Friends. Getting closer, drifting apart. A sine wave of friendship.

I used to live next door to a boy named Mark. He might have been my first friend. We played together in the park across the street. We rode bikes together and we would watch the Flintstones. They had Color TV so we always wanted to go over there and watch. When we got Color TV, watching the Flintstones together became less important. We still liked each other. He had a mean little rat-dog named Tippie who would bite on occasion.
Like Tim, Mark and I were in Boy Scouts together. We did all the scouting stuff. Rope knowledge, camp-outs, Merit Badges and hiking. As we grew older, we started experimenting with electronics and Mark came up with the "Shock box." A diabolical device than ran on a 9 volt battery and had the unique property that when you connected these two wires together, nothing would happen, but when you took them apart, it would sent a shock through your arms (and chest). It didn't stop there though. If two people held hands and each had one of the wires in the other hand, it would shock them both. This was such an astonishing revelation to us that we decided to see just how many we could daisy-chain together. One at a time, we added more kids. Mark would occasionally grab the next kid's ear instead of his hand. It hurt a little, but to a young mind it was a new sensation. We got up to about eight kids when Mrs. Stump came along. Game over! Shock box confiscated by the 6th grade music teacher.
After that Mark moved across town and we lost touch. Years passed and I saw his sister on a College Campus. I had served my hitch in the Army and he had become an Air Conditioning mechanic. He was just getting back into the electronics industry and his sister put us in touch again. We would work on projects together. His strength was electronics. Mine was mechanics. A few years passed where we were close, then we drifted apart.
When I got divorced I was reaching out to everyone I had ever known, including Mark. We reattached for a time, then drifted apart again. We currently both work for the same employer and we live within three blocks of one-another. If I ride by his house and he's out, I'll stop and chat for a while. When our paths cross at work, we take a moment to catch up, but currently we have no plans to get together for anything. My welder is in his garage and I call when I need to use it.
Time will pass and I'm confident we'll grow close again, but maybe not. I've become much more athletic and I tend to associate with more athletic types these days. I think the big reason we are not staying attached any more is because of the social circle. His is different from mine. Mine is different from his. Our interests have changed and even though my creative projects are of interest to him, they have no practical interest. I'm too artsy, I guess.