Corvette Summer

I'll tell you a few cool things about Mike right away, and just in short sentences so I don't get lost :

Mike had a blue 1968 Corvette Stingray with a 427 cu. engine, which is just about the bitchinest engine you could have in your car. I think he got the 'Vette in 1976, maybe '77, but we drove all over the place in that car, and it was great for me because I was still a couple of years away from getting my drivers licence, which I didn't acquire until I was 18.

We used to cruise Van Nuys Boulevard in Mike's Corvette. Wednesday night was the unofficial "cruise" night, and we went every week for a couple of years. Van Nuys Bl. was always packed with hot rods, low riders, street racers and regular old sedans, all full of teenagers and young adults, everybody there to "make the scene". We'd go up and down the street, sitting low in the 'Vette with the engine rumbling. We were automatically cool because of that car. It was awesome.

During the Summer of 1978, Mike drove us in the 'Vette to Zuma Beach, every single day. I don't mean some days. I mean every day, for the whole Summer. Zuma was the cool beach to go to back then. We always put our towels down by Lifeguard Station #6, cause we'd seen some cute girls there the first couple of times we went. I wouldn't have had the nerve to talk to them by myself, but Mike broke the ice. We saw those girls on and off during the Summer. Mike and I would bring a Frisbee and stand far apart down by the water, throwing it long distance to each other to try and look cool in case the beach chicks were there. We also did it because we loved playing Frisbee, ever since high school where we would play on the quad at Cleveland HS. We used the quad for Frisbee all through the school year in 1976, until one of our long throws hit someone in the head. I won't say which one of us threw it, haha, but after that we got banned from playing Frisbee at school. We still played at the beach, though. And we got so tan that Summer, that a friend's Mom told me I looked like a Negro.  :)

Mike liked to drive his Corvette very fast. To get to Zuma Beach, you took a canyon highway from Agoura called Kanan Road. It wound through the mountains between the Valley and the beach, and it only had two lanes. Mike would haul ass through there, going 70 mph when 50 would've been safer, but what gave me white knuckles was that he liked to pass slower cars by going over the yellow line into the lane of oncoming traffic. Good thing there were never any Mack trucks coming when we made those passes. :)

I'll tell you some more things tomorrow night, as I think of 'em. It's Sunday Night, and you know what that means; I've got my industrial strength Fred Flintstone toothpicks in place, propping my eyes open.

And I'm still displaced by the news about Mike.

I've lost several friends at relatively young ages. The Late Great Mr. D was only 47 when he died in 2008. My friend Sean was just 41 when he passed in 2010. Like Mike, these are very close friends I am talking about, not mere acquaintances. Mike himself was only 59. I knew he wasn't gonna live forever because he had a medical condition brought on, in part, by a horrendous motorcycle accident he suffered about 25 years ago, in which he rolled a racing bike he was riding, at 135 miles per hour.

Mike was into speed of the physical kind, and he went from fast cars to fast motorcycles. He had moved away by then, so I wasn't aware until much later that he'd been in this accident. His doctor was amazed that he lived through it, and said it was only because Mike was wearing full leathers, and because he hit the ground on a roll. But that crash was partially responsible for the medical condition that resulted. Mike told me about this in November 2015 when I saw him at the PFM concert at The Whisky A Go Go. There was more to it than just the bike crash, but Mike straight up told me he knew he was on borrowed time.

We stood outside The Whisky after the show, and he talked about all the stuff we had done as kids and teenagers. He said he had had an amazing life and had no regrets. He said everything now was "gravy". He looked perfectly fine that night and was full of energy. I'd never have known anything was wrong if he hadn't told me.

So I knew this was coming, but because it wasn't a typical illness, I just figured "nah.....it's not gonna happen. Maybe ten years from now"....

It did happen, though, and it hits me very hard, but in different ways than you might think.

For me, I have been thinking almost non-stop about the tons and tons of stuff we used to do.

Mike had a big personality, and because I had not seen him much since 1990, his death has brought him back. It's like he is back in my life now that he is gone.

But we had indeed reconnected in real life too. We were trading "likes" on FB less than 24 hours before he died.

Life and death and friendship are things worth thinking deeply about.

I said last night that I am tired of losing people. I want things to go the other way now. I need them to go the other way.

I want to gain someone. I want to connect, the way I did as a child when I met all of my friends.

Only this time I want to get married. I know that can't happen instantaneously, but I am hoping that things will go in that direction. I'm tired of loss, and tired of being alone and not having anyone to share things with.

It's been very hard for me sometimes. Sometimes extremely hard.

God made me to be one of the Strong Ones, and I know I am gonna be here on Earth for a good long while yet.

But boy it can be lonely when everybody else goes away.

I love you guys and I will see you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)