Oh, indeed. By "help me with this thing" I meant more like "take it off my hands." I don't have the time to do it, even if I had the tools and expertise.

FWIW I don't think he planned on another long-term leave. He came back from a long-term stress leave and I think took on too much, too fast, and it set him back.

Either way, I'm not going to be handling this project beyond the effort it will take to hand it off to someone better suited to it.