Tough Planet!

Okay first of all yesterday represented the 5 year anniversary of the day Tom Chase was murdered at my old business. Of any date in this world that is by far the toughest. To make it a little tougher Tom and I had a standing deal of him taking me to a bar to watch Monday Night Football anytime the Rams played(which was usually only once sometimes twice a year.) Well yesterday both coincided making the day very tough for me. There are certain events in everyones lives that can have a dramatic effect on them, and this is probably the one with the most profound effect. I never had the best opinion about society as a whole, but this was sort of the icing on the cake. Often I wander how such evil can be found on our planet, but I quickly force myself to think about all the wonderful people who do make this planet a great place. In the same thought I always ponder how your time can come at any minute, therefore it is probably best to live life to the fullest. I decided to use this time to note a few quick lines about the truly important people in my life. While I could easily write a book for each person I decided to name what they represent the most to me. As a disclaimer, I apologize if I miss anyone, and more importantly I hope I don't offend anyone, because by no means is that my intention. And finally before I start this is a completly random order.
I thank my mom for teaching me the value of taking care of others before yourself. She always worked herself to the bone to provide for my brother and myself. She is by far the most giving person anyone could ever meet in their life. I thank my dad for teaching me the value of integrity and respect. He by far has the strongest set of core values I have ever come across.
I thank my ex-wife Jeannette for being an incredible mother. She has been through an incredible amount of misfortune in her life but has always taken great care of my daughter. I thank Lisa Merkel for providing me with great conversation while immediately calling me on anything she knows I truly think otherwise about. She is one of the few people I know who is completely unbiased about each person in my life. I thank my brother for turning out to be such an incredible person as well as father. While in college I constantly worried that he would not turn out okay. Genetically both him and I were given a near perfect set of genes both physically and mentally. To have wasted those would have been a shame. I always hoped he'd turn out to be good as person as myself, however he eclipsed me a long time ago. Considering how he was as a teenager, he turned into a truly special person. I thank Scott Grider for teaching me at an early age exactly what drugs can do to a person. As sad as it sounds it has made dealing with that side of society much easier. I thank Tom Chase for showing how tough mankind can be.
He was probably the toughest person I have ever met. He had the perfect combination of toughness, morals, and protectiveness you will ever meet. Watching and hearing the female clerks talking about how he handled himself was awe inspiring. I finally understood it when I drove by one night and saw him standing out front of my store smoking a cigarette. I felt like my store was so well protected. After being shot, lying in his pool of blood, his last audible words were "has anyone called Rudd?" I can't imagine anyone else on this planet who would have been more protective of myself. Lastly and by far most important to me is my daughter. I think her for being such a wonderful person. I still have never heard her say a bad word)however she will get a sheepish grin when one comes on in a movie or song.) I thank her for trying so hard in everything she does. She has done incredibly well in school, unlike her father. I thank her for being so polite to everyone around her. I thank her for understanding at times when most kids throw a fit. But most importantly I thank her for just being herself.