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 tits 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.

I almost ignored RCM due to preponderance of vitriolic off-topic
stuff.
However now s.e.j.w (sci.engr.joining.welding) is just about dormant,
while r.c.m. now has plenty of discussions most on-topic.
Welcome back?!

Personal battles can take you through deep dark places for extended
periods of time. Life is like that putting you in them. My
observation is, emerging out, you can see it all but it is impossible
to explain. Many of us have been through the same sort of place
becoming who we are.
And that is it - here we are...
As I see it.

Regards,

"Don Foreman" wrote in message
news:ae19a093-a48c-4333-9070-68bd0ac13f20n@googlegroups.com...

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!

Quiz: how many here remember the abrasive Altovoz?

------------------------

Glad to hear you are still going strong. So many have vanished.

I started reading and posting when I got Internet access at Mitre at the end
of the Voz saga and have continued with some interruptions from loss of Net
access, as I refuse to pay the price of Cable TV and there are few other
options.

I'm still making stuff, most recently modifying electrical connectors. The
Anderson PP120 contact pin for 6 AWG wire can be tapped 1/4-28 for a
hollowed bolt that mechanically clamps the wire, allowing the expensive pins
to be reused.

Hey, Don ... I remember you well, from back in the good old days. It
hardly seems possible that it's been 12 years since you lost Mary & it's
good the hear that you've moved on to a comfortable situation. It's not
uncommon that a loss of a partner like Mary was, leads to chronic grief
and early death.

Yeah, the RCM traffic is a shadow of its former self. But now that you
mention it, there isn't much cross posting bullshit. There is still a
lot of metalworking conversation in various web-site forums, e.g., Home
Shop Machinist.

I remember your posting some very interesting projects and I hope that
some of your "[...] stuff that doesn't need making." Will make its way
here.

"Don Foreman" wrote in message
news:ae19a093-a48c-4333-9070-68bd0ac13f20n@googlegroups.com...

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.

-------------------------

The best I can do after a tragedy is keep my mouth shut. The movie "Up"
begins with a masterful, sensitive treatment of the old man's marriage and
loss.

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/up-2009
"Ellie and Carl (Edward Asner) grow up, have a courtship, marry, buy a
ramshackle house and turn it into their dream home, are happy together and
grow old. This process is silent, except for music (the elder Ellie doesn't
even have a voice credit). It's shown by Docter in a lovely sequence,
without dialogue, that deals with the life experience in a way that is
almost never found in family animation. The lovebirds save their loose
change in a gallon jug intended to finance their trip to the legendary
Paradise Falls, but real life gets in the way: flat tires, home repairs,
medical bills. Then they make a heartbreaking discovery. This interlude is
poetic and touching."

On 9/18/2023 11:40 PM, Don Foreman wrote:
> 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 tits 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.

Now if we could only get Joe Autodrill back hawking his wares.

Hi Don. Welcome back.

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG antivirus software.
www.avg.com

On 9/19/2023 1:40 AM, Don Foreman wrote:
> 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!
>

Yes , this place has cleaned up a lot from the bad old days .

>
> 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.
>

Good to see you're still around !
--
Snag
Men don't protect women because they're weak .
We protect them because they're important .

On Tuesday, September 19, 2023 at 7:08:24 AM UTC-5, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
> Hey, Don ... I remember you well, from back in the good old days. It
> hardly seems possible that it's been 12 years since you lost Mary & it's
> good the hear that you've moved on to a comfortable situation. It's not
> uncommon that a loss of a partner like Mary was, leads to chronic grief
> and early death.
>
> Yeah, the RCM traffic is a shadow of its former self. But now that you
> mention it, there isn't much cross posting bullshit. There is still a
> lot of metalworking conversation in various web-site forums, e.g., Home
> Shop Machinist.
>
> I remember your posting some very interesting projects and I hope that
> some of your "[...] stuff that doesn't need making." Will make its way
> here.

On Tuesday, September 19, 2023 at 7:08:24 AM UTC-5, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
> Hey, Don ... I remember you well, from back in the good old days. It
> hardly seems possible that it's been 12 years since you lost Mary & it's
> good the hear that you've moved on to a comfortable situation. It's not
> uncommon that a loss of a partner like Mary was, leads to chronic grief
> and early death.
>
> Yeah, the RCM traffic is a shadow of its former self. But now that you
> mention it, there isn't much cross posting bullshit. There is still a
> lot of metalworking conversation in various web-site forums, e.g., Home
> Shop Machinist.
>
> I remember your posting some very interesting projects and I hope that
> some of your "[...] stuff that doesn't need making." Will make its way
> here.

On Tuesday, September 19, 2023 at 7:08:24 AM UTC-5, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
> Hey, Don ... I remember you well, from back in the good old days. It
> hardly seems possible that it's been 12 years since you lost Mary & it's
> good the hear that you've moved on to a comfortable situation. It's not
> uncommon that a loss of a partner like Mary was, leads to chronic grief
> and early death.
>
> Yeah, the RCM traffic is a shadow of its former self. But now that you
> mention it, there isn't much cross posting bullshit. There is still a
> lot of metalworking conversation in various web-site forums, e.g., Home
> Shop Machinist.
>
> I remember your posting some very interesting projects and I hope that
> some of your "[...] stuff that doesn't need making." Will make its way
> here.

On Tuesday, September 19, 2023 at 7:08:24 AM UTC-5, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
> Hey, Don ... I remember you well, from back in the good old days. It
> hardly seems possible that it's been 12 years since you lost Mary & it's
> good the hear that you've moved on to a comfortable situation. It's not
> uncommon that a loss of a partner like Mary was, leads to chronic grief
> and early death.
>
> Yeah, the RCM traffic is a shadow of its former self. But now that you
> mention it, there isn't much cross posting bullshit. There is still a
> lot of metalworking conversation in various web-site forums, e.g., Home
> Shop Machinist.
>
> I remember your posting some very interesting projects and I hope that
> some of your "[...] stuff that doesn't need making." Will make its way
> here.
Still can't post photos here, but I've posted some writeups of projects to
www.homemadetools.net