Welcomed home

I stayed at Dain and Sues' beautiful home while I was doing the show in Mesa and they treated me wonderfully. I got up early one morning and was reading the paper in the nook when Dain walked in to get his coffee.

"Are you reading the obituaries?"

I confessed that I was. It is a long time habit. I know that I have been accused of being morbid of late and this only adds fuel to the fire but I wanted to see how many of the good people in Phoenix were now resting comfortably in Jesus's arms. You can tell a lot about a town by its obituary column.

Which is better than the rest of the paper. The Arizona Republic used to be a fine periodical but since they were bought out by Gannett they really suck. Even laid off the Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Steve Benson last week. After like 38 years. Shadow of its former self.

I told Dain that you could get some neat information on interesting people by reading their obituary.

Like these two fine gentlemen, who happened to be sallying forth into their eternal slumber sitting on top of each other on the obit page.

Daron, an accomplished welder, story teller and skilled concrete finisher, even once held the one time world record for his round tailed chub.

Holy Hannah, have you ever seen a chub that size? That is a whopper. As his nephew says, "heaven has a baited fishing pole and camp fire waiting to welcome him." A life obviously well lived.

And Earl, a man equally comfortable singing off key at church and throwing dice on the luxurious felt of the crap table. Now that's a daily double. Got to love that. Said he smiled the whole way.

Both men I would have felt privileged to meet and hang out with.