I met Jerry at an SCA event. He was hitting on a friend of mine. He and his wife had an open marriage. It was weird, I'd never known anyone with an open marriage before. So I'd never had anyone's husband hit on me or my friends.
Not that I was naive, just unintiated.
Jerry and Deb were some of the best friends I met in the SCA. Not that there weren't other wonderful people, but Deb and Jerry were special. There are people that you meet that are just so much a part of your life so quickly that you have to allow for them in your life, or you'd be making a mistake.
Jerry and Deb got a divorce a few years ago and Deb moved out of state. To Alaska. Where she has to watch her weiner dog when it goes out, or an eagle might take it for lunch.
Jerry is the Protean pack rat. Sure, there are other pack rats, and you may think your uncle/grandad/cousin has got a lot of junk lying around, but Jerry outdoes them all.
I say all this out of envy. Mike often cuts a swath through my collection of junk and makes me part with very important useful things that I would still have when I actually one day have a use for them.
And a lot of the stuff is really cool. Groovy 70s trippy christmas tree lights. Animal pelts. 50s sci/fi pulp paperbacks. Dirty comic books. Chemicals whose properties have been lost to time. Antique measuring devices.
Of course, with a lot of cool stuff there is a need for place to put all the stuff. And Jerry's house is pretty small. Someday I will go over to his house and make orderly all the stuff he has. Organize and alphabetize and filize it all. But usually we just hang out and relax and talk about things that are cool, rather than move and box the junk. Such is the lot of a junkophile.
Jerry knows how to do more things than just about anyone I know. He is a true renaissance man.
I know another guy who has a lot of traits in common with Jerry, that's Heather fiance, Tom. Who, consequentially, thinks Jerry is pretty cool. They both share a love of knowledge. They like to know things, even things that they will never use or need. They revel in knowing the airspeed of a plane that flew for the Japaneses during world war II. Or how the greeks made clay pots. Or why the vikings had big feet. Whatever bit of trivia, they dig it.