ncidentally, two days passed before I was able to log onto Yahoo and retrieve the offline message from Doug, asking what was going on. I'd tried unsuccessfully to track him down at the office in Florida, and when I reported that I'd called, he asked why. I thought he'd be concerned, but instead he said that he imagined I was having a rough time with the computer and that he never regarded it as an emergency. I told him that his name didn't appear on the voice mail at his office, and asked if that was because he safeguarded his identity. He laughed, and said "I gave you enough to reach me, and yet not directly. This way I'd know if you called" and mentioned something about that his past betrayal had made him a little guarded. Correction, paranoid.
Conversation that day followed the typical course. The hiatus had given him opportunity to begin to tackle the backlog of his work, and he said it felt good to be productive. His 7-year project was finalising and my annual meeting in less than a week and I'd lost a valuable day or two fussing with machine issues. We'd both really had fallen a bit behind schedule. We agreed that until we'd both made more headway, perhaps we should ease off the chatting for a couple of days, since by this time it was approximating 12 hours a day.
It was only a matter of hours before I noticed that although I was ripping through my project at record speed, there was an eerie void of laughter and pleasantness. I looked forward to the time when we could resume our normal banter. Later that evening, I received an email just "checking in with me" and I responded right away hoping that he was getting back on track. We exchanged several short emails each day for the next few days. I was missing him quite a bit. He registered the same in his emails, but was fearful that even opening Yahoo messenger would lure him back and that he knew he'd have difficulty not falling back into the routine we'd shared for the past month.
One of these emails revealed that he might have to travel to Japan for a couple of months on business with the folks that had paid him a visit earlier. It was a huge contract and although he was delighted to be the one to handle it, he said there were obvious pros and cons associated with the idea of going. I congratulated him on the contract, and asked how long he'd be away. 3 months, I was told.
The following days were arduous. Strangely quiet, and the absence of contact was difficult. He apologised for going from 12 hours a day to none, except for a couple of emails, that it might have been better to ration the contact to an hour or so on messenger, yet he knew that he was comparable to an alcoholic "he couldn't take just one sip". And for the most part it was true. Doug had initiated most of the IM contact from the beginning. It made me feel better that he noticed my absence as I did his. I think that the emotions and feelings he conveyed about his attachment to me in his emails during that week might have been why I didn't ask why he was using a new email address.
The February 10th shareholder meeting went well, and within hours I received an email congratulating me and advising me to take it easy and reward myself with a long bath and a glass of wine that night, and he'd be done the next morning. I was delighted that the "cold turkey" period was finally drawing to an end. It had been harder than I originally thought it would to be out of touch that way and for an entire week.
While soaking in the bath, I wondered if my attempt to phone him was the reason his emails were not from his Yahoo address, as earlier, but now from an anonymous emailer.
Conversation that day followed the typical course. The hiatus had given him opportunity to begin to tackle the backlog of his work, and he said it felt good to be productive. His 7-year project was finalising and my annual meeting in less than a week and I'd lost a valuable day or two fussing with machine issues. We'd both really had fallen a bit behind schedule. We agreed that until we'd both made more headway, perhaps we should ease off the chatting for a couple of days, since by this time it was approximating 12 hours a day.
It was only a matter of hours before I noticed that although I was ripping through my project at record speed, there was an eerie void of laughter and pleasantness. I looked forward to the time when we could resume our normal banter. Later that evening, I received an email just "checking in with me" and I responded right away hoping that he was getting back on track. We exchanged several short emails each day for the next few days. I was missing him quite a bit. He registered the same in his emails, but was fearful that even opening Yahoo messenger would lure him back and that he knew he'd have difficulty not falling back into the routine we'd shared for the past month.
One of these emails revealed that he might have to travel to Japan for a couple of months on business with the folks that had paid him a visit earlier. It was a huge contract and although he was delighted to be the one to handle it, he said there were obvious pros and cons associated with the idea of going. I congratulated him on the contract, and asked how long he'd be away. 3 months, I was told.
The following days were arduous. Strangely quiet, and the absence of contact was difficult. He apologised for going from 12 hours a day to none, except for a couple of emails, that it might have been better to ration the contact to an hour or so on messenger, yet he knew that he was comparable to an alcoholic "he couldn't take just one sip". And for the most part it was true. Doug had initiated most of the IM contact from the beginning. It made me feel better that he noticed my absence as I did his. I think that the emotions and feelings he conveyed about his attachment to me in his emails during that week might have been why I didn't ask why he was using a new email address.
The February 10th shareholder meeting went well, and within hours I received an email congratulating me and advising me to take it easy and reward myself with a long bath and a glass of wine that night, and he'd be done the next morning. I was delighted that the "cold turkey" period was finally drawing to an end. It had been harder than I originally thought it would to be out of touch that way and for an entire week.
While soaking in the bath, I wondered if my attempt to phone him was the reason his emails were not from his Yahoo address, as earlier, but now from an anonymous emailer.
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