Farewell Comrade

My friend David is retiring today and I would first like to say that he is a punk for leaving.  When he told me I was angry for about 10 minutes.  He said, "Hey, guess what..."  No preparation was had.  No conversation a month ago to say, "I'm thinking about retiring."  Just that he's retiring and there's nothing I could do change that. His wife probably thinks I'm nuts but that's fine. (I kind of am.)

So my favorite story about David involves the dog pictured above.

I'm sure anyone who has read my blog knows I love dogs.  I l.o.v.e. dogs.  So he said one day, again, out of the blue, "You wanna see Stick?" I wondered why he wanted to show me a picture of a stick but agreed because we're all kind of nuts when you really get down to it.  He whips out his phone and there's this picture of the cutest dog ever.

One day we were working together and he asked me again if he'd shown me Stick and I said he had, but he passed me the phone anyway and there she was.  So the next question was, "Why is her name Stick?"

It turns out when she was a puppy she got sick and they had to give her glucose.  They got it on her face and started to all her StickyFace which was shortened to "Stick" but occasionally "Nicole."

His wife, Rebecca, who also works in our department, ratted him out on this one.  Apparently when they first got Stick, David would refer to her as "Nicole." Only when they were out was her name Nicole.  He would almost feel ashamed of her too, which made me glower.  Rebecca told this story about when they went to Home Depot with Stick and Rebecca had to carry her because he was a tough guy in home depot.  It is very difficult to hold up those appearances when you have a Yorkie with pink bows on her head in your arms.

So, a few weeks ago we were passed work that is completely unrelated to our job.  He was at my desk showing me how to do something.  Rebecca came over raising hell.  David pulled out his phone and said, "I think we should look at Stick."  In our office, full of analysts I emitted a hearty guffaw that I'm sure woke up Karen.

I demanded that he email me a picture of Stick because he had to train me how to do his work.  I am the lucky beneficiary of Open Records requests and they're complicated.  Now, I have Stick on my desktop.  Before we did something new he would say, "Okay we should look at Stick before we start this next part."

So, David, you've taught me a lot and I've come to regard you as a friend.  I'll miss you and I'll try to do this job without you.  You certainly helped me look smarter than I am.  I wish you well in your retirement and Stick will remain on my desktop for those times when the Open Records requests pile up and I jack up the JCL so Henry has to rescue me... again.

Farewell,
Melissa