I am back. I have been negligent with my modeling ("Father, forgive me for I have sinned...") but, you see, we had this storm down here in Picayune, MS, and the model shop got hit by a carport and it almost got knocked off its 45" high supports. The carport was wiped out by the tree that fell on it...pushing it into the shop. That tree fell because its roots were upset by the three oak trees that fell on the house, busting through the roof, rafters, ceiling joists, and the like...and sheet rock ceilings in a few places. All in all, it has been a rather distracting (and exhausting five months). The shop is still teetering and I can't use it. A very religious man (he keeps telling me) continues to lie to me about why he hasn't gotten here yet. I have a week of chain sawing to do, but right now I don't dare jar the ground with said shop doing the aforementioned teetering. I left this group a while back because I had a book I needed to finish and that is in print now. But I wanted to get back up to speed model wise and I thought this would be a good place to start. I did download 4,000 most recent titles on this group and I read many of them. I learned for one thing that I am not needed here. (Probably never was.) There are many of you giving and getting superb advice ? and I would only cloud the waters with obtuse observations, tangent-seeking comments, or be argumentative. I did see that people still hate (or worse) the AMA, people still need chargers, power supplies, and questions about batteries abound ? and Red continues to wow me with his knowledge. Fellows, this is all rather humbling, actually. I have been playing with toy airplanes some. I mean TOY airplanes. I stick a transmitter in my pocket when I take our little dog for her walk and at a vacant lot on the walk, I toss one of the little rudder-onlys into the air and run the battery down. As I walk to the next clearing...we have some new ones since the storm...I swap out the batteries and toss the toy again and run that battery down. Did you know that on one charge it will fly 1/3 of a mile? If I get another battery, I can fly it the whole mile around. Being foam and 9" diameter, the toy airplane is no bother to carry. And then there are the silly little helicopters for indoors. I can make it from the kitchen around the corner through the den, between wife and TV, and back through the posts in the bar and around the kitchen again. I can't make a second lap on a battery charge because it won't clear the two 6" steps going into the den. "Silly"...is the operative word here. But maybe that is what modeling was supposed to be. It was once...a light-hearted distraction from our weekly chores. This was before we lost our sense of frivolity and became so serious. I do have two model projects I owe to one of the last model magazines. Someday I will start putting ink to mylar and...someday. I always considered that I was primarily comic relief here so in keeping with that role, I would like to invite you all to visit my just-released image website. It has no commercials and operates smoothly. So...if you would like to know what I have been doing (not much) and make fun of my models, me, whatever.... The model aircraft images are in two parts, "1962 to 1990" (retired) and "1990 to present." There are some images of sailboats, as well. You can ignore the musical instruments if you would like...but for real, rolling in the floor comedy, you might check out the part about the ukes and Flukes. It is nice to be back...actually, it is sorta' nice to be anywhere.
Cheers -- Ken Cashion