"Have no friends not equal to yourself" (Confucius)

.....and life goes on.  When Helen Herbstman died, another good friend will no longer share the bread with us. We have friends and we have acquaintances, and friends are very few these days; even so, it is fine to know them.  Acquaintances are those you can chat with, and perhaps even share an evening dinner with them. But you really don't know too much about their lives.  Friends  are those you've known for a long time; who understand each other and for whom you would do anything if  needed.  They are the kids who grew up with you; who went to school with you; who loved being around with you. They're gone.  The friends who went to war with you were far more than simply "friends"--they were buddies, and that is a huge responsibility.  They're also gone.  At this moment, I cannot speak for RH+, but I have about six friends, two of whom live overseas, one in China and one in UK; and it's my good fortune to have one "buddy" whom I rarely see. Memorial Day is coming, and I'm sure my buddy and I will remember the guys on our crew who are missing on that Day, and we will be thinking about them; and who will know it?

.....and life goes on. My Chevy Malibu which I bought on my birthday in 1999 is gone. It's been sold.  It had only 94K miles on it; I asked for $19K for it, but had to settle for $1K. There was hardly  anything wrong with it.  So, it was missing a tail light.  So what?  And the AC did not always kick in. So what?  So the "remote" did not work, but all you had to do was use the key to open the door.  So what if it had a few nicks and scratches here and there?  I'm 90 and I have a few myself, but the car was only 15 and a car "doctor" could take care of the problems in a week or two for a few bucks.  Or send the bill to Medicare.  It pays for everything. The buyer shouldn't have any complaints.  He'll probably sell the parts; and I can donate my organs.  Not much difference between us--only the car passed away sooner, which has its benefits if you think about it.

.....and life goes on. One of the issues of retirement living is where or what to have for dinner and at what restaurant. I can't and shall not leave my post (no pun intended) without a tip or two (no pun intended).  The sine que non of help in choices is to collect as many coupons as you can from the newspaper each day, and The Jewish Journal.  If the spouse is also tired and/or retired, chances are she has been using the oven as a piggy bank.  So, now that you have a good pot pourri of coupons, toss a few of them up in the air (as you did once or twice with baseball cards) and choose the one that has the most (or least) color in it--or the biggest or smallest one. If one of them turns out to be a Japanese place, you go and dine on suchi that night which is different from all other nights (no pun intended).  And as Iago advised, "Put money in thy purse".