This is my friend Karl Olguin. He died way too young on July the 4Th.., 1996. Karl was an incredible individual who could talk intelligently on any subject from G-d to Stock Car Racing. His talents ranged from singer/songwriter to knowing all the words in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Karl is missed daily by many. Love your friends because life is short.

July 4Th., 1998

It has now been two years since Karl has died. The pain of his death has diminished but the absence of his presence has only been magnified. Still to this day I think of him each and every day. I no longer think I am going to go home and e-mail him something silly that I saw or heard on that day but I know that he would have appreciated the thought, image or gesture. The world is poorer with his passing. Last year on Karl's yartziet (a Jewish term for the anniversary of a death) His mom, Mary, and sister, Carole, and our friends Jeff and Dennis went and made a physical shrine to Karl complete with plastic flowers. Mary was kind enough to send me pictures that I wanted to post but I put them away in a safe place and now can't find them. Karl stop laughing !!!

Last year on the Fourth my downstairs neighbors Ed and David invited me to Bar-B-Q with them. It was the beginning of some really great friendships. Last night Ed and I and another friend were riding in the rain until 1:00 AM after watching the fireworks.

Remember love and cherish your friends and family because Life Is Too Short!

July 23rd., 1998
Well as fate would have it Ed and I were looking at a SCSI card that I have been wanting to put into my computer. I had never been able to get it to work but we are going to try again with the new computer that I am building. I dug deep into the place where I keep fragile valuable stuff that I will want in the future...lo and behold I had put the pictures that Mary had sent me into one of the fragile keep for the future boxes. I of course scanned them at the first possibility. I have actual size 300dpi that are available, e-mail below. I am proud to be able to present to you through Mary Olguin's generosity a few pictures of the shrine that was built last year. The third picture is one that Mary says is one of but a handful where Karl was smiling. I just realized why Karl is smiling. He is sitting with Ralph, a better companion a man could never want. The fourth is a picture of (LtoR) Jeff, Dennis and Carole, Karl's sister. Note the Holy Water in Dennis' hand. Also I am sure that Jeff was the designer and creator of the Desecano in there second picture.

July 4Th., 1999

Another year has passed and I have some thing I desperately want to share with Karl. Firstly he would have certainly seen The Phantom Menace and lusted after his own Pod Racer, who wouldn't. Well the ever enterprising George Lucas found that he could sell all sorts of video/computer games and make a bundle. His Racer game is worth the cost of admission. I have been playing it with Ed regularly and he is kicking my ass. I know that Karl would have loved this game. He too would have spent hours trying to beat his best times.

July 4Th., 2000

And another year has passed with Karl absent but not forgotten. For the last week I have been in Manhattan. It has been no problem to picture David and Karl there. While there I had thought more than once that it was wrong that I could not call Karl or David and ask them what to see and do in NYC. This is the fourth year since Karl's death and the second since my meeting Ed and David. David now lives in Seattle but Ed is still in town. As part of the end of a business trip Ed and I met in Pennsylvania and camped for a couple of days in an state park. Also on this trip I spent a couple of days with my cousin Randye and her partner AnnMarie. The short few days that I was there gave me a renewed meaning of what it means to feel, to just be. This year Karl missed many things that I think he would have enjoyed, not the least of which would have been Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Karl would have dominated this game with his wide range of interests and depth of reading.
As I have said before...Love your friends.

July 4Th., 2001

Yet another year has past. It has been five years since Karl has died and I still miss him as much as the last day I saw him here in Chicago. This has been an interesting year for me. I have started a new job that gives me much pleasure, I have a new girlfriend who gives me even more pleasure that I thought possible. On the other side of the coin I recently learned that Karl's mother Mary passed away at a very young age of 54. In the last couple of years Karl's father has also died. The tragedy that has befallen the Olguins is of epic proportions. Never before have I witnessed so much hurt and devastation in a family so full of love and caring. Ever time I went to their house Mary always made me feel as if I were at my own parents house. Karl was a brother in every sense of the word. There is a hole in may heart that will never be filled.

In the last month I have learned that one of the first friends I made in Chicago, Johnny Pingad, was killed in a car accident a couple of weeks ago. JQ as many knew him had had a tough time finding himself. I saw a lot of myself in him. Both his father Brigido and his brother Richard always made me feel welcome in their homes when ever I would visit. As I have said before...Love your friends. Tell them so today.

July 4Th., 2003

This year Karl's passing was punctuated by the loss of another musical great, Barry White. Barry also died way too young at 58. I know that Karl would have felt the loss of Mr. White as much as any musician even though Barry's style was not one of Karl's favorite styles. Very interesting to note, especially if you have read this whole page, I have decided to move to Seattle. I know that this would have made Karl happy as Seattle is so much more of an outdoor place than Chicago. One of the recent developments that would have dissapointed Karl is the preponderance of reality TV shows. He would have hated the vapid people that participate and would have flet the shows were like auto accidents. Horrible but too hard to look away from.
In this era of war and corporate profit grabbing it is even more important to cherish your frineds and family.