- I just found out that one of our coworkers, a loveable-but-crotchety, dirty-old-man-but-sweet guy who had been having severe health problems lately, passed away this morning. I'm really sad, but he had been in pain; uncomfortable and weak a great deal of the time lately (I believe his condition was pulmonary in nature) and the fact that he's out of that now is, not comforting, but I ached knowing how sick he felt and now I know he doesn't feel that anymore. Also, and this is terrible, I was aware he was in the hospital, gravely ill. When it's not a shock, just sadness, grief can proceed more smoothly.
- Life is going on. As it does.
- One of our other coworkers is happily retiring today, and still another is beginning maternity leave as she is due any second now.
- I got a good idea for a new reality show. It's about the fact that bald eagles have officially been taken off the endangered species list. I call the show America's Got Talons.
- My late coworker would have gotten a kick out of that.
- If Carl Sagan was right, and I've no reason to believe he wasn't, since he was brilliant, then my third grade teacher (who was not so much brilliant as she was really old, mean, closed to new ideas, and heavily lathered with orange pancake makeup) was wrong. It's not quality — it is quantity. The evidence seems to indicate that it really is more important to know how much of a good thing is a good thing than to have the good thing in the wrong amount (not enough or too much).
- My late coworker would probably have gotten a kick out of that, too.