Life does, in fact, get quite busy. And, I do have a valid excuse for slacking off on these blogs. 2024 was a tough year for me, personally. While it was a banner year at Rail Tees, life outside of the shop dealt me many blows. My mother, Carolyn Jean Johnson, passed on February 9th. By the time I get this blog post to my web guy it will likely be the one year anniversary of her passing. Here’s a link to her obituary, if you are so inclined to read it: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/idahostatesman/name/carolyn-johnson-obituary?id=54422826
While still grappling with mom’s passing, in early June I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was four months of tests and scans before a biopsy showed once and for all the definitive presence of cancer. Up to that point I thought it might just all be a mistake. But, I couldn’t be so lucky. About the time of my biopsy, my younger brother was also diagnosed with prostate cancer. If there was anything good to come out of my diagnosis it was that I was able to give my little brother a head’s up so that he might get checked out. They say if any man lives long enough he will eventually get prostate cancer. While it is one of the more treatable cancers, it is not something to be ignored. If you are a man of a certain age, or if there are men in your life of a certain age, please urge them to get checked for prostate cancer. It’s a simple blood test that checks for the presence of Prostate Specific Antigens. If you’d like to know more about prostate cancer, please look here: https://www.cancer.gov/types/prostate
Then, came the worst news of all. On November 26th, two days before Thanksgiving, my older brother, Leo LaRue, was struck and killed by a car while out walking his dogs near his home in Norfolk, Virginia. Leo and both dogs were killed in the accident. Even though it’s been two months since his passing, I am still finding it difficult to deal with his loss. And, upon learning the news, suddenly the cancer I was dealing with seemed infinitesimal by comparison. There is much more to say about this tragedy, but in the meantime, if you’d like to know just a little about my amazing brother, check out this now defunct GoFundMe that was set up in his honor: https://www.gofundme.com/f/remembering-leo-a-life-cut-short?qid=d896db71bf1d643c2fe11f11f6f653d9
From rubylith and railroad-track weights to laser prints and 12-second exposures, this “old dog” revisits typesetting—proving that while the tools changed, the patience and precision behind great screenprinting never did.
Being the new guy, the undesirable task of reclaiming screens always fell to me.
Shoot, you don’t have to go all the way to Montana if you want a job. I’ll give you a job