This is going to be one of my toughest non-technical posts ever. And the reason it will be difficult will have an ancillary relationship to the Lortabs I have been taking for the last two days. It has everything to do with me being at home while the 2014 PASS Summit is going on. Previously, the only Summit I had missed was the first one in Chicago. I had just changed jobs, so they wouldn’t pay my way yet. They did send me to the Summit in London that directly followed, which wasn’t a bad trade since that is the one and only time I have travelled outside the country. 

So what is the reason I won’t be there?

This is the first year in at least 6 or 7 that I did not put in a session to speak at the PASS Summit. I wanted to enjoy the experience and not have the pressure of a session or two hanging over me from July to October. I had volunteered for the program committee, so I figured I would have plenty to do. Practicing the session over and over, getting it just right (or at least really, really close to right). My status as a speaker has nothing to do with why I am not attending.

For the first time in many years, we will not be having a Quiz Bowl during the Welcome Reception. While I am sad to see it go, as it was a lot of fun to work all of these years with Board Member Tim Ford (@sqlagentman), this really has nothing to do with it. Not having to worry about writing questions and setting up the game is certainly not keeping me away from the Summit.

This year, the dates for the MVP Summit overlap with the PASS Summit. I didn’t choose MVP over PASS, as PASS and Microsoft worked out a wonderful situation where we were going to be able to attend both, over 7 glorious days. The date of the MVP Summit is not why I am missing PASS this year. I am missing it too!

In fact, no other minor details would even somewhat hold me back (not long flights, too soon after Halloween, too much salmon, not close enough to Thanksgiving, too few politics, too rainy, too long, too short, too many politics,  not enough salmon, etc). The SQL PASS Summit is one of my favorite weeks of the year come rain or shine. I made my hotel reservations the minute I heard the announcement of the dates. I blogged about how much I am looking forward to attending along with some advice for attendees here on sqlblog.com, and had several volunteer jobs set up including working at the community zone, two sessions for folks wanting to learn how to write a better abstract, and a table during the Birds of a Feather Lunch. I clearly haven’t fallen out of love with PASS.

It certainly isn’t the people at PASS. I love to see all of my online SQL Server friends in person, and meet new ones to boot. I have met a lot of amazing people over the years, and I expected to meet a lot more this year. And while online friends you never meet in person are great, getting the chance to shake a hand, break some bread, etc, makes them seem more real when you see them online.

So if you came to this blog looking for me to bash on PASS and the Summit, you are in the wrong place. No, as I attempted to foreshadow, I won’t be attending the PASS Summit for a medical reason. I had a total hip replacement done back in May of 2009. 2009’s PASS Summit was a big milestone in my recovery. It was where I finally stretched my legs and was walking (for me) considerable distances comfortably. At the same time, it was where I learned my limits as about midway through, I started experiencing pain and ended up needing a scooter to get around Seattle for my post-conference session and dinner.

Fast forward to Thursday, October 21.  Something gave way in my leg, and I was unable to walk. Turned out the hip replacement hardware had broken. So, instead of PASS, I am having surgery Monday morning to repair that hip replacement device with a new one. My surgeon quickly nixed travelling the next week after surgery (in good humor… and he kind of wanted my symphony tickets for Tuesday J), so PASS is out. Luckily while the twitterverse is exploding with PASS excitement, I will be at home and I won’t really notice, thanks to my little friends I introduced in the first paragraph… Lortabs.

Note: If you are keen to get info about how things go for me, I may tweet some at @drsql, and my wife @valdavidson will tweet occasionally as well.  Thanks!