Friendship

We occasionally need to be reminded that friendship is a matter of both love and respect.

One Saturday afternoon Todd was talking about his plans. “Yeah, Rosa and I are getting ready to buy a new house.” He paused then went on, “Max, with her car and my truck, we don’t really have room for my old van or my trailer.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Well, I was wondering if I could park them in your driveway for a few months.”

My driveway was big enough for six or seven cars and, because I can’t drive, I certainly didn’t need the room. “Sure,” I said, “bring them over.”

A few days later he drove up with his van towing a trailer, on which was a dirt bike. He parked the trailer, we disconnected it, and he parked the van next to it. “If you get anyone that wants to buy these things, let me know,” he said.

Todd was in the construction business and the van was filled with excess equipment. Every couple weeks he would stop by and we would wade into the van and pull out something he needed. I spent several days sorting through the van and trying to organize the stuff/junk that was in there. There were two air compressors; one electric model and one gasoline powered. I took out both of them and fixed various things. Todd noted what I was doing and, when I told him what was needed to get them running, he went out and bought everything necessary.

That was about six years ago. The motorcycle is in my garage where I (pretend to) work on restoring it when I have the time and the van and trailer are still in my driveway.

A few years ago I offered to make some business forms and keep track of some of his work on the computer for him. It represented many hours of work and, if I had been doing it for one of my clients, I would have charged several hundred dollars. I never even considered charging him.

When I needed a jig saw for a project Todd told me there were a couple in the van. When I pulled one out and used it, he just said, “Keep it. I have several of them.”

I Need What?

He sometimes looks around and decides I need something — whether I’ve mentioned that I want it or not. Sometimes that works out as I have four electric drills and have never seen a need for a cordless model. One afternoon Todd brought over a really good cordless drill with two batteries and charger. It’s something I would have never bought, but I now use it all the time.