A good friend of mine stopped by today. I have known him for years and consider him to be one of my closest friends, someone I would trust with my life.
When I worked in the brewery I met him. He worked across the parking lot and would come in for lunch and generally after work we would all sit around and have a pint of beer and shoot the breeze. When my wife and I bought this house it was by strange coincidence that he lived just 5 houses down and across the street. Of course that just meant more time to hang out.
Anyway when I had to leave work for my surgery he would stop by here and there as work allowed but shortly after that he was alerted for duty in Iraq as he is a member of the Army Reserves and I did not get a chance to see him again until late this Spring after I found out he was back home.
It turns out that he was wounded very badly last February and while he has been back home most of his stay originally was back and forth between home and the hospitals while they patched him back up.
With his medical needs far outweighing my need for adult companionship (try being with a 2 year old 24/7 for 2.5 years...) I have kept my distance to avoid being a distraction to his healing but at the same time I have talked with both he, his wife and his son (who is also a great friend). Well today he stopped by my house and was able to come in and sit down for about an hour.
It was great to see my friend again, to sit and have those conversations that I have missed. He is pretty much done with the hospital, or perhaps I should say his schedule is more like mine which consists of mainly follow ups and prescription refills. He is still working a bit each day but his injuries do limit his ability to work a full day and in fact will result in his being medically retired from the Army.
We talked mostly about what has been happening in the time we have not seen each other but we also talked about being able to get together here and there through the week. Oddly enough my wife and I just talked about this the other day as with her schedule change and being home for dinner it means I can get away from the house for a few minutes and hobble on down to see my buddy. Of course with his new schedule he is home in the evening as well.
The last time we were truly hanging out was almost 3 years ago, kind of hard to believe. Of course back then neither of us walked with a cane or a limp and did not pop pills like candy. While I would prefer to have things the old way I guess I will settle for my friend being back home safely. Of course we know have many new topics of conversation like the most comfortable shoes, which canes are the best, new pain management techniques and so on.
I am glad my friend is back home. I missed him.
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