Gone too Soon

I heard about Andrew's passing on Wednesday.  I've needed a few days to process it.  I am truly heartbroken and devastated.  He has been my good online blog friend since I first started blogging in 2004.  Of course, I haven't really blogged in a while.  I do feel guilty about that because Andrew always told me that my blog was his favorite.  He enjoyed reading about my mundane life.  I think that when I started blogging, it was my form of therapy that I needed post-divorce.  When I moved to San Antonio, life took a different turn and my blogging became much more infrequent.  I didn't even read other blogs as much but I would always catch up with Andrew every few weeks.  There was just something about his writing that drew me in.  I loved how he was not shy about sharing.  He would write about his embarrassing moments so nonchalantly.  I was always afraid to be as completely forthcoming.  I loved the many characters he encountered and wrote about.  Rosa, George, Charlie, Horsefly, his mom and dad... the list can go on.  I am so sad that I will no longer be able to read his writings. 

It started with Prison Pete's blog.  (I just now tried going back to it and it sends you to a spam site.)  I stumbled on it in my early blogging days, recommended it to blogger as a "Blog of Note", it got noted and then tons of people who started reading it also found my blog.  Andrew was one of those but he didn't post a comment for several months afterward.  I also found several other blog friends like Summer, Cheryl, Leann, and Janet who I'm also friends with on Facebook.  Most of us have stopped blogging and mostly post on Facebook these days (if that), but Andrew was able to keep up with blogging for some reason.  I wonder if it was a step out of loneliness for him.  Whatever it was, I appreciated him, his life, and his many stories.  He will be greatly missed by me and his many readers. 

Though it's too late for me to do this for Andrew, I'm going to give blogging another try.  A Scrabble acquaintance of mine on Facebook has been posting a "Daily Three".  Though I can't always take the time to post a lengthy blog, I figure I might be able to at least do a Daily Three.  We'll see how it goes.  Maybe blogging is old school these days, but it was a big part of my life for many years and it helped me get through some tough times.  I may be writing for an empty audience, but at least I'll be writing again.