A bitter retirement

Update: 12 January 2010

I've removed this post.  I'm not being censored, nor am I hiding what I've written.  The original post was a personal piece that helped me to work through difficult issues that a friend is facing, and it served that purpose. 

I've learned that some other people close to my friend were troubled by what I wrote, both because it was discussing personal issues in a public forum and because they are even closer to my friend and his troubles than I am.  I did not intend to cause anyone else grief, nor to humiliate a person of whom I think very highly.   I apologize to those anyone felt otherwise.