I got a great PM from someone I respect that provided support for me, in light of what's going on - the eventual death of my dear friend.  Thanks for the thoughts.

Now, if I didn't share the blessings that are going on, I wouldn't deserve to be a part of this event.

1.  Gary was given two weeks to live and if he makes it past Sunday (which looks very promising right now) he beat the odds that were laid out a week ago Monday.

2.  While he has been at home, his closest friend - a great friend of mine - has been his caretaker.  Rand (the caretaker) told the hospice nurse "The biggest problem Gary has is that he has too damned many friends".  It has been a constant parade of people dropping by and the atmosphere is a party.  Everyone is laughing, telling old stories, carrying on and Gary is right there in the middle of the whole deal.  For a guy that is supposed to be dying, he's doing better than me, some days.

3.  The constant parade has brought together many old friends that had drifted apart, for various reasons.  We grow, we move, we change, but Gary has brought us all together for one (or more) last time.  I just got off the phone with him and another old friend, Manny, talked to me and we all made plans to watch the Hawks on Sunday.

  Many of the old friends used to vacation together at Sun Lakes in our younger years.  Lots of beer, pot, waterskiing and laughs - then limp home and recover so that we could go back to work and plan for the next year.  Each year had a music quote theme.  We still laugh at how we'd run that quote into the ground before the week was out.

We've collectively decided that the ongoing theme from now until the eventual will be a quote from Jimmy Buffett, from "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes", it goes this way - "If we didn't laugh, we'd just all go insane"

I'm not sure that any of this makes much sense to all of you, but the therapy is much needed.  I'd appreciate any prayers, meditations, thoughts, love, good vibrations, karma and anything else you all think Gary could use to make his journey peaceful and painless.

Thanks

Larry