"Mike Renfro?", I asked myself. "Geesch, from Haven High School Mike Renfro?", I questioned myself further. Don't have to tell you that I clicked on the "accept" button and here I am now, well over 600 miles from Hutchinson and even further from Wichita, living life along the Western Slopes of the state of Colorado. Modern technology brought two people together decades far removed from the time they were both teenagers roaming the halls of a wonderful high school back in south central Kansas. Two things for certain as I type these words~time flies when you are living life and modern technology is something I am glad I do not have to live without.
Modern technology changed my life 1,000-fold with the touch of the computer key that Saturday morning in 2013 and although it sometimes doesn't get the best of reviews by folks, the social medium Facebook has been like a lifeline to me as I live here in my new home along the Rocky Mountains. I can keep up with not only what is going on back home in Kansas but with people all over this world of ours. Just the other day for example, I was having a great conversation online with my dear teaching friend Collette as she was readying herself for a night's rest in the Phillipines. All I have to do is check out any of the pages of my former teaching colleagues back in Reno County, Kansas and I can see how things are going for the students/staff of my old schools of Lincoln and Avenue A Elementaries. I keep in touch with former students of mine who are now grown up, see photos and hear stories about what is happening in the lives of my family members all over the place, and even see how things are going for friends that I haven't met in person yet but feel like I've known them all of my life. I admit my addiction to it and would hate to see the day come when I no longer used it. As far as things go along those lines, there are probably at least a dozen other things that would not be so good for me to "use". I guess that's all I have to say about that :)
One of the original bucket list goals that I have had for well over 3 years now has been to "reconnect with my Facebook friends, buy them something to drink, and sit to visit about life for a while". Try as hard as I might, it hasn't been an easy thing to do and that particular item will always be an ongoing one for me. Each time that I've been able to meet with someone on my list, and there have been 79 of them so far, we've taken a photo together at the end of our time together. I keep those photos in a special scrapbook with a brief note about how I met them or our connection with one another. Someday when I am old and living in a care home somewhere, I can take the book out and look at all of the pictures inside. Shoot, I may not remember everyone by that time but I will know by the smiles on our faces that we must have been the best of friends at one time or another.
I will be returning to Kansas for a visit on January 23rd and will get to stay until returning on the 26th to life here in Colorado. "Old lefty" is going in for its 1,000,000 mile checkup over at the Kansas Orthopaedic Center in Wichita and while I'm home, it's time to get things ready to either sell or lease my house in Hutchinson by this summer. It will be a very busy time for me but I hope to see as many friends and family that I can while I am there. Unless something changes, it will be my last visit home until school is out in May. After we were married and I moved here to live in late May last year, I was able to return back to Kansas for visits in June August, October, November and December. This will be an interesting 5-month long stretch for this once "homesick and lonely" school teacher from the flatlands. Thankfully I have made much progress in the "I am homesick and I just want to go HOME to Kansas" part of my life. Besides that, I'm going to have a grandchild to hold in just a few months more. I'm blessed and I know it.
I hope that wherever you are this day that you are well, safe and at peace in life. I think of you, each of you, every day. I wish that we lived much closer and that heck, once in a while we could sit down on the porch and talk about nothing in particular. I really believe that some of the best times in our lives, some of the most rewarding of experiences come at little cost to us except the gifts of our time. So until we see one another again, you will always be kept close in my heart. Nothing can or ever will change that part. Have a great Sunday dear ones~the 12th day of January in 2014. It's a great day to be alive in :)
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