10-15-2019, 10:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-16-2019, 11:27 PM by Drunk Monk.)
There is to be a memorial this Saturday in Wasilla at 11AM. Dan is being cremated. I would've gone but I'm locked hard into Florida this weekend.
We are working on putting together a memorial in SF when Sylvia comes to town, probably Sunday Nov 3, because that's when several of us had planned to get together for dinner. I'll keep you all informed, of course.
On cremation - Syl mentioned some sort of necklace that they make with the ashes. It's very ironic to me. Dan and I shared a skull fetish for years. It was akin to the 'weapon of the week' that Cole and I shared when we were teens. It goes back as far. Dan and I collected skulls and skull art. We gave each other skull gifts and always tried to best each other with cooler skulls. My skull tastes were more anatomical, or deadhead obviously (it was actually the skull art that drew me into the dead more than the music at first). Dan's tastes were more heavy metal and dia de los muertos. I put the bulk of my skull collection into storage when Tara was born - there are several moving boxes full of skulls at my mom's marked 'Warning skulls inside' prominently because I felt that was the way to pack them. I only kept my best ones out, on my altar in my man cave at Ranch Macbeth. But when we moved to the micro-bungalow, those went into storage too. All except one. The real one. I had a real human skull that I acquired through a medical supply company just prior to human bones being illegal to trade. It was of an old woman - very fine, very fragile sinuses, no teeth and the mandible/maxilla were ground down flat. I always treated her with the greatest respect. When we moved to the bungalow, I gave her to Dan. After literally decades of our skull one-up-man-ship, Dan conceded. 'You win' he said with a grin. He found her a nice cabinet box. I'm not sure where she is now. I never asked if he took her to Alaska.
He gave me a skeletool leatherman as a 'best man' gift when he married Syl. He knew my love of leathermans, but the skeletool is a dumb one. It's designed so it can be opened one-handed, which sacrifices a lot of the fundamental functionality of the leatherman pliers design. But the name was worth it. It cut me almost instantly when I was starting to work the action. I texted him immediately, trying not to bleed on my phone. He laughed. I did too. Bon touche, mon ami. It's been my daily carry ever since. I've made my peace with it. It's actually perfect for office box cutting here at Tiger Claw. I just had it sharpened again about a month ago. I even mentioned it in my tournament review this year in the ribbon cutting ceremony paragraph - http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/arti...ticle=1504
With the cremation ash necklace, well, it's not a skull, but we did bones too, just not as much. As Dan used to say 'you haven't been boned until you've been legboned.' Now he's reached out from beyond the grave for one last jab. In the end, he won.
Well played, Dan.
We are working on putting together a memorial in SF when Sylvia comes to town, probably Sunday Nov 3, because that's when several of us had planned to get together for dinner. I'll keep you all informed, of course.
On cremation - Syl mentioned some sort of necklace that they make with the ashes. It's very ironic to me. Dan and I shared a skull fetish for years. It was akin to the 'weapon of the week' that Cole and I shared when we were teens. It goes back as far. Dan and I collected skulls and skull art. We gave each other skull gifts and always tried to best each other with cooler skulls. My skull tastes were more anatomical, or deadhead obviously (it was actually the skull art that drew me into the dead more than the music at first). Dan's tastes were more heavy metal and dia de los muertos. I put the bulk of my skull collection into storage when Tara was born - there are several moving boxes full of skulls at my mom's marked 'Warning skulls inside' prominently because I felt that was the way to pack them. I only kept my best ones out, on my altar in my man cave at Ranch Macbeth. But when we moved to the micro-bungalow, those went into storage too. All except one. The real one. I had a real human skull that I acquired through a medical supply company just prior to human bones being illegal to trade. It was of an old woman - very fine, very fragile sinuses, no teeth and the mandible/maxilla were ground down flat. I always treated her with the greatest respect. When we moved to the bungalow, I gave her to Dan. After literally decades of our skull one-up-man-ship, Dan conceded. 'You win' he said with a grin. He found her a nice cabinet box. I'm not sure where she is now. I never asked if he took her to Alaska.
He gave me a skeletool leatherman as a 'best man' gift when he married Syl. He knew my love of leathermans, but the skeletool is a dumb one. It's designed so it can be opened one-handed, which sacrifices a lot of the fundamental functionality of the leatherman pliers design. But the name was worth it. It cut me almost instantly when I was starting to work the action. I texted him immediately, trying not to bleed on my phone. He laughed. I did too. Bon touche, mon ami. It's been my daily carry ever since. I've made my peace with it. It's actually perfect for office box cutting here at Tiger Claw. I just had it sharpened again about a month ago. I even mentioned it in my tournament review this year in the ribbon cutting ceremony paragraph - http://www.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/arti...ticle=1504
With the cremation ash necklace, well, it's not a skull, but we did bones too, just not as much. As Dan used to say 'you haven't been boned until you've been legboned.' Now he's reached out from beyond the grave for one last jab. In the end, he won.
Well played, Dan.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse