Weirdness in the Hap household

[Crazy Eddie]

He could well be lurking Eddie, he knows my screen-name because I told it to him. I doubt it though, because I pull absolutely no punches here and he is not someone to tolerate anything even ever so slightly negative said about him. I cannot imagine him being quite so chipper as he is at the moment if he was reading here. Whatever.

Are you sure? I've never heard of anyone making major changes without being able to calmly focus his attention on unpleasant facts about himself. In fact I've never heard of anyone needing major changes who didn't react with avoidance, evasion, passive-agressiveness, or hostility to anyone directing his attention to some of the unpleasant facts about himself. I don't see how he could have made those changes without first becoming able to closely read what you've written about him with some measure of equanimity.

We have been talking a lot more lately and it helps hugely.

This talking must have touched upon some things that he was once unwilling to discuss. If you learned new facts about him, I would guess that at least some of them are facts that he was afraid to reveal to you or to himself for most of the time you've known him, and he has somehow acquired a measure of acceptance about these facts.