Help Me Obi Wan Kenobi

Here is a question for my flist: how would one go about finding out if a particular person has died recently?

The person in question is a friend of my mom's. According to her, she lost touch with him about a month ago, when his phone got shut off, but for a few months prior to that he had been kind of a mess - in and out of hospitals, jail, and rehab at various times, sleeping in his studio, no longer making any money because he got kicked out of his gallery (he's a jeweler, quite a good one) - basically just going to pieces, between the alcoholism and the long-term mental problems from his tour in Vietnam. She started worrying that something might have happened to him when his phone went from shut off but still assigned to him to disconnected, and when he didn't call her on her birthday.

There wouldn't be an obituary, because he doesn't have anyone who would write one or pay for one. He has a sister, but they are estranged and my mom doesn't know how to get hold of her - she probably is using one of her husbands' names, and if not, she's a Garcia, so we can't just look her up in the phonebook. So now I'm wondering if there would be some record of him somewhere - if the police would have something, or some department of records, something like that? Is there any way to find this out without actually knowing what happened to him and when?

Not About Dead People

There is a reason I don't go outside unless it is absolutely necessary between March and October - it's not because I'm a pasty agoraphobic geek who fears the touch of natural sunlight. It's because NATURE HATES ME.

It's ridiculous, I swear - I was sitting on the back porch with my mom talking and watching the rabbit hop around this evening, and after twenty minutes she made me go inside because my eyes were swelling shut. DO NOT WANT. So now I'm all doped up on allergy pills and still itchy, because nature hates me. I thought that kind of thing was only supposed to happen with animal allergies and stuff, geez.

Other than my immune system trying to kill me, it was a good afternoon though. We walked over to the main road and went to a burger place for dinner, and then we came back and just hung out so I could get some kitty and bunny time. Yay fuzzy pets. And they've been moving some of the animals around on the farm, so now the yard that butts up against my mom's yard has three animals in it - a pony, a mule (is it still a mule when it's crossed with a mini horse?), and the world's most asshole-ish donkey. It was too overcast today, but next time I'm there I'm going to get pictures, because the mule and the pony are about the cutest things ever, and the mule's a sweetheart. We gave her all the horse treats we had while the pony and the donkey were running around biting each other. :D

Next time we meet up (hopefully next week), we have plans to drag Lisa off to the Awesome Bead Store so that we can do a craft day. I want to start making hairsticks, Lisa does really neat earrings, and my mom wants to make me a stuffed dragon. It should be fun!