Stirrin' The Pot: June 2016

Today I lost the best friend that I ever had. Not only was he my friend, he was my cousin. We grew up together and we fought from time to time, but I can honestly say we never were mad at each other. I do have to say that some of my worst ideas and best of times included him.
Volumes could be written about Daryl, but I'm going to only tell you about a few things we did growing up and as grown ups.
Daryl was probably the most plain spoken person I ever knew. He was the real deal. what you saw was what you got. If he liked you, he'd do anything in the world for you; he was just that loyal to his friends. Case in point; when we were in our 20's, my mother called me about a situation regarding one of my sisters. Me being the big brother, I decided a little justice needed meting out to the person that had had laid hands on a member of my family. I told mom I was on my way pretty soon and would check on my sister and make sure she was ok. Mom told me not to take a gun so I wouldn't do anything rash. I told her not to worry,won't need a gun, Daryl was going with me. Mom then said Oh God, I'd rather you took a gun. She finally talked me out of going, but I do regret not making that road trip with DW.
Speaking of road trips, I can't not tell this one. When I was about 17 and Daryl was all of 15, we told my mother we were going down to Yuma to camp out and fish for a couple days. Little did she know we had a side excursion planned down to this little border town called San Luis. We were having a great time and got a little too boisterous to suit the local law. Needless to say we wound up in the local la carsa.. Now mind you there are no juvie cells in those places. We were tossed in with killers, smugglers and the like. The next morning, using my car as collateral, I was able to get out to arrange to pay the fine.. 15.00 each or fifteen days in jail. But seeing as how the bondsman had taken all our money as a ''fee'' I had to hitchhike back to Yuma to get money for the fine. I told Daryl of the plan and he asked why he couldn't go instead of me. I said fine, you go and call mom and tell her where we are and need money to get out of jail. He never hesitated when he said, " hurry back''.
I could go on, but to me, the best times with Daryl were always at our family reunions. We played golf, we toobed, we drank a lot of beer and we just hung out. That's where some of the best ''Darylisms'' were born. This one is my favorite: One night a bunch of us went over to Gruene Hall to listen to some music and drink a few beers. Daryl wasn't drinking at the time, so for once he was the designated driver. We were laughing and joking when I noticed a strange look on his face. When I asked what was up, he just shook his head slowly and said, '' since I quit drinking, you people ain't as near f*****g funny as you think you are."
Well, that's Daryl in a nutshell. I'm going to close with this, if you have or have had a Daryl in your life, your lucky. If you haven't, then you have truly missed out.