I always look forward to SpouseBUZZ Live weekends. It's a time to gather with my favorite group of people on this planet. I love seeing friends who fit like a glove, and I also like meeting new ones. Especially ones who knit in the audience!
So I'm looking forward to SpouseBUZZ Live San Antonio this weekend. But I also have another reason to be thankful I am going to San Antonio.
I will get to pay respects to a dear friend.
I wrote about my friend and fellow milblogger Mike Reed here before:
Nearly four years ago, I got an email from a retired Air Force fellow about a post I had up on my blog. That one email started a hearty exchange of ideas and cross-linking between our blogs. Mike Reed and I became best blog-friends. He always woke up at the crack of dawn, so he was always the first person in the US to read my blog posts from Germany. His was always the first comment of the day, and he was there to help me through the rough spots in my husband's deployment. I'd like to even think I helped him a bit, since both his Marine and Soldier sons were deployed as well.
He died of a heart attack in the summer of 2005. One minute he was commenting on blogs, the next minute he was gone.
We had talked about arranging a blog-friend meet-up when I returned from Germany. I was going to travel to Texas and meet him for a round of golf. Sadly, we never got to do that, but because of SpouseBUZZ and the wonderful new set of friends in my life, I'm finally making that trip to Texas.
My friend Mike is buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. I will finally get to visit him, just not the way I ever envisioned.
And I'm sure Mike would find it funny that my new retired Air Force internet buddy with the same name will be accompanying me to the cemetery...
