I'll Miss You Andy

Today, well is just an awful day. I arrived at work to an email telling me that my good friend Andy had passed away Tuesday night, losing his battle with cancer. I didn't even know he was sick.

Andy and I met back in 1982 in Toronto at Dillon Consulting. I can still recall how they built this little cubby hole of an office just outside my door, for a new structural engineer transferring over from Windsor. We hit it off immediately. Andy and I shared many common interests, and most specifically; beer, golf and good looking women. Over the years we had many discussions revolving around those three things.

In my life, as I am sure it is for most people, I have had the great fortune of having many close friends. But in each phase: grade school, high school, college, working years : there was always one friend with whom I shared a special bond. Andy was that person for most of the 80's and early 90's.

One of the things that brought us close was the golf course. Over the years we played upwards of a hundred rounds together, with , I'm guessing, 75% of them just the two of us. We would often head out at 6:00 am, first group out, finish the round in under three hours, and be showered and into work by 10 am. It got so if we were out of the office at the same time, it was assummed we were golfing, even if that wasn't the case (it generally was though). This was never a problem, as we always more than made up for the time, and in fact on more than one occasion we were asked by the President to invite one of the other guys in the office. The golfing thing continued even after I moved to Fredericton in 1993, when Andy and I would golf the Thursday before the spring and fall Dillon partners meetings, then head off to Avenue Bistro for a few dozen chicken wings. The other Dillon partners would always ask me how Andy was doing, what he was up to, even though many of them lived in the same city. That always made me feel good others recognized the bond we had.

Andy watched both of my kids grow up, and continued to ask about them after we moved. We felt as comfortable together not having seen each other for six months, as we did sitting across the hall from one another at work. We never lost that sense of ease. I can still hear his voice in my head " Hey Mitch, how ya doing".

In almost thirty years of friendship, I never once heard Andy get angry, not even on the golf course. He was universally loved by everyone who met him, and had a genuine interest in knowing how each and every one of them was doing. On top of all that, he was a highly respected engineer.

At lunch today I met with Perry, John, Don, Narayan and Neville, some of the other old Dillon guys from the 80's. We talked about Andy, told a few stories that had special meaning to each of us, had a few laughs and even hoisted a beer in his honor. Then I went back to the office, and sat there and stared. Had to go home as I couldn't work through the tears.

I last saw Andy just before Christmas when we went to the Chicken Deli for wings and beer on 'cougar' night. Whenever we met, I always left feeling pretty good about myself, he had that way about him. Maybe he knew then, maybe not, he likely wouldn't have told me if he did. But I didn't get to say good bye, just like my friend Kenny twenty odd years ago.

Andy, you made me a better person, and I will miss you.

Headed Home

30 April 2010

Well, it's over. One of the most interesting, and certainly the most unique, vacations we have taken. Something completely different mixed in with something very similar. Regardless, it was over, and it was time to go home.

The packing was complete and we made it out to the cab at the prearranged time of 7:00 am. Jorges, the cabbie from the night before, gave the fare to his son who was waiting patiently. The drive to the airport took around 45 minutes, which unfortunately meant arriving about three minutes behind two buses bringing people from the resorts. This left us almost at the end of the line, and with no reserved seats, little chance of sitting together. However, good luck found us a window seat together in the second from last row.

It was a fairly annoying flight all round. First off, after several years of buying upgraded seats , it was incredibly uncomfortable with the reduced leg room (my fault for not booking earlier, and the mistake will not be repeated). In addition, the young girl to the right had broke up with her boyfriend on the trip (not to be judgemental, but from the looks of him her parents would be happy). The girl was extremely rude to everyone, and sighed and moaned and belly ached all the way back. And on top of everything, with maybe 12 people under the age of 20 on a plane of 300, "Alvin and the Chipmunks" was the movie played. Come on Sunwing, use your head, serve the customers who paid the way. You do this almost every trip. Maybe I was just annoyed that vacation was over.

Notwithstanding comments above, Sunwing is a well run airline, and I would recommend flying with them to anyone. The meals are not bad, they are very friendly and accomodating, and work hard to stay on schedule.

Back at the airport in Toronto, the bags came through relatively quickly. I moved up to to get them, and said "excuse me ladies" to a couple of women chatting at the conveyors. One of them looked at me with a sour face and said "you could have said excuse me". My reply, well......" Ah yes, back in the big city.

Guess that ends the day by day description of the trip. One of the interesting things of this web site is you can, for a very low cost, have a book made of the blog. This will be a nice reminder of the journey. So, the first order of business is to do some editing (it is scary how many spelling and grammatical errors I made using the netbook) and add some pictures.

One Last Day in the Sun

Thursday 29 April

Our last day at the beach, was pretty much like the arrival day in Cancun a couple of weeks previous. It was hot, sunny at times, overcast at others, with some periods of hard rain. Even at 7:30 in the morning the temperature was in the 80's, with the humidity close to 90%.

Walking along the water you never notice just how uncomfortable it is once away from the beach. If I ever pick "a" retirement spot, it will be in the sunny south, and it will be on the beach.

The morning was spent picking up a few things for the kids. The older they get, the harder it is to find the right gift, although a good bottle is always a fall back. Again, the best price is obtained when you put the item back on the shelf and walk out. Most times the vendor will stop you and offer their real bottom line price. If not, someone else will.

After saying goodbye to the turquoise water (always a sad moment) we headed back to get dressed for dinner at our new vacation ownership spot. Jessica, if you recall the Sandos representative from yesterday, had invited us to the new French restaurant at the resort.

We arrived all dolled up at 5:45 and were the first ones to be seated for the evening. Great four course meal consisting of lobster bisque, shrimp salad, filet minon and baked alaska. For drinks we shared a bottle of Chilean cabernet savinon, and of course, a beer. It was a very pleasant evening, and we learned a little more about Jessica and how she ended up in Mexico. All in all, a great way to end the trip.

We cabbed it back and had a nice talk with Jorges, or George in English he said. I introduced myself as Mitch, or Miguel in Spanish. He got a kick out of that. We also arranged with Jorges a 7:00 am pick up for the airport.

Back into town, we decided to go for a late night walk on the beach. There were still lots of people out so it was safe.

After taking Mary Lou back to the hotel room, I headed out to get some cash for the taxi in the morning. Well, a man on his own is a target for every vice hustler in the area. No less than five times I was asked to purchase some "doobies" or "blow", and twice was offered to "get hooked up"with a senorita. I settled for some cash from the ATM and a couple of beers to take back to the room (you can wander the streets carrying drinks).