Looking for lost friends...

Time with friends has been on my mind lately. Mainly because I haven't been spending enough of it. There have been big changes recently which have been taking about half my week away from my "normal" activities.

Now then, many of my normal activities revolved around trying not to be single any more. So that time isn't missed. ;-) But there are still other things I am missing, such as drinks with friends and time for blogging. (Has anyone noticed a "small" drop in my blogging lately?)

To compensate I'm trying to call and email and keep up with friends online. Email and Facebook and Skype are great tools. It's wonderful catching up with people you haven't spoken to in years!

But while searching for old friends, something has caught my notice. I have not one friend or acquaintance from the first 16 years of my life. In fact, I cannot find a single trace of any person I knew back then. Nothing. No one. As if my entire elementary school experience and early high school just didn't happen.

When I turned 16 the family moved to Burlington, Ontario. I've got friends from high school there whom I still keep up with. I see Nancy every couple years. I found Ray online through FB. Just about everyone I went to university with is out there still, some where. Some have moved far and others have stayed close to home. But if I had to, I could contact 80% of my graduating class within hours.

So it seems all the more strange that there is no sign of any person from my youth. My best friends in elementary school... missing. My buddy from home-room in Jr. High... missing. My friends from high school in Chatham (Ontario)... missing. Each and every one.

Sure the time frame in question is pre-Internet. Pre-Information-Superhighway, even. But I've made it online. Heck, my 'net presence began in 1991 and one of my websites ("last updated in 1993") just recently got taken down. I would think I'm the only person of my generation who made the leap into the modern world, except I'm by no means the oldest person on the Internet.

So where are they? Where's Carl and Jeff and Patrick? We used to play road-hockey together. And where did Marcus go? Did he take his rowing career past school? Or David and Marco and J.D.? All killed in some horrible corn accident? How do so many people avoid email, the Internet and the phone book all at once?

Does anyone out there have physical proof of the 70's and 80's? I'm beginning to suspect some kind of a hoax.

The Northlander

The second time I passed this parked train I got the camera out and open fast enough to take a picture. The giant Air Canada advertisement painted on the side catches my attention. A quick glance to Google tells me that the train used to be one that runs between Toronto and Cochrine, Ontario.

Where's Cochrine? Well, have you ever imagined seeing vast forested wilderness with nobody anywhere near? No roads or phones or settlements. Well you could jump off at that place long before the train reaches Cochrine.

And now this train is sitting just outside Amsterdam's Cental Station. I wonder what it thinks of the change? Wilderness to urban. Lifeline to waiting for repair/repaint. I hope it gets to bring me a few more smiles before it goes back to work.

Life Update

Well, I believe I haven't had a blog-gap this big since beginning blogging back in 2006. So technically I should have lots to say and write. Life has been crazy busy lately, including some national holidays here in Holland, a 3-day business trip to Denmark, and a lot of personal changes.

Most noteable is a specific addition to my life. One that leaves me nearly speachless. So rather than stumble over my words, I humbly suggest that this post says it better than I could.