Back from Life

Its been well over a month since my last post and for that I apologize. There has just been an awful lot going on and I either didn't have time or didn't have the energy to get on here and post. It certainly doesn't mean that nothing has happened though.

We are still dealing with the estate of my wife's father. One property left to sell and then we never have to deal with her nasty siblings again. I leave it at that but it certainly sucks the life out of you.

A major renovation project at our church that just seemed to soak up our time. Except for a couple of very minor dings that need to be fixed by the contractor that project too is finished.

Reaper Con 2019. I didn't take a single picture at Reaper Con this year. It was a terrific show and attendance jumped from just over a 1000 to just over 1500. Stressful for the staff to say the least because we really weren't prepared for that kind of jump. The vendors did very well, I didn't have a single complaint about the business and unlike prior years there was a pretty steady flow of people through the area all the time. Before we would have surges every couple of hours when classes finished up and the rest of the time would be very dead. Not the case this year, still had the surges but the vendors tended to stay pretty busy the whole time.

Reaper Con 2019 Painting Competition, we had 996 entries in the competition. Excellent stuff, head over to the ReaperCon.com website and check out the gallery for 2019. Judging didn't take quite as long as I anticipated. We just stepped in and did the work, five teams this year and we may try and add a sixth next year if the volume stays at this level. I didn't get the Sledgehammer diorama done, so I grabbed the shipping container with all the graffiti on it and entered that. It received a silver which is pretty much exactly what it deserved.

For the first time ever I was unable to finish the auction. It started half an hour later than normal and we have an earlier flight time than last year. As it was we barely made our flight. If you were there, I apologize for having to make a sudden rush out of there. New later start time and just a ton of stuff to dispose of made the timing tight. Will try and make a few adjustments there for next year.

I picked up a little loot this year mostly tools (There were some miniatures as well but they were in a different bag when I was taking pictures):

You can never have enough clamps! Two 90 degree corner claps, one splice clamp and four padded nosed alligator style clips. Not to mention plenty of sharp objects.

I also spent a lot of time thinking about the model railroads and trying to move forward with at least one of them. At this point there is room for the HO scale urban switching layout so that has provided quite a distraction with research and design.

And then there is this:
That is our brand spanking new Jeep Gladiator which we traded both of our Jeep Wrangler JKs to get. We were parked on the street visiting friends when a young driver came flying over the hill and smacked us. Hard enough to drive the Jeep forward 10' with the parking brake on.

The damage doesn't look that bad from here

Or from here

Those skid marks can't be good and I don't think the wheels should bend that way.

The vehicle that hit us, at least it wasn't a hit and run. That's a Lincoln MKX and the 17 year old walked away with just a couple of scratches.

The Gladiator is the brand new Jeep pickup, we picked it up at the beginning of June at the time of the accident, in July, it has 385 miles on it. Currently still in the shop and we aren't likely to see it until October or November. Parts are still not available for it, nor is pricing on those parts. They tried to get it on a frame jig to check it but the rear suspension was to bent up to get it on that machine. Even if they replace the frame it won't be enough to total the vehicle. 

As I said, there was a lot going (and more stuff that I didn't mention) but, hopefully, I can get back in the groove and post regularly again.