Mike Dombard : 2.15.1969 – 2.26.2006

*beep*

Mike was a buddy of ours through the local bear club…. I guess you’d call him a “periphery friend”… You know.. the kind you find yourself saying, “We really should invite them over to dinner sometime” type of friend.

We’d travel in overlapping circles and whenever our paths would collide we’d hang out and have a real nice time.

Kevin had the strongest connection to mike because of their shared upbringing in Cleveland.

Mike was a real no-bullshit kinda guy who had no trouble speaking his mind… He would buffer his frank, sometimes awkward blunt honesty with what I could only call a conversational tick: “No Offense”…

During the first few years of knowing him we’d refer to him as “No Offense Mike.”

Mike didn’t do drugs… Worked out three times a week…
Mike had a loving partner of five years going strong…
Mike made good money and knew how to manage it.

Mike dropped dead from a heart attack in his kitchen Sunday morning.

The only theories I’ve *heard* besides possible congenital heart defect is that he *was* really stressed out with work.

So while he wasn’t the closest… he was close enough… enough to have made all three of us kinda sit around shell shocked from the news…. We just saw him on Thursday while we were out with the traveling LJer.

Poof… you can be gone…. JUST…. LIKE…… THAT.

We’ll all be gone…. I’m wrestling with the gravity of the realization (reminder) that every time you see someone…. anyone… it could be the last.

*click*

*dial tone*