(#5911) Friendships are special

      I have a friend whom I have known for 60 years. We grew up together and stayed in touch over the decades. We ended up owning homes less than a mile from each other so as we are older we can spend more time hanging out. Today my friend Jim came over and helped me replace out two toilets. We work well together so after a few hours when we finished up we went out to Round Table Pizza and split a medium sized pizza with everything on it. Jim got to talking about the a bear he spent the night with twice over a short period of time up in Grizzly Flats California.
     The story, or both stories were centered around his attempts to bring back some unique boulders he discovered on the first trip. Suffice it to say he didn't get any boulders back because of the bear and a movie shoot with Grizzly Adams in it. The Disney production pissed off the local bear while Jim and his friend Jim hid from it most of the night. Same thing happened soon after except the bear was just prowling and didn't want anything to do with humans. However like the first time Jim had to hide with his friend Shannon and then leave during the night in an attempt to put distance between themselves and the bear.
     These stories of Jim's were from decades ago but to Jim they were like yesterday. His face lit up and he was transfixed in the telling of the stories. I just kind of chuckled to myself because normally I would be cracking jokes about his stories but these seemed to transcend joke telling. I then offered that we should go back up in the forest and find those special boulders he saw so many years ago. I have a rock garden out in my front yard and adding another boulder would be kind of cool. Anyway, I got a lot of work done today replacing the two toilets and spending time with my oldest friend at a table having pizza. I don't know what life should be all about but since I can't be an explorer out discovering I think spending time with memories of our youth is about as good as it gets.