Gary Hesse Personal Web Site

I’m midway through the Literacy Council Spelling Bee. (It’s a fundraiser for their work. ). So far our team (the Killer Bees etc.of The Wenatchee World ) are still in the hunt. When the auction is over, we’ll resume spelling. Wish us luck!

10:30 p.m.: Well, we ended up second -done in by ’boutonniere’. Not a bad showing, but oh, so close!

The pioneering P-I slips into the past

Just spent the last 15 minutes at seattlepi.com, reading and watching video of the last gasps of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Ironic, I suppose, that I do so with the Internet version of the paper, as the print version disappears after today’s issue.

Regardless of whatever slant you felt you found in the P-I’s news coverage, today is a profoundly sad day. It is a loss to the newspaper industry, of which I am a part. (Unsettling to realize that I now work at a paper seven times the staff size of the P-I.) When I look into the faces of the P-I staffers who shared what they’d miss when it was all gone, it was all too easy to imagine standing in their shoes someday.

It is also a loss to Seattle and the Northwest. One by one, the institutions that have defined Seattle’s past have disappeared or been swallowed up by East Coast conglomerates. Next to the Space Needle, the P-I’s globe was quintessentially Seattle.

Thanks, P-I, for everything. I, for one, will miss you.

As Web Designer at The Wenatchee World, I’ve been scrambling to redesign the entire website over the past two months. The powers-that-be have determined that Monday (two days from now), we’ll be pulling back the curtains so the public can take a look at where we are so far.
That means that I’m working overtime this weekend to make sure any major problems are addressed before then. Just found one, for example, that breaks the site for users using Internet Explorer - which is about 70% of our users.
Could be a stressful 48 hours. Check how I’m doing come Monday night.

For the first time in 104 years, my employer, The Wenatchee World, laid off employees last Friday. A terribly sad and stressful day, which may explain in part why I pulled a muscle in my back on Friday before work.
I dodged the bullet this time, but twelve co-workers were not as fortunate - some with more than 30 years with the company. I’ve been there before, first time in 2002 when my entire department was ushered into a room and immediately laid off.
My thoughts and prayers go with each of these good men and women who begin this week looking for work.

Social historians will be able to look to today as the day the popular social networking site Facebook began its inexorable slide to its doom: I just joined.

No longer the purview of college students, the openness of Facebook to men in their 50s means there’s pretty much nowhere else the site can go, so it’s all downhill from here.

Until the folks at Facebook realize their folly and pull the plug, you can Facebook me here.

Update, 1:33 pm:
Currently sitting on a PLANE!

Where to begin to describe my efforts to fly to Phoenix for Christmas?

Margy and I were scheduled to fly out of Wenatchee on Sunday, December 21, connecting with a flight from Seattle to Phoenix.

A couple of days before, we were warned that a storm was approaching, so we attempted to beat the effects of the storm by rescheduling our flights to Saturday.

Saturday was spent sitting at the gate in Wenatchee waiting for flights that never came.

Sunday was a day in 3 movements:
Morning - spent driving from East Wenatchee (where we spent the night at a hotel) to SeaTac Airport
Afternoon - sitting in the airport watching flights being cancelled
Evening - rebooking and then heading for another hotel

Monday: the madness continues. Our 7 am flight cancels. We book standby on Gavin’s flight for 12:30. It’s now noon; there’s no plane. Current total: 7 cancellled flights, one missing one.

Margy and I are in the Leavenworth Starbucks, ready to meet up with Renee Roberts in a few minutes while she’s on hiatus from MCT. Later tonight, we take in a performance of Christmas Carol. Then, it’s off to AZ tomorrow for Christmas.

When the weather is nice, I try to spend 30 minutes during my lunch hour to walk a few blocks down to the river, where there is a beautiful path. And the weather has been tremendous!

The city has placed sculptures along the path, along with a multitude of gardens. It’s just what a deskbound person like me needs to restore body and spirit.

Margy and I were in Tacoma on Saturday at the wedding of the daughter of long-time friends of ours, the Isaacsons. I had the privilege of joining the pastor/dad of Joanie in officiating at the wedding.

Joanie has had some serious health challenges over the past year, struggling with  Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Her fiancé (now husband) Josh Fulmore has walked with her through those challenges, and has demonstrated that his commitment to her is a deep and lasting one.

Congratulations to you both; God bless your future together.