RIP Uncle Jake

I always hated when the phone rang early in the morning... it pretty much has come to mean only one thing to me... I just want to automatically ask, "who died?"

I was really looking forward to sleeping in this morning cause I been working my ass off. The wife kissed me before she left at 5:45 and I spread out over the whole bed, gathering every pillow cause it was my day to sleep.

The pillows didn't muffle the phone ringing at 7:05. It was my Mom and even though I wasn't awake I could hear it in her voice. Hi she says, how are you, sorry to wake you. It's okay Mom I manage, what's wrong. Well, you're Uncle Jim passed away this morning.

My Mom is one of 9 kids, 5 sisters and 3 brothers she has. Big ass family from western PA. This is the first of her siblings to pass. Damn shame too, he was one of my favorites. We lost her dad last August, at the age of 95... currently Grandma is 94, these people have some longevity in their systems. I couldn't tell you how old Jake (Jim) was, somewhere in his 70's, maybe 74 or 75.

Jake took after his Pap, had himself a passle of kids too, I can count 7 off the top of my head, but it's still early. Lost one of his boys to cancer probably 8 or 10 years ago and that's actually what took Jake down. He had just started chemo not too long ago cause the cells showed up in his liver again. Jake was a brick layer, a rancher, a farmer and a loyal member of the Moose Lodge among a lot of other things. He had been here in Fla just this past March, came through on tour with my Mom and Aunt J, really glad now that he was.

I can't find the pictures from a trip to PA a few years ago, pisses me off cause I had a couple good ones of his farm. Maybe I can edit later if I find them. I just really wanted to take a minute and memorialize him in my own Pirate way. Jake was one of the good guys, RIP Uncle Jake, I'll miss ya.