Mar 29, 2007
Well, my knee started hurting badly after I got into bed, so I had a rough night. Always seems to be something, doesn’t it? ;-)
Gary was ready to go to the conference talks about ten-ish, so I drove him over. I wanted to make sure he was going to be able to get around without my help, so I went in with him to see what the layout of the rooms were (plus to figure out where his talk is, as I will go to that). We didn’t get too far into the building before people came up to greet Gary. Since I didn’t write down the names immediately, I have forgotten most of who came up – sorry! I remember Dennis Burke, Frank Tall, Peter Nyikos, Alan Dow, and Mirko. The first talk Gary was going to was at the opposite end of the hall, and he’d only wheel a few feet before someone else would come up and say how glad they were he made it and that they’d heard rumors he might come but no one was sure. He’d tell them it had been a goal of his to come, and that he himself hadn’t been sure he’d make it – that he’d only learned to drive the van in the past couple weeks and he hadn’t been sure he’d be comfortable driving all this way. I know that he is thrilled to be here.
We figured out that he would have to enter the room he is giving his talk in by going down a ramp to another hallway and entering at the front of the room, since if he enters in the back he would have to go down a series of steps. He also decided to listen to the first talk from the front of the room it was in.
Everything seemed under control, so I left him there to come back to the motel and work on my story (and rest). His talk was at 3:50, so I went back for that. After Gary had finished, Justin Moore, who was chairing the session, said he felt like he should say something special, but he didn’t know what to say. He said he had thought of saying, “Welcome back,” but then, Gary had never really been gone. Gary cracked, “Yeah, I was at last year’s conference.” Then Gary added it was great to be here, and everyone gave him a nice round of applause. I went up to him afterwards to see what his plans for the rest of the afternoon were, and I asked him if he had been having fun. He said, yeah, and with a smile added that about a zillion people had come up to him during the day and said they were glad to see him. And he said it was important to him to be here and to have everyone know that he was still involved in the thick of math.
Well, my knee started hurting badly after I got into bed, so I had a rough night. Always seems to be something, doesn’t it? ;-)
Gary was ready to go to the conference talks about ten-ish, so I drove him over. I wanted to make sure he was going to be able to get around without my help, so I went in with him to see what the layout of the rooms were (plus to figure out where his talk is, as I will go to that). We didn’t get too far into the building before people came up to greet Gary. Since I didn’t write down the names immediately, I have forgotten most of who came up – sorry! I remember Dennis Burke, Frank Tall, Peter Nyikos, Alan Dow, and Mirko. The first talk Gary was going to was at the opposite end of the hall, and he’d only wheel a few feet before someone else would come up and say how glad they were he made it and that they’d heard rumors he might come but no one was sure. He’d tell them it had been a goal of his to come, and that he himself hadn’t been sure he’d make it – that he’d only learned to drive the van in the past couple weeks and he hadn’t been sure he’d be comfortable driving all this way. I know that he is thrilled to be here.
We figured out that he would have to enter the room he is giving his talk in by going down a ramp to another hallway and entering at the front of the room, since if he enters in the back he would have to go down a series of steps. He also decided to listen to the first talk from the front of the room it was in.
Everything seemed under control, so I left him there to come back to the motel and work on my story (and rest). His talk was at 3:50, so I went back for that. After Gary had finished, Justin Moore, who was chairing the session, said he felt like he should say something special, but he didn’t know what to say. He said he had thought of saying, “Welcome back,” but then, Gary had never really been gone. Gary cracked, “Yeah, I was at last year’s conference.” Then Gary added it was great to be here, and everyone gave him a nice round of applause. I went up to him afterwards to see what his plans for the rest of the afternoon were, and I asked him if he had been having fun. He said, yeah, and with a smile added that about a zillion people had come up to him during the day and said they were glad to see him. And he said it was important to him to be here and to have everyone know that he was still involved in the thick of math.
posted by Peg Daniels at 7:47 PM
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