Monday, July 9, 2012

J.O.

We were headed back from our weekend trip, just a few miles to go and we'd be home. 

Both my cell phone and Hubby's both sounded with a text.  Hubby was driving so I got to mine first.

Just to let u know   jim died in a motorcycle accident last night

???!!!

I read it again - out loud to Hubby.

???!!!

What???

He was riding home last night and went off the road close to his house and was pinned underneath   he was dead on the scene   i just wanted 2 let you guys know ... i just found out about an hour ago

The text came from a friend of ours in Wisconsin.  The text was about another friend of ours.

Hubby and I were in disbelief.

As soon as I got home I tried to look up online in the Fond du Lac news about anything on the accident.  I couldn't find anything.

This morning I checked again and finally found the article.  Only it didn't identify any names.

At work I did another search and they had finally released a revised article, releasing the identity of the man in the accident.

Yes.  It was in fact Jim.

Now, it's real.

We met Jim when me moved to Fond du Lac.  Hubby had visited the local race track and made some friends and one of them invited him to be on their bar's pool team.  Jim and his dad was on that team.  Eventually Hubby had joined both the Sunday night and Wednesday night teams.  And when Summer came they all played in the softball league too.  I regularly attended as a spectator until eventually I joined my own bar sports team for Darts.

Jim was a stubborn and angry young man.  By that I mean, that their pool team would never win the Sportsmanship Awards at the end of each season.  Jim was very competitive and whenever he would mess up a play he would often either slam his stick to the floor or toss his hat across the room and loudly mutter a few expletives while at it.

That was Jim.

Eventually he met Sarah.  And he calmed down significantly.  She was great for him.

Jim was an avid biker.  I remember before we left Wisconsin he borrowed Hubby's old Suburban.  He and some of his biker buddies were traveling to South Dakota for their "bike week" and they were going to pull all their bikes on an open trailer.  I remember how as beat up as that Suburban was it still managed to have no problems, but the trailer was actually the problem and actually blew out a tire instead.

Eventually we moved back to North Carolina.  We visited a few times when we could.  We were fortunate to travel back to Jim and Sarah's wedding two years ago.  Two years ago next month.  I feel awful for Sarah.  They were both so young and just starting their life together.  It makes you think about the little things, and making sure you "don't go to bed angry" or make sure to always say you love them when you say your usual goodbyes just to go to work each day.

I wish we could have gone back up to Wisconsin again this past year.  We had planned to do so last August, but I was 7-8 months pregnant, not feeling up to it, and I wasn't working at the time so money was tight.

Jim and our other friend, Shooter, had previously talked about coming down this way, possibly to Myrtle Beach's "bike week" and coming to visit us on the way.  I wish they had been able to.

Now I regret that we won't be able to make it up for Jim's funeral.  We enjoyed the time we had with him.  He made our lives all the better during our tour in Wisconsin.

At Curtis' Going Away party, 2008

The Wednesday night Pool team

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