[conspire] Thanks for being here

[Rick Moen]

To summarise the summary of a summary:  Bless you all for making it this
far through 2006.  Don't blow it.

This has been a banner holiday season in that nobody I care about has
(yet) gotten freakishly killed or horribly maimed.  The toll has been:
one sudden case of cancer (quickly cured).  One former co-worker dead,
shockingly young.

After a thirty-eight year losing streak of seeing other people suffer
and die during the holiday season, that's pretty good, relatively
speaking -- even though I tempted fate by having the first Christmas
tree ever in my personal household since Christmas 1968.

The co-worker was John Goebel, clustering/scaleability expert at VA
Linux Systems, co-creator of VA Cluster Manager and Systemimager, who in
recent years has worked just up the road at SLAC Computing Services.
He was buried today in San Mateo, having died on Christmas Eve after
three years fighting an illness (that was not specified).  He left
behind a wife and family.  Having a father and husband die at Christmas
must be particularly hard, even if it doesn't happen suddenly.

Point is:  I've valued knowing you all in 2006, and want to know, laugh
with, and break bread with you all in 2007, and preferably for many,
MANY years to come.  That includes, most particularly, any of you I've
offended or wronged or annoyed.  Please do well.  Be happy.  Be very,
very careful.  (There are maniacs out there, bad drivers, slippery
roads, low-density lipoproteins ;-> .)  Be safe.  And live and thrive.

Sincerely,
Rick M.

P.S.:  Glade Jul og Godt Nytt År (Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
-- in Norwegian, silly!).   Happy Hanukkah.  Have a blessed Eid al Adha.
And all of that from the Moen family.