welcome to wherever you are....pants optional.

Hey y'all, this is H... I've been holding off on breaking into Geoff's Tumblr because it was always a hands off area for me. But I would feel remiss to not let you guys know that he passed away on the 8th of May,shortly before one in the afternoon. His pain was well managed and I feel like his soul was at peace.

On April 25th, I woke up to him having a seizure and then he stopped breathing. The EMTs were able to get him breathing but he never woke. He had a couple three heart attacks and a bunch of seizure activity. He just didn't get enough oxygen for too long, although it wasn't ever considered brain death. His angiogram was surprisingly clear but there was weakness in his right ventricle. He was in ICU at Virginia Mason in Seattle, intubated but still breathing on his own, for 8 days. His dad and brothers flew in and his mom and I and them made the hard decisions together. His cousin was with him at the end and he had so many friends come visit him. We played his favorite songs and some that he didn't like. We held his hands, prayed, cried, talked, and everyone told stories...

Well, not me. I kept my stories to myself because no one else would understand what was so funny. Like him singing Holiday Road every time we went in a trip. Or us yelling at deer on one of our first dates in that damn Volvo he had.

First reaction???

But also...

Like, is this being held in Tukwila? Maybe Fife? I don't dare Google this because then the algorithm will think that I will have suddenly found the urge to join a trashy revival event. And please know, I judge not your inspiration, but in the PNW, we see God(dess) in the trees, the ocean, our mountains, and each other; this is D-list religious quackery selling something(which appears mighty cracker-y if you ask me). And as far as I'm concerned...

I have a varied and often interesting workday. Like today, for example, I led our 6 am teams call and then put on my rain gear, gloved up, and helped my team butcher crab that were returned from a customer. Then, after changing out of said gear and working on inventory and account reconciliations, our new CFO paid us a visit and we showed him the place. He is coo and totally engaged, but for the fun bits: Part of the tour was going to our (not up and running yet) 2nd shrimp production facility, which took me right by a printer I asked our tech team to set up for the new production document flow. And the tour just conveniently sauntered by the same printer where I sent this test page a few days ago, and forgot about it until we were walking by with said new CFO. It reads...

Of course, I folded it up rapidly and shoved it in my pocket. But somewhere, if the inspiration for this page knew, I'm sure this would be his reaction...

NICE WORK HIRSCH!!!!

Not really off, but I got to sleep in till 5... lol. I'm off to the halls of justice...

Proof of life

- I am earning my stripes as a middle manager these days. I don't know if it's the restrait I'm showing when I really want to jump through the screen and kill members of our tech team for guaranteeing we wouldn't have problems with SAP(news flash- nothing is going right), or saying major problems are fixed(they're not), or assuring us we would be supported the entire way(also on the 11 o'clock broadcast: they're as consistentvas ghosts). Or maybe it's how I've dealing with 6 or 7 languages being spoken in one work crew; or maybe it's the way I haven't started drinking... all of these things are to my credit. But rest assured, my fuckscapacitor needs a rebuild.

- I have a A this term in global finance which means that somehow, after working 6-7 days a week I've found a way to understand how triangular exchange arbitrage and WACC variations. Go me? Fuck I'm stubborn...

- Thankfully, with all this change and things going on, I'm still sick. But I lost 10 lbs, am exhausted, and now have a great cough/sharp pain in the middle of my back to go with a lack of sleep. I mean, if you're gonna go, go big or go home, right?

- So yeah... the best part of all of this is that it's really easy to not hurt emotionally when you have to sleep on the couch because your child is sick and you want your child to snuggle someone but 3 is a hard fit in your bed. So 'those kinds of dreams' have been replaced by ones where I just go and buy a new couch. I mean, it's still a sexy thought, right?

-Anyhow, I don't mean to complain so damn much, and theres a high likelihood this post will self destruct. But here's to you all, and thanks for sharing all the beauty that is you. Truthfully you are lovely- mean it! Much love!

And 8 years later, Layne...

As my lead guitar player/dear friend pointed out, Seattle is a fucking brutal music scene filled with so much tragedy and drug use. AIC was a gift to me, a dark refuge for a kid trying to shake off guilt and emptiness of loss with chemicals. So many of my friends didn't get clean and followed that road too, just like Layne, Mike Starr, Cornell, and too many...