Bobby - 49

Bobby - 49

When you're 72, you don't kid about death. Death is right there; It's sort of hovering near your shoulder like a salivating fanboy at a Star Trek convention.... It's just out of eye-shot, but you know it's there."
- Harlan Ellison

While 49 may not be 72, it's a constant reminder that Death is Certain. I would toss in Taxes into that mixture, but Mitt Romney's proving that those aren't all that certain. But to avoid politics for a brief moment, I have some very personal word vomiting to spew.

At around 11pm on Friday my Uncle, a man who was snarky, comical and a great man was walking down from the Hollywood bowl, where he just finished enjoying the Juana's with friends and suffered from a massive heart attack.

Many attempts to restart his heart were made on location and all the way to the emergency unit. A few of them were successful in getting it to work, but only for a short while before he would red line and they would have to continue to attempt to revive him.

He passed away at 6am on Saturday.

I am sad because of this news. For many years Bobby was not only my uncle but my neighbor. We would shoot the breeze and while I'm sure I could have delved into his personal life more, it wasn't ever really needed. You knew what you were going to know about him by just talking to him. He was pretty blunt and snarky.

The man loved his concerts. He'd always be found at a free show or any concert ranging from Jazz to rock to, well just about anything. He loved music. Every year seemed to find him at the Wrap tour and he'd be wearing converse.

The man also enjoyed movies. Yet he didn't like paying the high price that theaters charge now a days. I don't blame him. But he never missed a chance to catch something at the dollar theater, or as it's common now, the three buck theater. Was always on top of new movie and music news and even in his 40's, still listened to KROQ.

He took me to a lot of my first. First raiders game. Hell, he was a huge Raiders fan. Though he wasn't one of those typical Raider hooligan fans. But that first game he took young me was probably the bloodiest thing I have ever been to at the young age.

He was a realist. I guess, just a couple of weeks ago he mentioned that he heard a quote in Ricardo Montoya play about how no matter how famous you are, you'll eventually end up in Boyle Heights. Being that the coroners office is located there for Los Angeles.

Sure enough now he's there to see how a 49 year old suffers a heart attack, as it's just a tad bit young for that sort of thing.

I guess it doesn't come to a surprise as the man loved his pastrami sandwiches. His stance was enjoy it while you can. He used to joke about how he would eat a chili dog every now and then cause he didn't want to be the person who eventually ate greasy food once and died from it after living life eating healthy.

That's the one thing I take away from all this. He died on his terms and he died in the way that most people only hope to. Around friends, having been entertained and once the heart attack hit, he was out. So he didn't suffer.

Life is brief. Kinda makes you stop and think about if you're enjoying it.

Rest in peace, Robert.