some people never change...

...and thank goodness for it!

Blogging a bit out of chronological order here, but I'm sure you'll all cut me some slack. I have a few photos still from yesterday, but I did want to get Ray's photos up before too long.

Ray is someone I've known for about 15 years from back home. Way back in about 1993 he took a fat young guy (me - and yes, I was fat, about 90 pounds heavier than I am right now) and somehow instilled in him an appreciation and enjoyment of activity. As if that were all he did, though. Ray is simply a very rare person, someone who takes each person on their merits and makes his judgment based on that. No generalizations based on the person's background or self-identification. It's a remarkable quality in a person, and I am glad to know him for it.

It's been too many years since last we saw each other. A few near misses when I've been in Salmon Arm and the area, but otherwise, it's been several years since last I saw him. I think it may have been 5 years since we managed a coffee in Kamloops on a snowy late December morning. 1 hour in the last ten years. Not enough.

Before Conrad, Mum, Roy, and I set out for Kelowna this morning, we stopped by Ray's new running gear store, Cool Running, in Salmon Arm. From the sounds of it, it's been a welcome business in the community, and I hope his success there endures. Meanwhile, he and I had a lot of running and swimming chit chat to catch up on as well as the Terrace gossip. Plus, he'd never met Conrad before, though others in his family and extended family had.

Dinner with Ray tomorrow night in Salmon Arm and more catching up on tap. How nice to do so on this all-too-short visit back west.