It's always later than you think

When I was stationed at Andrews AFB near Washington, DC in the early to mid '90s, my wife and I became close friends with another USAF couple who'd moved in across the street from us shortly after we did. We remained close long after his retirement from the Air Force and my return to reserve status, but we hadn't seen much of each other over the past couple of years, even though they relocated not long ago a bit closer to where we live. There just always seemed to be too much other crap going on.

Just this evening as I was driving home from the airport, something reminded me of my buddy Ryan, and I thought I'd give him a call tomorrow to try and set something up for the weekend. But when I got home, Mrs. Poolbar told me to grab a beer and sit down. It turns out she'd gotten a call from Ryan's wife earlier today. She'd found him dead yesterday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Without getting into a lot of philosophical bullshit about friendships and how fleeting life is, suffice it to say that if you've got a friend or family member you've been thinking about getting back in touch with, stop thinking and just do it.