Fer one thing, Steve has probably saved me hundreds and hundreds a dollars over the past few years. He mocked my expensive taste one day when he caught me filling up with premium gasoline. He couldn't beleive that there were suckers out there who actually chose to pay more for the same gas! Oh he had a good laugh at my expense. Haven't bought anything but regular grade since. He was right and I had been wasting money by willfully over-paying for my fuel by about 10% for years. Steve is a hard working man with a positive spirit. He is incredibly resourceful and resilient. Taught me to see value hidden in plain sight. Tried to teach me to fish. Steve would be out in the bush and on the water constantly if he could. He has used his skills as a painter to leverage time for his passion. He now ties his own flies as well. In the photo above he is likely day-dreaming about flies. We would often laugh at each other at work because we had come from such different backgrounds and have such different personalities and views on things, but not meanlike, just having a laugh at each other's expense the way I imagine brothers would do. One thing we have in common is our relationship to food. One day he'll text me a photo of a dirty ol' cheeseburger as a reminder that it's Whopper Wednesday, and a few days later he'll text me a shot of his green superfood smoothy.
​To pass the time while painting exteriors in the sticks and out of range of a radio signal, we would compose haiku poems, each taking a turn providing the next line. Wish I woulda kept a written record of some of those. They were gold.
Having a nice friend is a blessing from God because He is not letting us be alone in this life. "No man is an island." There will be always a good friend staying beside us, reminding what are the good things to consider in our lives. A man does not need a wide network of friendships. Having a lot of friends has its own pros and cons. But having one true friend is enough for the rest of your life. A friend that will become your soul brother. Life is the best if we share our moments with the people we loved the most.