This morning we were on our way to a tech gig when I got a call from David’s roommate Witt. It always scares me when Witt calls and this time was as bad as it could be: David had passed overnight. Witt found him in bed this morning.
I knew Dave wasn’t doing well, he’d been having lots of seizures due to blood sugar problems and the broken leg/heart attack. As a matter of fact, Dave and I talked about the seizures and all just a couple of weeks ago. He was worried about his health, too.
I’m on a break from being at Dave’s house with Witt. Dave’s mother was in St Simons, so she’ll get here around 5 or 6 tonite. We had to wait for the transportation people to get there after the Medical Examiner did his thing. Once that was done, we cleaned the house a bit. I picked up Dave’s room and stripped the bed and generally straightened up. We also rounded up the, um, stuff that his mother needn’t see. Everything is all straight. I’ll need to finish all the laundry and stuff at some point.
I hope Dave’s mother doesn’t get all bitchy on us. When she gets rattled, she basically loses her shit and won’t let anyone help with anything. Which would be fine if she could manage things, but she also gets totally squirrelly and forgets stuff. So. Hopefully she’ll let us (Witt, me Nick) take care of stuff here while she makes funeral arrangements and takes care of family things.
There is no will that I know of – Dave and I talked about doing a living will but never got around to it. We’re pretty sure that the house and all that will end up in probate court and then Dave’s mother will be the executrix of the estate. Again, I hope she will listen when I tell her that Dave and I talked about his stuff and I know for a fact that he wants his musical friends to have his music equipment and I know he wants Witt to have whatever he wants of the furniture and stuff. As for me, Dave had jokingly told me that I could have his Advent speakers – which are SWEET. I know that I’d like to have maybe his DJ stuff since I did so much work with him on that. I dunno. We’ll see what his mother does. I really hope she doesn’t get all bitch ass on us. We know Dave much better than she does, but you know how family is.
In any case, I’m bittersweet about Dave’s passing. On the one hand, I wish for more time to hang out and do stuff with him. On the other hand, he was feeling crappy all the time and he was very depressed about not being able to do stuff like he used to. He was not happy at all lately.
Well, Dave, all that’s done. I hope and pray that you have a better time of it in the next life. This one certainly was a tough one.
Dave, you stringy mofo, I’ll miss you! Who will I argue music with now?? Rest well, my friend. I’ll catch ya on the flipside.
I have closed comments on this post and put a separate page up for Dave. You can add your memories and contact other friends of Dave on the static page. Thanks!
Well, we know what happened with his mother now. Too bad she responded as expected.
You still did the right thing by helping him.
LUM
N
I was looking up an old friend from High School. I think I found him. If this is David Klepsig from Tampa. It makes me sad. The David I knew loved art and music. Sounds like you were great friends.
Yes, this is the same Dave Klepsig from Tampa. I went to high school with him and we were really good friends. In fact we were in one of our first bands together, called Mistril. Dave and I used to well, um partake in non-cigarettes and listen to music blaring from our car stereos. One of his favorites that I had was “sweet papa john” by Johnny Winter. When I hear that song I think about him and I listening to it full blast outside my house.
Very sad of his passing. I just found out tonight from an old mutual friend, Mark M. We were all very good buds and all went to Leto High School.
I remember dave one day getting very upset at some song we were trying to play and he just threw his guitar down on the concrete floor. It didn’t break either, just bounced. We all stood there with our mouths wide open and then went on playing after awhile.
Dave and I spend a few months living together as rebellion from our parents. We would have wild parties over at the trailer but that was the last time I saw him. I think I have an old picture of me and him somewhere if anyone would like to see it. He was a good friend.