1. Coder.
“He writes code,” he told me. A badge of honor in times like these.
I was quiet for a moment, remembering old times.
I remember when I wrote code. Those were good years. Golden years sitting at a desk with few distractions, few meetings, few teleconferences—with something concrete and meaningful to focus on. I would set two alarms to break me out of my concentration at the end of the day on Fridays when I had to meet the boy at the airport.
I haven’t done that in a very long time.
2. Longevity.
“It’s time to move on,” he said as we were talking about ways to wrap up the changes he’s been making to a document so we can put it on a shelf.
“By the way,” I said. “I got some good news today: they say they’re pretty sure about funding thru July. … Good news.”
“Well, I’m hoping for the best but doubtful about longevity,” he said.
3. Running out of string.
We stumbled on each other in the hall a few weeks ago. I used to work for him.
“How are you in these stressful times?” he asked.
“Ok, all things considered. Sometimes it seems like I’m hanging from a string.”
He laughed his chortling laugh.
“Well,” he said. “You better start spinning. It’s about to run out.”