BTMTAT said:

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In what now seems an eerie prophesy, Neel spoke his contentment that Pete had gone with a pulmonary embolism, certainly the way that he himself would like to go out.

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God. Damned. Allergies.

I was in Georgetown not too long after Pete died. He gave me the full lowdown on the surgery, and the issues that followed. But, I remember thinking at the time "Did the vet do the surgery or did you try to do it yourself?"

Dang, 62 is not very old.

Very sad.

A few years back I posted looking for advice on mountain trout fishing. As was apparently his habit, I get a message with his number and a request to call him. We talked for 30 minutes like old friends about various strategies, that of course he had pioneered. He then found out that I was a 4th year medical student, which launched another 30 - 45 minutes of advice. A few weeks after my trip, I randomly got a text asking how things went. A true example of a man to look up to.

insulator_king said:

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Dang, 62 is not very old.

Very sad.

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I used to think 62 was ancient but as I get older and my parents approach this age, 62 isn't as old as it used to be.

She also has a $100 bill hidden in the deepest corner of her purse/wallet that he gave her, folded up with his contact info. If she was ever in trouble anywhere in the world, that $100 was to be a safety net - to get her to safety so she could contact one of us.

This completely stirred the allergies. I'll start this in Neel's honor. These kinds of things rarely occur to me, I think this will be our going away gift to Aggies heading to College Station from our part of the world.

It is pretty amazing how many people he touched or left an impression on. Some great stories.

RIP

I have a niece going to college out of state next year. I am going to pull her aside and give her a $100 bill with my phone number on it just in case. What a great idea.

I don't post too much on this board or any board, but NW80 definitely "knew stuff." My condolences to all of you that knew him, to his family and to all his work colleagues in Houston. The medical community is worse off today. Vaya con dios good man.

Fossil Ag, Terlingua & NW80

I really miss Fossil on AO. Don't forget 44.

FASTFRED was another legendary poster worth remembering (albeit not on the OB) I'll have been on this website for going on 20 years.... hard to believe.

Here's a piece I ran across about Dr. Ware saving a guys life --

https://www.seton.net/news/2013/04/03/double-dose-of-expert-trauma-care-saves-mans-life/

It makes me smile a bit reading all of these stories about a great man who had an impact on many people, most who knew each other only by a screen name on a website. That's probably a lesson to us all, you never know who might be out there reading what you write. NW80 or Neel, or whatever you knew him as often laughed at what this board had become but I guess there might be a little something to this place after all.

I went and shot my 6X47L today. This is the caliber that started my relationship with Neel. I couldn't help but think of him today as I was testing some loads. I put the first 4 rounds in darn near the same hole and the 5th round got the best of me. I laughed because I imagined that crusty son of a gun laughing up there as I blew the last shot of the group.

One more thing, I'll miss about NW... I don't think he ever really understood the emojis on posts, particularly when posting sarcastic remarks to him.

We all knew his positions on tactical guns, shot placement on whitetail, etc., and occasionally I would post a smart ass comment with the winking face emoji. He would either get mad and post back, or we would be talking later and he would bring it up still pissed, not understanding I was just giving him a hard time. I finally started putting a disclaimer on my posts responding to him to "notice the emoji" ... not sure that even worked.

Great man! He will be missed greatly.

Yeah, Neel/NW80 had an issue with modern electronics. I can't tell you how many random phone calls resulted me me explaining that I was fairly certain that ___ (usually schmellba) was being sarcastic.

Blow a leg off, no problem. Post a photo on TA, that was an act of God.

Raise your hand if you got calls from Neel -

"Did you see such and such thread and what those greenhorns posted on it??"

Sure did Neel, just read it.

Then he'd read the thread to you word for word like he never heard what you said.

I'm going to miss that.

Yeah, I think the first time I talked to him on the phone was when someone started a thread about west Texas elk and he couldn't figure out how to post the pictures. He sent me a pm with his phone number and to call him and 30 minutes later I had the pictures, the story, and the start of a pretty cool friendship. I don't think that was the last time I posted pictures for him either.

One my favorite phone calls was after he got his CZ in either 220swift or .204. He posted a thread boasting about how maybe cheap off the shelf guns were maybe "OK", and everyone started roasting him on maybe an $800 rifle with $400 worth of glass maybe wasn't a budget minded purchase. It got under his skin all night while he was working the overnight shift, and him knowing I was mid harvest season and would be up earlier than the rest of his call list, I got to hear him rant and cuss "All those stupid SOB's on the OB!" at 5:45am.