count real friends on one hand

My friend Geoff has commented on that last post about going home again. He describes a day when tragedy struck at College Park. When his friend was killed in a fiery crash that night, the airplane came to rest one block from the house I grew up in. I could write a thousand posts about Geoff. He went to the Citadel. He and I got kicked out of high school together. He's a Hawk. I'm a Dove. He was in Nam. I was on campus protesting Nam. He's into guns. I'm not. Except I do a little target plinking, and in spite of his US Army sharpshooter status, I'm a better shot than he is. He was in a communist prison in Africa for two years because he was in the way wrong place at the way wrong time. The State Department and the Red Cross and some alphabet outfits that I'm not supposed to know about got him out of there, alive. He's been married five times. All of his ex's still love him. He's my sailplane mentor, and I wouldn't have that lovely sport without his inspiration. He flew General Aviation airplanes across the oceans. Most of the time using dead reckoning. There were at least four times when I was told that he was dead. Not always from ferry flying. He's flown exotic airplanes. Been with exotic women. He's as high up in Corporate Aviation as you can go, and still be a flyer. He just got through fighting the battle of his life with Cancer. After chemo, radiation, scalpel, side effects that would kill, physical therapy that required 2000% pure will and a focus on the end of the tunnel that wasn't even there sometimes. Now he sits with a first class airman medical as a lead Captain in one of the nicest Jets in the industry. Well my Blog is about me. Lloyd Lou Luther. Geoff Tyler can write his own goddamn Blog. He said some nice things in his comment. Thank you Geoff and right back atcha. I can't tell my readers or anyone what a friend you have been to me. Some things can't be described or explained. I could say sorry I got pissed at you the other night, but it's just not necessary. Thanks Geoff. Thanks for forty five years.