This past week has been more like a “Wheeee!”

Last Saturday, I saw my friends Cereal Killers play a gig at the brewery down the hill from our house.

Tons of our friends were in the audience for that one.

On Memorial Day, I met up with my friend Ken at another brewery (if you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct) for the countdown of the Inhailer Radio “Indie 500.” My friends Amy and David were there too. (David works at the same company where my son Peter works!)

Ken has a show on Inhailer, and several of their on-air folks were there.

(Ken does a great “sorority squat”…) They let me sneak into the photo because my friend Dave and I did some of the breaks during the countdown.

Dave and I both worked at 97X back in the day, and we met up with some other 97X alums at… yes, a brewery (the same one as Monday, in fact) on Thursday.

If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct.

Sandwiched in between those two outings, my friend Tom (a.k.a. “Freaky Tiki”) and I had dinner with our friend Felicity on Tuesday. Yes, it was at a brewery.

If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct.

Oh, and somehow I managed to squeeze in a quick road trip to Cleveland for a concert on Wednesday.

AC/DC was playing the stadium, but if you know me, you know I’m much more of a “bands at a small club” type of guy. Which is why I was at the Grog Shop to see The Tubs (my new obsession) open up for The Wedding Present.

Before the show, I met up with a bunch of college friends. At a bar.

If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct.

Last night I met my brother at Ramundo’s Pizzeria (where two of my sons were working) to watch Creighton (his alma mater) in NCAA baseball tournament.

If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct. If you’re thinking that the pattern is bars and breweries, you’re incorrect.

Those places are merely the setting.

The pattern is friendship. Band friends. Neighbor friends. Radio friends. College friends. Folks I’ve known for 40+ years, and people I’ve met in the last year or so. I feel blessed to know them, and lucky to call them friends.

I’m an old man who has no business going out nearly every night, much less driving back and forth to Cleveland in the middle of the week, but I draw energy from the connections.

And the Tuesday dinner was a sobering reminder of how fragile life can be. Felicity is the widow of my dear friend Ned. We lost him nearly two years ago. (I’ve posted about that here.)

It’s easy to stay glued to the couch and say “next time.” But there may not be one.

The older I get, the harder it is to get out to meet up with friends. Yet the older I get, the more I cherish the opportunities.

My friends are here, there, and everywhere. And that’s why I’ll be there too!