Another bird hunter gone... - 07/25/14
A very close friend of many, many years s gone.
The first day I met him I had just finished a design verification on a project he had worked on. It was just AWFUL. I went in his office and chewed his ass up one side and down the other, and then he explained that he was given no choice on the project and knew full well how bad it was. We were fast friends from that point on, and walked many miles behind some really good dogs.
When his son told me he was gone, he also said he had something he now had to give me. Many years ago Don made me kill a bird with a Browning A5 just because he knew I hated them. After I satisfied him he said when he died he was going to leave it to me with the requirement I shoot a bird once a year with it just to teach me a lesson. When his son said that, I literally panicked.
His son then told me he wanted me to have a large copper plate Don won in a championship in which he'd borrowed one of my dogs because his old but truly outstanding setter had come up hurting. I about cried. I am not quite sure yet how much of that was from the honor, how much from the loss of a long time friend and hunting partner and how much from relief that Don didn't put that albatross around my neck.
RIP Don. May eternity be always October and she's always a five year old again. Feel free to borrow Star again any time you'd like.
The first day I met him I had just finished a design verification on a project he had worked on. It was just AWFUL. I went in his office and chewed his ass up one side and down the other, and then he explained that he was given no choice on the project and knew full well how bad it was. We were fast friends from that point on, and walked many miles behind some really good dogs.
When his son told me he was gone, he also said he had something he now had to give me. Many years ago Don made me kill a bird with a Browning A5 just because he knew I hated them. After I satisfied him he said when he died he was going to leave it to me with the requirement I shoot a bird once a year with it just to teach me a lesson. When his son said that, I literally panicked.
His son then told me he wanted me to have a large copper plate Don won in a championship in which he'd borrowed one of my dogs because his old but truly outstanding setter had come up hurting. I about cried. I am not quite sure yet how much of that was from the honor, how much from the loss of a long time friend and hunting partner and how much from relief that Don didn't put that albatross around my neck.
RIP Don. May eternity be always October and she's always a five year old again. Feel free to borrow Star again any time you'd like.