There was a luncheon today at work for a couple departing employees. Leilannie took a job with another division of our company and I wish her luck. Arlyn is just leaving Guam and heading for greener pastures in New York. I feel bad because I completely spaced on their farewell party and went somewhere else for lunch. I doubt I’ll ever see Arlyn again since last Friday was her last day. I am going to make an effort to say goodbye to Leilannie before Friday.

Another departure is coming up fast. My good friend David is leaving for New Zealand in less than two weeks. It is certainly time, he’s been talking about leaving for at least three years. I am surprised the University of Auckland held his position and grant money for that long. Hanging with David has been one of the basics tenets of my life on Guam, along with my job, football and paddling. It’s hard to imagine Guam with David. It will certainly involve less partying.

Seems like all the people worth something are leaving Guam. I had lunch with David and Von and a general course in our conversation was about how Guam is going down and all the rats are jumping ship. I guess that means I’m a suicidal rat or something.

Is there anything worse than a Wednesday morning hangover? And my plan was to visit Radio Shack last night. Instead I ended up at my local watering hole, drinking beer, listening to the jukebox and playing pool. In retrospect it was certainly more enjoyable than shopping for batteries at Radio Shack.

I’m not really sure if the headache was caused by the beer or this morning’s frigid temperatures. It was 22� Celsius this morning, about as cold as it ever gets on Guam. I was freezing when I woke up today. I do love this time of year though. The weather is the best Guam gets; cool, sunny, and breezy all day long. I don’t need to run the air conditioner at all.