Thursday, April 2, 2015

Crotchety Old Man Yells At Cars...I'll Miss You



One of the first friends that I made when I started blogging was Joe, otherwise known as Crotchety Old Man Yells At Cars. Back in the day, circa 2008, blogging was a relatively new thing, and humor blogs, they were extremely hard to find. After an Internet search one day, I stumbled across a website called Humorblogs.com and if you wrote humor this was the site you wanted to be a part of.

It took me a few weeks of reading the various other blogs before I left a comment on Crotchety's "Caption This" contest. It was usually an odd picture of some kind and whomever left the best caption won a few Entrecard credits (that used to be the big thing) and the coveted zucchini award (which was very stylish). It was all in good fun.

Crotchety Old Man had another blog, too, and that was Diabetes Destroys. I think that was one of the reasons that we connected so well and that was our shared opinion on Diabetes. It does destroy and it had wrecked havoc on Joe for many years. At one point he spent almost an entire year in the hospital and still tried to keep up his blog. When he felt well, his posts were frequent and you always knew when he wasn't feeling up to par because it could be weeks or months before he would post again. But he always came back.

Joe stopped blogging a few years ago but we stayed in touch. We spoke on the phone a few times a year and I always called him on his birthday which is April Fool's Day. I thought he was joking with me when he told me that the first time but he wasn't.

I had lost his phone number and did a search online hoping to come across it but I found something that I wasn't prepared for: his obituary. He had passed away in October 2014.

I hadn't known and it was very upsetting to me.

A phone number was listed but I didn't know what to do so I called it anyway. I thought it might be disconnected. A female voice answered and I asked for Joe. She asked who was calling and I told her and she told me the terrible news.

Nicole, if you ever read this, I just want you to know that your father was a very funny guy and loved by many in the blogging world. I know he went through a lot but he was always positive and I'm glad I got to be friends and share a few laughs with him along the way.

He will not be forgotten.

Lastly, and this is for you, Joe: I really believe the Yankees are going to win it all this year. Go Yanks!

4 comments:

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

It is wonderful how blogging can connect us to lovely people we would have never had the opportunity to meet otherwise.

Lin said...

Thanks for connecting with me again! And I'm glad you did to let me know of Joe's passing. I know he suffered much physical and emotional pain in his later years--with his wife passing and the her family causing him so much distress. I pray he was at peace when he passed.

good to hear from you again!

ReformingGeek said...

May he rest in peace, free of pain and suffering. What a great blogger! He was one of the first bloggers I "met", too.

Gianetta said...

Joe was a fun guy and a great friend. Imiss him!

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