Haha! So much for focusing on living. I used to be one of those people who flipped out at David’s wacky emails but (ironically) since my head injury in 2013, I mellowed out on these emails. I think they're just David’s way of standing out and filling some sort of obscure niche in our community. But I agree that life is too short. You never know when your time is up and I think the best way to honor our fallen comrades is simply to live each day to our fullest and seize the opportunities that come our way. I think both Bills, Lee Jay and all of the friends we’ve recently lost would agree 💯.
Funny somewhat-related story - One of my best friends “Pat” who was with me the night I was injured, made a funny confession to me when he visited me in inpatient rehab. I’m going to keep this PG-13, but he had a physical encounter with one of the hospital residents who put me in an induced coma about 3 weeks after said coma began. They ran into each other, recognized each other from the hospital, started chatting it up and wound up leaving the bar together. My friend was telling me how he felt so guilty, because I wasn’t awake yet and might never be and here he was hooking up with this hot doctor. He was basically asking for my forgiveness - but there was nothing to forgive! I didn’t have the opportunity to have fun at the moment, so I sure didn’t begrudge anyone a good time. I never laughed so hard in that horrible rehab as I did when he was telling me the story of this rendezvous. Life is for living, whether it’s an epic caving trip or a weekend fling. 😂 Mallory Sent from my iPhone > On May 13, 2019, at 12:59 PM, David <[email protected]> wrote: > > Someone recently advised me to focus on the living, and not to pay much > attention to the other option. > > I noticed shortly after getting into organized caving that some cavers that I > knew or had become acquaintances wiith would occasuonally pass away. > > I can not name them all here, but the list is around 30 people, of just the > ones that I actually went on a caving trip with, or had frequent encounters > with at caving events. > > Sadly, I can not remember all the names, just the faces. > > But in a manner of showing some respect, > > Here is a partial list: > > A.Richard Smith, Jon Everage, Alejandro Villagomez, Pat Copeland, Mason > Estes, Michael Moore, Oren Tranbarger, Jim McLane, Harry Walker, Charles > Haskett, Joe Ivy, Ed Alexander, Brian Burton, Eugene Ebell, Rod Goke, Doc > Harding, Donna Mosesmann, Carl Ponebshek, Nobel Stidham, Bob Cowell, and Rolf > Adams. > > Not listing the recent ones out of courtesy to the mourners. > > It would be nice to have something very fancy at the TSC to honor them all. > > I propose: an 40 foot tall cylinder 8 feet in diameter - that a visitor > crawls into, at the bottom. Inside is dark room, with a cold dripping water > cascade over a metallic surface resembling flowstone with a statue of a caver > ( with functioning headlamp ) who is climbing at the top of a dome 35 feet > above, shining his or her light upwards at helectites and soda straws. > > And on the outside on the roof - a large bat-house. > > > On a personal note, > > I never believed when I was 19, that I would live to see the year, 2019. I > never imagined I would have such a fancy tv ( which I almost never watch ). > I hope to make it to 2064, but it sure seems unrealistic. > > D.L. > _______________________________________________ > Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com > [email protected] | Archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com [email protected] | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
