Joey didn't read my last post.

Welp, despite my best efforts, December strikes again. Joey David, someone whom I love very much and is indistinguishable from family to me, died last night or this morning from unknown causes. I think he had some drug problems in the past, but as far as I know there was nothing indicating drugs as a direct cause of death. He was around 21 years old and living in an apartment with his mother. His mother is a nurse, and when she came home this morning from a long night shift he was dead and cold in a chair. They are performing an autopsy, so maybe we'll get some answers, but will we really care?

He apparently had expressed a wish to be cremated and his ashes spread at the family fishing camp in Hackberry. Generally, I prefer open caskets, but in this case it's comforting to know that he valued his time in the company of his family so much that that's where he wanted to be laid to rest.

He was the sweetest little boy you would ever know, once upon a time. Then in adolescence he developed an all too familiar habit of making bad choices. He never got a chance to outgrow, and gain distance from, that phase in his life and fully become the wonderful young man we were promised in his boyhood. But he was beginning to.

The Davids have had a horrible year, and I hope this is the last of it. My father's generation has lost their step-mother, their father, a brother, and now a son. All in less than a year. While the David's and my father's family are not family by blood, we are all family by choice, and frankly we're tired of losing them.

Joey always held a special place in my heart. I can't exactly pin down why. Maybe it was even just because I could tell that he thought I was something special too. Damn it, I miss him.

Belated obligatory December post

So, have you been driving safely and taking your vitamins? It's December again and has been for some time, so congratulations for making it this far through without kicking the bucket, but we're not done yet! This is a public service reminder that December is typically the deadliest month of the year for most people, and for us Murrays, the ONLY month worth dying in. So look both ways and keep an eye on your very old and very young!

(I know I'm supposed to be posting pictures of the house and my baby belly, and probably a few of Eleanor and what not, but not right now, I don't have time!! Maybe just after Christmas, then I can try to include some of those pictures too. Someday I won't be lame, I promise!)