Like Neil Cassady he is an inspiration. Unconventional, always unpredictable. I met my dear friend Bob (all names changed to protect the innocent) in 2nd grade. His dad was a greenskeeper on a local golf course. Bob and I first bonded through a zen like obsession with stars and telescopes. I had a 3" newtonian reflector, he had a 4" Schmidt-Cassegrain.
We talked into the wee hours about Astronomy. He became a life long friend who has shown me many things about life. The first time he taught me a lesson was in grade 2. We all parked our bikes in the rack when at school. Many of us participated in jumping competitions after school. Who can jump the most human bodies laid end to end below the root we used as a jump. The root was the ramp, we were jumping banana seat high handle bar bikes. I came out of school, got on my bike (I was the reigning bike jumping champ) grabbed my bike and started to gain as much velocity as I could before heading down the hill towards the root....ready to make the biggest jump ever!
Little did I know, Bob had loosened the bolts on my front tire. I hit the root at full speed on my CCM Mustang and my front tire launched into the air with the vigor of a sneeze.
I managed to bail out on my bike realizing that a fork plant would be bad. A bad wipeout, but I survived despite all the people bob assembled to watch the spectacle that were laughing.
Fast forward about 12 years.
Bob is hosting a hot tub party at a house beside the golf course. We have some celebrities in the tub from New York. Musician types from Juilliard. We are having a great time but suddenly we run out of beer.
A light-bulb flashes in Bob's mind and suddenly he's on a mission. He grabs the empty beer pitchers, hops out of the tub and walks butt naked down the 10th fairway toward the clubhouse holding three empty pitchers.
5 minutes later he walks back, 467 yards from the clubhouse holding 3 full pitchers of beer, butt naked
He saved the night.
Yep we were local yokels. We made some long lasting friends that night.
This diary is for silly stories of fun. It's not meant to prove anything.