RSS Feeds: My Best Friend
I met my best friend in 1992 at a Commodore Users Group meeting in Tempe, Mesa, or Phoenix (I don't remember exactly where it was), Arizona, USA. He ran a Commodore 128 BBS before I did, but I ended up being the one that rewrote all the BASIC code for both of our bulletin boards. When I took mine down in 1998, he left his running for probably 5 more years.
In 1994 or early 1995 (again, my memory just doesn't serve me), we both got hooked up to the Internet from our IBM-compatible computers for the first time. I had been on the Internet before, when email addresses consisted of names and IP addresses — when the DNS system wasn't in place yet. I had done it though Genie, an online service that looked a lot like a UNIX command prompt. My computer, with the monitor and dial-up modem, ran me $2,400 and it was a piece of junk. His computer was a little older and had cost him almost $3,000. I was still in the military, stationed at the recruiting station in Phoenix. He was a contracted bus driver for the airport. He's STILL a bus driver for the airport.
His name is Tim Allen, but he's obviously not the actor of the same name. Tim didn't get along with his own large family very well, but he got along with mine just fine. He spent most of his weekends coming over to my house after I bought it in 1994. From 1996 to 1998, I was stationed in California, so we didn't have much to do with other in person. We still kept in touch via email and some older IM, I think it was called PowWow. After I retired in 1998, he was around the house much more.
Tim is my contact in the US. I use his address and telephone number for anything that I need to have US-based. After all, I'm still a US citizen — I'm just living in the Philippines. Since I've been here, he's mailed checks to me that came in after I left and he's mailed the scanned copies of my taxes for filing (just the pages that had to be signed because the rest was in a database file). When my mother-in-law received her annual 401K check, he mailed that to us. Each time, he used express mail and paid out of pocket. He's the guy who loaned me the money to switch my hosting this time. I need some best friend gift ideas because Tim deserves a gift for everything he's done for me and my family.
Tim has lived in the same apartment for about 30 years. His wing is scheduled for demolition soon and the owner of the complex likes him so much, he's moving him to another wing and taking the apartment number with him. He'll probably live there until he retires. He's about 8 years older than I, but still has a while before he can collect his social security and 401K distributions (11 years would be a good guess).
The things I've told you here are only a fraction of the things that we did together. I didn't mention how I helped him out because he remembers things that I don't. Some things I just do for people and then erase them from my thoughts because I don't expect anything in return. Besides, he's been single all his life and has probably helped me much more than I ever helped him. I think his involvement with my family is all he really cared about anyway. I just dug out a picture of him, taken at least 12 years ago. He doesn't sport the mustache and his hair is more the color gray than anything else now.
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It's good to have friends.
Nice story. I like the way you write (I envy you).
Btw..I was expecting a sad end to that story, but hopefully there isn't.
I'm saying that because people usually speak about themselvers and their friend only in sad moments. Luckily this isn't one of those moments.
Sounds like a good friend. You two were a couple of geeks when you were younger, hey! :)
cheers,
http://goldcoaster.wordpress.com
Yeah, we ran around to Home Depot and Lowes and some other things, too. We both started with Color 64 BBS's and moved up to the Version 128 when that was available. I still have the Color 64 BBS available for download from the Internet, too! The thing is, Richard knows programming better than I. He is very good at it. So he helped me with my BBS. To get it programmed to work right. We shared information about the IBM compatible computers and tested various softwares with them to see what was best for what we needed. Richard got out of the Valley at just the right time. There are now people losing their homes – they are unable to keep up with the payments. And just today, in the newspaper, I read that there are people that would have qualified for a mortgage in the past but now the lenders are getting more strict with their policies and they are getting turned down for a mortgage. They are starting to want background checks on everyone for certain types of jobs, too. I am also a Notary Public and as such, required to have a background check. For my job at the airport (driving a bus) I have to have an airport I.D. and that also requires a background check. They even wanted to do a security threat assessment on me. I am just one of many that get to have these done to them, too! :) We had some good times working on our computers and visiting with his family and all of the relatives, too. The Commodore Users Group had their meetings in Mesa, at the time. We already knew of each other and were getting acquainted with each other – via the BBS's. But the first time we actually met, was at the club meeting that was held in Mesa. That early Internet thing was rather interesting but very awkward and hard to get around unless you knew exactly what the numbers were for where you wanted to get to. Much better improved now. You just press a link or type an actual address that makes sense or you can use Google and find where you want to get to. A whole lot easier, now. I read an article (once upon a time) about the actor "Tim Allen" and I learned that his real name is not that. He changed it to be that. So, he actually stole my name. :) And Richard is right. I have lived in this apartment for the last 30-years. But the owner of the property wants to move me into another unit and move my apartment number with me. Then use this old building that my apartment is within as a laundry facility. Saves him the cost of tearing it down and having to move gas pipes and water pipes and the electrical panel box and such. The picture is old, but I never was one for taking pictures, anyway. :) I remember that I traveled with Richard and his family to go to Disneyland and then to Magic Mountain. We had a lot of fun at Disneyland. But it was too crowded at Magic Mountain that we finally had to leave. Took an hour and a half of waiting in line to finally get to a ride that was only about 10-minutes. :) We even stayed overnight at a family's place that was there in California for the visit to Magic Mountain, the next day. Well, I have to run now. I have to get up early for work in the morning. :)
Good mates along with family are some of the most important and valuable things in the world. A heart warming story….10 minutes have passed since I started tying this comment – I was interrupted by a call from one of my best mates who I haven't spoken to in months – go figure.
Hey, what is this paragraph doing in the middle of the post?
He's trying some new Ad format? TLA for posts?
Or maybe this site has been hacked.
:)
Hahaha, I typed it in before the editor loaded the full page and I didn't catch it. Fixed now though.
That was a nicely written and interesting post. 'Maurizio' is right, you have a very polished writing style.
Thanks for the link as well! We do get a little opinionated at our site, but I really do enjoy getting to hear the opposing views. My wife calls it 'argumentative', I just thought it was more 'debate-ative'!
LOL, it's not polished, it's practiced. I used to have to rewrite a lot of technical manuals in the military and make then readable by the average Joe.
Opinionated, argumentative, whatever. If you agreed with everyone who stopped by, you'd be worse than a politician.