A year ago today I had just decided that I felt unwell enough that I couldn’t make myself going to work and was going to take a sick day. But before I could contact work I got a call from a surgeon saying “if you are at all able, get in your car right now.”
At the same time I can’t believe that a year has skipped by, and also that it has been such an awfully long last 12 months. A year without his calm influence and awkward but perfectly-timed wit. I miss most often on Saturday evenings, where it had been my practice to text with him about rehearsal that day, sending him bits of the rehearsal recordings, and strategizing together things that might help develop the band and our sound. Drawing on his library of those perfect moments that turned each of our favorite recordings from something mundane to something magical.
There are a lot of things I miss. Just a year ago tight now I was driving back to Portland, to my dog, coming to grips with what I had seen and experience – coming out from the hospital to my truck (that had once been my dad’s truck) to find it sitting just exactly at 200k miles. I miss my dad. I miss sharing music with him. And I hope that he has found a favorable rebirth.