Throw Back Thursday

Occasionally, you cross paths with someone in life whom you have respect, but as time goes on, you become friends.

Such is the case with me and Yabu. 

Our initial meeting was at a blog meet in Helen about 7 years ago. He actually had two blogs that I liked and bookmarked. One of those blogs, however, was written by a ghost writer, unbeknownst to me at the time.

At that initial meeting, he had a twinkle in his eye, and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Sam. AKA Yabu." He was a small guy; that surprised me. Like many small people though, he was larger than life.

For my part, I was extremely grateful that he didn't perpetuate the misconception that the ghost writer stories were real. They had a very real feel to them, all the more testament to the actual author.

For his part, he expressed admiration that I was in the process of getting my teeth fixed. As I got to know him, I learned that this particular subject was extremely important to him.

I often heard him express frustration, dismay, and sometimes anger with people he encountered who would not get their teeth fixed.

To be quite honest, I don't understand what the big deal is/was but for him, it was significant.

Later in the evening on the first occasion of our meeting, The Senior Chief, The JuJu woman (Yabu's wife), and another young lady were all standing around telling lies and shooting the shit as wont to happen in settings such as those, when from a hundred yards away or so, all hell broke loose on the banks of the Chattahoochee in the form of fireworks.

And when I say all hell broke loose, this is no lie. A fireworks show such that only Yabu could put on. Right around the fourth or fifth volley, lo and behold, your friendly local constabulary rolls right up to where the four above mentioned were having a quiet conversation.

Said policeman opened his door and got exactly one foot out of his car, and BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, another round of fireworks was set off. The young lady went over and leaned on the car door and engaged him in conversation. (She has a thing for uniforms.) He appeared to be fine with it, so The Senior Chief and I just grinned and kept still.

At the same time, the JuJu woman said to the policeman, "I'll get him to stop." and hauled ass across the clearing screaming "SAM, STOP IT. YOU KNOCK THAT SHIT OFF RIGHT NOW."

I'm not certain exactly what happened in the clearing, but I am led to believe that those present on the scene scattered like the wind.

It wasn't long before JuJu woman came back and informed us that the fireworks show was over, and apologized to the policeman, who, at this point seemed relatively unconcerned and was happily engaged in talking to the young lady.

No harm, no foul.

The reason there is a picture of a knife at the top of the page is another story altogether. At another blog meet in the same place, I found myself in an extremely confusing and uncomfortable position. Yabu didn't attend this particular function, but I called him later and told him about the situation. His response was to send me this knife. I have always treasured it, as I have treasured our friendship.

Another time, he nicknamed my son Yabu Jr. after he blew himself up. He helped me laugh about that incident.

Forever etched in my mind is the conversation I had when he knew he was sick. He said to me, "Kelly, baby, I'm dying." (He always called me Kelly-baby..hahaha!) At that moment, I wished that he were a liar, a scammer, a faker, or have any kind of personality flaw that would lead me to believe that this wasn't true. But he wasn't. He was honest to a fault and had this abiding philosophy to the end that "It is what it is." We even had a chuckle over that during this time frame.

I am going to miss his political rants, his gun rants, his superlative gardening advice, and his opinionated preference of the MAC vs. PC.

I'm going to miss the never-ending what if scenarios about when the world ends. We would often have conversations that lasted over an hour about how to procure what you needed, and protect it in case everything went to hell in a handbasket.

In short, I am going to miss my friend dearly.

Save me a seat, Yabu, and light 'em up.

*I wrote this 4 years ago