long forgotten bygone, hello again...

 I got a phone call this afternoon from one of my oldest friends, a man that I've known since I was a sophomore in high school... there are 7 other fellas like this, still trodding this earth, still smiling when they wake up in the morning wondering what will happen this new day... I haven't spoken to this one of them in at close to 5 years. He lives in Australia, and the only way I had for contacting him was via Facebook, an app I refuse to use anymore. So I blame myself for letting a means of contact and communication dissolve... but for the same way I won't use Facebook, he refuses to use Whatsapp or Telegram... old men are weirdos. So it turns out that this friend has been on a bicycling road trip for the past month riding from Seattle to San Francisco. I don't know if anyone else knew he was doing this or not. No one told me, and he failed to give me any advance notice that he was going to be "in town" for a day. He just cold called me and thought I'd be able to drop everything and hang out for the day... alas, I wish I had such freedoms... I mean, I'm working for someone this week... I had time off last week, and if he had called me last week (when my schedule was open) I could have gone out to meet him, or could even have invited him to stay overnight at our house. Anyway, we ended up talking on the phone for an hour and got sort of caught up on how we are doing in our lives. I didn't even notice until after we hung up that I neglected to tell him about the passing of my Mom, and the passing of my "Irish bride"...  in the time since we had the phone call, and now, where I've decided to talk about my memories, I lost all of the oomph I was feeling about resurrecting old stories and memories to share here... maybe it's just as well, recounting the past too much is not really living in the present moment... there might be grist for some story telling for short-story writing, or something literary... but for the most part that past feels heavy and not supportive of living now, in the present moment. In accord with the Nanowrimo project I gave myself last year, or calling up memories of people that I have hurt, or were hurt by, to give healings of forgiveness, maybe that could still be a good reason for rehashing old memories, like the one's that I have of when this friend was in my life, but yeah, I'm not really feeling the worth of that right now. Maybe later I'll feel compelled to do something like that again... Regardless, it felt like a cathartic occurrence, having this conversation with him. Was this my last chance in this lifetime to meet up with him? With him being so nearby for such a spontaneous visit? Maybe, maybe not... the odds of me ever getting to visit him in Australia are more minor now than they have ever been since he moved there 30 years ago... I don't think any of the old friends of this group ever went to Australia to visit him... I would strongly consider doing it if I were financially capable of making that journey. There are so many people I know that I'd love to go visit where they live now... but yeah, the Gods are not favoring me doing such things presently... Okayy, gonna stop here...