My long time childhood and life friend, Matt Gorges, passed away to the spirit world early Sunday morning. I got the call from my pops relayed from my sister, Detective Love. My stomach is wrenched and my heart is heavy as I type this. I can’t imagine what his mother Linda, and sister Nikki are feeling right now and the very thought of that makes me ill. I’ve known Matt since I was in the third grade and through the years I’ve spent many of my best times at his house, in his presence or in some way involving Matt. The thing I remember most about him is his heart. That may sound cliche, but Matt was truely one of the kindest souls I have ever crossed. I remember him making compliments to people who never thought they deserved them in high school and always reaching out a helping hand for a friend in need.

Visions of us together practicing the three point stance and pushing his Yukon through the Millard South High School parking lot flood my mind. It seems like yesterday we made that hilarious dog food commercial for school in his basement. I miss him.

As I sit here, deep into a bottle of rum, my heart is broken and my thoughts are scattered. I return home this week to bury my friend. I return heart broken.

Yeah, I spent the past 36 hours in Florida. This time the trip was completely unrelated to hurricane’s but what do you know…hurricane Rita was just to the south of us while we were in Ft. Myers. I can’t get away from these things!

***The most disturbing thing I witnessed in Florida on this trip. Ok, well, maybe the gators would be the MOST disturbing – but not after I saw a slew of these “Panther Crossing” signs. Panthers? WTF?***

***Hurricane Rita while heading back to the airport. We didn’t get anything bad just some belts of rain that while in the them made driving very tedious.***

That’s right, all good things have to come to an end and in Newport that means summer. Wendi and I went out last weekend to chill, visit some summer spots and enjoy the end of the busy season on the island. Here are some shots:

***First Beach, or Easton’s Beach as the tourist’s know it as. It’s about a mile from the house and we drive by it daily. Even though summer is leaving, the beach is packed on every sunny day as people try to take in as many more nice days as they can.***

***Second Beach. A couple miles further than first beach, but a great little spot to grab some shore and enjoy the surf and sun.***

***Mount Hope Bridge. One of numerous gorgeous bridges leading you off of our island. This one is to the north of the island and takes you into Bristol, RI.***

***We got detoured (typical). Wendi found Corona.***

***I know I mentioned my tv I ordered a few posts ago, but I did get it! Makes for SUCH a great football season.***

A year ago today we were all about to wake up to this scene at our homes in the Cayman Islands. A brutal flood, insane winds, and everything we knew tossed up and beaten like a pinata.

I had an instant message pop up on my computer today from Erik. It read, “Happy Anniversary”. I think we were both kind of dazed, never imagining a year ago that we’d be living and doing what we are doing today. It’s amazing how time goes by.

A year ago today we all communicated to one another as best and as sparatically as we could via text messages. I lost Erik first, and was was worried sick about his family. Second we lost Estella, last message was they were on the porch and the roof was gone. Then it was Devin, the five or so of them were in the last remaining bedroom. We were all so helpless and we were all so lucky.

We all made it. We’ve all pulled what we could of our lives together and did what we had to do to make life go on. Scattered, but not too battered, it’s crazy how everyone and everything we knew a year ago changed. In an instant. No more late nights at the clubs with Matters. No more sushi with Devin. No more long nights at Moon Bay drinking rum and playing dominos with Erik. It all ended in an instant. I can’t wait to see those people again and sip some rum and have a laugh…

What a difference a day makes. That’s right, I’m in a Comfort Suites hotel room near Natchez, Miss. Hammering away tonight to get some work done tomorrow:

We’re still about an hour from the heavy devastation but already feel the effects of the damage. The hotels are JAMMED. The shelters are filling all the way through Jackson, Miss. It is chaos.