A Rekindled Friendship

I'll get to the heart of this post and the meaning of the title in a moment, but first, Amber and I are on vacation this week. After our weekend at the coast our immediate goal now is to act like we're retired, sort of, but also get some much needed work done around the homestead. I spent the morning yesterday doing work, as in business work, then in the afternoon tackled the messy garage. Reorganizing and cleaning the garage is something I do about every 6 months then it gets back to its cluttered state again.  I think it might have something to do with Murphy.  Why is it that flat surfaces attract stuff?

I'm not proud of the photo above, that's why it's smaller and not the top image to the post but it's typical of how the workbench looks most of the time. When we were first married it seems like I could keep things organized and in their place.  I guess I've lost control.  Does this mean I should join a cluttered workbench help group?

Now to the real reason for this post. A little over a month ago I posted on a Honda 90 that I came across in my travels. It was called Honda Nostalgia. In that post I mentioned that as a teenager I rode around on a borrowed Honda 50.  I also mentioned a good friend being a part of those rides.  After writing that post and having some wonderful memories come to the surface I called him to see how he's doing.  We hadn't seen each other since the mid 80's and only talked on the phone a couple of times since then. He lives in the Seattle area and has owned and ridden various motorcycles all these years. We had a great visit on the phone and decided to get together in March when he would come to Portland on business.  Last night we met at a restaurant near the airport and and had a great time catching up on each others lives. 

It's really special to re-connect with someone you've known almost all of your life but haven't seen for many years. When my family moved into that neighborhood in Southern California I was one month shy of 9 years old. There were four of us including his older brother who became best friends that summer. Later there would be two more who would move into the neighborhood.  I'm certain that the six of us would agree that we grew up during the best era and had the best friendships.  I'm very grateful for that.

As we parted last night we agreed to stay in touch and even get together for some riding. It was really great to see him and realize that we'll see each other more often and even ride together again. If someone had told us years ago that we'd both be living in the Northwest and get together at a restaurant near the Portland airport one night to re-connect and discuss riding again we'd have said, no way. It's interesting how events in life come together.

I hope you're surrounded by a lot of family and friends.  Life is short.  Treasure each moment and relationship. 

Oh... I got the garage and workbench clean.  We'll see how long it lasts.