Many of us grouse about social media and how these platforms annoy us endlessly with trivial nonsense.

Well, I am going to say something nice about one social medium and the pure joy it brought to little ol’ me.

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed recently when I noticed a message from the former wife of a longtime friend and former colleague of mine. We worked for a time together in Oregon City, Ore., back when my career was getting started.

This former wife happens to be close friends with another Facebook friend of mine; she stumbled onto a message I had written to our shared friend, so she reached out to me. She told me she and my old pal were divorced, but she gave me his phone number and his address in Oregon.

What did I do? I called him!

He took the call, saw my name on his caller ID … and we commenced some serious catching up over the many years that had passed since we last saw each other.

This friend and I did some outdoorsy things in the old days, even a little mountaineering.

I left Oregon in the spring of 1984 and set up my life and career in Texas with my wife and two sons. I lost touch with my friend.

Until now!

I told him of the journey my life has taken over the past 40 years. The good and the bad. He told me, too, of his life’s path … also sprinkling some of the negatives with the positive stuff.

But, hey, that’s life. The ups and downs all come along and we manage to maintain our balance and trudge on.

It was a purely joyful conversation I had with my old friend. I just regret it took us so long to reconnect.

I am going to bitch again about social media in the future, bemoaning its excesses, its intrusion into our lives and the nonsense it conveys around the world.

Just not today.