death of a kindred spirit

Thursday night, May 19th, I took one of my old clients from my old employer, to see a softball game. There are several people on the team from my other job. Since most of them have quit, it is good for all involved to see each other. Anyway, I saw a woman who I used to work with over 2 years ago at the software place. She told me that one of the guys there got killed. He was a friend of mine. No, we did not hang out after work because he still drank and did drugs and smoked, but we were kindred spirits. We had many things in common, especially music. During work at Quark, we would bring in our CD’s and play music for each other. We would talk about the old days and about how much we loved the music and the great rock and roll shows we saw and the good times we had listening. We shared trivia with each other. I learned new stuff and so did he. Before him, I liked Blues, but did not own much of it. He brought in his Blues CD’s and I learned to appreciate it so much more. Now, I have lots of Blues CD’s. Most of my songs that I write and compose on my guitars are blues based, all because of this guy's passion for music. He even introduced me to the “Blue Collar Comedy” thing. Now, he’s gone! We shared another commonality, long hair. It seems, that was his undoing, that and drinking. The lady at softball told me he was at one of our country bars (cowboy bar) here. We have lots of them in this town and in this state. For some reason, not mine, I have never gotten along well with cowboys. Even back in the 80’s when I had my hair short, they would always try to start fights with me. To be honest, I do not understand it. Anyway, he got into a scuffle with someone who did not like the length of his hair. The bouncers came and threw him out, of course, since it is a cowboy bar and he was a long hair. Those bouncers picked him up, drug him outside, and throw him to the ground on the sidewalk. They throw him head first and he hit his head and went into a comma. They pulled the plug after one week. I had just seen him, driving by me on the street about a month ago. We both waved to each other and I was happy to see him. Thinking about that day, waving to each other, I had no idea I was waving good-bye. Life is so fragile and quickly, it can drastically change or end. To say am I sad is being selfish, but I can not help it. He had a hard life. He did a tour in the first Desert Storm and he had lots of health problems from it. He was in a lot of pain, but now, no more. For that I am happy. However, he had daughter (I think she is 10 now) that was his whole life. His ex-wife was a drug user and he had lots of problems with that. He was a biker and a good man. If any of you have ever had a biker for a friend, you know what I am talking about. They are very loyal and they will do anything to help out. We were even born in the same city, Des Moines, and had our parents grow up there before they moved here (thye even attended the same high school, Des Moines East). It just really sucks that he had to go like that. Too many people from my past have died from alcohol related incidents. I pray that his soul will find Peace and Understanding.