Hell AND the handbasket AND the price paid

b1-66er: How're you holdin' together? 

Do you have any sweepin' up you have to do after the trip? (Emotional, legal or otherwise)

Special K: A long list of things to do and I haven’t organized the list yet. My main goal for today is to unpack (from my free Frontier flight).

I’m doing OK. A lot of thoughts about him of course.

b1: It's odd that, in your lives, you've thought about him more than he's thought about you. 

(And, of course, that number will become more lopsided as time approaches ♾️.)

One thing that never got answered in the Death Shuffle: Did Momma K go back for your brother's event? 

I assume she did not.

K: RIght, she didn’t go.

b1: How well did she know him?

K: Very well. He lived with us for a year or two. And she heard me bitch about him even more than you did.

b1: Wow.

As I sent that message I thought, this better not be one of those 'she dated him before she dated me' things.

K: Luckily, it’s not.

b1: I'll say the most honest thing I've ever said to you: 

You could of definitely take your brother in a 

Loving Women Contest. 

In all aspects. 

All aspects, K-bot•

K: Thank you.
But what about arm wrestling?

b1: Rigor mortis is a bitch when competing against an opponent with it in arm wrestling, but...... All you have to do is wait a couple months and it's a snap!

K: BAM!

b1: I just handed our TXT thread over to The Accomplice. "Read this."

She did and 'chuckled deathly,' adding, "...isn't it a bit 'too soon?'

I replied: are you kiddin' me? He's been dealing with that  bullshit for YEARS. 

Her under-the-breath-response: I guess not. 

K: Perfecto.

b1 <coincidentally in another thread>: The scariest thing about

SHAQUILICIOUS XL Gummies...

They taste exactly like Jolly Ranchers...

... Which, if you examine it, is not surprising...

...because they're both owned by Hersey•

K: Did you know my brother loved Jolly Ranchers? 

b1: I did not.

K: He ate several every day, right up to the end. His former roommate brought him big bags. My brother liked the blue ones. I am a grape guy.

b1: 

My mom used to get bags of seconds from a nurse whose husband worked at the factory. 

Apple was where it was at in the flavor world for me. Are JR's what gave him the social bugaboos?

K: I don’t think so.

He did them so much, however, that his roommate was considering throwing some into his grave.

That violates several Jewish laws, but the rabbi said she would look the other way.

b1: So perfect...

...In so many ways.

K: He was a sociopath who sought and found people he could dominate. He did improve in his later years.

b1: Maybe that's why he died: 

Don't wanna get too good.

K: He had a bad drug problem too. And he was also stubborn with doctors, which helped kill him.

b1: What was his drug of choice?

K: We never ever talked about it. But I think it was Vicodin and then later Oxy. He was constantly asking for Oxy at the nursing home.

Denver is a small town. We had a cousin who worked at the pharmacy he used. So I knew stuff.

b1: YOU FRICKEN KNOW STUFF.

(It's funny, people don't understand How small Denver is, even today. Denver's about the same size today as the Silicon Valley we moved into in the 80s.)

K: Yes. 

And yet I would still consider moving back there. It charms me, has so many interesting neighborhoods and features.

b1: I wouldn't. 

Denver's not what it was.The worst thing about it is the whole

'Tis a privilege to live in CO

bullshit.

K: My least-favorite feature of Denver is that it’s largely filled with small-minded people.

b1: Yes.

K: It’s almost self-selecting. If you never escaped Denver, you’re probably lame.

b1: lame: I'm actually full-on belly laughing at that one. 

That may be the funniest/most true thing you've ever said to me. 

Cartman would be so very proud.

To my mind, CO has the same -but smaller- problem as CA.

You don't get your money's worth from your taxes. The Accomplice nailed it. She said the way you knew Spiro Agnew was crooked as governor of MD was the roads were beat all to hell.

CA and CO have the same infrastructure problem. Overcrowded freeways. Potholes. Or both. I'm not sayin' that means crooked governments, but it absolutely means not enough people are payin' attention to what the everyday person experiences.

You know you're payin' your taxes--it's much less clear what you're gettin' for the dollars spent.

And the U.S. is in population decline now. The vector isn't toward this stuff getting better.