Don't take it personally

I was really busy the past week. The only way I got anything posted here at all was because I had written several drafts last weekend so all I had to do was publish them.

I have an excuse for being busy. One of our co-workers walked away from his job without telling anybody. By the time management realized he wasn't coming back, his work had piled up and an important deadline was looming. By working 10 - 12 hours a day, I got the job done.

I don't know why he felt he had to leave that way. We have a small unit of less than 10 people and most of us have worked together several years. When he didn't show up for work, I was worried that something had happened to him. Like many young men he has a penchant for speed and reckless behavior. I was afraid he was laying in a hospital somewhere thinking his co-workers didn't care. When I found out his arms weren't broke and there was no discernable reason why he couldn't call or send an email to at least one of us, I was mad.

But I don't have a right to be mad about that. Afterall, we weren't friends, we were just co-workers. Just people who were forced to know each other by mere chance.

Then why do I feel I failed him somehow? I'll never know the whole story, but I heard he plans to follow his dream so I wish him well.

This one's for you, Dumas.

Mein bratwurst has a first name, it's F-R-I-T-Z

Mein bratwurst has a second name,

it's S-C-H-N-A-C-K-E-N-P-F-E-F-F-E-R-H-A-U-S-E-N.

(Rainer Wolfcastle, The Simpsons)