When nil != nil, or lolgo

gistfile1.txt

Code that's running:

                outputError <- err
                fmt.Println("t.connection (pre): ", t.connection)
                if t.connection != nil {
                    fmt.Println("t.connection (post): ", t.connection)
                    fmt.Println("err: ", err)
                    t.connection.Close()
                    t.connection = nil

Output produced:

    t.connection (pre):  <nil>
    t.connection (post):  <nil>
    err:  dial tcp 127.0.0.1:5575: connection refused
    panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference