Ex-MA Hole wrote:
Hi, how are you? Who are you? Don't lurk, we don't bite.
Im doing fine, thanks, as I hope you all are.
I lurk because much of what I might say is usually said by someone else in a more thoughtful, clear, concise (and sometimes a much more polite) manner than I can muster. Reading the posts on this forum is educational, not to mention pretty frequently amusing. I also lurk at the Firing Line and the High Road forums& and a few music forums.
As to who I am& thats a question I ask myself frequently since I seem to be in the middle of one of my time to change my life moods. Im retired. Or maybe Im not. I keep thinking Im retired until someone talks me back out into my shop to do some work for them. My profession , if you can call it that, was as a blacksmith and knife maker. I was fairly successful in both endeavors and have friends/customers all over the world, and was one of the first five bladesmiths to be given a master smith rating by the American Bladesmith Society. A master smith rating and a buck or five will get you a cup of coffee almost anywhere, just as a FYI. Of those original five smiths, three have passed away. Im the one of the two still breathing who is not Don Fogg.
Otherwise, Im politically conservative, a gun owner and a long range shooting fanatic. Ill be voting for McCain, not because I like him or think hes the best man for the job, but because I truly believe a presidency by that Other Dude& the one JJ wants to cut the nuts off him & will do the country no good and might do it a great deal of harm.
What else? Ive been a tattooist, a highland games heavy events competitor, a published author (articles in the Mother Earth News way back in, I think, 75... and one novel.) The novel was a murder/mystery and was more murder than mystery. I targeted my audience. The publisher requested that I do a series. I havent and probably wont. Got half way through a second novel and let the project drop. Writing is too damned much work if its to be done right. First drafts are serious crap. Second draft is less smelly crap. Third is only mildly unpleasant, and the forth draft is usually as good as something is going to get with me writing it.
I paint (oils) and play a number of instruments& piano, keyboard, flute, recorder, blues harp& none of them well. Although I havent had a change to do much with any of them in the past two years, hobbies have included boxing, grappling, Olympic and powerlifting, ax throwing and archery. And I used to be a very decent one-pocket player. I enjoy gardening and raise chickens.
Thats enough and more than enough about me& but thanks for giving me a yell. Sometimes old guys like me tend to nod off if not prodded.
By the way, Im an ex-MA Hole, too. Greenfield area.
Cheers,
Umber
