death

Yesterday I said goodbye to my long time friend, confidant, and traveling companion Coe, my black lab mutt for the last 15 years.

Back in ’97 my friend Darren went for a run in the country roads of Altamont area and came across a puppy in the woods that wanted to follow him. Darren kicked her & told her to go back wherever she came from, but she didn’t listen she just followed along. She made her way to camp where everyone fell in love with her. I tried not to mess with her because I knew what would happen. Well, it happened anyways. At the end of our weekend I had gone to get some flea & tick wash (bathing her in a wheelbarrow), fed her some food and had her riding shotgun with me back to Tuscaloosa.

I named her Coe (Co-ee) spelled after my friend Mike Coe, who had been murdered the prior year. Mike was a great friend to me & I wanted to remember him. Little did I know I was putting in his place my closest friend for the next half of my life.

On the way home to Tuscaloosa she threw-up (which was a trend she would keep up for a year or two of travels) looked at me with an “I’m sorry” look and continued on. She was Shawn & mine’s first dog (outside of dogs living with my parents). We had a fun time in Tuscaloosa teaching her to catch frisbee’s and sticks. She taught us how to un-stuff anything that was plush. She also showed up how to take the tops off of coke bottles, rather impressive.

Fast forward to today. Coe & I have been all over, camping, hikes, football road trips, epic east coast road trips, summer missions camps, getting lost many times, chasing many squirrels, 5 different homes, a few girlfriends, a courtship & marriage, a new child and many many friends of the 2 & 4 legged kind over the years. She has been with me through a whole lot of life.

In the last few years she began to develop tumors all through her body. We knew this day would come eventually because of our decision to not intervene in hopes of making it better, but chancing that an end could come sooner. She took a downturn over the past weekend. She was unable to get up the steps from outside (something she’d had trouble with for some time) but more than that she wasn’t eating much. She became really weak. We knew time was short & weep constantly this week. I gave her a bath Wednesday evening and placed her on a soft ‘crimson tide’ blanket my mom made for our two dogs a few years back. She passed away the next afternoon on the blanket.

It’s tough to as Brooks has taken to love Coe. He was pulling on the gate to the outside yesterday calling for her over and over again. She was laying passed away in the kitchen while I was in tears standing next to her. Today he was looking out the bedroom window that looks over the backyard calling for her. “She’s not there buddy..”

I’m having her cremated so that I can keep her with us. It’d be weird to keep her with us without doing the cremation process. I’m emotional, but not ready to go the weird guy spot yet. But, I’m going to miss my friend.

Coe, you were the best dog a young man could ever have. Thank you for sharing your life so generously with me.

Created a little Coe Richardson photo set that I’ll be adding some old photos to in the coming weeks & months.

saturday i spent my day at barcamp nashville 2009. barcamp is one of my fav days of the year. that along with podcamp are when i get to really hang with the geeks of nashville’s tech community. one of the sessions i took in was dave delaney’s session titled “we’re all gonne die!”

i like dave’s presentations because they are never quite what i expect them to be and his gift is that he doesn’t try and cover everything in his braintrust. i say that’s a gift. anyways, i recorded his session for your viewing pleasures with my notes & thoughts to follow.

Dave Delaney : We’re All Gonna Die : BarCamp Nashville 2009 from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

my notes:

what is going to happen to our content when we die?
when die what to do with email, paypal, websites, domain names, web hosting fees, facebook, etc.
facebook will close off profiles to new friends when someone is confirmed as having passed away, but will keep the account live for friends to visit.
need a “digital executor,” someone who knows all your stuff to keep your digital footprint going
i see this necessity as much as leaving a ‘digital legacy’ much like the last lecture was from a dad to his children.
facebook/myspace/blogs become a new place of mourning for a loved one or friend as they pass away. taking the place of the makeshift memorials on roadsides, fences, building walls, etc.

this was an interesting chat with erin after this, exploring the ‘digital executor’ idea. i’d thought of what might happen to all this stuff i do if i were to pass away. erin knows my passwords that i use and could figure out how to get into each account should she feel that need. however, her expression was, if you died i wouldn’t want to mess with that stuff, so it’d be better to have someone to handle that stuff.

so i’m contemplating that.. who would you put in charge as a digital exector? friend, family member? someone you are close to or someone that is close to your wife/family who they are comfortable talking to?

goodbye Coe, you were my best friend

we’re all gonna die : so who is your digital executor