Blast from the Past

Last week as I was getting to leave work I had a phone call from an unknown number.  I typically don't answer phone calls from numbers I don't know (yes, I screen calls), but I answered this one anyway.  It took the person on the other end all of saying "hello" for me to know who it was.  Who?  Jeff "Skippy" Kendall.  This dear friend who I have gone to school with since the pre-school was passing through St. Louis for work and tracked down my phone number (which apparently was a little bit of a task in itself).  I was so happy to hear from him; what a fun surprise!

We picked Skippy up to go get some ice cream later that night.  Apparently there was some convention going on and traffic was a joke.  So we missed out on Old St. Charles and good hard ice cream.  Instead we opted for Culver's custard.  I felt bad, like we were taking him to McDonald's to experience St. Louis; lame.  But whatever.  Skippy probably felt on the spot because Dave and I reeled off question after question.  

All in all, though, I was just so happy to see a familiar face and sort of reconnect with this long-time friend.  I never gave Skippy the credit he deserved.  He was always nice to me; and I know I didn't always return that kindness.  

So thank you, Skippy,  for your years of friendship to me, even when I didn't deserve it.    

Skippy drives all over the country in this monster of a truck for GoreTex.

Skip giving me (and Dave) the low down about what he actually does.  There's this rain/wind chamber (sounds like a hurricane simulator to me) where people dress up in all GoreTex and stand in the back of the truck and get pelted with rain and wind, then come out dry as a whistle; proof of how GoreTex works.