Hidy ho good neighbor

September 22, 2008 · Posted in Blogging the disease, Life, Reflections · 7 Comments 

You know, I think the worst part about being ill this long, aside from the financial implications, is the extreme boredom. I have been off work now for over 6 weeks and I am not set to go back until the beginning of November. While some might see this as a good thing, I am not really all that thrilled with it. I have all this free time when I could be out taking photos, but to be honest, the drive just isn’t there. I make the plans but that is about as far as I can get.

I was out and about the other day driving around, can’t remember why at the moment, but that isn’t the important part of the story. Anyway, I was behind a Camaro, guessing it was a 68 or 69, and the smell of the exhaust actually triggered a memory. I know, that is weird but just hang with me here. It reminded me of my best friends Camaro and we would go out riding around in it aimlessly. The smell in the car was a mix of exhaust gas, yes he had a leak, and whatever the interior was made of. The car was loud and it felt like it was going to vibrate you to death, but we had great fun in that car. Heck, we had fun in about every vehicle he owned. The old pick-up truck, the little car that I think was a Vega, although I am not sure about that. All I remember was it was small and really fun to ride in with the windows down.

I remember we would go on drives out in the coutry looking for places to explore. Old abandoned farms and such. Usually we would freak ourselves out before we got too far into anything though. Billy, my friend, loved to get out on a dark coutry road and while we were driving around he would douse the lights. He knew it scared the crap out of me and oddly, we never had an accident, doing that! We did however have one once when I asked him what happens when you turn off the key while you are going down the road in one of his cars. In retrospect, that wasn’t a very intelligent thing to ask him because the next thing I knew he had turned the ignition off, all the way. So basically he locked the steering column as well as took away the power to the brakes. Oh the next few seconds were ones I will never forget. I think we both nearly crapped ourselves as we drifted off the road and went sideways sliding into a fence.

Pretty much from that point on, whenever I wanted to ask him something I thought it through really well before I asked, Is there the potential for pain if I ask? Could this harm someone else? Yep, those were good times and while I do cherish the memories, I don’t think I would want to relive most of those moments, I just don’t think my poor heart could take them anymore!

On a side note. I am pretty sure I never told my mother about this. But my brother does read here from time to time so I imagine she will know soon. D, let me know what here facial expressions go through when you tell her this!

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