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Public Service Announcement

In light of all that’s happened in the last couple of months, we, Angela’s heart and mind, must issue the following statement:

There will be no further changes in anything until 2007. Please abstain from the following: births, deaths, marriages, breakups, illness, change of residence, change of heart, insanity, diets, adoptions (human or otherwise), plastic surgery, unnecessary travel, living quarters repainting, new furniture purchases, family drama, friendship drama or any other act that could be construed as “change”.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

That is all.

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Southern Wake

The memorial went very well yesterday. We were ready to go by 11am since Zac said that he would have to come by early to make work on time by 1pm. People didn’t actually start showing up until around 12:30, but that was ok because it gave us more time to work on DVDs and such.

We met many new people. Lenny, Dave’s friend and Realtor, was really cool. Then Diane and her hubby showed up. They are really cool and live in the neighborhood to boot. Bob and Anita came along with Witt and Ron in tow. Russ came to represent my circle of friends (the downside of when half your friends living in the same house and they all get a cold!). Another mutual friend of Witt and Dave’s showed up a bit later, her name is Patti and she’s very cool, too. Zac called in to tell me he’d had a sleepless night and he couldn’t make it since he was already late for work, but he’ll come by this week sometime, which is fine with me.

Everyone who really knew Dave was here and it was a very uplifting event – for me anyway. Witt and Bob got wasted, which was expected since they were Dave’s closest friends for the last 10+ years. Bob played music with Dave for 10 years and he was quite torn up by the loss of his guitarist. Everyone seemed pleased about my choice of charities for donations: The American Diabetes Assoc and The Center for the Visually Impaired. Please give to these non-profits if you’d like to do something for a memorial.

Poor Witt still has lots of stress in front of him, sadly. He has to deal with Bougie and the sister descending upon the house today to root through all Dave’s things and start divvying up his stuff. Witt has rounded up his stuff already, which is prudent knowing how Bougie will consider everything in the house hers and accuse him of stealing if he points out something that’s his. It’s really too bad that she is this way.

I’ve completely removed myself from all of that. I have the important stuff: Dave’s music and art. The rest is just stuff and Bougie can do whatever the hell she wants. She will anyway. She has zero regard for anyone’s wishes, so it’s best to just let it all go. I don’t like it and neither does anyone else, but there’s nothing we can do.

I wish Witt luck in dealing with Bougie and I hope he finds a nice place to live when he has to leave the house. That will not happen immediately, the estate must go through probate and all that, but it’ll be a month or two, I’d say. I doubt I’ll ever step foot in there again.

We sent Dori an email to call us (she’s in Korea) and she called last night. She was a very close friend of Dave’s – she even lived with the guys for a while. Nick had to tell her what happened. She said that she dreamed about Dave’s death last Sunday night, so she was sort of ready for the news. She is pretty upset to be half a world away and unable to get the closure the rest of us have. Another girl that was close to Dave, Sandra from MO, also dreamt of him the weekend he died. Weird. Sandy couldn’t stay for our memorial, which is a shame. She only attended the funeral in Macon then her daughter insisted that they return to MO. Dave really wanted us to meet, it’s too bad that we didn’t.

Well, it’s all over now and I’m relieved. I’ll miss Dave for quite a while, I think. But I know that he’s in the Consciousness now and I know when he takes another turn on the Wheel, it’ll be a better ride. I hope I get the pleasure of his company next time around. We loved ya, Dave. See ya around.

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!

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Dave’s Obit

Of course the Bougie Snob didn’t put an obit in the ATLANTA paper. It’s in the Macon Telegraph, where no one will see it.

The obit was posted, but is now gone. If you want to read it, it’s behind the cut at the end of this post. It’s really lame and the charities are SO wrong. I can do better:

David Klepsig
Born Feb 13, 1958; died Oct 30, 2006 while sleeping in his bed at home. He was 48 years old.
Before David lost his vision to diabetes, he created beautiful pointillist art in black ink. David always loved to play guitar and write songs. He played acoustic, electric, 12 string as well as a little bass. He collected guitars like women buy shoes. Dave’s lyrics stand just as well as poetry as they do with a tune. Later in his life, David got into the DJ trade. He trained with Evil Z here in Atlanta and he played several raves around town. Using a DJ deck and software that was designed strictly for the sighted, Dave learned to use this equipment and create live trance mixes that totally rocked! His music collection was impressive. Although Dave’s life was not easy due to the ravages of diabetes, he always made the best of his situation and he lived life to the fullest. We will miss him and we will see that his musical legacy lives on. Please make donations to the American Diabetes Association or the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta GA.

There. That should do it. :-)

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!

Text of lame Macon obit behind cut.

Continue reading “Dave’s Obit”

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Families are the wart on the ass of humanity

Well, as predicted Dave’s mother has stayed true to form and pretty much kicked all of us lowly peons to the curb. That horrid old cow was mean and nasty twenty years ago and she’s just the same now.

20 years ago when Dave and I were dating is when he lost his eyesight and kidneys. Naturally, with catastrophic illnesses, he had to move home to Macon with his mother and father. I’d been there for the horror show of watching Dave go from (what appeared to be) a normal healthy guy to a blind sick invalid in about 6 months. It was traumatic. But did his mother EVER thank me? Nope. Was she ever the least bit courteous to the girl who took care of her son’s grand mal seizures? Nope. As a matter of fact, the old battle axe counted the fucking silverware when we were packing up his stuff. She never even thanked me for driving the truck down to Macon. His Dad wasn’t much better.

So, now he’s gone and she’s more concerned about getting all the stuff that’s “valuable” than a) what Dave might have wanted and b) what any of us “lowlife friends” may feel about all this. She wants his beloved Martin guitar “because it’s valuable”. Not that it was Dave’s favourite, well, that’s down the list, but the main reason is that it’s valuable. Because, you know, we’re ALL just gunning to steal Dave’s stuff. Riiiiight.

Unfortunately, Dave also had a nasty habit of thinking people were trying to steal his stuff. Being blind didn’t help that paranoia (having it actually happen didn’t help either), but his mother is the main source for that. She was always reminding everyone about how important her family is “MY family started the Coast Guard, you know” was a fave. She looks down her nose at everyone who’s not of her self appointed bougie class. She always warned Dave to be careful of his roommate and friends – and she didn’t even KNOW them!!

Horrible woman. We all just want to help sort out Dave’s final affairs and she’s mean and nasty to us. She hasn’t even told me about the goddam memorial service which I know about thanks to Witt telling me when we spoke on the phone.

I’m so over her I don’t think I’ll go. It’ll just be the family and I have nothing to say to any of them. It’d be worth showing up just to irk her, but I don’t have it in me. I’ve said my goodbyes to Dave already. Truly the only thing I want is a copy of his music. That’s it. He promised me his Advent speakers, but I absolutely WILL NOT ask that fat bitch for them. I WILL NOT. And I think the chance of her offering them is oh, about ZERO. They’ll end up on the curb or donated to Goodwill along with all the rest of the music equipment he loved. It really wrecks me to think about it. All his DJ stuff and his guitars mean nothing to her. It really sucks.

That’s not even mentioning the dogs. Witt has a plan for Kirby – one of his friends really wants him. We don’t think it’s appropriate to send him back to Leader Dog to injure another blind person (Kirby was the reason for Dave’s broken leg and subsequent declining health). Witt will keep Bonnie if he can, but if he can’t? No idea. I can’t take the dogs. Bougie won’t take them. It’s all up to the mother and I don’t like those odds. Poor doggies! Anybody want to dognap a couple of housebroken retired lead dogs? They are VERY sweet and well behaved… I’d be happy to give you the address and a spare key.

She can hate us all she wants, but WE knew Dave the best. WE saw him at gigs, having a great time. He never told her anything about his real life. All she knew was that he played music sometimes. She never knew that he learned to DJ in a strip club. Her little bougie heart would crumple and die if she knew. (Maybe I should tell her??)

Yah, she’s the mother and all that, but it don’t mean shit if you disrespect your offspring’s friends.

I just don’t understand how being such a raging beeyoch to us is respecting Dave’s memory. Oh, I remember: we’re just friends. She is family, so she’s the only one that counts for anything.

Families are the wart on the ass of humanity. I’ve said it before and it’s proven to me again and again. Nick and I will have wills by Dec 1. I don’t want our families getting in the way of our wishes when we die. Getting married was one failsafe, but having wills will absolutely cover everything if we both die at the same time. I don’t want his family or mine rooting through my shit tossing out things that they don’t understand is important to us. I don’t want my cats to have to rely on strangers to place them with a loving home. I’ve had two friends die intestate and it’s NO WAY to go, lemme tell ya. I really don’t think Dave would be happy with his mother’s behaviour. I hope she gets all she deserves.

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RIP David Klepsig, Jr.

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!