I bailed out of RCM about 11 years ago when metalworking content became almost totally swamped by vulgarity and politics. But I haven't forgotten the many friends I found during the decade or so that I was a regular. I now see a number of names I recognize, considerably less traffic but considerably higher metalworking content and general civlity. Well done, gang!
I posted prolifically OT back in 2011 after the death of my wife Mary, kind of a journal of early days of spouse loss grief. Decidedly OT, but I shared my journal for others that would come after because I strongly wished for more insight to the experiences of others that had gone before me. No such insight came from RCM, but the support I got from my RCM friends was amazing and meant a lot to me. Won't say it kept me alive, but I will say that it was contributive to my will to keep on keepin' on. I was hurtin' really bad.
Update: I've not remarried and probably won't because there's no reason to do so, but I have an excellent relationship and partnership with a woman I met in a grief support group, Vicki. She wasn't the first post-loss friend I found, there was also Annette and Helen both very good friends and fellow travellers for a reason and a season, Vicki was and is the one with whom I moved forward to build a life partnership.
We still keep separate residences because she is tidy while I enjoy my "object rich environment". She's Ms city girl Townhouse, I'm Mr. "if you don't like my mess, don't look at it". That has worked for a decade and continues to work, TBD how that'll work as time marches on. She's 8 years younger than I. We'll figure it out together however that cookie crumbles. Gettin' old is not for sissies.
I still miss Mary a bit most days and I suppose Vicki misses her Charlie similarly, but it's now sweet memories as we move on happily together as our late spouses would have wanted. We spend a LOT of time together, like most of the MN summers at my lake cabin.
I still correspond frequently with Fitch and occasionally with Karl Townsend.
I certainly could see Gunner's warts and faults and I certainly didn't agree with some of his views, but I think I still might have enjoyed the experience of meeting him. We vets are inclined to cut fellow vets a lot of slack but Taft, CA is a very long ways from MN and he didn't visit me here either. Too late now, oh well! RIP Gunner. Some RCM veterans of differing views might say RFA -- rest fitfully, asshole.
Quiz: how many here remember the abrasive Altovoz?
Now at age 81, I'm still active in my metalworking shop making stuff that doesn't need making. A relly of Vicki's (stepdaughter's hub) Daryl has become a very good friend. He was a fireman, EMT and instructor of EMTs at a local college but he's also a pretty good machinist and weldor with a pole barn full of machinery to envy. The SOB has a Clausing 15" lathe in t*ts condition! He so impressed his machine shop instructor that said instructor sold him his personal lathe from the school where he'd taught until he retired. Daryl and some others started a local TCHM (twin cities home machinists) group that meets periodically. They'll be doing another aluminum casting pour soon, a weekend activity. Local high school students are invited to participate. Daryl is a born teacher. I gave Daryl my Pyramid forced-air propane-fired furnace to get him started with foundry because I'm now too old to be messing with molten metal alone. He then moved up north when he retired, but it's not too far to visit.
So hi, old friends! Thanks for the amazing outpouring of support back in my darkest days of 2011. It meant a great deal to me, more than I can express. Now, 12 years later, I'm stil alive, reasonably healthy and very happy movin' forward with Vicki since 2012.
I'll be lurking here fom time to time.