Good-bye Moose 11-06-10

It is very rare that a man can match me joke for joke. After years as a used car dealer and 24 years as a personal trainer, I can come up with a joke on nearly any topic...sometimes dozens. I don't normally like to work blue (dirty jokes) but have several thousand on tap if the occasion calls for it. I met a man in St. Clair Shores. His name was Moose Strehler. I don't think Moose was the name his mother gave him at birth. His friends tagged him with it when he finally finished growing. He had a bushy gray beard when I knew him, and looked like a cross between a mountain man and a college professor. He was only about 6 foot 4 and 300 pounds, but various illnesses in the past few years had left him lighter. He had health issues even when I first met him in 2001...but he started the stream of jokes nonetheless. We went mono a mono for a hour that first time. We told animal jokes, golf jokes, and jokes about dimunitive men doing time in prison. He liked riddles and matched my ex-wife jokes with dozens of his own. You would have liked Moose immediately if you met him...everyone did. I saw him about twice a year until two years ago, and he never once mentioned that his severe neuropathy was forcing doctors to cut off parts of this jovial man one piece at a time. Moose died in his sleep last night at the age of 65. Good-bye Moose, I hope God has a great sense of humor.