goodbye ted

Today is your memorial service.  Today your friends gather at historic Gracie's to tell tales, laugh and drink to your memory.  I worked for Gracie, thanks to you, sneaky Pete and Steve.  Its fitting, a legendary spot, to pay tribute to the man that inspired me and unknown others to go chase our dreams.  I loved when we cooked together and I found my passion, standing next to you. 
You shared your love and unfathomably incredible knowledge of music with me.  I found Jason Ricci, Eric Lindell, Los Lobos and David Migden in our "MO, wait till you hear this moments".  I endured your love of all things Zappa and I survived Zappa torture.  To those unfamiliar with this, it involved the can, copious amounts of inhaleables and song after song of your archives. Songs stopped only by you, translating the nuances that a rookie like me, most certainly missed.  The only rescue was SuSu and her, "honey enough! his eyes are glazed over and he has to drive up the hill".
We sat at the kitchen table and drew on scraps of paper to design the pepper sauce label.  I laughed so hard when you called me and said," Mo, I almost died in the can...I was grindin up scotch bonnets and gassed out the whole place.  Laughter ensued 
When I moved to florida, twenty two years ago, we never lost touch.  We talked weekly or monthly.  You told me about music...again...You inspired this blog.  We created the Sandy and Gritty taint show to just laugh and curse and rail about everything from politics to stupid waiters.  We laughed, my God we laughed so fucking hard. 
With tears cleaning my filthy keyboard, I am saying goodbye.  You are gone but  You left us your son.  And when I look in his eyes I see you.  That trouble making , Santa bearded imp  lives in that great son of yours.  I promise I will stay in touch with Beau, because he is a great kid and because selfishly, I see you in his eyes. 
And finally a couple phone calls encapsulate our friendship.  The first is the call you made when I just got my voice back in icu...we laughed and cried because I had survived.  You were so scared for me and I was so happy to be alive. 
The second was a month or so ago...I called to check in.. You answered, "what!!!", I said "how ya doin ?" and you replied "I'm just trying to eat a fuckin sandwich" and hung up.  That was you my friend.  I will keep your last message on my phone for as long as the cellular gods allow.  It was simple " you guys be safe down there, don't let a hurricane kill ya!"
Goodbye my dear friend, I doubt there will be a day you don't jump into my brain!
                                                       Goodbye ,
ps.  This is the final addition of this blog...you were the only one that read it anyway