ZIn October the powers that be took my mother. Now, one month later, it takes my best friend. On Thanksgiving, Ed McCarthy suffered a heart attack and would die a few days later, that seemed to come out of nowhere. I think I was about 18 when I first met Ed, which would put him around 16, at record store in Massapequa, NY called the Wax Museum. This was where all the local Metalheads hung out. This redheaded Irish kid use to come over to me talk about music all the time. Turns out, he lived in the same town as my other friend Japanese Ron. The 3 of us hung out every freaking weekend. We went to see so many cool bands over the years. And if there wasn't a band to check out, we would hang out in Ed's room and watch metal videos, followed by the movie The Warriors. We watched the Warriors so many times, we knew every line. It was like Rocky Horror to us. Over the years, we saw and did so much cool shit. I saw him at his best and worst. He could party and party hard, man. He wanted to challenge Lemmy to a drinking contest. He was pretty much over that for the last 20 years or so. When you are young, you think you are invincible. You don't think about the future. But even if you overcome all the recklessness of youth, that stuff still will catch up with you someday. Even though, I did not see Ed very often over the last several years, as he was pretty much a recluse. It was always hard to get him to come out. We always emailed often, and he was always just kinda there. For Thanksgiving, I went to Atlantic City and when I came home on Friday, my friend Jeff left me a very urgent message to call him. And that is when he told me Ed went into cardiac arrest on Thursday and was in ICU, and it was not looking hopeful. He gave me, Ed's wonderful wife, Ritzco's number, but I didn't call. I just didn't want to believe it. He is younger than me, was really taking care of himself and I just saw him the week before. His sister Mary, managed to actually get him out of the house to go see Blacmore's Night at the Patchogue theater. He seemed fine and in good spirits. Who knew that would be the last time I would ever see him. Then Saturday morning I spoke to Mary to and all seemed too real. Reality hit me harder than a Joan Crawford coat hanger. 

  Saturday afternoon, I log into my email. And there it is. An email from Ed sent on Wednesday. Over the last week, we were going back and forth in email about Rob Halford's new book. I told Ed I just got a signed copy and he didn't even know he had a new book out. I knew the email was only going to be a couple of sentences about the book and nothing of any real importance. But, I just sat there and stared at his Saxonman email address in my inbox. I just couldn't open it. I kept thinking, these are the last words that my best friend for over 35 plus years will ever say to me. Of course it was nothing, just about the dopey ass book. But, who knew, 24 hours later, he would be gone. 

  So what does it all mean? What is the lesson in all this? If you are thinking of going on a diet, starting a band, learning a musical instrument, taking up a hobby, calling someone you haven't heard from in a while, or just hugging your cat or dog. Take the time and do it. It is very easy to say, I will do it tomorrow. But sometimes, there is no tomorrow. You just never know how much time you actually have on this rock. So my advice to you, is to kick a lot of ass while you can. Get out there and do your thing, and if you fail, at least you tried. 

Good Morning...and in case I don't see you...good afternoon, good evening and good night....