And the monkey flipped the switch...

I'm sure Greg Beck would not have wanted the blogging community to pause too long over his loss. He lived life in the now, as I wish I did more and more each day. Last week I attended the funeral of an old acquaintance who was shot in his own front yard. They say these things come in threes. God I hope that's not true. I first met Greg at a local watering hole. In my early, early days of blogging I read three; Tony's Kansas City, BlogKC and Death's Door. I remember looking across the bar and seeing this mountain of a man with a gorgeous woman on his arm and I thought "That has to be that Death's Door guy." I introduced myself and found out my suspicions were correct. He was a little cool at first but when he found out all the mutual friends we shared he softened a bit. I found out much later that Greg was flattered at having been recognized by a complete stranger but a little creeped out as well. Such is the price of internet fame. At a deck party at Eric & Michelle's place I had the advantage of sitting next to Greg the entire evening. I peppered him with questions about post after post. He asked me advice on writing and if I thought he'd "lost his edge." I told him anyone that could come up with this was f'ing brilliant and that he should just keep writing. I asked him where he came up with "and the monkey flipped the switch" and he said it was from the Lost In Space movie when the pilot was complaining that even a monkey could fly a rocket and when he proceeded to launch the craft he turned to the rest of the crew and said "and the monkey flipped the switch." We had a fun evening and probably would have been out there for many more hours had Greg's date not drug him away. The next morning I had an email from Greg apologizing to me for "talking too much." Huh?! That's just how Greg was. Always self-deprecating. Always worried about everybody else's feelings with no regard for his own. Our community is a lesser place without Greg. He will be missed.