Just when you'd thought you'd heard it all

One of the newer responsibilities at my job of late is to discard books off of the computer that are being weeded out of our collection. So this morning I did a bunch and they were largely books on NASCAR and WWF wrestling, something we get almost no call for and that largely just sit on the shelves collecting dust. So I was chatting with my boss about this and he was telling me that Harlequin Romances now have a NASCAR romance series out. Honestly, I cannot fathom why anyone finds NASCAR appealing. I mean, all you're doing is sitting there watching cars go round and round in circles for hours. So what's the big deal, other than the celebrity of certain drivers like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.? (OK, so I know a few things about NASCAR myself, but only by osmosis from years of working in a library!) I just don't get it. But apparently, there's enough appeal to write NASCAR romance novels. So do chicks like NASCAR, too, to the point of reading romance novels set in that world? I guess so, because Harlequin seems to think that the appeal is enough to run this particular line of books, thinking that they'll sell.....maybe to all those NASCAR widows out there who sit at home while their husbands watch it on TV or go to NASCAR events. Or maybe chicks dig it enough and find some kind of romance in it all. After all, some of those drivers are good looking guys, with just a touch of the "bad boy" about them to appeal to a certain kind of woman. Whatever the case, look for these books at your favorite bookseller, because they're probably going to sell like hotcakes. Hey, maybe I'm in the wrong line of work. Maybe I ought to be cranking out trashy romance novels and making a bundle! How hard could that be?

A PASSING

It seems that more and more lately, friends of mine have been passing away. Maybe I have reached the age where this sort of thing is more commonplace, but it seems to hard to believe how many funerals I have had to go to or notes of condolence I have had to send in recent years. The most recent passing of a friend is very hard to take, because this is because it's someone I've known my entire life, since my childhood, and with who I grew up on the same street. Bret Orsburn was such a good guy, a really kind and genuine person who we all really liked even when we were kids. He died on Sunday of kidney cancer. What makes it doubly sad is that he just married his wife, Heidi, who he'd been with for 12 years. They were married in December at our local Unitarian Universalist Church, where Bret served on the Board of Trustees. Heidi's first husband died of cancer, so it's got to be tough for her to lose yet another husband from the same disease that killed her first husband. Heidi is on City Council, representing Ward 5, and is a local yoga instructor. She's also just a really kind and genuine woman who I really like. She and Bret were real soulmates and it pains me to think of her widowed a second time. The calling hours are tonight (Thursday, April 2) and the funeral is on Saturday afternoon at the UU Church. I've been so sad all week about losing a lifelong friend and someone who was just genuinely decent, kind and very funny as well. Our whole church community will no doubt rally behind his widow and will give her someplace to turn in her grief. We're very good at that, fortunately. It's never easy to know what to say on occasions like this. You offer what condolences you can and you hope that you can provide some comfort to the bereaved. You offer your support and hope that they will turn to their friends for it. In this case, it's so hard because I knew Bret my entire life and I'm feeling the pain of his passing as much as anyone who'd known him for a very long time. I'm tired of burying so many of my friends, and I begin to wonder if our generation will not live as long as that of our parents. I hope I'm wrong, but given how many of my friends have passed away in recent years, and given how many obits I see for people in my age group, I truly begin to wonder. Right now, though, I am trying to stay positive and know that my friends who have passed on have left their mark in the memories of those of us who called them "friend". In that respect, they live on. My father once wrote something to the effect that a person never dies so long as they are loved and remembered. I could not agree more.