WD9GCO and Yoda

The man on the right is Steve, K9SR. I've known Steve since I was a freshman in High School. I was always interested in radio and electronics, and I had seen a car parked at the school one afternoon with amateur radio license plates. I wrote down the call, and my dad found out who he was and also found out that he lived along the road from town to our farm. Since my family had moved from the Big City of Chicago to this little farming community in Southern Illinois, I was a bit of an outsider. Add to that the fact that I was socially awkward and nerdy... I didn't have many friends among my peers. Steve taught me Morse Code, taught me radio theory. We put up my antenna tower together. Steve was my very first contact on ham radio (although at the time he was WA9MMI) He also gave me a lot of good, solid advice about life as I was growing up, was there when I wanted a friend to talk to. We got along right from the start, and he and his wife Karen are still friends to this day. My last couple of trips back home happened to be when Steve and Karen were traveling, so I was thrilled to find him home this time. We had dinner, talked about life, talked about family, talked about loss, talked about a lot of things. I really wish I didn't live 7 hours away. I'm working on getting antennas set up so we can communicate more, but I miss my friend. Olympus E-M5, Panasonic 20/1.7