Validating

Saturday Gang, l-r Keene Friend, Kindergarten Buddy, Myself, Cantankerous

March was my last thunder run back to my hometown so saying one was overdue would be a grotesque understatement. I lay the blame on the delay squarely at the feet of my two granddaughters. They, and of course their parents, are so diverting and let’s be honest, fun, to hang out with that they eclipse even the Nirvana like qualities of time with some of my oldest friends. Since the BRS was road tripping herself to Rhode Island with her parents and New Jersey was a bit far this weekend we opted for the well-worn path back to Keene. One of the critical decision points achieved was my Favorite Panamanian’s need to tax free shop which is a required element when she is on station.

FBR Helping mom with Eye Appointment

All diversions must be sufficiently recompensed though and that meant a Saturday morning completing my window washing extravaganza which I accomplished while my wife was sufficiently distracted so as to prevent overt supervision. Since this was semi-spur of the moment in planning there wasn’t sufficient time to rally overwhelming force in terms of attendance. Keene Friend was hosting this latest venture and we performed a quick stop and go at his house before heading downtown to set up shop in our favorite sports bar. We were shortly joined by the Cantankerous One and my buddy from kindergarten days (I did say they were old friends).

Deck Pool is Back!

My Favorite Panamanian immediately departed after dropping us off. There was a min-reunion when she figured out that she couldn’t drive very far without the car key which was in my pocket. The very coolest thing about very old friends is communication takes place in shorthand that only many years of shared experiences can create. I say “very old friends” because we’ve all been friends for the better part of a half-century now (Yikes!). It was a great afternoon where we collectively solved all of the Red Sox’ problems and stayed as far away from politics as possible. Cantankerous Friend has fully retired now and spends most of his time with his severely ill father who may be moving to hospice. I think the break of getting out and blowing some steam off was needed. He was every bit as cantankerous as expected and I’m sure in his mind, required.

We also spent some time cogitating on this year’s November birthday pub crawl. Various elements of the high school class we all graduated with are making noises about joining us this year which could turn the crawl into almost an event. We set the date as November 17^th so if you have a long range planning calendar and were blessed to be a member of the KHS class of 73 keep that date in mind.

Eventually adult supervision, in the form of my Favorite Panamanian, re-asserted itself and returned from her TJ Maxx seminar to take us out to dinner. It was a very nice end to an extremely well spent afternoon. One of the bone deep lessons I’ve learned in life is that time spent with old friends should be cherished and certainly engaged in at every opportunity. Sunday dawned extraordinarily early for some reason. After a hurried breakfast and the obligatory drive around town we drove home to Worcester where I had a date with the granite kitchen counters. They were demanding their annual sealing procedure which is always an olfactory delight. Even that onerous task was easier given the valuable morale enhancement from Saturday with friends.