Ok, this warrants some sit down and decent reply time so I'm going to ignore responsibilities for a bit dammit ..
Howdy Friends!!
Summer means motorcycle classes get busier and more frequent. TX is rolling out a new curriculum this year and a lot of the coaches are failing the new certification so we're down from 3 to 2 at my main location and down from 4 to 2 at another location. Fewer coaches, same/bigger work load and you end up teaching more often.
Kids are out of school so whenever possible I try to give the wife a break or help since she's got them full time during the day and also weekends when I'm working (sometimes away/out of town). And we're doing more family / summer / kids activities too.
The wife and I kind of had a rekindling of interest in fishing which gives us a great past time to do together - when we can squeeze it in. The older girls (6 and 7 yrs old) just got their own fishing poles and are giving us a run for our money in casting distance and accuracy. Its too damned hot during the day though so the wife and I will have Grandma sleep at our house while we go do pier fishing from about 8pm to 5am usually. Later in the year it will be cool enough to get the girls out to do some decent daytime fishing. We have a couple friends with boats who we can go out with but we really want to get a boat of our own. We've considered kayaks but should just go big (vs go home) and get something where we can include the kiddos and double it up for fishing and tubing. This waterfalls into the next topic.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to get a boat and its a goal but for my wife, its a
mission. That means its my mission
And that has rekindled the Dave Ramsey FPU for us which means that you don't create new debt so you either save or do what you have to including a rice & beans diet and/or "selling everything but the kids". I know Tony
Luca917
has considered selling some of his offspring a time or two. Sooooo my pool cues and table and Tuesday night league are 1st on the chopping block. 1 or 2 firearms that I never use and lost interest will be going up. I've
finally (holy hell finally) convinced the wife to agree with selling my house (aka my office / man cave) and then setting up a work office at her grandma's house which is currently unoccupied. The topic of knives has not come up yet and spending will be under close wife-scrutiny so I'm going to be selling a pile of Spyderco knives to keep the Fiddlebacks safe .. and to buy a keeper here or there going forward. This contradicts the Dave Ramsey deal but I'm going to get a HUGE tax refund next year because I'm claiming the Fiddlebacks as children. lol
Lack of time / New forum software:
I am on the forums daily and still have my thumb on the pulse. There are many times that I'd love to reply or give a decent / meaningful / well thought out response but time is just lacking and many times I don't want it to feel half arsed. There is just NO time nearly to what I used to have for pictures but need to make time for some collection updates. I do dislike
the Like feature and will use it once in a while to give a bit of a shout out. It does seem like the Like feature has cut down on actual text feedback. Tapatalk isn't a deal breaker for me but it definitely cut some folks out. The main character it affected that comes to mind for me is
@Heespharm and I really miss him, his sheaths and knife mods and humor that followed.
Interestingly .. My time has been cut down so much that I don't have the daily 30-45 minutes to pull out the knife rolls and try to change out to a different blade (errr man version of a purse or shoes
). So I've kind of done a version of
Odaon
Orion's 3 1/2" EDC challenge and have found that the model that does everything I need & is fine socially is drum roll ... the Lil Lady in 3/32". (Picture Kermit the Frog triumphantly flailing his arms here!) And the Lil Lady is closely followed by the select few who live in my backpack vs knife rolls so I end up cycling among: 1/8" TT Handyman, 1/8" Lonestar, 3/32" TT CPM154 Warthog. All 4 of these give each other a good run for money to be the top contender for me. The Handyman is great but the 1/8" part loses out when the wife wants to borrow it to cut food and then grumbles as it gets it stuck between the fork tines. Vs the Lil Lady that seems to stay in my wife's hands
a lot longer and I begin to wonder if I'll get it back - and it seems like she just looks for other stuff to cut up. The Lonestar might be my favorite aesthetically and functionally for the handy versatile pointed tip but the same feature drops it down because I feel I've gotten sideways glances in public, maybe being perceived as menacing looking. The Warthog probably comes in 2nd to the Lil Lady but it has a tiny bit of guard so you can't use the full blade. The Lonestar has a guard also but enough belly where it doesn't seem to matter.
Disclaimers: These stats just might change when one or both of these occur ..
1) Chris
@Osprey Knife & Tool gets his shop in order and cranks out my 3/32" TT Warthog K request. It would definitely rise to the top if he pulled it off in 1/16" (no pressure there Chris
).
2) Annnnd I've hounded Phillip
VANCE
to resurrect the old style Bushnub, was finally successful and now I'm just waiting for the right 3/32" Bushnub to come along.
Awww heck, I just might need to permanently carry 1 on the belt and 5 in the backpack.
Anyway, those are some things consuming my attention and it primarily revolves around family so that can't be a bad thing. I do miss the level of discussion we had from about a year ago but I am also glad to see new names and faces too!
