Its sad

[Jogeephus]

I was driving down the road with a friend and we saw a wino-hobo-druggie-homeless looking fella pushing his bicycle down the road. My friend laughed and made the comment he sure wouldn't be pushing the bike down the hill if it were him. No, he said, he'd be riding it.

As we approached the guy our attention was on him and I recognized him. He was the father of one of my children's friends who used to come to the house and spend the night a lot because of some issues at his home. I couldn't believe this guy had fallen to this point. Less than 20 years ago he had a very good business and a nice farm and a cabin on a lake. His business was a cherry. Basically a controlled monopoly where even the dimmest could prosper if they try. The guy I saw on the side of the road was but a shell of the man I used to know. Don't know his story just rumors of substance abuse. I never liked the guy cause of his arrogant elitist attitude but its still made me sad to see him like this. Mainly for his kids but still I feel a little sadness for him even though he was always a prick to me. But he has nothing but himself to blame.

Maybe I shouldn't be this way but memories of the gutter help keep me constantly aware that there is but a few inches difference between the comfortable seat in a limousine and the cold hard seat on the gutter.

 

[hillsdown]

On the 14th of April it was the 1 year anniversary of the death of my nephews dad.

He died from end stage liver failure from alcoholism. No matter how you look at it, it is the very worst thing to have happen to anyone. Addiction is a horrible thing and I personally do not think one is human if you do not have some compassion for the fallen.

I hate what it did to my BIL but I do not hate him for losing his battle against it. He is still very much loved and missed here.

 

[Jogeephus]

Its a terrible thing. I can't explain my shock when I realized who he was.

 

[highgrit]

It's sad but true, no one but them made the choice to become an addict. I have very little compassion for drunks or drug addicts. But I do think help should be right around the corner if they want it. I feel for the folks that are sick and fighting for there lives, and all the innocent victims.

 

[kucala5]

There but by the grace of God go I. We live with our personal choices in life. Free will is bit$h.

 

[gimpyrancher]

Don't know his story just rumors of substance abuse. But he has nothing but himself to blame.

That says it all. You don't know for sure what happened to him but never-the-less it's all his fault.

 

[Jogeephus]

Don't know his story just rumors of substance abuse. But he has nothing but himself to blame.

That says it all. You don't know for sure what happened to him but never-the-less it's all his fault.

Well Gimpy, I'm pretty sure it wasn't martians that drug him into the bar everyday after work and poured the beer down his throat and I'm pretty sure it wasn't the lost people of Atlantis that filled his cooler full of beer each morning before work and forced him to drink it to where he couldn't walk by noon. I'm positive he wasn't kidnapped and carried away from his family and kept from them making it where I attended more of his children's school events than he ever did. What I'm not sure about is whether he stepped up his game from alcohol to drugs like meth. Rumors say so but I don't know. I would like to think not but both can give a person that gaunt deathly glow when abuse reaches the limits he has gone to. I heard rumors of drug use but that is all. So if its not his fault whose fault do you think it is?

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

We are all responsible for our own actions and behavior.

Help is out there and available. AA meetings are free.

 

[3waycross]

We are all responsible for our own actions and behavior.

Help is out there and available. AA meetings are free.

awwwwww there ya go making sense again :mrgreen:

don you know it's ALWYS someone elses fault if yer a liberal.

 

[Jogeephus]

I was waiting to hear Gimpy's explanation of how it was George Bush's fault.

 

[cow pollinater]

At least he has some idea of what he lost by choosing that path. All the users that I know started young and in their thirties and forties think they're really getting somewhere if they can get clean and hold a minimum wage somewhere and rent an apartment and they never see that fifteen productive years just flat vanished before they cleaned up and they'll never be able to do anything better than just get by because of it. I don't feel very sorry for them but I do for their kids.

 

[Jogeephus]

My best friend from childhood started messing with drugs and we parted company. Just learned he made the front page of the newspaper under the heading of dumb crook news type things. Apparently he reported his next door neighbor for selling drugs and cussed the 911 operator out for them not coming and arrest them. He said he knew there was drugs in the apartment because he just bought some from them. After a dozen or so more escalated calls to 911 they came and picked him up. Showed his mug in the paper. A shell of the guy I once knew. He had that meth look to him. Lots of missing teeth and all. I suspect he got caught up in a conservative conspiracy orchestrated by George Bush because surely its not his fault. It saddened me to see him like this but I tried to warn him when we were young but he knew better. Said that kind of stuff just happened to others and he had everything under control. I guess he never considered George Bush.

 

[Commercialfarmer]

Probably all just to blow other people's little lights out to make his look brighter being a recovered alcoholic and all.

 

[Rafter S]

A guy I go to church with played high school football with Eric Dickerson. He told me there was another guy on the team who was as good as Dickerson, but got on drugs in college, and that was the end of his football career. Sadly, it's a common story.

 

[Commercialfarmer]

Side note- went to school with a nephew of Joe Carter of the Toronto blue jays. If I remember correctly, the kid was a cousin of Dickerson as well. Expected to hear his name in professional sports somewhere but I guess he didn't develop.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I was waiting to hear Gimpy's explanation of how it was George Bush's fault.

Because it is, that's why. Don't be bothering gimpy with truth, facts or reality.

 

[Jogeephus]

I was waiting to hear Gimpy's explanation of how it was George Bush's fault.

Because it is, that's why. Don't be bothering gimpy with truth, facts or reality.

Well that's good enough for me. Much rather someone tell me what to think and do it myself. Thinking can give you a headache.

 

[I luv herfrds]

A while back quite a few jumped my case for being a hard azz on drug use. Well I guess being a hard azz paid off for my son.
For most of last summer he was hanging with some guys we all knew. Seemed like nice kids. I know their families and everything. About July son stopped hanging with them. Wouldn't have anything to really do with them. He never told me why.
It came out in the paper. 3 of them were busted for possession with intent to sell and endangering a minor and a couple more charges. 2 of them are 18 and the other 19. They are now facing jail time.

I did ask my son after this all came out. His words to me,"When they started that sh*t I left." I let him know how proud I was of him for doing that.

 

[gimpyrancher]

I'm not blaming his problems on anything or anybody. Unlike many on this site, if I don't know the facts, I don't make them up or stoop to rumors for blame.

On the other hand, I do feel sorry for my fellow man when it appears they are in a bad place in life.

 

[Jogeephus]

I'm not blaming his problems on anything or anybody. Unlike many on this site, if I don't know the facts, I don't make them up or stoop to rumors for blame.

On the other hand, I do feel sorry for my fellow man when it appears they are in a bad place in life.

Your feelings are all well and good but have you ever taken action and tried to help those affected by travesties like this? So many do a good job talking but do nothing. When you take action you get close to those involved and at times it will make you angry and make you hate the decisions that lead someone to the gutter hurting those closest to them but it has its own rewards to.