I found out today...

That my previous boss passed away yesterday.  He was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in mid-May and had less than 3 weeks to live.  Wow.  I'd thought about him from time to time in the last 2+ years since he lost his job.  He was a very nice man.  Very different than my current boss.  My current boss kicks ass at with brilliant ideas and he's incredibly knowledgeable.  He's also "nice" but not someone I trust.  He doesn't deal with stress and frustration well at all - screaming at people, throwing folks under the bus left and right.  He can be pretty nasty.  Though he's never blown up at me, he makes me feel like a kid again.  I feel anxious and anticipate that he will lose it and completely blow up at me - and then I would totally lose it.  It's no fun to feel like a ball of knots.

I had forgotten how much I liked my previous boss until I looked back at this old blog post I'd written the day I found out he lost his job.   He was a pretty great guy.  Not too good at the job, but a really great guy.  Lots of integrity.  Everything was really chaotic and stressful when I worked with him - which may or may not have had anything to do with him - I much preferred working with him than the current kick-ass time-bomb.  I was sure I'd run into him somewhere, sometime...  It just never happened and now I know it won't happen.  And I feel sad about that. 

I'm sure getting fired is shitty.  But it's also shitty for the people who worked with them - because it's like they died.  They're just gone.  No explanation.  And everything continues in their absence.  Time continues to pass.  Projects move forward.  New people are hired.  Other people move on. 

But he didn't die.  Until yesterday.

Life is strange.