God speed Phil

RC4MAN

XS650 Junkie
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Lost a good friend, neighbor and riding buddy yesterday.
In 1999 my late wife and I bought a lake house on Lake Lanier GA, next door neighbors were an elderly retired couple, she worked out in her flower garden in her shift and rubber boots, he came and went on a variety of motorcycles. After 5 years my wife bought me a new motorcycle for my 50th birthday and I started getting acquainted with Old Phil. He led me on roads in north GA and western NC that I had never ridden, probably would have never found.
Come to discover that about 10 years earlier during a period of dissatisfaction with and employer I thought to change places of employment, got out the Yellow Pages (old internet) and look up local machine shops and after hours I would do a drive by to see if they might be an interesting place to work. One such place was Tri-State Tool and Saw and I made the recon, on the front of the building above the door there was a larger circular saw blade. Thought to myself, hell I'm a tool maker machinist, damned if I'm going to sharpen saw blades so never stopped by.
Came to find out later that in addition to sharpening saws he had a full CNC shop and made custom carbide cutters for the woodworking and furniture industries. He had a patent on replaceable insert woodworking cutters which he said "Wasn't worth a bottle of cold piss" as you couldn't afford to defend it against the large tooling companies.
When my first wife passed to cancer and I was going though a dark period I could always count on going next door to his garage in the evenings and tinkering on one of his many bikes, having a drink of Jack and a cigar and long rides on the weekends. It really made the transition bearable.
I later moved but would pay frequent visits though the loss of his first and second wives over the following years.
More recently his health has been in decline, he developed a balance issue and had to finally give up riding a couple years ago, when he gave me the SV1000 in the attached photo that he loved riding.
Once a week I would pick us up something to eat and stop by for some conversation and a drink and cigar. That last stop was last evening, his main garage door was closed but his car was in, no tv sounds but no answer from the bell or knock. I left but called his daughter to see if he was with her and she hadn't spoken with him all day so ws going to go over and check. She later let me know that he obviously fallen, hit his head and succumbed to the injury.
I'll miss our visits.
Aug 18 027.JPG
 
Lost a good friend, neighbor and riding buddy yesterday.
In 1999 my late wife and I bought a lake house on Lake Lanier GA, next door neighbors were an elderly retired couple, she worked out in her flower garden in her shift and rubber boots, he came and went on a variety of motorcycles. After 5 years my wife bought me a new motorcycle for my 50th birthday and I started getting acquainted with Old Phil. He led me on roads in north GA and western NC that I had never ridden, probably would have never found.
Come to discover that about 10 years earlier during a period of dissatisfaction with and employer I thought to change places of employment, got out the Yellow Pages (old internet) and look up local machine shops and after hours I would do a drive by to see if they might be an interesting place to work. One such place was Tri-State Tool and Saw and I made the recon, on the front of the building above the door there was a larger circular saw blade. Thought to myself, hell I'm a tool maker machinist, damned if I'm going to sharpen saw blades so never stopped by.
Came to find out later that in addition to sharpening saws he had a full CNC shop and made custom carbide cutters for the woodworking and furniture industries. He had a patent on replaceable insert woodworking cutters which he said "Wasn't worth a bottle of cold piss" as you couldn't afford to defend it against the large tooling companies.
When my first wife passed to cancer and I was going though a dark period I could always count on going next door to his garage in the evenings and tinkering on one of his many bikes, having a drink of Jack and a cigar and long rides on the weekends. It really made the transition bearable.
I later moved but would pay frequent visits though the loss of his first and second wives over the following years.
More recently his health has been in decline, he developed a balance issue and had to finally give up riding a couple years ago, when he gave me the SV1000 in the attached photo that he loved riding.
Once a week I would pick us up something to eat and stop by for some conversation and a drink and cigar. That last stop was last evening, his main garage door was closed but his car was in, no tv sounds but no answer from the bell or knock. I left but called his daughter to see if he was with her and she hadn't spoken with him all day so ws going to go over and check. She later let me know that he obviously fallen, hit his head and succumbed to the injury.
I'll miss our visits.View attachment 244235
What Marty said. That's the biggest thing that sucks about growing old, losing ones we love. Carpe Diem.
 
Lost a good friend, neighbor and riding buddy yesterday.
In 1999 my late wife and I bought a lake house on Lake Lanier GA, next door neighbors were an elderly retired couple, she worked out in her flower garden in her shift and rubber boots, he came and went on a variety of motorcycles. After 5 years my wife bought me a new motorcycle for my 50th birthday and I started getting acquainted with Old Phil. He led me on roads in north GA and western NC that I had never ridden, probably would have never found.
Come to discover that about 10 years earlier during a period of dissatisfaction with and employer I thought to change places of employment, got out the Yellow Pages (old internet) and look up local machine shops and after hours I would do a drive by to see if they might be an interesting place to work. One such place was Tri-State Tool and Saw and I made the recon, on the front of the building above the door there was a larger circular saw blade. Thought to myself, hell I'm a tool maker machinist, damned if I'm going to sharpen saw blades so never stopped by.
Came to find out later that in addition to sharpening saws he had a full CNC shop and made custom carbide cutters for the woodworking and furniture industries. He had a patent on replaceable insert woodworking cutters which he said "Wasn't worth a bottle of cold piss" as you couldn't afford to defend it against the large tooling companies.
When my first wife passed to cancer and I was going though a dark period I could always count on going next door to his garage in the evenings and tinkering on one of his many bikes, having a drink of Jack and a cigar and long rides on the weekends. It really made the transition bearable.
I later moved but would pay frequent visits though the loss of his first and second wives over the following years.
More recently his health has been in decline, he developed a balance issue and had to finally give up riding a couple years ago, when he gave me the SV1000 in the attached photo that he loved riding.
Once a week I would pick us up something to eat and stop by for some conversation and a drink and cigar. That last stop was last evening, his main garage door was closed but his car was in, no tv sounds but no answer from the bell or knock. I left but called his daughter to see if he was with her and she hadn't spoken with him all day so ws going to go over and check. She later let me know that he obviously fallen, hit his head and succumbed to the injury.
I'll miss our visits.View attachment 244235
Really sad to hear about the loss of your friend. I hope the memories of rides, drinks and smokes stay with you and allow you to rejoice in his life.
memories can let the good times roll.
 
Thats sad
True friends are hard to come by
I lost one of my best friends that I knew from grade school on, he died during the height of Covid in a nursing home not from covid it was cancer that took him
He basically died alone there no visitors were allowed it was a sad time
 
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