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Good read. I guess I was a little surprised to learn these plans had (loosely) been in the works for years. In my mind I didn't think Steve would ever retire or leave Chicago.

Great read - have always been a fan of Byron's and was happy to see him involved - for some reason he always seemed like one of the one's on the up and up.

Coley made me smile a lot, though a couple passage felt like a knife to the ribs. Like this:

And then there’s items I’ll run into while archiving and ask, “Did you really want to get rid of this?” And it’s a no, it just got lost in the mix because there’s a lot of stuff.

Been there.

The detail about hoping to retire somewhere warmer makes me sad that didn't come to pass (and not just because my own retirement plans involve the Big Island of Hawaii).

penningtron wrote: Thu Oct 30, 2025 10:47 am Good read. I guess I was a little surprised to learn these plans had (loosely) been in the works for years. In my mind I didn't think Steve would ever retire or leave Chicago.

I have vague memories of a mention of a move to warmer climes. Bob recently moved to Portugal for I imagine multiple reasons. My ex is a friend of Bob and his wife so I could be remembering a conversation there.

The goal was to move to Hawaii.

All of us should be so lucky as to have lived Steve's life. Half of it, even. And he went out on top, presumably feeling no pain.

At the same time, Christ, he was way, way too young and I'd have loved to have read posts about him selling this stuff off while he were still alive. And enjoying the hell out of his retirement, roasting pigs or whatever he might have ended up doing.

Regardless, I doubt I'll ever find a remotely affordable copy of the metal-sleeve version of Big Black's Bulldozer. I still kick myself for passing it up for $100 when I was a poor-ass college student in the '90s. Holy grail bullshit for me since high school though. (Which is maybe kinda pathetic on my part, dunno.)

Not being able to read Steve's post retirement Hawaiian BBQ blog makes me sad. It would have been wonderful.