I am thinking about adding a new aspect to this blog. Lately, I began wanting to keep the weekends a bit lighter, as much for my own peace of mind as anything. At times, including this weekend, I made a point of deliberately adding some humorous posts. It was nice, and I think that perhaps it might be a good idea to make this a regular part of the blog.
Also, I was thinking about a friend who I found myself suddenly missing this weekend. His name was Ron Minion, and he was a great guy. Met him in 2003, when we became coworkers. He had a great sense of humor, and was always a joy to be around. He was one of the few people who read and critiqued my written work, sharing his thoughts on a short story that I wrote once when I accidentally left that story up on the computer that we, as supervisors, shared. It caught me by surprise, and so I did not react as well as probably I should have. In fact, his thoughts and advice were supportive, and he said that he enjoyed the story, but that it ended abruptly. Makes sense, since it was (and in fact remains) unfinished.
We stayed friends even after the job, seeing each other occasionally outside of the job. We became Facebook friends, and when my son and I took a trip out West, I thought about reaching out to Ron, who lived in Los Angeles at the time. Our trip was altered, and that meant that I had to sacrifice something. It ended up being Los Angeles (still have not been there yet), although we stayed one night in Bakersfield. I did not contact Ron, because as I understand it, Bakersfield is a bit far from Los Angeles. Yet when I got back, Ron sent me a message and said that I should have told him, because he would have been willing to make a special trip out there in order to see us.
I felt bad then. Felt even worse after hearing about his shockingly young death just a few years later. It really would have been great to see him one more time. He would have been great with my son, who was still a relatively young kid at the time. Surely, we would have shared some laughs, since we always seemed to be able to make one another laugh, and appreciated each other's humor.
Today, I found myself missing him, kind of out of nowhere. Still regret not having reached out during that Western trip, in the summer of 2016. That is my one big regret about a trip that, otherwise, was fantastic. At the time, I figured that he and I would have plenty of chances to catch up and laugh together again, as he often seemed to come back to New Jersey. But we never did catch up, and I never did see my friend again. Life sometimes works like that. So I came to regret not having made more of a point of reaching out to him that summer, to perhaps see him at least one last time.
However, I decided that maybe I can pay a little homage to him with this new element of this blog, the "Sunday Funny." As I recall, he used to post funny things on Facebook regularly, but especially on Sundays, when he would simply comment, "Sunday Funny."
So in honor and memory of Ron, that is what seemed the most fitting title for this new segment, which hopefully will last. Here is the first "Sunday Funny" for this blog.
War-Weary Americans Not Sure How Much Longer They Can Occasionally Glance At Headlines About Ukraine in The Onion, Published Friday 2/24/23:
https://www.theonion.com/war-weary-americans-not-sure-how-much-longer-they-can-o-1850156285
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