Ronald...always wore dark blue shorts and randomly named worker shirts of the same material. He was a triple x large. He complained that he had to special order his wetsuit so he can surf. I never did see him surf.
He stood tall. He was 6'2", 256 lbs. Twice my age, twice my weight. Mostly muscle...he went to the gym 4am every day...you don't mess with Ron. He wasn't just big physically, he talked and acted big too. What's funny about him is sometimes he'd do a gesture that would imply that he thought he was small and cute, but the overwhelming fact was he was large...triple x large.
His face had that reverse raccoon look with the pale skin around the eyes and rosy tan for the rest of his face. Sometimes he'd think something was so adorable, that he'd clamp down on his jaw until it'd make a cracking noise while his eyes were squinted shut.
He had a good head of hair. He'd go digging around in his scalp for "nuggets." He felt that his digging for nuggets was the reason for his good hair.
He had some phrases he liked to say often, like "Ron with coke," "nggg...itchy nose itchy nose," "I R Ron," "this really happened"
He also demanded his rights. He'd press down on his other hand or the counter or whatever surface with his pointer finger to poke through his view point. He'd even drive in the fast lane going the speed limit and letting me know that he had every right to be there as people would honk angrily at him. And he deemed all the yellow spaces his spaces.
He rarely spoke of being a Marine. I don't even know what ranking he ended with. He did say that Veteran's day was his day.
He's a great friend when you're on his good side and when he senses you've done him wrong, he'll quickly burn the bridge. I felt bad for his friends and him when he burns the bridge. He seemed so lonely sometimes. The only time he was ever mad at me was when I joked with him that he looked like a leprechaun...he told me I had to leave...I got off lucky.
Whenever he'd passed a church, he'd do the sign of the cross and whenever he went the dentist, he'd have a pile of boxes from See's candy with him.
He's a man of his word. He's never broken a promise and was very respectful of personal space.
He told me that I'd never meet a man who'd treat me as well as he did...and he was right.