Creeping Down The Road...

This weekend I got to do something I haven't been able to do much of over the last few years...  Spend time with some old friends.  

Going back thirty-plus years ago, I was a much younger man (half my age, in fact), and a soon to be young father.   I was told by one of my sisters that there was going to be a meeting at my parent's house of a newly forming Star Trek Fan Group.  Yeah.  So in part because I was still feeling the Protector and concerned about what was going on, I told my wife we'd be visiting my folks.  Mind you, this was about 75 minutes north of where we lived, which was Burnsville.  We didn't have kids yet so we were pretty free and loose with our schedule, but it was still a commitment of limited resources, being both gas and time. 

We got to my folks house and met this young couple.  She was pregnant, much more so than my wife, but they didn't strike me as any sort of shady folks.  He was a bit different than many of my friends, as he seemed to have his future a little more in focus.  He had gone into City Hall a few months before and filed the paperwork to run for mayor of his home town.  Something my wife might certainly consider doing if/when we ever sunk our feet into a home and community, I expected, and he seemed to be looking for more when the long-term mayor of town didn't file for re-election, so he was just elected.  Which garnered him a little more attention, like an article in the New York Times about the young mayor Star Trek fan.  

i wasn't interested in the political thing, but the Star Trek thing, well, I did remember watching the original series, some of it on a black-and-white TV with my parents.  And I still enjoyed it, and was interested about the rumors of an upcoming series... 

So yeah, we've kind of known each other for a while.  We've grown, as parents, through the first diaper stage through the first in-law stage.  He's no longer a mayor, but still involved in civic work, and we still enjoy Star Trek.  And Saturday we celebrated his sixtieth Birthday, their thirty-fifth anniversary, and their history.  And their family.  

I have heard it so many times that it's no longer just something people say, it is true.  Family is both what you are born into, and what you build.  And we are family.  So much so that when the kids are planning weddings, we aren't invited.  We're ordered.  Which is, honestly, a privilege that I never expected.  But when you think about it, I've known them their entire lives, we've always been in the atmosphere of their lives.  I've helped them move, given advice, and become deeply proud of knowing them and the humans they have become.

Out there someone's certainly thinking "all of that from Star Trek?"  No.  All of that because their father and I, and our wives, were willing to share some memories and thoughts about our lives and things we enjoyed.  We could not be more different in some ways.  He's an Army Veteran, who has been on the front line of running a city organization - both a sizeable small town serving about 6000, and a small town serving under 200 residents.  I know my interests and skills do not lie in that direction, but admire what he has accomplished, both large and small.  And we're both willing to admit that yep, we're pretty sure we did pretty good this far, but we're most likely not going to make it another 60 years.  Maybe 20 or 25, maybe even 30, but not more than 40.  

Bookending the trip was the commute.  While they have made the commute into the Twin Cities to see us on more than a few occasions over the last three decades, we've not always been able to make the return trips.  For about fifteen of those years we were running on the squeaky wheel budget - the budget where the most critical needs get paid first, and the money that's left gets spread out as far as possible to keep things going - and that includes food and gas.  Now as we see the twilight time coming we're also a little looser with the budget.  Not to the point where we're fine with everything, but well enough to have a budget that allows for a tank of expensive gas to go see friends.  

So life is still moving forward...   So far so good...