“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
A lovely day with lots of sun, a deep blue sky and a little breeze greeted me this morning. Most of the snow has disappeared. The only bits left are in shaded areas. I’m being hopeful and putting my primroses on the front step. They’ve been in the house keeping warm since I bought them, but I think it is warm enough to introduce them to the world.
Today I have lists, but I’m quite behind my time because I spoke to both of my sisters this morning. One sister is sick so it was a short conversation, but my other sister, in Colorado, and I spoke close to an hour. Yes, we did find plenty to talk about for all that time. Lulls are generally not part of our conversations.
I still keep in touch with a few of my childhood friends. We talk every couple of months and get together about twice a year. My college friends and I lost track of each other while I was in Ghana. We wrote for a while but the time between letters got longer and longer and then the letters stopped. We were living far different lives a long way from each other. I still have Peace Corps friends that I met in 1969, and I feel as close to them now as I did when we worked and lived together. We shared an experience few are fortunate to have and built a bond which has stayed strong. We have stories which make us laugh every time we tell them. I think it is the same with just about every volunteer no matter the country of service. We all have a bathroom story, but I use bathroom loosely here. Outhouse, hole in the ground or a quick run into the bushes would be better choices. I know I’ve tried them all. We have great stories about medical problems and try to top each other in the telling. The conversations usually include worms, boils, tropical skin diseases, infections, cracked lips and feet and diarrhea, the bane of most volunteers. We graphically describe the symptoms and are never offended or grossed out by what we hear. Sometimes we even applaud the story, the grosser the story the longer the applause.
My closest friends live down the street. We are an odd family of three. We celebrate major and rare holidays together, rare holidays like Cowboy Day. We decorate and wear special clothes to help celebrate. I still have my cowboy hat and my sombrero from Cinco de Mayo. We greeted the sunrise together at the beach on the first day of spring. I’m working on their Easter baskets. They are fun friends. My life is enriched by knowing them.
I have no idea how I got where I did. I guess mentioning childhood friends set me on my way. I’ll just end here with how lucky I am with my friends.
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Tags: bathroom stories, boils, childhood friends, college friends, diarrhea, melting snow, Peace Corps friends, phone calls, primroses, sisters, sunny day, warm, worms
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March 22, 2016 at 2:16 pm
Facetime and Skype – The wonders of the modern world have allowed me to stay very current with chums that go back as far as Grammar School in Dorking. WhatsApp sends an instant thought at no cost – We can talk music or football or getting old or whatever is troubling us (which today is quite a lot)
I stared at the new ipad pro but am not sure that I really absolutely have to have it – especially as I am still somewhat mad at Apple.
Some of my friends I have know for 50 years, some for only 40. This is a good thing in my life
March 22, 2016 at 2:22 pm
My Dear Hedley,
One of my friends and I go back 60 years. We have such great stories which come up every now and then. I always blame her, and she laughs so hard he can’t talk. I call my former students in Ghana who are now all in the 60’s. They go back to 1969.
I have one friend with who I went to elementary school, high school and college. We were even roommates junior year. She flunked out, and I wrote a wonderful letter pretending to be her asking that be reconsidered because of all the issues she had to deal with. They let her back in and we graduated together.
My old iPad is coming to Africa with me. I won’t buy a new anything until I get home from there and see how much money I have left.
I can’t imagine my life without my friends.
March 22, 2016 at 2:30 pm
Not so much sunshine today and even some drizzle on my way home but rather warm and nice with just a very weak wind.
I do keep in touch with some friends from my childhood but most of us drifted apart when we all moved to different parts of the country. Facebook has changed things a lot though, now it is easier than ever to keep contact again.
Facebook has also given me lots of new friends, oddly enough in Brazil 🙂 I have no idea how we became friends vis facebook but we are actually more close than many of my friends and I are 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
March 22, 2016 at 6:42 pm
Christer,
It stayed nice all day but was cool, in the 40’s. The sun decided to stay around this time.
I agree about Facebook. I too was able to find friends from mostly high school. Now we all know what’s going on in each other’s lives.
We’re suppose to have sun all week and a nice Easter Sunday.
Enjoy your evening!
March 22, 2016 at 3:02 pm
It’s a good day to be alive. Just brought my daughter and Youngest Grandson samples of the Roasted Garlic Potato Soup and Garlic Roasted Pork Loin with Potatoes & Carrots. Oldest Grandson and his girlfriend won’t be joining us ‘cos he thought he had no classes Monday but it’s Friday’s classes that are cancelled. Found out my ex is going to be visiting my daughter from tomorrow thru next Monday, so it’ll be a ‘Seems Like Old Times’ moment on Sunday.
Stopped at my mechanic’s shop on the way back to talk with him about doing a proper logo for him now that his shop in in a more ‘luxe’ location … it’s all about the branding, y’ know. A secondary topic was that he hire me to photograph the cars he buys and fixes for re-sale (like ‘Fast ’n Loud’ does). People buy with their eyes when they shop online. Sure, he could snap a quick shot with his iPhone and put it up, but people need stuff to dream about buying – and that’s where I come in.
An old mechanic once told me it’s a lot easier to sell a car with a beautiful body that’s terrible mechanically than it is to sell one that’s in perfect mechanical condition but has a beater of a body. I do the ‘prettyin’ up’ work. He’ll talk it over with the shop owner and let me know. I don’t plan to hold my breath, but if he says ‘yes,’ then it’s gonna be Mo’Money!Mo’Money!Mo’Money for Homey.
A quick stop at Kroger for some cookies, vegetables, meat, bread, and gas before coming home rounded out the trip. Now I just need to finalize the T-shirt artwork and the Event Program for the Chapter’s next event, the Red Carnation Ball and send it out for final approval. Once that’s done, I’m gonna watch The Beeb online and check out back episodes of ‘Top Gear’ … every time I watch that program I’m amazed at not only the things they’ve done, but the things their producers have expected them to do … it’s a helluva way to earn a paycheck.
Finally, a piece I send to all the graduating seniors in the Chapter to remind them to stay in touch after graduation. I still chat online almost each day with my former college roommates (even tho’ they made the unfortunate choice of joining a different Fraternity). We’ve stayed together now, even tho’ physically remote from each other, for over forty-plus years. That’s sort of an achievement, I’d think … and now, the piece I mentioned:
A Friend Too Late
~ Author unknown ~
Around the corner I have a friend
In this great city that has no end,
Yet days go by and weeks rush on
And before I know it, a year is gone
And I never see my old friend’s face;
For life is a swift and terrible race.
He knows I like him just as well
As in the days when I rang his bell,
And he rang mine; we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men—-
Tired with playing a foolish game,
Tired with trying to win a name.
“Tomorrow, say, I will call on Jim,
Just to show I am thinking of him.
” But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And the distance between us grows and grows, Around the corner yet miles away.
“A telegram, sir!”
Jim died today!
And that’s what we get, and deserve in the end: Around the corner a vanished friend.
March 22, 2016 at 7:28 pm
Richard,
The Garlic Roasted Pork Loin with Potatoes & Carrots sounds scrumptious. I do love pork. I often barbecue a pork loin on movie nights.
Drumming up business is a great idea. It’s true about shopping with my eyes on line and I buy a lot of stuff on-line. I think that’s where I did most of my Christmas shopping. If the on-line site doesn’t thrill me, I’ll look elsewhere for what I want.
I also food shop on line. The stuff delivered is usually fresh and good. If I have a problem, they deal with it right away. I also shop on line for seasonings I need but aren’t carried in stores around here. The better looking the web site, the more money I spend.
That poem is so very sad. We do put off seeing people or calling them. As I get older, it becomes even more important. I had a friend turn 70 this year.