Rough going

Hello everyone. I know it's been a minute since I last posted anything, but I've been going through a lot of things of late. The worst of which is that I lost a very good friend of mine. He was the nicest person I'd ever met. It didn't really sink in 'til I went to his funeral yesterday. He had fallen ill a while back and all my energies went into visiting him in the hospital and checking in on his son to see how he was doing. People consider me pretty funny, but as most people find out, the most humorous of people tend to have gone through a lot of things. I don't think of myself as one of the funniest people on Earth, but I have gone through a lot of tragedy in my life and I've coped with it by having a good sense of humor. For example, as I began to write this posting, I thought of how life has been hitting me so hard that I feel like a pinata. I also had an image of being stuck in a pinball machine. Guess which part I was? I know there will be times when life treats me like a punching bag, but I also know that if all you focus on is the bad times then you're going to have a bad time. That came out kinda Yogi Berra, but I think you get the idea. The other day, I imagined that it was twenty years from now and my friends and I were old men on a porch drinking lemonade and laughing about the good old days. One of us didn't make it that far, but I guess we'll have to wait 'til we all get to that porch up there. You know, I was thinking about how even though I'd always believed we go to a better place when we die, I've had that voice in the back of my head that said,"what if you're wrong?" The greatest gift my friend gave me was that he left this world with a smile on his face and now that voice is gone. Thanks Robert, for all the laughs and all the good times. Save me some lemonade. Hi-Lo