It has been a sad day today. My boss is being transferred to an office 35 miles away. He is a terrific person--intelligent, humane, reasonable--a person with class and ability. I love him as a person and as a manager.

The person who is replacing him? Someone whom I don't trust, though I will do all in my power to give him the benefit of the doubt, and for whom I will certainly give my best effort, as I have for everyone with whom I've worked over the years.

However, I grieve. We had only 2 and a half years working together, but it was a great time. We had just finally welded a good team together and were on the right track. What a lousy time (from our point of view) to be transferred.

Looking back over the decades, my first boss and my latest (but unfortunately not last) boss were both people of class and ability. The ones in between were eminently forgettable. Still though, I'm not ready to retire, so come the first of January, there's a new kid in town (young enough to be my child).

He was my replacement in the special project that I spent 5 years on. My replacement who did not even know how to operate the software as a user, let alone an expert and a developer geek. He never asked my help; he never tried to work together as a team. He also formed some unprofessional relationships; I hope he has learned better.

We'll see what happens in 2006.