Not so Happy New Year…

Thursday, January 12th, 2006 | 11:54 am and filed in stuff.

Yes, I’ve been strangely absent from the site, which normally means I’m working on a project. Unfortunately, a seemingly endless series of personal tragedies has occurred. This entry goes a bit off the theme of this site, but I just needed to get this off my chest.

A family friend tragically lost a battle with cancer right before Christmas, and the first few days of the New Year was spent at the hospital as my Grand Uncle George faded. I was busy helping my Grand Aunt and her family work out the details for the services held on Monday night. Now I’m in the 808 State for a couple of days for the funeral of another close family friend who passed away last week.

This is not exactly the way I’ve planned to spend my New Year. So I apologize if I haven’t been able to reply to messages or emails. I’ve just been a little too busy to play technical support.

My Holiday did have a nice moment: I had a really great New Years Eve with my family and friends. Everyone cleaned themselves up, and we went out to enjoy a really lovely dinner and rang in the new years together. It was a great opportunity to become better acquainted with my cousin Jasmine’s new “friend”, Chris. So i did enjoy a few moments of 2006.

11 Responses to “Not so Happy New Year…”

  1. Ingo Vogelmann Says:

    i feel you mate. i didn’t have that personally in my fam, but surrounding me tho. some of my closest friends had that, too, so also my holidays felt like quite mixed emotions.

    hope you got things sorted and feel better now dude ;o)

  2. KRichards Says:

    My condolences to you and yours. It’s been challenging here as well. Surprisingly, many good things have rushed in to restore the balance, and hope it will be so for you.

    Best Wishes

  3. kage Says:

    You da man, bro!

  4. Andrew Lagowski Says:

    Thinking of you. Take care & don’t dwell too much on the sad things.

  5. Nathan Bostick Says:

    I’m sincerely sorry for your recent family troubles, thats really no way someone as amazing as you should have to start off a new year.

    Hopefully things will be more cheerie later on in ‘06 for you. as my mother would always say as a child; “This too shall soon pass”

    I’ve recently placed an order for your new book and just wanted to give a quick thanx, i remember years ago when i was just starting you always had the time to help me way back then, you couldn’t imagine how benificial those days were to becoming what i am now.

    You never acted jaded or too good to lend a hand to even the most inexperienced Reason user as i was and i don’t think i’ve ever properly Thanked You for that even 8 years later. Its nice to see your still who you were and will continue to be.

    Deepest concerns and sincere regards,

    Nate B.

    www.FiberlineAudio.com

  6. Peff Says:

    Thanks for the kind sentiments. I’m mainly just really tired from all of the driving and flying and energy expended recently. This last funeral was in Kona. I was there for 3 days and I finally had a few moments to unwind. Nice weather has a way of helping one relax. I think i needed just one more day though before gearing up for the upcoming NAMM show later this week. ugh…more flying.

    The San Jose Mercury News wrote up a nice article about my uncle. Oddly, the print edition is longer. I wrote the eulogy and they copied some of the information verbatim in the print version. The online edition focus’s more on my uncle’s controversial past as a world war II draft resister:

    My Uncle George’s Obituary

  7. Dan Engelbrecht Says:

    Ouch, not the best end of the year. Hopefully the new year will be filled with happy moments!

    I always check in and read your posts to see what’s up with you. I won’t be going to NAMM this year… It would have been nice to do a bit of catching up (no I haven’t asked the question yet. :) .

    Keep up the good work and be strong as always!

    Dan

    PS. You shouldn’t feel bad about not updating frequently - your track record is perfect compared to my .plan file. :)

  8. Marco Raaphorst Says:

    All the best Kurt! Time and focussing on the future heals all wounds. Later on we will learn why these things are happening to us.

    I wish you all the power and love in the world! And I hope to meet you sometime. Hopefully in a quiet bar in Gamla Stan :)

  9. jac Says:

    Mate. Sounds like a heavy heart for many close to you. I feel sure that you’ve been busy being strong for everyone else. Hope you’re looking forward now. Love + hugs to you [and the Rasts], jac.

    PS. Bernie said hi!

  10. tamiko Says:

    There is no doubt how much your help meant to Auntie Vi and the rest of the family.

    Thanks again for the awesome New Year’s Eve…all of us really appreciated it and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate it than with best friends. Plus, it was hilarious how your New Year’s resolution not to bag on us kids was inadvertently broken numerous times before *and* after midnight. =D

    Hope you’re having fun at NAMM.

  11. Peff Says:

    Thanks everyone. The last few days I’ve seen how this stuff has taken a toll on me. NAMM has been fun, but somehow I just haven’t been 100% there. Things could have been much worse, but seeing my old friends has been therapeutic.