Good Bye Captain America...

I left the umbrella at the house yesterday morning, when I climbed into the Nitro for my drive, first to Coldwater to hook up with "Wulfie", then head to Fort Recovery for Kent Dilworth's services and following funeral to the graveside site in Portland, Indiana....

After all, the rain had passed the area and it appeared we would have no rain for the graveside services....I was of course wrong.  Probably 50 family and friends were in attendance at the funeral home...most of the old Racquet Club gang had stopped by during the Thursday visitation hours, a few people we expected did not show, but that is understandable....I know how I hate funerals, seldom going to most, even folks I knew well.  I can count them on my hand, over the past dozen years, preferring to remember those old friends as they were when I last saw them.  But Kent, even though we were not that close, friends yes, for sure, but there was something I felt that I needed to be there.  I guess it was because of the fight he put up, something you seldom see in people, many, probably me included, would just chalk it off to bad luck, and cash in our chips...not so with "Captain America".

Kent, diagnosed with colon cancer, with spots on his liver at 47 years old, and given 6 or so months to live, it was already at Stage 4, he turned that into over 4 years of a full life....The Captain was a fighter, and if for nothing else he deserved my presence at this, his final honor.

 As Wulfie and I headed from the funeral home towards Portland, across the state line, and some 10 miles from his home town, the rain, gone from the Radar, returned to greet the procession of vehicles....and it continued in light fashion through out the final words of the pastor....as we headed out of the cemetery, the rain ended and we rolled back across the line into Ohio towards the "Hole in the Wall", the old converted Roller Rink, which is now a country bar that straddles the Ohio/Indiana state line.  This is where the family would have the Wake....a small get together where we all were "required" to have a Strohs Beer as our first order of business.  The Captain for some reason liked that skunk tasting brew from our childhoods.  Strohs and Pabst Blue Ribbon were the two big brews back in the 1960s and 70s in these parts.  To me, Pabst was a bit sweet, but preferable to that nasty tasting skunk piss called Strohs.  But we downed one for Kent....it was his brew of choice when available, and how could we not have one in his honor?

There after, the old friends, some who I knew and some I didn't, along with the brothers, sister, and nieces, nephews, stood and or sat talking about Kent and his days on this earth and what he meant to all....

51 years, much too short to be sure, but "Captain America" got as much out of those years as possible....right up until the end.


Changes in the Kitchen Plans____

It appears our new kitchen project has been scaled back....that is my doing.  I'm sure Patricia is disappointed, but as for me, I just didn't feel like going through the hassle and scrutiny of getting an addition on our mortgage, at 15 years, despite the almost zero rate.  So, at least for now, we will get the picture window overlooking the back yard replaced, the floors done, with the newer style, and some other cosmetics and insulation work.....this will probably cost about a third of the $20,000 or more that was going to go into the kitchen.

As I told Patricia..."Hell, if I check out, you can use that bundle of cash from the Life Insurance to get whatever you want done"  She looked at me and says "You wanted the new kitchen"....yes, but really not the hassle and the cost.  So we will improve it, fix and replace the floors and window, repaint the walls, and see what shakes out down the road....hassles be damned.   I'm not sure if she is saddened or relieved....I know I am relieved that the decision appears made.

back later>>>>

Photos-Back in December of 2000...the two photos are from the "Ho House Lounge" days at the Racquet Club....this was from Noon or thereabouts, on a Sunday, as we were preparing for the Wallyball Wars, downing a couple of cold ones to get in the mood...Kent in both, and me with a sheet eating grin, "Wulfie" was bartending and snapped the photo.  Strohs, just one by me and most at the Wake was downed....the first can is the way it look when brewed in Detroit back in my old Red Door days...the bottom photo is what the new, but not improved, Strohs looks like today, and what we drank yesterday at the Captain's Wake.