Getting ready to graduate and then Im moving to South Korea with David in Feb! very exciting! so, please email me and stay in touch! love nancy

Arcata is going bonkers today with your 420 celebration! Redwood Park is packed and people have come from all over, much to the chagrin of many in Arcata who like to keep the party to themselves. They have been dreading the day for a few weeks now. You would be having big fun at Redwood Park today watching not just the attendees but the anti-attendees and law enforcement also. It is quite a spectacle.

I continue to live my life with inspiration from my time spent with you, recalling so many fun and influential experiences we shared. Your memory shall not fade away from my brain. Fear not, I talk to you all the time, and I hope you hear my quips to you. Paula and I toast you often.

Happy Birthday Garnet

Harold

I will try to post some photos tonight.

Garnet is fresh in my mind, I talk to him all the time, I think about him all the time. I still note out loud or in my mind something that Gar would like, or something that would really get him going when I told him about it later. Now I tell all you guys, and we all have that knowing nod, how Gar would react to it. That’s how it is now, how it will always be.

Happy Birthday Garnet

Hats off to Gar, Gar’s family, and all Gar’s friends….

      So fast forward to last weekend at Kirby Cove. Sharon had assembled individual packets in small “trick or treat” party favor bags that contained several ounces of Gar’s ashes and a trinket from Gar’s collection of things that he had saved. (By the way, thank you Sharon for doing this. You are a major reason why Gar was so at peace with his life.) Like the surprise toy in Crackerjacks, I opened mine right away. It was a piece of crystal. I love it because it is a permanent reminder of Gar that is unique.

       Now we are on the beach. Dimetria said that the Vikings would put their dead in a boat, light it on fire and send it out to sea. Well, in San Francisco we put our friend’s ashes in a pumpkin, carve our initials on it and send it out into the Pacific Ocean at sunset. It sounds so silly and irreverent but it was so right. I confess that I became a little emotional. We each threw a beautiful rose into the water and they float just like the pumpkin do. (OK, that’s not grammerically correct but I like the way it sounds.) I followed the pumpkin, which was refered to simply as Gar, with his escort of roses for as long as I could. It was an apt metaphor for Gar’s life, bobbing happily in the current drifting off to whatever adventure happens next. Eventually it disappeared out of sight into the shimmering golden light.

       There was one last thing for me to do. (enough already!) About 45 minutes later, I went off by myself with my personal packet of Gar’s ashes. It was that particularly quiet time of evening just before night. I went to a place that had special meaning to me from my high school days at Kirby Cove. As I was sprinkling Gar’s ashes on the ground, I felt the need to say something so I said softly, “Rest in peace my brother.” Then, when the packet was empty, I said in a louder voice, “Rock on!”

 
(Kat’s photos)

More photos here… 

…and I bet  there are more stories to tell.