Rant #1,875: Gone, Gone, Gone

We are in April, and the month has started off with a lot of hope, and a lot of anguish.

My family started the month off by attending a 60th anniversary party, which was OK. My wife and I have a lot of time to go before we reach our own 60th, but there is a lot of hope there.

Of course, the basketball season continued, and the Knicks continue to be awful, playing out the string in such an obvious fashion.

Baseball began yesterday, and although my team, the New York Yankees, played a forgettable opener against the Tampa Bay Rays, hope does spring eternal that the season will go well for the team in the Bronx.

And to top it off, yesterday was WrestleMania, the ultimate pro wrestling event for those who are into this thing, and one of the most widely viewed events on the Internet. What I saw of it was pretty good, although I admit that I fell asleep and didn't see too much (my son will fill me in on what I missed).

But last night, a co-worker of mine passed on some very disturbing news about a fellow former co-worker of ours, and it was disturbing to me on a number of levels.

E.B., a former salesman at the place that I worked, died in a major car accident on Friday morning, March 31, in the town I live in--and just a few blocks away from where I had my own major car accident nearly three years ago.

From the reports that I read, he was in his Jeep, and was looking to make a left on Hicksville Road, a major north/south thoroughfare in my town. It was raining, and raining pretty heavily, and either he misjudged how much room/time he had to make the left turn, or the oncoming Dodge Ram truck was too close to him going south, or whatever, but the two collided, and E.B. suffered the most from the collision. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital at about 1 p.m.

The other driver suffered some injuries, but none life threatening.

The police impounded the two vehicles, but it is not being looked at as anything other than a horrible car accident.

First off, while I had minimum contact with E.B. at work, I did know him, he was a good salesman, and my contact with him showed him to be a pretty nice guy.

Second, with the accident happening just a few blocks from where my own accident happen, it is a "there but for the grace of God" moment, because without going into graphic detail, that could have been myself and my family on May 10, 2014.

We were darn lucky, we knew it at the time, and nearly three years later, we still know it and thank God that we only lost my car in the collision that we had.

And yes, rightly or wrongly, I do think this is an omen for the eventual demise of the company I work for, and my hunt for another position continues unabated.

There is a black cloud hanging over this company, and again, rightly or wrongly, I just feel that this latest horrific incident signals that the iceberg is now truly within few view.

To me, it really is a confluence of events, all of which are telling me that the time to get out of this place is right now, no matter what the work circumstances are.

And for the accident to have happened right near where mine did ... this has literally hit me too close to home.

I send my regards out to his family, and I am sure that his life--and death--will be a topic of discussion today at work.

Life really is way too short, it really is.