A friend has died. We worked together years ago when I first moved to the Capital District. We kept in touch over the years because we both were living in Castleton. He was a nice, warm, caring, funny person who loved animals, especially cats. I saw him shortly before Christmas and he seemed very ill, not himself at all. But I have a much better lasting image of him, when on his 40th birthday, all of his friends at work chipped in and sent him a Zing-A-Gram.