Two friends I have never met

—in person, anyway. One you might have heard of, Fred Langa. He's a fellow long distance motorcyclist and computer expert par excellence. On several of his trips he's gone past my place, but he's been on a schedule, more or less, so he hasn't stopped by. Yet. Maybe I can get him to join me for my trip to Key West.

And to you motorcyclists reading this, remember my standing offer: Drop by and lunch is on me. A slight word of warning, though. The menu might be anything from Val's good home cooking to your pick from the menu at the greasy spoon down the street. Or the Genuu-ine Australian Restaurant a block farther down.

My other friend, well, this is a memorial. He died rather unexpectedly a week or so ago. Our friendship started a good ten years back when he founded the Off Topic list for tech writers who wanted to get, well, off topic, who belonged to the famous techwrl list for technical writers, originally hosted in Australia, I think. Anyway, he and his family moved to a homestead in southern Washington state, not too awfully far from Mt. St. Helens. He had goats, geese, and the other accoutrements of a very rural lifestyle. He was a pillar in his community, and told the most colorful stories about life on their place, and had a gift for stringing out a fictional adventure populated by the alter egos of us on the list. He was a good thinker, wise and down to earth. Our occasional private conversations are still with me. I had planned to drop by their place on my way to Prudhoe Bay some summer, and I had a standing invitation to come meditate on top of their hill any time and as long as I wanted. I might still stop by. Even gone, Jeffrey Pittman is an inspiration to me.