Monthly Archives: May 2012

We have many characters not only within the HostGator buildings, but particularly in the areas surrounding the Houston buildings.  Essentially, there is a cast of familiar faces comprised primarily of homeless people.  There is the gentleman we fondly refer as “U-Turn,” because he can perpetually be found in the U-Turn lane under the freeway nearest to the office with his squeegee in hand.  Interestingly, I’ve never seen him actually wash a windshield.  One of the most well-known characters, Dumpster Dan, was first mentioned in this blog back in 2007: http://blog.hostgator.com/2007/11/28/hostgator-ceo-becomes-homeless/ As stated in that post, Dan gained his nickname by taking up residence and ultimately starting a fire in the building’s dumpster, years before HostGator owned the building.  Dan was seemingly harmless and never caused any real trouble, mostly he would go through the dumpster or fish half-smoked cigarettes out of the ashtrays and then go on about his business.  To my knowledge, Dan never had any negative impact on anyone here at the office.  Everyone knew who Dumpster Dan was, likely Dan had no idea that he was somewhat endeared to the HostGator staff.  He never asked for money, there was actually very little interaction other than eye contact and head nods.  Dan was just Dan. It was made known to us this week that Dan had recently passed on.  We don’t know that much about Dan, to be perfectly honest.  We don’t know his story, or if he is survived by anyone.  We don’t even know what kind of person he actually was; we do know that he survived in an unfortunate circumstance and was, in our experience, respectful of those around to him. Farewell, Dan.  May you find peace in whatever lies beyond this plane of existence Continue reading →