Could this fucking horrible day get ANY fucking worse?

[Redstone]

9 AM: Phone call to tell me that my Uncle Tom died. God damn it. He was a great guy, and I say that not only because I used to stay with him at his place in Cambridge in the 1960s, right off Mass Ave and just down the street from Harvard, where I learned so much from the hippies that summer when I was 13. He seemed to be in pretty good shape for a guy in his seventies when he came up from Alabama to have Thanksgiving at our house last November. But I guess you never know.

10 AM: I find out, just at the time the funeral is happening, that the guy who was my best friend through high school and for years thereafter (though we got estranged in 2001 for reasons I don't want to discuss) died last Friday. This is a guy I spent half a million miles with (we were drivin' fools back in The Day), and the other half of the team who won all those Foosball tournament trophies (I was the better goalie, whether you'll admit it or not) that I still have downstairs somewhere. I'll smoke a 'Boro and drink a shot of Jack for you, buddy, and eat a cheesesteak hoagie at Pudge's in your memory as soon as I can. And I'll forgive you for turning into a Gun Nut and ruining our friendship by having done so.

Then there was more stress-producing unpleasantness an hour ago. Out of the clear blue sky, just like THAT, when I had hoped to get one fucking afternoon (because I know better than to expect an entire DAY) with no additional stress piled on top of all the stress I have already. But no. And I'll not discuss the source of THAT stress either, but the fact that it hasn't resulted in me having a heart attack yet says that I really AM a tough son of a bitch...though, this day, I certainly don't feel like one.

Fuck me. I know I've had worse days (the day when I got shot would probably qualify, but that was a long time ago), but this is one day I'd rather not have had.

Thank you all for allowing me to whine.

It's funny, when I was a kid, my parents thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't cry. Ever. But right now, I think I'll go out and sit in the screen porch for a few minutes and weep. Maybe that will help me get ready to deal with whatever the hell is going to hit me next...and I hope so, because whatever the next thing is, I know it's not going to be something good.

Redstone