[September 2, 2001] - After a rather lengthy hiring process I started my job the day after Labor Day, 2001 working with Project Phoenix at the SCDMV.  I expect to keep this job all the way through to retirement if possible, so I'm hoping I won't be chronicling too much in the way of professional changes from now on.

[February 2002] - Shortly after I took my job at Project Phoenix I found another girlfriend.  I met Katie on the job, which was a first for me.  She was one of a group of contractors/trainers who were hired to teach all the DMV employees about the new computer system and I was the newbie employee on staff with less than six months under his belt.  It was another one of those surprising and instant connections that never ceases to amaze me.  We had our first date on Valentine's Day in 2002, although both of us will swear on a stack that it wasn't planned that way.

We dated for almost five months before her contract ended and she had to return to her home in Virginia.  Citing religious differences (I'm Methodist, she's fundamentalist Baptist), she did not want to pursue a relationship beyond the point where her contract ended.  It was fun, surprisingly refreshing and ended all too quickly, but I wouldn't trade the experiences with her for anything.  I have to admit that I thought that it was the right thing to do to end the relationship. I harbor no ill feelings toward her over the breakup, although I will definitely miss the closeness.

[May 2003] - About four months after my grandfather's funeral, my dad went in for a routine colonoscopy. They found a tumor in his ascending colon and scheduled him for surgery two weeks later.  Dad went through the surgery just fine but we were all worried when the biopsy results came back. The tumor was "pre-cancerous" but it also had spread out of the colon and had been creeping towards the muscles of his abdomen. Because of the way that it had grown, they scheduled him for a 24-week regimen of chemotherapy. Dad was a trooper throughout the whole ordeal and was anxious to get it all over with. His final treatment was on the last Friday in February 2004 and the prognosis was promising.  So far he has shown to be in full remission, but we won't be fully confident that he is clean until a year has passed. That's not keeping us from being optimistic, however. :)

[November 2003] - On Veteran's Day I was involved in a very nasty auto accident. The details of that accident can be found at this link. Obviously I survived, although getting hit from the rear at 70MPH was something that the highway patrolmen at the scene said I should've died from. In fact, outside of seatbelt soreness, I suffered no real injuries. I now have a new car, which thankfully has a manual transmission in it.

The year 2004 has definitely been a trying one. . .

[January 3, 2004] - I didn't want to post this at first because of the glut of press coverage that it received. Enough time has now passed that I think that my mention of it won't get swept up in the "me too" movement. Captain Kimberly Hampton was killed in action in Iraq. Her Kiowa helecopter was shot down in the Fallujah area during a patrol and she died when the aircraft slammed into a wall.

I met Kim while she was still a student at Presbyterian College. She was part of a cooperative ROTC program between her college and Newberry College, and she knew my co-worker Captain (now Lieutenant Colonel) Janice Haigler. She was a great conversationalist, a good person to be around at sushi get-togethers, and always someone possessing a positive attitude.

Kim's sacrifice was not in vain, in my personal opinion. She died doing what she loved, and she died while pursuing a cause that she truly believed in. No greater sacrifice could've been asked by anyone and she gave it without reservation. I admire her strength, her courage and her compassion, and I will honor her name always. Godspeed, Darkhorse 6!

[May 19, 2004] - My maternal Grandmother has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the prognosis is grim. She is in no pain and is undergoing chemotherapy to slow the growth of the tumor. This upsets me greatly because she represents the foundation of my character and the basis of my distinctly non-redneck demeanor. In fact it is because of the influence of her British heritage that I am able to speak without a southern accent, employ a vocabulary that at times confuses my very southern friends, and treat women with a level of respect that is laughed at today by most young men. She has already survived one bout of colon cancer that was diagnosed and defeated less than a year before I was born. She also survived Hitler as she was a teenager living in Southern England during WWII. She doesn't deserve this; she's been through enough...

[July 17, 2004] - Rupert Gaddy, a good friend and colleague from Newberry College, took his own life. This is a statistic that I hate keeping track of: Rupert's death marks the third time that a person that I've known directly has killed himself. (The first two stemmed from problems with a wife/girlfriend. I am hesitant to speculate as to why this one occurred since I don't know much about the history behind it...)

Rupert died at the far-too-young age of 53, leaving behind his wife Amanda and their two children (and two children from a previous marriage). He also left behind a rich legacy in the many gifted students that he taught in the areas of speech and theatre. He was a unique character with a distinctive laugh, a passion for archery that was reflected in his participation in the SCA, and an inquisitiveness about anything challenging that seldom dulled. He was a mover and shaker at work, never afraid to voice an objection to any policy at Newberry College that he deemed unfair or unnecessary. From a more humorous point of view he also a great target whenever we played Quake. His favorite quote? "Oh, that was UGLY! *splutch!*" :) I will miss him greatly. He taught me to enjoy life and that is one lesson that I will keep with me.

[July 31, 2004] - Kat is dead... There's no other way to say it. Acting on her own grief over the suicide of Rupert Gaddy, Kathryn Anne Grant killed herself on July 31, 2004. This selfish act only compounds the grief that I felt over Rupert's suicide and pisses me off because she threw away her life so callously. [Image of Kat and Rupert together at an SCA event]

This beautiful, sultry and playful 29 year old woman had such wonderful potential both in her personal life and her career. I first sensed it when I met her as a student at Newberry College back in late 1998 and as time went by I grew to appreciate her potential even more. Kat's death marks the fourth time that a person that I've known directly has committed suicide. Also, hers will be the third funeral/memorial I've attended in three consecutive months (the first being my Aunt Geneva in June '04).

I went out with her, fell in love with her and grew apart from her all within a brief period of time between 1999 and mid-2000. Now I've lost her for all eternity. I love her dearly for treating me with respect and for focusing on and accepting who I was instead of how I looked. I hate her for what she's now done: the anguish she was feeling over Rupert's loss pales in comparison to the pain she's inflicted on those she left behind. Now her accomplishments will be glossed over and instead the pain she inflicted on her family and friends will become her enduring legacy.

Here is a listing of online newspaper clippings that I kept both while Julie and I still held out hope that Kat would be found alive, and after we received the news that she'd been found lying dead in the woods.

• Article 1 - "UGA Employee Missing"
• Article 2 - "Body found may be that of missing woman"
• Article 3 - "Truck belonging to missing woman found abandoned"
• Article 4 - "Police still have not positively identified woman's body"
• Article 5 - "Few leads in multiple cases of missing persons"
• Article 6 - "Body identified as missing woman"

[October 1, 2004] - Work has laid the whammy down on everyone in the IT department of the DMV. The powers that be in the state house have determined that the DMV needs to relocate its headquarters to a bigger office space situated in a town at least 25 miles away from the two current facilities being used. While I do not object to the building (it is very nice) I do have a bit of grumbling for the increase in my commute. What had been an 8 mile drive to work will now turn into a 30 mile drive each way. Having driven close to 100 miles a day round-trip back when I worked at Newberry College, the distance isn't horrible. I was just hoping to spare the mileage on the new car as well as the additional cost of the fuel.

The biggest issue I have is the amount of time that this relocation is costing all of the personnel in the IT department. We have yet to move a single computer or desk however many whole workdays have already been consumed with the planning of all logistics concerning this relocation. As the deadline for the move draws near, the amount of work that looms over all of us is large and quite intimidating when viewed as a whole. So if visitors to my websites wonder where I've gone or why Careful Destiny's release has been perpetually delayed, you now know the reason why. I can only hope that this Blythewood Facility relocation will run to completion with little or no complications and with no ill effect on our customers.

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