Sunday, February 13, 2011

Old Friends and the Daytime Moon

On nice clear days like we had yesterday (and predicted to continue) it is nice to be able to see the moon in the daytime. Here is a picture that I took yesterday at about 17:30 (5:30 pm):
And a closer view:

Sometimes, to me, it seems that the sun is not in the right spot to create the light and dark parts of the moon. But where we stand here on earth, it is hard to get the correct perspective. Half of the moon is always bathed in the sun, except in those rare occasions when the earth gets in the way and then there is a lunar eclipse. Like yesterday, from where we are, we don’t always see the entire lighted surface.

I reconnected to an old friend who I had lost contact with for many years. He was my “Best Man” at my wedding, even though we eloped. We had a church wedding and even had a couple of guests. This friend of mine had an exciting, varied, and unique life. He went to the Merchant Marine Academy and spent some interesting years on a ship as an engineer shipping war supplies to and from Viet Nam. Then he joined the Navy and became one of those Navel Air pilots that land a jet on the bobbing decks of a moving aircraft carrier. After the Navy, he became a commercial pilot and then I lost track of him until just few weeks ago.

What was funny, we both attended a class reunion. The reunion that year was for 5 different classes, I think that graduated in 1959 through 1963. Just this morning, I got an email telling me he did attend that reunion and told me where he was in the class picture. I got it out and sure enough, there he was, plain as day. We had both changed a lot, especially me. I don’t understand why I got so old and he didn’t!?!?

I told before about finally contacting him in my blog:
Like I said then, the last time before this, when I tried to locate him, he was living in England. He has sure had an exciting life and am now looking forward to a time when we can get together, sit down over a cup of coffee, and talk about old times and our lives since then.

You all have a great day now, you hear?

8 comments:

  1. Most of my friends have scattered to the winds...am happy you found your old friend.

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  2. You know ,about old friends? The ones from HS I think of on occasion,but not many of them I really care to find again. There is one, last I heard he was in Calliforia,. I really just don't miss them. I wasn't with the "popular" crowd more of the band geek, so it don't matter .. It would be interesting to see how many have died since then I guess.

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  3. Frann, I actually seemed to know more of the kids in my wife's class (then my "steady") than in mine. Nice to see who is left living and what they did with their lives.

    Ben, I was not among the "popular" crowd either, but did have a lot of good friends in school. As of 2008, 28 of my classmates have died, a large percentage. Some in the Vietnam War.

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  4. I hope you and your friend get together soon. Old friends are few and far between,so enjoy! Blessings jane

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  5. Jane, I would sure like to get together with him but it will be awhile since he lives almost 1400 miles away up in Pennsylvania. Maybe I will get up that way this summer.

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  6. DD, I'm with Ben on not caring to get together with most of my old friends, but there are a few I wouldn't mind seeing. I know what you mean about those who have passed on. Many of mine passed on years ago at fairly young ages. I'm sure quiet a few have gone on and I don't know about it to.

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  7. I never connected with many of my old classmates. Way too many died in Nam, others just faded away!

    I haven't even made one of the HS reunions! Guess I'm too much of a hermit at heart!

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  8. David, The last year or so, for some reason, I have reconnected with three old friends from school days and one teacher.

    Hermit, our small school consolidated with a bunch of others and made one big school to which they bussed everyone. So, I only spent a couple of years with most of my class. Never got to know all of them.

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