Where I’m at
It would be an exaggeration to say that my family health issues are “under control.” My father still isn’t fully alert. He also has tubes surgically implanted in his throat and belly, and will not be able to speak during a months-long rehab. (He will HATE that; he’s the kind of guy who always charms or at least entertains his caretakers.) In one of my better pieces of writing, I explained all that in a long note to my partly-senile mother, who seems to be handling it; but of course she remains a concern. Linda’s leg is still broken.
One moral in all this is that it is a VERY good idea for the elderly to live in the same metropolitan area as their children. When I’m with my father, I can rein in his overconfidence about muddling through episodes of weakness. When I’m not, bad things happen.
Still, things are moving forward. A long, slow rehab will be very unpleasant for my parents, but at least there’s good hope we won’t have too many more near-term urgent crises. Communication and coordination among my parents’ support structure is better, even in the case of Friendship Village. And Linda seems sufficiently able to fend for herself that I’ll keep my plans to go to the SF Bay area the week of October 4, albeit being very careful to stock the house with food beforehand.
I’ve kept up client service through all this, cutting relatively few corners, and that won’t change. Of course, the clients may change. After all, my biggest client is being acquired by IBM, my 2nd-largest was acquired by EMC, a small one was acquired by SAP, and another small one folded and was scavenged by Teradata. And there seem to be ever more new ones, still concentrated primarily in the database area. (Other kinds include database-interested tech vendors, analytic technology vendors, and users who care about the whole analytic technology stack.)
One area where I have indeed cut a few corners is blogging. Some of the catch-up posts I wanted to do will never happen, at least not until I talk with the various vendors again. Rather, I’m trying to move forward on new subjects, as per recent coverage of JPMorgan Chase/Oracle, IBM/Netezza, or ACID/NoSQL issues in general.
What’s suffered most are some cool new projects still in stealth mode. A month ago, I was pushing forward on about four fronts at once, trying to help shape what analysis and journalism would look like in the future. That entrepreneurial energy drained away as the crises started piling up. For those of you with whom I’ve left discussions hanging, I’m sorry — and I am NOT giving up the efforts. Indeed, I hope to take at least some small steps forward on a couple of them this week.
Thank you all for your understanding and support. You’ve been great.
Comments
12 Responses to “Where I’m at”
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Curt,
Best of luck with the health of your family. Of course that’s what’s really important in the long run.
We look forward to more cutting-edge DB information and education after the current storms have passed.
With Best Regards,
Rick
Hope your Dad gets better soon.
Hope things get better with your father. I find your blogs to be very informative. Take care.
Naresh
Best of luck to your Father. God Willing – he will get better sooner.
Good luck to your family. Everything will be fine.
With Best Regards,
Jie
Best of luck to your family!
Best Regards
/Patrik
Thanks Rick, Marton, Naresh, Hussain, Jie, Patrik!
Unfortunately, the chances of an outcome that is both favorable and QUICK seem to be very low. This is going to go on for a while …
Curt, one thing I know about you, you’re a tough mofo 🙂 Probably runs in the family. And so I will hope for the best as you struggle through this and pray things get better!
Best,
J.
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