It’s been just shy of 2 weeks now since Jason died (yes, I say died – as a good friend put it, he didn’t “pass away.” That’s too passive. He went kicking and screaming). And I’ve been doing a lot of thinking; Sharing some here, sharing some with people in person and some only with myself. But the thing I realized this week is that Jason taught me a LOT. For a 29 year old, he sure had his priorities straight.
I’ve been fortunate in my nearly 40 years to have never truly experienced the phenomenon of emotional pain manifesting itself as physical pain. Until this week.
There’s a lot of debate in the world about how you measure a man – number of friends? Wealth? Influence? Power? No one seems to really land on the right measure. For me, knowing one man for the last 4 years has definitively answered that question.
My friend Jason Schippers died on Sunday. He was 29. After being ill off and on he went into surgery last Friday to try to find a root cause and hopefully correct the issues he was having. Saturday I had a chance to visit him thanks to his very loving family – and talk to him a bit. I even got the chance to tell him I loved him. Talk with him about when he’s better; leaving the hospital. He even tweeted:
Just got off the phone with my brother, who you’ll remember is restoring my 1974 MG Midget for me. (I have helped, btu he’s done 90% of the work).
I totally forgot to post this – even though I have a Picasa & Flickr album up for the thing. I spent a week or so in early August home in Iowa working on the MG Midget with my brother. We got it SO CLOSE – almost close enough to bring back to Denver. But… when we were testing the brakes, the master cylinder popped it’s seals and *poof* no rear brakes. Front ones worked so we drove it around a bit, but it’s still in Iowa. Hoping to get the brakes done and bring it back here soon. Here are a few pics once we got it out of the driveway.
Got a camera phone pic from my brother last night. It appears the body work is nearly done on the MG – they just have to put the fenders back on (you can see them in the back waiting patiently).
I haven’t posted in a while, but figured I should. The image to the left is auto paint on a piece of metal – ahead of a full repaint of a car. But I should back up.
When I was at Ogilvy & Mather/Chicago from 2000-2003 I worked on the Sears business. Started on Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH) and then moved on to Craftsman tools later. The TV we did was iconic and dealt with the breadth of the tool line and the history and heritage Craftsman has. It always amazed me that it was always ranked #1, #2 or #3 on quality among all worldwide brands (not just tools, all). The other two that flirted with the top 3 were Rolls Royce and Waterford Crystal. Good company indeed.