Recently I found myself listening to one of my old favorites, Jimmy Buffett, not knowing his days were numbered. I needed that mellow beach music to take me back to the easier times of my youth, drinking Boat Drinks in Margaritaville. But more than that, I needed to be reminded of one of my favorite trips to Las Vegas in 2003 watching Jimmy from very close-range singing poolside at the Flamingo hotel. We were all wearing our Hawaiian shirts as we joined the Parrotheads (Jimmy’s fans) dance and sing along to his iconic tunes. I knew the words to all the songs back then and still feel nostalgic when I hear certain songs.

Changes in Latitude reminds me of trips to Whistler where we would turn up the volume to this song as we reached the outskirts of our favorite vacation destination. The change in latitude never ceased to change my attitude and although Brittney was not the biggest fan of Jimmy Buffett, she probably agreed that we were all happier when Jimmy sang us into our vacation spot.

To be honest, my favorite Buffett song is Come Monday, but as I write this on a Monday it hurts like hell to know he won’t be making any more music or share his unique way with words on this Monday. Damn him! He said, “Come Monday, it’ll be alright”, but it is not alright. He was only seventy-six and as I approach that milestone (only five years behind him), I can’t help wondering where the time went.

Boat Drinks

I guess I must have known we were coming to the end of an era when I suddenly felt the urge to listen to these tunes again. As we grow older (but not up) his words resonate more than ever. I can’t help but be happy when I listen to his songs, but today I am so, so sad that we lost this wonderful human. He touched a lot of lives with his music and I, for one, will miss him more than I can express here.

Goodbye, Jimmy