I got two sad pieces of news today in the space of less than 2 minutes. I was having lunch with a friend when I got a call from my good friend Bruce in Poughkeepsie. Our mutual close friend Jim Echkhardt was in a bad accident last night. He’s currently in a coma in intensive care in Poughkeepsie with a brain injury. News through the day has been hard to come y, but last I heard from Bruce, things were looking better for Jim.. I just heard a few minutes ago that he’s now breathing on his own and is moving his fingers and feet. Hes’ still unconscious though.
I can’t believe this is happening . .. Jim was up here with Bruce just days after Sam died.. they brought me a good bottle of Tequila and hung out with me for several very hard days.. I’ll never forget that. He’s such a great, funny and . strong guy..hes gonna pull through .I feel it. Our thoughts are with Jim and his family tonight. I ask you all to send good thoughts his way as well..
Sadly. just as I was hearing this terrible news from Bruce, I got another call from our mutaul good freind Kevin. I thouhgt Kevin was calling to also tell me about Jim.. but .. it turns out he hadn’t heard .. Instead he was callign to tell me that another mutual freind of ours. Rcihard (Dick) Chu had died in a boating accident. Dick was 79 years old and retired as an IBM Fellow a year or so back. At one point he had more patents than anyone else in the company.. . he was a kind, quiet and caring guy.. He was a real mentor to me for several years. We will all miss him. Our thoughts also go out to Dick ‘s wife Theresa.. and their son Ben who’s also at IBM.
Again.. please keep both Jm and Dicks families in your thoughts tonight..
Today was soooo busy with work I literally worked fro 7:30 am until 10PM with only 45 min off for dinner. Funny thing is.. i enjoyed most of it.. good hard thinking day.. I was so busy at work that nothing really happened today.. so I’ll talk more about our hike yesterday now that I can upload my pictures
We took the Preston pond hike again with Tim and jen and all four of our dogs.. Quite a gaggle. THis trail has everything including old cellar holes like this
an old barn foundation
wild COO’s of modern web commerce company’s !
bridges
cliffs and boulders
beaver dams
crazy vagabonds
beautifully remote ponds
random passerby teachers..
crazy trees with cryptic cuniform worm trails
Fall foliage (already >!>!)
beautiful views !
beautiful girls !
married people !
cool signs
with cryptic meanings !
love that last one..
ok.. another long day tomorrow.. so I’m going to bed.
You know, im realizing that i spend half of my weekend ramping down from the previous week, then the second half.. Basically all of Sunday.. Ramping back up. Ive just spent nearly 4 hours catching up on email from last week and planning my attack on the week ahead. I always end up going to bed on sunday with work on my mind.. So i even dream about work on sundays…
I think i need to learn to compartmentalize a little better and take my whole weekend as weekend…
Thats not to say that i didn’t have a great weekend.. I did.. What can be better than a great hike with friends, a fresh tomato sandwich, time with family, some easy chores and a nap in the sun…
I even have some pictures to prove i had a great day… Unfortunately they
Are on my phone that seems to have lost its charge…
Happy Homecoming !.. it’s homecoming weekend.. lots of events planned.. some of which are on hold because of the weather. Diane and I had signed up to help cook today at the field. It was a hoot because there was such a strong wind. We were flipping burgers (until I admitted that I hadn’t eaten a burger since 1976).. The wind was blowing plates, cups and foil all over.. I ended up playing the outfield.. chasing down errant paper pates and such. Kept me busy !. We were joking that our burger joint would be called “Windy’s” .. (as in Wendy’s.. ok. you had to be there.. )
We’re now sitting in the house waiting for the relics of Hurricane Issac to come sweeping in..We’re expecting heavy rains and strong winds.. Everything’s canceled for tonight.: he party we were going to, the dance at the school. People are battening down. it reminds me a little of the wait for Irene. .. Like Irene.. it kinda looks like the danger is overstated.. right now it’s just a gentle rain and no wind. .. It was like that with Irene… it wasn’t until the next day that I fully appreciated what had happened here.
So.. we’re just waiting out the storm… keep dry everyone !
