PacWestGS
25-MPH NEXT 1OO MILES
A Moment of Reflection, the Meaning of Life
Random ramblings, so bear with me, thanks. (Long Post)
It was with great sadness today to hear of the passing of yet another young person just beginning their adult life.
I was between flights on my way back home, just fiddling with my hand-held PDA searching threads and looking up what had been said last, (I guess I am totally addicted to the MOA Forum my second family and the one I can take on the road with me) when I came across the thread titled ÔÇ£OBITUARY with permission from the familyÔÇØ. I had a few initial thoughts cross my mind, since motorcycles and airplanes are so closely intertwined; I thought someone might have known A. Scott Crossfield, former NASA and NACA test pilot who died the night before in a small single engine plane crash. It seems that BMW motorcycle drivers and private/commercial pilots share a common life; one on the road flying low and one at altitude flying amongst the clouds. As I opened the thread expecting the passing of someone older or even, God forbid, Tony BlacksÔÇÖ condition took a sepsis dive and everything changed over night and in the blink of an eye. Again I was expecting any one of a hundred other members (who I see at the bottom of the page celebrating their 69-78 or 91 birthdays even though they are not regular users, just filled in the respective data at sign-up) and have lived their collective lives and had just been off the site for awhile. Nowhere, at this time was I prepared for what I read next? ÔÇ£It is with great sadness that I am informing the forum members of the untimely passing of Garth Eppley (aka YB in IN) who was killed in small plane crash on his way to a job, with four other friends and the pilot.ÔÇØ IÔÇÖm still slightly in shock and I can handle death pretty well having lost my Father a couple years ago and having been around it professionally for a lifetime already. I had never met Garth, but over the last three-years he and all of the others have become more of my family than even my family (outside of my wife).
It also struck me (in the way that it happened) as so similar to the untimely passing of other young musicians who are just finding themselves and then taken away in a breath of time. Immediate names that come to mind were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Van Zant and others I canÔÇÖt even remember. It seems that talented young singers should avoid airplane travel for life, but IÔÇÖm sure that just like the rest of us air-travel is still one of the safest ways to move about the country and the world. I mean 50,000 people die each and every year on the highways and byways that cross America. 500 people probably die each year in their bathtub.
It sucks, it sucks big time, no matter how you look at this; he was one of us, part of something bigger than any one of us, bigger than me, bigger than you. He was part of cult (family) of enthusiasts that have one common goal; in our case - live vicariously through each other on two inanimate objects: a motorcycle and a computer. Neither one of which will miss you at any given moment in oneÔÇÖs life. Sure there are so many other objects in our life that make each day easier, better, more tolerable, acceptable and forgiving. But they are all just objects of our desire. Toys I like to call them, I have a garage full of toys and I donÔÇÖt think any of them will make me feel better if I lost someone close to me. They may help take the pain away for a small piece of time or at great cost, but they will not replace the emotion and the loss. I feel that way right now about the loss of Garth, although I never met him he was like a brother or a son or close friend. He will be missed, attached to all the other people in my life that I have come to know and lost.
It was a very long time ago almost 30-years ago, I lost my cousin (he was just one-year younger than I and we were very close growing up together from birth) he was on his way to school on a Moped and the lower right of two traffic lights was blocked by a parked van and the center overhead had a burnt out red light, a school bus in front him passed through the intersection of a major road on a late yellow and he followed seconds behind. I donÔÇÖt know if he even saw the car barreling down the road with a ÔÇÿgreen-lightÔÇÖ but the bike he was on was under-powered and under-braked, he was killed instantly being broadsided at 40-50 mph. I had already lost my Grandparents of old age and disease but this loss took awhile to get over. In fact our familiesÔÇÖ kind a started to fall apart after this, the two youngest of related cousins was now one and the older children were off on their own now.
IÔÇÖve lost close friends throughout life, some due to their own neglect and negligence, some due to war and some by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, unlucky I guess. IÔÇÖve also lived right on the edge of stupidity (insanity) my whole life. My life started on sailboats long before I could I drive a car or ride motorcycles. By the time I was 14 I had stared death in the face; crossing the Channel between Maui and Hawaii (The Big Island) during an un-forecasted storm that brought with it high winds and 40-60 foot swells; in a 44-foot boat, that gets pretty scary. Anyway make a long night short, I didnÔÇÖt like sailing to much at any of the points up to and before this, I got seasick every time things started to go up and down. But on this night I sat there on a sinking boat legs wrapped around the Bow-Sprit going up and down 40-60 feet at a time holding road-flares over the bow waiting for the Coast Guard to find us. After four or five hours of this and the fear of getting in a life boat, I have never been seasick or plane sick again (well the MC-130 Air Farce boys have tried and a couple times they succeeded but I held my post as a Jump Master and continued on, but hey they get to clean it up so tuff on them for trying). After I started to ride motorcycles on the road, (my older brother started years before me and had a couple of nasty get-offs before me) so one day when the hospital calls my Mom and says we have your son in the Emergency Room at the Liguna Nigal Valley Medical Center, heÔÇÖs been involved in a motorcycle accident, she replies with ÔÇ£Which oneÔÇØ? I was 15 then and my life has never stopped being lived. I never thought IÔÇÖd make it to 22, then 30, or 40. But I kept on living each and everyday; scuba and free diving in the ocean, jumping out of airplanes from 800-feet to 18,000-feet above the ground and racing at 150-mph towards earth day and night. If something fails to work you have only seconds to correct it or you die, simple as that. Thankfully very few things go wrong. My many ÔÇÿProfessionsÔÇÖ have included being shot at, shooting past and over my comrades. To helping victims of tragedy in the medical field as an EMT Para-Medic. My last real ÔÇÿgoodÔÇÖ job in the Special Forces was the Team Sergeant of a Maritime (Small Boat / Combat Swim Team) ÔÇ£A-DetachmentÔÇØ. Sure there were a lot of fun times in the sun, swimming around the Puget Sounds 63-degree water temps and shoving boats, bodies and supplies out the back of C-130s over the water during the day, but that wasnÔÇÖt what we trained for, so we did all those things with the lights turned out in the middle of the night, fear is not being able to account for each and every man in the water by the time you think everyone should be linked up and getting on with it.
Anyway without rambling on too much longer, I got married one day. Sure I had girlfriends and such and they were special in a way at the time. But once you have someone that is yourÔÇÖs for life and you take solemn vow to God to be there, it becomes someone that cannot be replaced, sure there are many of you who thought that about the first one, or the second and third, but I have only had one and plan to keep it that way.
I still have a dangerous job, I commute on dangerous roads to work, I carry a badge and gun to protect all of you and I fly on planes a lot going to and from places all across this country. IÔÇÖm gone from my home more than I am at my home.
But hereÔÇÖs the deal, living life means taking chances, risking life for the pursuit of happiness in oneÔÇÖs life. In any given second it can all end. It doesnÔÇÖt matter at what age, what you were doing or how you were doing it. ItÔÇÖs still over. Someone is always left behind, someone who loved you, knew you or wanted to collect money from you, someone is left behind that will miss you.
If you are a parent, a husband, a wife, a child, a close friend; make the time, take the time each and every day sometimes more often than each day, take a second to tell someone you ÔÇÿLove Them, Give them a HugÔÇÖ and reassure them that everything will be alright no matter what happens after you walk out the door; because you never really know when or if that is the last time.
Kids, call your parents and tell them you love them and thanks. Parents call your kids today and tell them you love them and thanks. Husbands, Wives, each day together are a Blessing from God never part ways angry. Brothers and Sisters donÔÇÖt forget to stay as close as you can because someday one of you will be without the other. In my family all the youngest ones have died first, I guess that makes me next. Hey I made it to 43 though and IÔÇÖm still living right on the edge of life. I wouldn't trade it for a second of something safer; IÔÇÖd probably slip in the bathtub and break my neck.
Life is short, get out and RIDE. Plan for the future but live everyday as it may be the last.
Some people will pass through this life as ÔÇÿUnknownsÔÇÖ otherÔÇÖs will leave a small memorable piece of themselves with everyone they ever had contact with. Send us your ÔÇÿRide ReportsÔÇÖ be involved make a mark good or bad, but be ÔÇÿSomeoneÔÇÖ.
Garth (YB in IN) will be forever remembered at least here in this ÔÇÿFamilyÔÇÖ.
Doc
Random ramblings, so bear with me, thanks. (Long Post)
It was with great sadness today to hear of the passing of yet another young person just beginning their adult life.
I was between flights on my way back home, just fiddling with my hand-held PDA searching threads and looking up what had been said last, (I guess I am totally addicted to the MOA Forum my second family and the one I can take on the road with me) when I came across the thread titled ÔÇ£OBITUARY with permission from the familyÔÇØ. I had a few initial thoughts cross my mind, since motorcycles and airplanes are so closely intertwined; I thought someone might have known A. Scott Crossfield, former NASA and NACA test pilot who died the night before in a small single engine plane crash. It seems that BMW motorcycle drivers and private/commercial pilots share a common life; one on the road flying low and one at altitude flying amongst the clouds. As I opened the thread expecting the passing of someone older or even, God forbid, Tony BlacksÔÇÖ condition took a sepsis dive and everything changed over night and in the blink of an eye. Again I was expecting any one of a hundred other members (who I see at the bottom of the page celebrating their 69-78 or 91 birthdays even though they are not regular users, just filled in the respective data at sign-up) and have lived their collective lives and had just been off the site for awhile. Nowhere, at this time was I prepared for what I read next? ÔÇ£It is with great sadness that I am informing the forum members of the untimely passing of Garth Eppley (aka YB in IN) who was killed in small plane crash on his way to a job, with four other friends and the pilot.ÔÇØ IÔÇÖm still slightly in shock and I can handle death pretty well having lost my Father a couple years ago and having been around it professionally for a lifetime already. I had never met Garth, but over the last three-years he and all of the others have become more of my family than even my family (outside of my wife).
It also struck me (in the way that it happened) as so similar to the untimely passing of other young musicians who are just finding themselves and then taken away in a breath of time. Immediate names that come to mind were Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Van Zant and others I canÔÇÖt even remember. It seems that talented young singers should avoid airplane travel for life, but IÔÇÖm sure that just like the rest of us air-travel is still one of the safest ways to move about the country and the world. I mean 50,000 people die each and every year on the highways and byways that cross America. 500 people probably die each year in their bathtub.
It sucks, it sucks big time, no matter how you look at this; he was one of us, part of something bigger than any one of us, bigger than me, bigger than you. He was part of cult (family) of enthusiasts that have one common goal; in our case - live vicariously through each other on two inanimate objects: a motorcycle and a computer. Neither one of which will miss you at any given moment in oneÔÇÖs life. Sure there are so many other objects in our life that make each day easier, better, more tolerable, acceptable and forgiving. But they are all just objects of our desire. Toys I like to call them, I have a garage full of toys and I donÔÇÖt think any of them will make me feel better if I lost someone close to me. They may help take the pain away for a small piece of time or at great cost, but they will not replace the emotion and the loss. I feel that way right now about the loss of Garth, although I never met him he was like a brother or a son or close friend. He will be missed, attached to all the other people in my life that I have come to know and lost.
It was a very long time ago almost 30-years ago, I lost my cousin (he was just one-year younger than I and we were very close growing up together from birth) he was on his way to school on a Moped and the lower right of two traffic lights was blocked by a parked van and the center overhead had a burnt out red light, a school bus in front him passed through the intersection of a major road on a late yellow and he followed seconds behind. I donÔÇÖt know if he even saw the car barreling down the road with a ÔÇÿgreen-lightÔÇÖ but the bike he was on was under-powered and under-braked, he was killed instantly being broadsided at 40-50 mph. I had already lost my Grandparents of old age and disease but this loss took awhile to get over. In fact our familiesÔÇÖ kind a started to fall apart after this, the two youngest of related cousins was now one and the older children were off on their own now.
IÔÇÖve lost close friends throughout life, some due to their own neglect and negligence, some due to war and some by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, unlucky I guess. IÔÇÖve also lived right on the edge of stupidity (insanity) my whole life. My life started on sailboats long before I could I drive a car or ride motorcycles. By the time I was 14 I had stared death in the face; crossing the Channel between Maui and Hawaii (The Big Island) during an un-forecasted storm that brought with it high winds and 40-60 foot swells; in a 44-foot boat, that gets pretty scary. Anyway make a long night short, I didnÔÇÖt like sailing to much at any of the points up to and before this, I got seasick every time things started to go up and down. But on this night I sat there on a sinking boat legs wrapped around the Bow-Sprit going up and down 40-60 feet at a time holding road-flares over the bow waiting for the Coast Guard to find us. After four or five hours of this and the fear of getting in a life boat, I have never been seasick or plane sick again (well the MC-130 Air Farce boys have tried and a couple times they succeeded but I held my post as a Jump Master and continued on, but hey they get to clean it up so tuff on them for trying). After I started to ride motorcycles on the road, (my older brother started years before me and had a couple of nasty get-offs before me) so one day when the hospital calls my Mom and says we have your son in the Emergency Room at the Liguna Nigal Valley Medical Center, heÔÇÖs been involved in a motorcycle accident, she replies with ÔÇ£Which oneÔÇØ? I was 15 then and my life has never stopped being lived. I never thought IÔÇÖd make it to 22, then 30, or 40. But I kept on living each and everyday; scuba and free diving in the ocean, jumping out of airplanes from 800-feet to 18,000-feet above the ground and racing at 150-mph towards earth day and night. If something fails to work you have only seconds to correct it or you die, simple as that. Thankfully very few things go wrong. My many ÔÇÿProfessionsÔÇÖ have included being shot at, shooting past and over my comrades. To helping victims of tragedy in the medical field as an EMT Para-Medic. My last real ÔÇÿgoodÔÇÖ job in the Special Forces was the Team Sergeant of a Maritime (Small Boat / Combat Swim Team) ÔÇ£A-DetachmentÔÇØ. Sure there were a lot of fun times in the sun, swimming around the Puget Sounds 63-degree water temps and shoving boats, bodies and supplies out the back of C-130s over the water during the day, but that wasnÔÇÖt what we trained for, so we did all those things with the lights turned out in the middle of the night, fear is not being able to account for each and every man in the water by the time you think everyone should be linked up and getting on with it.
Anyway without rambling on too much longer, I got married one day. Sure I had girlfriends and such and they were special in a way at the time. But once you have someone that is yourÔÇÖs for life and you take solemn vow to God to be there, it becomes someone that cannot be replaced, sure there are many of you who thought that about the first one, or the second and third, but I have only had one and plan to keep it that way.
I still have a dangerous job, I commute on dangerous roads to work, I carry a badge and gun to protect all of you and I fly on planes a lot going to and from places all across this country. IÔÇÖm gone from my home more than I am at my home.
But hereÔÇÖs the deal, living life means taking chances, risking life for the pursuit of happiness in oneÔÇÖs life. In any given second it can all end. It doesnÔÇÖt matter at what age, what you were doing or how you were doing it. ItÔÇÖs still over. Someone is always left behind, someone who loved you, knew you or wanted to collect money from you, someone is left behind that will miss you.
If you are a parent, a husband, a wife, a child, a close friend; make the time, take the time each and every day sometimes more often than each day, take a second to tell someone you ÔÇÿLove Them, Give them a HugÔÇÖ and reassure them that everything will be alright no matter what happens after you walk out the door; because you never really know when or if that is the last time.
Kids, call your parents and tell them you love them and thanks. Parents call your kids today and tell them you love them and thanks. Husbands, Wives, each day together are a Blessing from God never part ways angry. Brothers and Sisters donÔÇÖt forget to stay as close as you can because someday one of you will be without the other. In my family all the youngest ones have died first, I guess that makes me next. Hey I made it to 43 though and IÔÇÖm still living right on the edge of life. I wouldn't trade it for a second of something safer; IÔÇÖd probably slip in the bathtub and break my neck.
Life is short, get out and RIDE. Plan for the future but live everyday as it may be the last.
Some people will pass through this life as ÔÇÿUnknownsÔÇÖ otherÔÇÖs will leave a small memorable piece of themselves with everyone they ever had contact with. Send us your ÔÇÿRide ReportsÔÇÖ be involved make a mark good or bad, but be ÔÇÿSomeoneÔÇÖ.
Garth (YB in IN) will be forever remembered at least here in this ÔÇÿFamilyÔÇÖ.
Doc
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