Bob

My friend, Bob, is in the hospital. He was in a bad car accident last week driving from his home in Florida to visit Washington, D.C. The guy is 76 and has smoked for 200 years, has a seriously gruff cough and is far from thin so I'm surprised that it's something like a car that would give him a run for his money. I love the guy despite the fact that he's been giving me a hard time since I've known him. When I got married, he felt he wanted to talk to Bjorn in person to make sure "the Swede" understood what he was getting into. That said, he's also served as a reference for just about every just I have applied for and his recommendations have apparently been good enough as I always got the job. He's even given me some career advice, some of which was even worthwhile.

I found out about his accident when a friend of his sent a mass e-mail to many of the addresses in Bob's address book letting us know what had happened. The request also went out asking for folks to e-mail funny stories that a friend would then read to Bob to help cheer him up. The response has been pretty amazing with a very diverse group of folks sending around funny stories from him over the many years. The guy has lived a fantastic life as a print, television and wire reporter only to take up writing novels as a retirement hobby after his kids were grown. I can only hope to be so lucky in 40 years.