My director's retirement

My boss is retiring. I've been working for him or his division on and off since I've been here (1991). A heck of a long time. He was a great director, one of the best I've had. He'll be missed! At his good-bye luncheon the other day one of our AD's came over and asked if I wanted to say a few words, along with the other chiefs and unit heads. I said "Hell yeah!". After 10 minutes of thought it was my turn and I improvised on the true story of how I first met him when I was a co-op student. At that time I had no idea of the government hierarchy and was happily jawing away at him in the common computer area about the Beatles (he has a British accent) as people around us giggled to themselves. Later, I mentioned to my old boss at the time, "Who's that British fellow with the wild hair and glasses? He's cool!". My boss got worried.
"Who"?
"The british guy".
"Uhh, you didn't talk to him did you?" My boss started shaking his head.
"Yeah, I asked him about Bla Bla Bla and Bla Bla Bla...."
Silence from my boss.... He got out an org chart....

"That was the director. He is up here.. Here's you.." Pointing to an empty space on the bottom."
"But there's nothing there."
"Precisely."

Har har Har! Ok, I got it. I had almost made my first career limiting move. Be careful who you talk to, speak unless spoken to. On the org chart, I am an amoeba. Gotcha!

However, I've since learned that being in the field of IT, we're expected to be "a little off.." and can get away with bloody murder! So at the luncheon I ended up doing an impression of him near the end. Tripper came over after and said sarcastically.
"It's not fair". You fuckin' IT guys.. You can get away with stuff like that and it doesn't stick to you..."

It's true.

I only wish I would have had another 10 minutes to think of funny stuff to say. As soon as I sat down I had thought of 3 or 4 other things that would have made everyone pee themselves(literally). Most of this has to do with the fact that I do not work on a day to day basis with my director. We only come together when stuff goes bad. And when it goes bad, it's usually funny.

I wish I would have told them about the time I was in the elevator at work, going up to my floor, and these two guys behind me are talking about my director. I hear one say:

"Did you hear what happened to (my director)?"
"Yeah. The court thing? Did he win?"
.

What was this? My director went to court? WTF? The elevator opened on my floor and I was going to play dumb to ride up to 15 with these guys and hear more but someone was getting on in the lobby and said hi to me and waited for me to get out. So I got out.

So what was this court thing? I can't go ask him, depending on what it is, he might not want to talk about it. So I went to the spot where every guy goes when he needs to find out about gossip - The CAN. There I ran into a colleague who had heard, and he filled me in.

"His dog was outside his house and supposedly bit another dog who was being walked. The other guy is taking him to court."
Oh.. That's not too bad.
"But the thing is, the dog that got bit is a seeing eye dog. The owner who is taking him to court is visually impaired."
This is like a Seinfeld episode.

"But.." I asked "How does he blind fellow know what happened?"
"I dunno." my colleague said.

So my director went to court to defend his dog's honor and won. The big thing I'll remember about him is his gift of speech. No one wants to go after him at a speaking engagement, for good reason. He's got a silver tongue. I may go into court against a blind fellow who is a witness to my dog assaulting his dog AND LOSE! , but it won't happen to my director(grin).

Cheers to him and his new found free time!