No No No No NO July 22, 2022
Posted by geoff in News.trackback
It is with great, great sadness, and no little confusion about cosmic justice, that I’m forced to report the passing of one of the major authors at this site, DaveinTexas, this past Wednesday. I have no information concerning the circumstances or arrangements [Update: Link to the funeral home included at the bottom of the post].
Dave was a prolific author here through 2017, after which work demands unfortunately took him away from blogging. He wrote almost 500 posts here, his last post being in 2019 (“A Veteran Laid to Rest“),
One of his earliest (2006) efforts was a video he made of “The History of the Innocent Bystanders,” where you can still enjoy listening to him try not to giggle as he fabulates with abandon.
And, of course, who can forget his epic “Crap Tree” post, which was posted here almost every year since he wrote it.
I suck at eulogies, which is why I usually asked Dave to write them. He always came through brilliantly. He had a natural gift for expressing heartfelt empathy without being smarmy. He was an amazing combination of irreverent humor and genuine caring. And bass playing.
As usual I’m at a complete loss, and now I don’t have Dave to turn to.
Sorry, Dave – you deserve far, far better.
Innocent Bystanders 
I’m going to miss his “4-Limb Octopus Soul-Merging That’s Not My Finger Up Your Butt” hugs.
Dammit
I bought some flowers on behalf of IB and included a note:
“Dave was a huge and joyful part of our lives for almost 20 years. Please accept our profound condolences, and know how much he was loved by his fellows in the blogosphere.”
Thanks, Geoff. Ace was my gateway to the IB. I was never smart enough to be an IBer. I chose to be a window licking, paste eating hostage. DiT was able to move through all groups simultaneously. He will be missed.
Thanks, Geoff.
Thanks for coming by, Oso. Don’t underestimate your smarts, though.
geoff, what’s your current email addy?
I’ll put it up elsewhere.
check your tiny underwear for messages
This tears a hole in the universe — he was such a good guy.
Hey mesa. I still can’t believe it. Some asshole at Ace’s put up a comment saying “I’m not really dead,” and signed it “daveintexas.” For a moment I bought it because I wanted to believe.
Good job, geoff.
I guess we all thought we would see him again someday.
RG are you still in Idaho?
I moved to Montana four years ago…
Dave made me smile just knowing he was out there. What a kind, wise, inspiring, and delightfully goofy soul. RIP.
This is a kick in the nuts. May his memory be eternal.
Crap. Didn’t realize the video wasn’t working. I think I’ve fixed it now.
Some asshole at Ace’s put up a comment saying “I’m not really dead,” and signed it “daveintexas.” For a moment I bought it because I wanted to believe.
I saw that, and my heart leapt. What an awful thing to do.
Rest in glory, Dave.
Very sadz today, there is a void in the universe for sure mesa. So good to see all you folk here. I need to visit more often.
Hey KC, I remember something about me and Dave fixing your car at the IB gathering. Did I dream that?
No more of you morons are allowed to die before I do.
P.S. I love you guys
P.P.S. Roamie reported a Spurwing Plover sighting on DiT funeral home page
Geezer it was no dream. We were meating at Michael’s for a super bowl party and I ran over a giant nail on the way there. I limped the rest of the way and I think you and Dave changed my tire!
Love you all too.
Finally out of internet jail – my account got canceled last night because they had the wrong address for me. Somebody else moved into that address so they kilt me off.
Brewfan: That spurwing sighting was due to mesablue. He says spurwing was his sockpuppet all along.
omg Brewfie!!!
Here’s an older post from DinT: So perfect! So Concise.
What are YOUR favorite DinT gems?
One of my faves was when we shut the blog down in 2015 and Dave wrote the farewell post.
Speaking of shutting the blog down…
Can’t count the number of times I’ve “quit” or at least gone on hiatus, only to return because I had to opine on something. But one reason I kept coming back and stuck with it was that I missed the fun of the Golden Age of Innocent Bystanders. Before Facebook and Twitter diverted people from blogging, and before we lost so many of our regulars to the great beyond.
In the back of my mind was the silly thought that maybe when life slowed down for everybody, maybe when the world didn’t have crisis after crisis, maybe, just maybe, we’d get back to where we were circa 2010.
I’m a ridiculously optimistic guy (when we’re not talking about China ‘n such), so it was only with Dave’s passing that I admitted to myself that the heyday is gone forever. None of the old guard are going to come back and help fire up one of those 200-comment threads.
A lot of us hang out at H2 as well, but H2 has a different flavor than IB used to have. Sadly, IB’s flavor will never be reproduced, because Michael and Dave were essential ingredients to creating a blog that was a home as much as it was a source of entertainment and serious commentary.
So what the heck am I doing continuing to post here?
I dunno. We need 6 posts to hit 7500 for the site. I’m doubtful that I’ll continue past that milestone, which will put me at 1905 posts here. Between here, my old site, Ace’s, and JunkYardBlog, I’ve written well over 3000 posts. Probably ought to be satisfied with that.
That there’s an oeuvre.
Reflecting on what I just said, I realized the answer to what had been puzzling me for a long time. I couldn’t figure out how to recapture the spirit of yore, because despite writing a fair number of non-nerd posts rife with undeniable hilarity, it just wasn’t the same.
Thinking about what I just wrote above, I finally understood that I’m just not a homey person. When people come to my house, they’re thinking, “Wow, geoff, that’s quite . . . utilitarian.” Because I’ll think nothing of putting a work desk in the living room (had one there for 5 years) or a hot tub in the dining room (there’s one there right now).
So this place was never going to go back to being a home under my watch. And I, of course, never realized that that was a missing element. Not that I could have done anything about it even if I had that realization – creating a home is not in my DNA.
But I certainly enjoyed the home that Michael & Co. created in the 3 years before they signed me on. And I’m grateful that they let the nerd ply his trade here, despite the dry nature of the bulk of my posts. Especially grateful to Michael for marketing my posts to Instapundit and the like. The wild success of The Chart was due largely to his efforts.
With that, I’m thinking “the hell with the milestones.” The spurs, they are hung up.
geoff, you may not feel like a ‘homey’ person but you really laid out the red carpet for us when we went to Denver for the Colorado meet-up.
I’m going to mangle many metaphors here but even though I was one of the ‘founders’, Michael was the Prime Mover, Dave and Lauraw were the Funnybones, and… and…
OK, I’m just going to quit now before I run out of words and forget/slight all the other FAMILY who made this place what it is.
The point I’m trying to make is that YOU, geoff were the Engine, the guy down in the dark oily places that stubbornly kept the wheels turning.
For that I humbly thank you.
I’m getting a good visual off “down in the dark oily places.”
I’ll be in my bunk.
But thanks, RG.
I feel like it’s fruitless to ‘regret’ things in life. Hopefully if we make a bad choice we take note, make adjustments, and keep moving forward. But I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve missed many blessings by choosing other online venues for spending my internet time budget. I never consciously decided to stop contributing here but it was the natural result of starting to use facechimp. I wish I would have chosen differently. Whereas IB was a source of fun and entertainment and hanging out with great people (e.g., lauraw **smooch**), facechimp became a time-suck of epic proportions; finding out how many communists I was related to and trying to deprogram them. With little to show for it after all was said and done. I came to this realization a few years ago but it seemed too late to turn back. I felt (still do) that I let down some people who are dear to me or at least gave them the impression I didn’t care. I’m sorry for that and nothing could be further from the truth. I simply made the wrong choice. I really don’t feel worthy of your friendship after abandoning you but I’m hoping there is forgiveness in your hearts and you’ll trust my sincerity when I say how much I love and respect you all.
And finally thanks to those, geoff especially, who’ve kept the torch lit. We find our way back here because of your hard work and dedication. Looking at the flags counter, it’s mind boggling the reach this little slice of the internet has had.
Brew, lovely sentiment. Spot on. I don’t really know why I wandered away either. I shouldn’t have. This place was always real and fun, a respite from the world. I humbly thank you for keeping the porch light on so I could come back here and talk about our Dave and what he meant to us. Love to you all.
Can’t say we didn’t miss you guys, but I don’t harbor any bad feelings toward anybody who left. Nice to hear from you again.
Yeah, what geoff and KC said.
I miss everybody who takes a respite from connecting. Lots of times it’s me getting caught up IRL but I still miss y’all even when it’s my choice.
Guys,
I sent Dave’s sister the photos we collected.
She wants to reply to us all. She was having trouble commenting (it is WordPress after all), so I am posting the comment on her behalf. I will be forwarding this post’s url to her.
Hello All! This is Linda, one of Dave’s sisters. We are all overwhelmed by the pictures and sweet remembrances of Dave. I had the honor to meet Steve, Brent, Andy, Mrs. Peel and Tushar yesterday. I was so pleased and in awe that they travelled from so far to attend. This community was truly represented with stories that brought both laughter and tears. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being Dave’s sweet friends and loving him for who he was.
OK, that got me teary again.
Thanks Tushar.
All you wonderful folks–Thank you. I’m Dave’s wife, and I have been so blessed by your love for him. I can never thank you enough for the joy you brought to him over the years, and for the kindness you’ve shown me and our daughters this past week. I laughed my head off at the video of The History of Innocent Bystanders, and I loved the story about “Stuff Thomas Jefferson said.” Thank you for sharing your crazy, sweet, and irreverent memories. Love to you all, Pat Rutland
Thanks for coming by, Pat. Dave brought us far more joy than we managed to bring him, so we ended up way ahead. Please let us know if there’s anything we can do for you and your family.
Pat, we feel lucky we could share some laughs and some tears with you and the wonderful family. Dave was always there for all of us. And he couldn’t be more proud of all of you and especially your daughters. I remember Dave telling us about how his father lovingly made a crib (or was it a rocking chair?) for your daughters.
Dave was truly the life of the party. I posted this anecdote elsewhere but I’ll copy it here. I get borrowed glory from Dave when I tell this story, because it always gets a laugh:
One funny one Dave told me about was when he was a kid he used to have to maintain the lawn at his family’s home (I think this may have been in Alabama but not sure). There was a small stream running through the yard and there were crawdads living in there that used to dig holes in the lawn.
The neighbor told him to put mothballs down the crawdad holes because “They don’t like that.”
So little kid Dave went ahead and put mothballs in the mudbug holes, and the next morning the mothballs were laying on the lawn, the mudbugs having rolled them up out of their holes.
Dave said, in his typical dry way, “Neighbor was right. They don’t like ’em.”