Sorry to hear that Pickles. I guess today is like bad bore news day.
After work I got a call from my mom saying that my uncle had died earlier today in Detroit; he was 64. He had apparently been missing for the last couple days (which we didn't know about), and they found his body today. I drove down there to help comfort my aunt; she was in complete shock. She retired a couple weeks ago and was planning on just chilling all summer with him, trying to rekindle things I guess. I don't have many details about what happened but I have a feeling it was drug related. He was clean for most of this decade but recently got into a car accident, and relapsed on pain medication. Apparently my aunt asked him to go to the store and he never came back. They found him in a less than great part of Detroit; when I lived in Detroit I knew people who sold drugs there.
I've mentioned him many times here and on GAF. He'd always call me with the craziest computer questions. He was that crazy uncle that many people tend to have: not crazy as in "in and out of jail" but the type who believes every conspiracy in existence. He was a huge sci fi fan, huge James Bond fan, was obsessed with Roman history...basically any conversation you had with him would inevitably turn into a discussion about Rome, Dracula, or Frankenstein. When I was young he let me read stuff I probably shouldn't have been reading, watch R rated movies, etc.
I noticed all my life that he was also sort of the family whipping boy - not in a malicious way, but just like "ohhh here comes Fredo" type way that I could tell bothered him. He was the oldest of my grandparent's kids (on my mom's side), very bookish, rambled (sometimes incoherently), was always falling for dumb money schemes. But I always enjoyed listening to his stories, talking about history, watching movies, etc. We'd be in the corner somewhere at every family event, discussing Caesar, Ancient Aliens, JFK, how to send emails, debating his ridiculous Van Helsing love, etc.
