Blair.

My good friend Blair passed away Friday morning. I'm just stunned and numb and stuck in disbelief. He was so much more than just my boss, he was such a good friend. Self-deprecating, but so quick to compliment everyone around him, he was supportive and encouraging and positive every single day I knew him.

One of the amazing things about Blair was how he was so well loved at work. He was the IT Director, working with many different people around the agency every day, a place with a ridiculously wide variety of egos and personalities and political hierarchies and fiefdoms, yet out of those 500 or so people, I can't think of even one person who didn't like Blair. How is that even possible? He pulled it off. Made it look easy. Take a look at the "Blair" link over on the right side of this page. If you follow that to his blog, you'll see hundreds of comments by dozens and dozens of people who love Blair.

While you're there, please take a moment to read a comment by Scott Tipton, one of my co-workers, posted to Blair's blog, here. Scott said it so much better than I ever could. Blair was so proud of his kids, of his family, of his friends, and of his crew in the office. And I know he was proud of me, too. I'm so lucky.

Everything I've written here sounds glib to me, probably because I just can't fathom that he's really gone and can't process it. Maybe I'll have better words someday, more eloquence. All I can think to say right now is that I already miss him.