I love guys.......

....yeah, I knew that'd grab ya. LMAO.

No, I ain't comin out. I have had an old friend helping me recently enclose the back porch. He's a retired/disabled carpenter. Now, when I say old friend, I MEAN old friend. We are each the first person the other met outside of our direct families.

He lived right up the street when were kids. We played with original red line Hot Wheels out in the dirt. Build forts in the woods. Bridges across the creek. Had sweet gumball and pine cone fights. The greener the better. Waited excitedly for the ice cream man on Sunday afternoons. Rode our bikes all over Macon together. That's how we met the Allman Brothers.

We've literally known each other ALL our lives. He remembers well when I was attacked by a bobcat in 1973 and lost my left eye. I remember the early morning in 1975 when his dad dropped dead of a sudden heart attack before he was 40. We've been through a lot together. Drifted apart a little, but, through it all we've always been there for each other.

I was on the phone with him today giving him some back porch progress. I don't do much by myself out here. Just little things. I don't want to risk getting dizzy and falling when no one else is here, but I have managed to do a few small things so I called him to give an update. When we ended the call and hanged up, it suddenly hit me. Every time without fail when we're saying goodbye, whether in person or on the phone, we always say "I love you man". Both of us are about as "dude" of a dude as you can get. He's been a carpenter all his life and me a mechanic. We've been probably both as drunk and high together as a body can be while still conscience.....although a LONG time ago.

He's not the only one either, but I will admit, there ain't many outside family.....and I really consider him family of the best kind.

So I'm just wondering, how many more of you fellas have guys in your life that you're not afraid to say "I love you" to? I hope it's a lot of you. It needs to be.