do have tomorrow. You probably can call then. Even better, you'll just go see them. You can always do it tomorrow. Or can you?

We have right now. That's all. We are not promised tomorrow, or even an hour from now. We just have right now. Of course, we can't call everyone right now. We can't go see everyone right now. We can't stop and watch the river flow every time we pass over one. We can't stand each morning or each evening and watch the sun rise or set. We can't always stand outside and listen to the sounds of the night. But............ we do have opportunity from time to time to do these things and I would encourage you as I also encourage myself, that when we have those opportunities that we should take them; latch on to them as though that very opportunity may never be given to us again. Because even thought it might. It just might not.

And to my friend Royal............. Thank you. Thank you for 17 years of The Royal Treatment. Thank you for allowing me to know you. Thank you my friend, thank you.

And to my other friends and family. You need to expect to hear from me.

I'll be calling....................

Gary

It's Time for Somebody to Say it

Okay, I've heard enough, I've seen enough. It's time for somebody to say it. It's time for somebody to point out simple common sense. And I'm thinking I've got the mouth big enough, and the constitution strong enough to just say it.

Folks, it snowed. It snowed hard. Then, after it was finished snowing, freezing rain, and ice pellets (what we once called sleet here in the south) came falling out of the sky. It was a nightmare. And now........ the crap is still on the ground. Why? Because it's cold. Real cold. Real, real damn cold. It's freaking cold !!!

And we live in the south. Did you forget that? The south. Sometimes we even still call it the sunny south. But the point here is, it doesn't do this very often here. Never mind that just 18 days ago we experienced the first white Christmas that anyone breathing and living here has ever seen in these parts.. It's been well over 100 years since this area has seen a white Christmas. That's how often it DOESN'T snow around here.

Let me say it again. We live in the south. I typed that real slow for those that can't read so fast. I hope it helped.

I'm just about sick and tired of seeing idiots on the local news complaining about how poor a job the local leaders are doing in clearing the roads. Hey, the local leaders can't give birth to snow moving equipment that they don't have at their disposal. And why you might wonder does our local governments not have more snow moving equipment? I will refer you at this point to the previous two paragraphs. And if you don't understand that, I'll even say it again here: We live in the south. (Hey, I typed it even slower this time, I know it's difficult for some of you if I type too fast).

I saw a fellow on the news a few moments ago, a trucker. Now before I go any further, for those of you that don't know.........I'm a trucker, I can talk about "us" if i want to. He made the comment something along the lines that he was just in Minnesota last week and they had even worse than this, and had no problems.

Okay, I know it should be obvious here, but it wasn't to him, so I'm thinking it won't be to others. He said he was in Minnesota.

ummm............ummmm

Clearing my throat, tyring to keep my composure.

He said MINNESOTA.

If you don't know where that is check your map. If you don't happen to have a map just right there beside you......... Minnesota is just north of Wisconsin. If you go west from Minnesota, you'll end up in either North Dakota or South Dakota. If you go east, you'll be in the chilly waters of Lake Superior. If you go further north from Minnesota, the Canadian authorities will greet you at the boarder. Minnesota - - - - part of the frozen tundra that makes up the northern United States. I wonder why they would not have any problem with even worse than this? Oh I don't know, maybe because they expect this, many times each winter. Could that be it???? No, what was I thinking, probably not. It's just that they are not from here, so they are obviously inherently smarter than we are. I'm sure that's it.

Come on folks. Go back up a little bit and read that second paragraph again.

I'm sitting here watching the local news, but you may have figured that out already. And this woman they just interviewed, I believe at the Atlanta Bus Terminal, she's just whining and crying, I mean like a child crying, sobbing, "I can't believe they let this happen, and just leave us here like this, and do nothing....." OH MY GOD..... where did they find this looser?

Hey lady, it's all a conspiracy. There was a group of us, we heard you were coming to town, and we arranged it all; the snow, the ice, all of it. We did it because we heard you were coming to town, and just thought we would mess with you. Yep, you figured it out.

Needless to say, I was not moved by her whining.

I feel like I need to say it again. WE are in the south.

Moving from the local news to the national news, this same storm is going to hit New York City and the northeast tonight. I noticed with great interest that Mayor Bloomberg has announced that their 365 sand trucks and their 1700 snow plows are on the ready. No, that is not a typo, he said that their 365, that's three hundred sixty five sand trucks, and their 1700, that's seventeen hundred snow plows are on the ready.

Now lets compare that to Atlanta, Mayor Reed announced today that they are bringing in an additional 50 trucks to assist the city in clearing more streets. Now they will have 60.

You see folks, the economics of having millions of dollars of equipment setting around so that we can handle these once a decade snow/ice events just doesn't make sense. I'm no economist. Certainly, not a financial wizard. But even me, a country boy from Canton., Georgia can figure that one out.

So for goodness sakes, just relax. Sit back and enjoy these days, because as certain as the sun rises and sets, this snow and ice will melt. And you will get back to work, your kids will return to school. And if you have to get out, please, please, please drive slow. Real slow. I had to work today, and it is slick. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not complaining, I'm just telling you it is slick out there. So if you don't have to get out.......DON'T. If you do have to get out, take it real easy, drive slow, watch out for everything, and arrive alive.

And when you hear those blankety-blank cry babies whining about how poor a job our government officials are doing, and how much better that the cities up north handle this sort of thing, I suggest you quote the late great Lewis Grizzard......."We don't care how they do it in Cleveland, if you don't like it here, Delta is ready when you are." One less loud mouthed, complaining yankee around here would not be missed. Not even for a minute.

Okay, I'll quit now, I figure I've insulted enough people for one day.

Hope your day is wonderful, your tomorrow even better. God Bless You All............

..........Gary