Posted on 04/30/2004 2:57:28 PM PDT by fivetoes
I cannot find the words. This man was my FRIEND. Not my buddy, not someone I knew from the Internet, but my FRIEND.
My heart is aching. It hurts to breathe.
I haven't been on the board much lately. Too much other stuff going on in life. Was gonna sit down and send him a PM to see if he wanted to go shooting tomorrow, since I now have the day off. Haven't seen him in a few months and was feeling bad about that. Now I won't get to.
DAMMIT ALL!
I wish those of you who never had the privelege of meeting Alan Albertus would have. He was quite the remarkable fellow. I'm pretty sure if you open up your dictionary and find the term "laid back", there'll be a pic of my buddy in there somewhere.
Until you started messing with his family or his freedom, of course. Then he'd pull a serious Jekyll and Hyde on you.
The world is a seriously lesser place than it used to be.
I remember the first time I met him in person: at a TRT rally (of course). I was out here in Colorado on leave from Virginia, and the Brady Bunch was getting together in Denver. It was decided that would be a nice time for the TRT to "get together" as well, and since I happened to be here I trekked on down and joined in. I had swapped several e-mails with Al in weeks prior (since I was moving to within spitting distance and wanted to get to know him in person once I got here), and he told me to "look for the tall, skinny dude" at the rally and that'd be him. Since he stood about 6'6" and probably weighed 150 lbs. or so, he was pretty hard to miss.
Then (finally) came my move out here for good, and we struck up a solid friendship pretty much immediately. I remember being between jobs for a little while, and he knew I was down about it so he dragged me out for a camping trip out by Cripple Creek on the west side of Pike's Peak. Him, me, and one of his dogs piled up in that Toyota pickup of his and off we went. Trucked up about an hour and a half and made camp. Cut up some wood (Al cheated and brought the chain-saw, but I was cool with it) and got a fire going, and Al cooked some steaks on his little propane grill. It was COLD that night, and the wind was blowing. And here I am, originally from Texas and having lived in Virginia for 10 years, and I'm freezing my hindparts off. So he's got this nifty little bag for me to sleep in, except I'm about 50 lbs. too heavy for it. But I managed to get in it eventually, and avoided sleeping in the truck (I think he would have ribbed me about that, and I wasn't gonna let him). Next morning we went rabbit hunting, and after three hours of neither of us getting anything, we packed up and headed home. That whole episode still makes me smile, and it made him laugh when we'd talk about it, too.
He got me interested in reloading, and I've still got a box of .308 rounds for my rifle that he and I loaded up at his place. He had a setup that was second-to-none. RCBS press on one end of the bench, and a Dillon progressive on the other. And a closet FULL of reloads. He didn't really own that many different firearms from what I ever saw, but he could have shot each of them for a week straight and still have had ammo left over.
Trips to the Sportsman's Warehouse, and wishing we each had $10,000 or so of spare change lying around. Days at the range trying to relieve some of the sag in the closet floor.
Not enough of either. Not by a long shot.
I need to get to sleep, but I'm afraid it's gonna be impossible. And Al's not there at 2 AM like he has been so many times before.
You ever lose a friend and have it hurt more than losing all but your closest family members? Can someone get this weight off my chest please?
Hopefully I can track Crystal down tomorrow (later today?), and find out if she needs anything. They were so wrapped up in each other that it was sometimes hard to figure out where one left off and the other started.
He was prone to rambling, both on the 'Net and in person. I laughed a little when I read fivetoes talking about the "hours-long conversations". If you've ever been involved in a "talk" with Al via THR or TFL, you can rest assured that he was the SAME WAY in person. I'm gonna miss that rambling of his something fierce. I guess in a way I'm sort of borrowing it from him for this post.
And be passionate about things. Al never half-assed anything. It was either leave it alone or full speed ahead.
Folks, don't pull a Bob.
That friend of yours who you haven't called or written to or gone to see in a while? Get to it.
Don't get caught in front of your computer late one night with tears in your eyes and fingers that won't cooperate lamenting the passing of a friend that you've neglected for so long that it becomes too late and you run out of opportunities.
Most of the local political class, including the Governor, was on board,. A relentless cry for gun control permeated the major media outlets. It seemed that a consensus had been formed even without debate; we were going to have more gun control. It was not a good time for those who cherished fundamental liberty. A juggernaut was upon us and everyone paying attention to politics knew it.
One day as that winter month was coming to a close, I heard a gentleman call into a local talk radio show. It was Norm Resnick's show on KHNC, Johnstown, the home of the American Freedom Network (AFN).
The man said that he was tired of losing his 2nd Amendment rights bit by bit; he was tired of waiting for a solution from the pro-gun groups, tired of trusting and hoping that they would deliver. He was going to take action. With a few friends, he was going to show up at the Governor's mansion in Denver to take a stand; it was to be a rally for the 2nd Amendment and a protest against gun control.
If I remember correctly, it was to be on a Tuesday evening and anyone who wanted to participate was welcome. I'll never forget that caller because he made me think. Clearly, the 2nd Amendment was under assault, and I wondered, who would defend it? If I didn't stand up, who would? If I didn't take a stand then, when would I?
I couldn't justify doing nothing. It was my turn and I decided to attend. Not knowing what to expect, I went and was pleasantly surprised to find that about two to three hundred others had reached the same conclusion as I had, it was time to stand up, time to be heard.
Another protest was to be held in Fort Morgan on the eastern planes of Colorado, perhaps a week later. The Governor would speak before a local political gathering. Again, I went. During a lull in the action, I met a tall lanky guy with a familiar voice. He was the caller who had started it all. His name was Alan Albertus.
We talked about politics as well as other subjects. I remember him proudly showing me a very small disk drive not more than two inches in extent. He was an engineer working for a disk drive company and had helped to develop the micro drives.
Alan was passionate about liberty as was everyone who attended the rallies. The difference between Al and most of the rest of us, was that he was willing to be the first to stand up. Most of us were in some sense followers, we waited for someone else to take the lead. There is some comfort in being part of a group, even if the group is, from a broader view, a small minority. But to be the first, the initiator, that's special, and that was Alan.
I attended about six or seven protests with this ragtag group of patriots, later to become known as the Tyranny Response Team. As time went on and the 2nd Amendment wars in Colorado quieted down, I had the opportunity to again see Al at some of the AFN summer barbecues. We always had interesting discussions about liberty and politics. He was passionate about the former and was quickly learning about the latter. I always enjoyed and looked forward to those exchanges.
I can't claim to have been a close friend of Al's, but I felt that I knew him. This modern day Paul Revere, this Patriot, certainly influenced my life for the better and I thank him for that. Alan, you will be missed but not forgotten. May God be with you on your new journey.
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