Gripen, we will miss you.

[Shorty_J]

Still meeting at 3:30 at eagle's eye for a rip?

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Sorry for your loss - R.I.P.

[DougW]

Excellent service ,much loved by many. Matt his friend did excellent job

[Reudi's Bowl]

Later Ethan, was good to meet you. Give 'er up there.

[Eluder]

Gripen will be missed, many a turn will be had in his name.

Sorry for those close to him.

[Shorty_J]

I feel privileged to be a part of the memorial yesterday... thank you to everyone.

There was so much love in that room... it was truly amazing! In particular, his friend Matt's words were probably the best thing I have ever heard said at a wake/funeral/memorial... so perfectly appropriate for the man what has moved on. Your love and respect and pain were felt intensely by everyone in that room... I'm certain of it.

I really wish I got to know him better than I did, but he has clearly left his mark on me, and many others.

I will always remember you fondly, Gripen, particularly when on top of a gnarly line at Kickinghorse.

[mtcham]

Condolences to Ethan's family and friends. RIP

[UncleScam]

So yesterday my co-worker shared this article with me. I guess her friend had passed right before Thanksgiving and their mutual friend (columnist) wrote a touching piece that was dedicated to him. I think it's a bit apropos in this case.

Thanksgiving Day and the Powerful Play


Two hours ago, as of this Wednesday night writing, the ground around my back porch was brown and bare and sere. Where only scant weeks ago there was deep color in the New Hampshire woods - an astonishing riot of maple red and oak orange and birch yellow, the likes of which I have never seen before and may never see again, because it was simply that extraordinary - there are now only the skeletal fingers of bare trees holding court over a graveyard of fallen leaves. A few studiously green pines stand the watch, as they always do, but in the main, it is the Autumnal end of things in this particular patch of this particular place.

And then, two hours ago, it began to snow. The East Coast, from the middle of Florida to the middle of Maine, is getting slapped with a good old-fashioned early-winter walloper that is going to perfectly and profoundly screw anyone looking to put the rubber to the road ahead of this Thanksgiving holiday. I feel for them, I really and sincerely do, but the branches of the cherry tree are graced with two inches of latticed snow, the forest beyond is a laden mystery of white, and all I can do is stare out the window and wonder at the exchange of one beautiful for another beautiful as the seasons change right before my eyes.

My 20-month-old daughter spent the morning banging around the house in her usual fashion, taking her shoes off and then demanding they be put back on immediately, all the while running under the floppy Hunter S. Thompson fishing hat that makes her look so much like her fly-fishing great-grandmother that my mother startles every time she sees her grandchild. My daughter categorically refuses to let this hat leave her head. She sleeps with it on, no joke. My genes are weird.

All of her wiggling stomping busybody frantic toddler mayhem stopped, like a needle jumping off a record, when she saw the snow pouring down outside. She pressed her nose to the cold windowpane of the porch door and stared, and stared, her breath fogging the reflection of her chin in the glass. She was born on April Fools Day, and was too young to appreciate her first winter - which might be for the best, as last winter was a stone bastard fully until late May - so this was her first true encompassing of what happens when the world turns white.

On Thanksgiving - weather permitting - we will bundle her up and strap her in and drive to Nelson, a couple of towns over, with a pot of buffalo chicken dip and a piping-hot pan of scalloped potatoes in the back of the car steaming up the windows and driving us mad with hunger from the smell of it all. We will be welcomed into the home of dear friends, warm ourselves by a roaring fire, swap tales of glory and madness and workaday muddling, we will lift a toast to the hosts, to family and friends, and to the glorious game of chance that brought us all together in that place. We are that lucky.

When we sit at table, there will be no place set for Pop, who has gone from us after Thanksgivings beyond memory. In Woburn, there will be no place set for my beloved friend and roommate and partner in crime, who passed last week. At tables in every city and town and village from one shore to the other, places will not be set for those who cannot sit and eat, or join in a laugh, or share a tale, or simply smile, because they are also gone from us. There will be a hole in many tables and many hearts on this Thanksgiving Day, and that is a truth of this life.

So.

Hold tight to who you have in this world, even if you're down deep in a ditch. I hope someone sets a place at table for you on Thanksgiving, but if not, remember that you're still here, and if you're here, it means matters can change for the better,because you're here. Hold tight to who you have, and tell those who are your heart you love them. Do not let the grass grow under the last conversation you had with one who is a part of who you are. I am here to tell you, from the well of my soul, that it is a savage, brutal shock to lose that chance forever.

We live in a world of shrinking margins, of narrowing visions, a world ruled and ruined by fools. This is the fact of our time, and no one is going to fix it today. Tomorrow, perhaps, but in the meantime, hold close what you hold most dear, and give thanks for the chance of that holding. If you truly appreciate what you have, no matter how mean or meager, you are doing it right. On this day of all days, remember where you came from, contemplate where you are, imagine where you can be, stand stock still a moment, and be thankful that you are here.

"That the powerful play goes on," Mr. Whitman reminds us, "and you may contribute a verse."

Contribute a verse. Because you can. Because you are here.

Happy Thanksgiving.

For Brian

Good luck viggen.

[Viggen]

So yesterday my co-worker shared this article with me. I guess her friend had passed right before Thanksgiving and their mutual friend (columnist) wrote a touching piece that was dedicated to him. I think it's a bit apropos in this case.

Thanksgiving Day and the Powerful Play




We live in a world of shrinking margins, of narrowing visions, a world ruled and ruined by fools. This is the fact of our time, and no one is going to fix it today. Tomorrow, perhaps, but in the meantime, hold close what you hold most dear, and give thanks for the chance of that holding. If you truly appreciate what you have, no matter how mean or meager, you are doing it right. On this day of all days, remember where you came from, contemplate where you are, imagine where you can be, stand stock still a moment, and be thankful that you are here.

"That the powerful play goes on," Mr. Whitman reminds us, "and you may contribute a verse."

Contribute a verse. Because you can. Because you are here.

Happy Thanksgiving.

For Brian

Good luck viggen.

UncleScam, Thanks for the article. I very much that it is appropriate, and much appreciated, as we head into another Holiday in which many of us will be feeling a loss which occurred in the past year, this holiday more than others.

Shorty_J & Doug, Thank you very much for coming out to the memorial and especially for introducing yourselves. Wish a few more turns could have been made together, but i think everyone had a good day none the less.

We hung a little reminder of Gripen at the top of his run, Redlight:

[LeeLau]

Viggen - that is a very cool sign. UncleScam that is a very cool story

[f2f]

holy shit! i hadn't logged in a few months and this is literally the last thing I expected to see. last time we exchanged posts Gripen was doing well and on his way to recovery...


i'm sorry for your passing, Gripen. you were an inspiration. seeing you coaching the groms off the paradise chair at Lake Louise felt like something was right with the world when someone could bring so much joy to the kids... and talking about the old stomping grounds in New Mexico was definitely an educational eye opener. we shared a bit of history, and a passion. but you were much better at the passion part...

i'm sorry your number turned up so early, you definitely did not deserve it.

[powking12]

I've just had a very close friend have fairly successful C. surgery and I'm very happy about that.

I wish it could work out like that for everyone. I didn't get to meet Gripen but followed him on here and we are down a man, for sure.

Thoughts and prayers out to his family.

[Danno]

We hung a little reminder of Gripen at the top of his run, Redlight:

FKNA.

[GoldenBC]

I read this thread for the first time this morning. It's funny what triggers emotions sometimes. It always takes a while for these things to hit me and usually it's when the person you miss isn't where they should be. It hit me skiing Red Light the day Ethan passed and again this morning, reading how he affected so many people and hearing them reflect. I'm so thankful for all the time we spent together, to have had the chance to talk at your memorial (and that it was last second so I could hold it together and that Matt can speak my own words better than I), for all the tough times over the years that shaped us and for so many great moments this fall during such a hard time.
I'm missing you big time buddy.

[schuss]

Just saw this - rest in peace. He seemed like someone with a very upbeat attitude despite his trials.

[Mathematics]

Goddammit, haven't logged in in ages, cruising thru and see this.

RIP mag...

[Pa. patroller]

RIP

[XtrPickels]

Super sorry to hear this.

[Ted Striker]

Shit. Been away for a while, and I thought he had turned the corner for the better. Sorry for your loss viggen.

RIP Gripen.

[StuntCok]

Oh no, after a long absence from TGR, I come back to find out Gripen is no longer with us. I am so sorry to hear this. :-(

[D-Roc]

RIP gripen

[Rideski]

Not hotlinking because of the thread it was in,
but nice cameo by a gripen @ 5:22.
vibes Viggen...

[Adski]

Been a long time since I been here. Glad to see props for Gripen

[AKPogue]

Skied with him in Garmisch. He was a good guy! Taken way too soon!

[Ripzalot]

I had that same thot. RIP Gripen

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