Gee, some of the older posters are leaving SI.
Some of us changed our alias and stopped posting regularly, so we will not be missed.
Good morning, HairBall,
I've been looking for Drygulch Dan for months now. He was a good cyber friend.
If you knew him (in the cyber sense), then you'd know that his absence from SI and other social media was totally out of character for the man. In one of his last posts he revealed 2 alarming points about his 3D life. Point #1 was that he sold his boat in Puerto Rico. Dan loved that boat as much as he loved life itself or as much as he loved his wife. He wouldn't just sell it without a detailed explanation to those who were his friends on SI. He left no such explanation. The second point was that he had to get stuff together for family/friends in Guam, and make arrangements for his properties in Guam. To me, this sounded like a man making his final arrangements to make things easier for those he leaves behind. Ominous, I know... I think he was preparing to let all of us know about his future, but simply ran out of time. When one knows one is about to pass on to the next life, then one prioritizes what needs to be done in this life in the short time remaining. I think that Dan was doing so, but just ran out of time before he could make his disclosures to his cyber friends.
What you note about some older posters leaving SI and perhaps not wanting any further attachments to other posters is likely true for some folks. But in my very humble opinion it was not true for Dan. He loved people. He loved life. He'd want us to know and remember him.
In searching for the missing Dan, one thing I lacked was his real name. The other day, I came across another SI poster who had once met Dan many, many moons ago. While this poster didn't have much information, one thing the poster remembered was that Dan's real life name was not Dan. He gave me Dan's real first name and also the first name of Dan's wife. He could not recall the last name. Combining that information with what I already knew about Dan, I was able to find his obituary in something like all of 15 seconds. Dan's spouse and daughter left behind a lovely obituary in the public domain which we are able to share here. I would like to thank the poster that gave me the information. If s/he wishes to identify themselves, so be it.
Rest in Peace, Drygulch Dan. You will be missed here.
EK!!!
PS - As a note to other readers, we should devise some sort of legacy system where we can notify some other SI person(s) of our real name, real location and so on, so that when the inevitable happens and we seemingly and suddenly vanish from the face of the earth, those of us left behind can search and maybe find closure. And we could also use that system to address HairBall's concern that perhaps some of us don't want to be found or remembered. |
