LIFE IS SIMPLE and we must keep it that way to be truly happy in this life. This is one lesson I haven taken with me from a very dear friend that recently passed on. We are all connected. This is a known fact that is part of the fabric, the culture of the Appalachian region. Makes no difference here, whether you drive a BMW or a pick up truck, or a Hummer H3 with big harry spikes all over it, when the chips fall, there are no differences. Exteriors in this part of the country really are, just self expression. It is this realness that makes the type of LEGENDARY men and women we produce and the amazing wisdom they carry and pass on. One such LEGENDARY MAN was James William (Bill/BrownDog) Carrier. He graced this world for very nearly 89 years. He raised 7 kids, had 17 grandchildren, and 20 great grandchildren and he LOVED all of them unconditionally. The door was always open no bad how bad ya had screwed up. He was a man that handled his affairs in a straight forward fashion and always had sweetness beneath his direction. He was a man with a 6th grade education that knew more about business than very many top ranking C.E.O.s and demonstrated it more than a few times (to their faces). Bill had the best sense of humor I ever encountered. He wasn't "easy" on ya though. He knew that expectations produced the best kind of results in people. I first encountered Bill when I was selling luxury custom motorhomes for a Texas firm. We traveled with the NASCAR circuit in the mid 1990's and it was generally one big money making party. In those days of NASCAR, you had total access. It was a "Hometown Crowd". Bill was hosting us on his property at a particular race. Every morning, between 5:30 and say 7:00a.m., I would take one of our display area golfcarts and drive over to the Campground Kitchen at Bill's place and get biscuits and gravy. Well, the whole family and I adopted each other almost immediately. They must have thought I was gettin' up extra early to get at those biscuits and gravy, when in fact, I hadn't even been to bed yet; heck, I had just quit drinking moonshine within the hour ;o). At any rate, a union had been formed. Over the 15 years (and many races) that we have all known each other, Bill, his family, and I have shared many experiences, some painful, but most glorious. We have been together in both joy and strife and we have gone to battle on one another's behalf more than once (and sure as hell would again this minute if deemed remotely neccesary). In those years we shared I watched Bill and learned. He had an amazing apptitude for reducing a complicated problem into a very simple equation. Bill knew that LIFE IS SIMPLE which makes him amongst the wisest men i've ever known. WE complicate issues. Most people look at a myriad of irrelevant considerations when trying to make decisions. We do this because we really don't want to make a "hard" decision  so we come up with a ton of reason's why "it won't work" to keep from commiting. This is where I always saw the glaring difference between Bill and most others. He always reduced a "problem' to it's most basic structure, made a decision and executed a solution without a bunch extraneous emotion and never an ounce of hesitation or worry. He was a leader and in that an exceptional asset to all that knew and loved him. As I sat at his Entombment ceremony, it occured to me that death hadn't taken Bill; He had done his work, he had loved his whole life and when the time came, he took death. Make no mistake; I MISS HIM and I WILL CONTINUE TO MISS HIM, but his passing was more like a graduation than a tragic loss. He wrung every ounce of use out of his body and this life. He learned, he taught, but above all he LOVED. One of the most valuble lessons I took from Brown Dog was this. There is but one way to truly be a man and it is done using your HEART. I know that somewhere in the cosmos, Bill is leaning over a pool table, and havin' a nip of "squeezins" while displaying that playful grin that revealed the rascal in him. I know he's in a better place and that his presence enhances and amplifies goodness in the hereafter. I will miss my friend, but I'll never lose him. He will live forever in the hearts and memories of those he touched and knowing he has gone ahead of us makes me more comforatble about "getting there" myself one day. He'll have the afterlife whipped into shape by the time we arrive, I'd bet my life on it.
                                        In Honor of Greatness,
                                                                 HB Skip