Apart from being a fantastic time-waster, I must admit one thing I like about Facebook is reconnecting with old friends.

Case in point. An old high school friend “friended” me on Facebook some time ago. While he lives on the east coast, he just took a job with Dell thus had to come down here for some training. He dropped me a line saying he’d be in town and wondered if we could get together. I haven’t seen the guy in perhaps 20 years… wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass.

We went to Threadgill’s last night, had some food, listened to some live music, and just talked for hours catching up on what’s been going on the past 20 years. Oh sure, over the years we heard little things here and there from mutual friends, but there’s nothing that can compare to sitting down with someone and just talking with them.

One thing I didn’t like? I found out that he’s now living almost in the country (foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains) on 3 acres, can hunt there, and the deer are so heavily populated there that he finally got himself a Savage .308 bolt-action and is going to harvest a few this year. I’m most envious. 🙂

The other thing I didn’t like? Being able to say “it’s been 20 years since we saw each other”. Two decades. Face it Daub… you’re getting old. 🙂

But with that getting old, you realize more and more what’s important. Lots of people can come and go in your life, but it’s good to keep in touch with those that meant something. Yeah, Facebook may have a lot of evil things about it from a corporate standpoint, but it’s hard to deny how it and other modern communication technology is changing how social relationships work. Don’t really have to go another 20 years before we see each other again.