I just saw this at Ace of Spades.

Jim and I hadn’t talked in years, but back when I first started blogging I did a LOT of commenting on other blogs. Jim and I met online, and we developed a rapport. At one point I was talking about wanting to get into cigars. A little while later, a box shows up on my doorstep. It’s cigars that Jim thought I would like, plus a three-finger cigar carrier that I still use to this day. In return, I sent him a leather belt that I had made.

When my wife had surgery at Lackland Air Force Base, he drove from Galveston to meet us. We went to cigar shops, and we went to the gun range. I have a photo from that day, but it’s not of us. It was a woman who was practicing, and her child was there. The child has earmuffs on, and was entranced by the whole experience. I asked if I could take a photo of them both, and she said yes. So in my photo collection is a picture of a woman I don’t know, holding her child on her hip and a pistol in her other hand. I think it’s a pretty good photo.

He introduced me to fried pickles. For that alone, I hope I get to see him in heaven so I can thank him the way I should have done when he was still alive.

God speed and fair winds, Jim.