He works in one place. I work in another far away from him. We’ve worked together on a project for several years. We were talking on the phone about an idea he had, something to fill in now that our project’s being cancelled. But it was an idea that didn’t work out, and so our conversation […]
Yearly Archives: 2010
Things Fall Apart
Wed, 16 Jun 2010, 04:13 PM (-06:00)
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. […]
They Took Off Their Engineering Hats
Tue, 15 Jun 2010, 06:42 PM (-06:00)
A hard problem to solve. Why don’t you tell me how your happy-talk can stop the spewing oil in the Gulf? Tell me how being a team player would help or how spin and PR will. Show me how the invisible hand will fix the glop and the death. Tell me how innovation that flows from unfettered profit […]
Not Knowing Where He’s Coming From
Tue, 15 Jun 2010, 11:35 AM (-06:00)
A long time ago, I am in the lobby of the building I worked in and my landlord comes up to me. He is a colleague of sorts and works down the hall, but I rent his house. He walks up to me and starts talking about a letter he got from the homeowners’ association, about […]
Hawks and Owls and Cranes
Tue, 15 Jun 2010, 11:27 AM (-06:00)
1. Hawk It was early morning. The sun was still low enough that the heat of the day had not yet risen, and there were clouds running low in the sky and even a hint of rain. We stood at the top of a hill at the edge of a Juniper thicket. Behind us, a […]
I Bought Some Land
Fri, 11 Jun 2010, 08:48 PM (-06:00)
I’m having trouble getting Dan’s code to run—well, not quite.  It’s running, but it’s not doing what I expect it to. So I’m on the phone with him, and I can tell from the way that he answers my questions that he’s really chomping at the bit to figure out what’s going wrong. I can […]
Growing Old at El Patio
Fri, 11 Jun 2010, 08:40 PM (-06:00)
1. Double Takes When he walked up the to table, the waiter looked to Trudy. She was still looking at the menu, so he turned to me. And when he saw me, he did a little bit of a double take and then smiled and nodded in the slight way he always has. He was […]
A Different Line of Work
Thu, 10 Jun 2010, 01:26 PM (-06:00)
He is a rocket scientist. He works in Florida at The Cape beside the green-blue waters of the Atlantic where waves wash up on a sandy shore. He watched the Falcon 9 launch the other day. Here’s what he said. It’s a beautiful rocket. It looked like something out of the 60s. It was beautiful. […]
A Place Where Water Sometimes Sits
Wed, 9 Jun 2010, 08:36 PM (-06:00)
There’s a place on the south side of the lake where the water sits after a rain. Up on the hill, the rains run off the fields and pool around the trunks of the trees and cover the broken branches fallen from above. Most of the time the place is dry. (It sure has been […]
Carl
Wed, 9 Jun 2010, 08:11 PM (-06:00)
I spotted him from a distance, sitting on the bench under the bridge where he always used to sit. As I walked up, he turned his head. I raised my eyebrows, opened my mouth, tilted my torso forward and pointed at him. He smiled. “Hello, Carl,” I said. He nodded and smiled and said, “Hello.” He […]