Ray Bradbury Passes Away At 91

I grew with Ray Bradbury & here's how. 

I discovered Ray Bradbury at the tender age of 9 years old. The book was FAHRENHEIT 451 & it scared the crap out of my nine year old mind. It wasn't a pretty book at all but a book whose world burned in my mind every single day. THE ILLUSTRATED MAN was next & his tales that came alive from his flesh infected me further. Finally in the summer  of my tenth year I read Some Thing Wicked This Way Comes.

It changed my world forever. 

Ray Bradbury was friends with Ray Harryhausen & I was sort of hoping that they would celebrate their 90 something birthdays together.
It was not to be. I'm in a sort of state of shock. And I'm sad. Yet the joy of Bradbury's spirit keeps pushing through so that, in the end, all I can bring myself to do is celebrate his life. He will indeed live forever, as Mr. Electrico foretold.I found myself randomly thinking last night of how Ray was still going strong at nearly 92, and how amazing that was. Then I sat down and read a couple of stories, "The Vacation" and "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" from The Machineries of Joy. I hadn't read a Bradbury story in some time, having devoured most of his work by a few years ago. I can't help but think all of that was somehow fitting, as if his spirit was reaching out into the ether.