Encore! Encore! (lights lighter and waves back n forth)

A couple of more things about the bashes.

In the beginning Joe and Kathy not only hosted, but also catered the food.
It was always a great spread, down to multiple desserts to finish it off. Once the bashes got bigger, Joe started to ask for donations, to help cover the cost. Of course everyone obliged and even then, thy donated a portion of the proceeds to one of Kathy's local charities. That's who they were.

Prolly the coolest was that you didn't need a ticket to come to the bash. Joe didn't go to all of the games, so if you wanted to come hang with the planet for a weekend, but couldn't afford a ticket, you had a front row recliner waiting for you on gameday.

I took these pics from the display. I feel these pics perfectly capture Joes' joy, easy going nature and determination, qualities that would shine through him in the difficult times, up until the very end. Not once did he see himself as a victim or searching for sympathy.

Eloquently illustrated in the video he shared.






It was an eerie feeling driving up to the church on Thursday, after being there not too long ago help Joe bury Kathy. Humbling. Kind of crept on you the whole time.

The service was very well done. I was moved by Joes' childhood friend. She was very honest and poignant. I could see why she was Joes friend much later in life. His life long business associate and niece also did a fine job in something is not very easy to do. Something like this never is. I wish Katie could have made it, so that Joe's impact on the planet could've been recognized.

I mustered up the courage to talk to Joe's dad. I introduced myself from the planet and that i' had known him almost twenty years. Told him how happy I was that he had recommitted to the Lord and how his legacy would be so different had he not. Joe looks like his dad. He has his eyes. While I was shaking his hand, I kid you not, I saw a flash of Joe in those eyes.

I gasped, and he saw it, and I blurted out I loved your son, you raised a FINE boy. He teared and thanked me and told me that it meant a lot to him. Oh sir, you'll never know how much you reciprocated that day. Godspeed to you and your family.

On the visit right after he was diagnosed, he requested that I pick pallbearers from the planet. I don't know if this got lost along the way, or the family decided against it (which is well within their rights), but we found out the night before that it wasn't happening. Our desire was to wear suits and then put Chiefs jerseys over when we laid him to rest.

When we were in the foyer, the funeral director came up and thought we were the pall bearers. So while it was disappointing, we were dressed to the nines and represented the planet in fine fashion, albeit in a subtle way. I noticed that people are dressing more casual at funerals, so we stuck out a little. I hope we made Joe proud.

We got together at Joe's hangout in St Joe (54th st grill) and toasted and reminisced. Great memories, good times and laughs were had by all. just how Joe would've wanted it.

Friday was HARD. Just a sense of loneliness that is now starting to slowly get better.

Now, it all feels like a compilation of sorts. A rock solid testament to an era that most likely never be replicated, duplicated or paralleled.

For that, I am blessed and grateful to have experienced some amazing times with some really, really great people.



God Bless
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Much love to Joe and Kathy... they were great people. Gone too soon, but they are back together. God bless them. Life was an Ad-Venture for them. :-) Those CP Bashes were amazing.
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The eclipse party!
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Thanks to you that went to the Funeral, and for those posting videos and pics of Joe. I only knew him through these interwebs, but WOW, what a great testimony and great video of him talking at his own funeral. Joe is right, he's in a great place.
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I just got back to Texas, and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to hang out with some of the OG CP people and celebrate a life well lived. As has already been stated, I hope this wasn’t the end of the sense of community.
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So glad many of you were able to make it. It was very disappointing to me that I couldn’t be there. Joe had asked me to read sentiments from the planet which I would gladly have done, but the funeral was scheduled so quickly I couldn’t get out of my family obligation. I sent a compilation of some of the great planet tributes but I guess they weren’t able to include them.

I hope sometime in the future we can gather together and share some great memories of our friend!
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why don't we organize some sort of gathering that could raise more for the L.O.S.S.? If some of ya'll who play music, or someone wanted to DJ, I bet the D&G restaurant would let us use their music venue and collect $10 for apps and entry.
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It's hard to think of anything to write that hasn't already been written above. Everyone knows how special Joe was. I really wanted to attend the service, but I am out of the country on business.

He was a family friend and business partner for the majority of my existence.


I suppose I can state some random memories of me and Joe:


-We both attended The First Assembly of God church in St. Joseph. I was a kid at the time, but do remember him talking with my older brothers/father.

-I re-acquainted with Joe as a teenager while picking up/delivering pallets of Adventure through my families trucking business.

-We found each other again randomly on CP and always talked Chiefs when meeting up IRL.

-An easy spot to find him was at the 54th Street bar, where we would down Tank 7's and talk about prog music. I'd call my wife and say "Going to 54th to talk to Joe and have a beer."

-Both of our favorites bands is Porcupine Tree. I really regret NOT going with him to Chicago to see them live. He told me stories of how fun that trip was.

-We went to see Steven Wilson (of Ptree) together a few years ago, stopped at the Pnut... took a couple of gummies, had a great night.

-I was Joe's IT guy, as I helped rebuild his PC's, and gave him a couple of laptops.... keeping him somewhat caught up in tech. That giant music collection he had mentioned in an above post... much of that came from me. :-) I surprised him with my entire digital collection when his computer crashed.

-For the past years, I would create Pyro Joe's Fireworks digital display for demonstrating Fireworks inside of his building on the TV.

-Joe was a huge fan of my music projects/bands. I remember at one time he wanted to get involved as my band manager and/or promoter which blew me away. I was always so appreciative of that offer, even though it didn't work out due to Kathy's health and Joe's moving on from Rock Music and strictly into Gospel/Praise/Worship music.

-Joe loved to speak about his testimony.
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I'm going to cut this one loose now...been up for quite a while as it is. Thanks to all to who supported Joe with his fundraisers and lastly for his fight for life. It's truly the end of an era for Chiefsplanet.
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Prayers and thoughts are with loved ones. So tragic!
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My memory is fogging and I don’t remember if I saw this before. Very sorry and sad to hear this him and his wife were amazing hosts at the bash. I went to. Man was such a kind soul, as was his wife. What I remember, most is just how kind and pleasant they were as people. Rest.
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