RIP BUZZ PONCE

The whole family got together and Zoomed for a family member's birthday.  It was actually fun.  Seeing all the boxes of all the family members it looked like the Brady Bunch.  We sang happy birthday and chatted and caught up.  Zoom gave us longer than our allotted 40 minutes.  The family member seemed very happy.  We had cats mugging for the camera and dogs running from the camera. 

On a sad note, after I got off the Zoom call I found out a friend passed away.  He did not pass away from Covid-19, he passed away from renal and liver failure.  His name was Buzz Ponce and he was a great guy.  I only met him once but we became friends.  I met him when I drove from my home to Oregon.  He was riding his bike from the Canadian boarder to San Francisco.  We met at a pizza parlor in a little town in Oregon.  I was there by myself and he was there with his best friend who drove the van with his stuff.  I was ordering my vegan pizza and we started talking.  We decided to eat together and talked and laughed for over an hour. I found out he wrote a book about baseball and was thinking of writing another book about his bike ride.  I immediately bought his book Finding Frank when we parted and read it when I got home.   He asked me to read and edit his book titled A Long Ride Coming.  It is a tribute to his father.  I am even in the book where he wrote about meeting me in Oregon.  I loved the book and not just because I am featured so prominently in it.

We kept in touch.  He then did another bike ride from coast to coast to raise money for Warriors Heart Foundation.  His bike trip was 3100 miles.  I can't even image!

This week Buzz Ponce passed away.  He will be missed by so many lives that he touched including mine.  

Until tomorrow...