Chronic's Research and Aeronautics Project (C.R.A.P.)

[TheChronicOne]

  a 100% preventable cluster that will easily go into the 10's of thousands of dollars to remedy.

Possibly 100's of thousands ? Plus if it was preventable the insurance company will be looking for a way out, so could be even more costly. It does seem like the type of mistake that gets someone fired, but knowing how litigious the States can be, I do wonder ?

Ooooh, I hadn't thought about the insurance aspect of it. Ha!  Yeah, definitely preventable......   all one would had to have done is turn on the heat and run the faucets. I know if I was the insurance... uhh.... adjuster (?) I'd be like, "HEY, denied!!! We insure against unforeseen mishaps, not against your lack of intelligence!"

Monday I'm going to get ahold of contact at the landscape company and tell him about the busted plumbing and money hemroage this new property manager has caused and send some more pictures. I can use that as an inroad to ask about her status and my own. Hopefully I'll get an email back along the lines of "we're still in limbo but she's gone and a new property manager is coming on soon... "    Wish in one hand... 

[Rick Lowe]

Hope that goes well for you, Brad. 

Some people seem to connive at their own destruction... (looking at YOU, Human Race!  )

[NARSES2]

Monday I'm going to get ahold of contact at the landscape company and tell him about the busted plumbing and money hemroage this new property manager has caused and send some more pictures. I can use that as an inroad to ask about her status and my own. Hopefully I'll get an email back along the lines of "we're still in limbo but she's gone and a new property manager is coming on soon... "    Wish in one hand...

Be careful of how you word that Brad. I can't speak for US law, but you'd need to be careful in the UK so as not to get accused of running a personal vendetta. Needs to be done on a "concerned citizen/tax payer" basis rather than as the ex place holder.

[TheChronicOne]

I don't know, merely observing what I see with my own eyes and saying, "This is what I saw" isn't a vendetta of any sort. Laws against people merely offering statements of observation and fact would violate the Constitution here. The news does it every day. "Today there was a car wreck." "Today there was a shooting. " "The car is blue." "The pipes busted and stores flooded." I mean, if it were a problem, then I've already gone way past the point of no return when I spoke about it here. A vendetta would be if I personally caused the stores to flood or something. Merely saying "I saw busted pipes" to another random person is nothing other than a simple conversation.

[TheChronicOne]

OK, after a solid week I'm finally back to "work." Trying to get at least one of these old lingering builds finished so I'm doing the highly tedious masking of the underside of the Boeing 737. Swoops and curves and panels and all this crap and it has to be plotted and measured over a surface with all types of bumps and roundness and stuff. Making sure it looks right, is even, straight, and accurate is no easy task I assure you. That said, I'm getting through and a lot of the hard stuff is done already. I just need to mask in between the borders then makes some shapes on tapes to get the areas around the wing roots correct. After that there are a few panels that will need to have some masks made for but I think that should be it then I can do a quick spray of silver, un mask it, gloss, and do the final transfers.



It's going well for now so I'm going to stop while I'm ahead and do some other stuff for awhile. I'm ruminating on turning the left over parts from the T-38/F-16 kitbash into another kitbash I'm almost certain I'll have to add some parts in from the parts stash but that will just make things more interesting! Also, I'm going to get the Cessna Police Plane started by clipping parts out and filing them smooth. I'll probably start right in on building it tomorrow after I get the 737 masked and painted.

[NARSES2]

I don't know, merely observing what I see with my own eyes and saying, "This is what I saw"

Observation and reporting of facts is fine, over here the line is crossed when you start to make it personal, but then that's subjective anyway.

Glad you're back to the bench anyway mate 

[TheChronicOne]

Well, when I think about it, it kind of is personal? When it comes down to it, though, all I'm doing is trying to protect my job. The taking it personal part is existing by default because of why I was let go. I've since learned exactly what it was after confirming my initial suspicion. If I had actually been employed and not a contractor, the way I was "let go" would have been illegal under discrimination law. She made it personal and is the one that went out of her way to take my job from me for reasons having nothing to do with job performance. She made it personal so I suppose I'm taking it as such.

So anyway, I'm just looking after my own interests. Rather than fly off the handle and try to talk to her or the management company, how I'm going about it is by pointing out flaws in the new service to a third party (my landscape contact). All I'm doing is giving them status reports... telling them what I see when I visit. What THEY do with that information is on them.     LAST time they took the pictures I sent them and the info I gave them and used that to contact this new property manager that got rid of me to ask if she/they wanted to resume the service they were providing (and in turn, I get my contract back).  None of this information is stuff that this property manager couldn't see with her own eyes, were she to visit the shopping center.. but that's just it: she's over 100 miles away so if the new people working out there are not doing their job, she may never be aware of it. This is all I can do.....  point out flaws to a third (yet connected) party. Anything else would be treading into foul territory... I mean... it's not like I'm going to go out there to sabotage the place or harrass this property manager or the company she works for. My hands are tied but by god if all I can do is observe and report I'm going to be the best damn recon person in SW Oklahoma, hoo wee! 

Yes... back at the bench feels good....   I'm actually looking forward to finishing the masking on this thing today.... I should be in paint!!! Wow, imagine?! I'll finally be able to remove ALL the masking and clear it once more for the remaining decals then clear it once more and just simply finish gluing on the fiddly bits. I might have to throw a party after I finish this thing.... I think it was Sept. 2018 when I started it. It never truly went back "on the shelf" I just kept having to take breaks to deal with transfers issues and mainly to take the time to increase my skills and learn how to manage some of the things required on it. Very time consuming but holy crap, I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel...   I just hoping all this masking is nice and straight. 

[NARSES2]

Well best of luck to you mate, hope your luck turns 

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks! Roger that! I'm about to have to put this particular effort on the back burner and shift focus. Time for the "long game" in which I do nothing but wait on a new property manager to come along. Hell, it could be two years but I stand a fair chance of getting my gig back after that happens so I'll just be patient and see what happens. For now, I can't go out and do a lot of surveillance because I have to get ready for the mowing season which will be here in mere days....      It's so odd that it was -22C about a week ago and now in about another couple weeks I'll be out mowing. 

In fact, I just bought a new leaf blower. I had to... I took care of it but the last one I had is failing all the time and costing me money. It was a good one, though! Lasted years and wasn't one of the known brands. Trying battery powered this time. Instant action, no fueling and priming and yanking on cords. I bought a beastly 80V thing that slangs 630CFM of "whatevers" per "whatever." My only concern is the longevity of the battery, as in, how many years will it last, --- but according to all I read and looking at the specs this damn thing can run full tilt for 75 minutes before needing a recharge. That will easily cover a day of mowing. At most, on large properties, I've never had to use the blower for more than 20 minutes at a time so I can get 3-4 yards done before worrying about it... which is about what I do in a day so that's perfect. Just wondering if I'll have to buy a new battery every year or couple of years, though.... I didn't find much info on THAT. 

Nothing done on model stuff yesterday. I wasn't feeling well so I decided to get exercise and knock out house chores at the same time. Definitely helped to feel better! The physical activity does its own thing but also enjoying clean and orderly surroundings improves the mood. I did all kinds of stuff from cleaning up the yard outside and running with the dog, to cleaning microwave, oven, and you name it....  quite glorious. I worked on all this from about 2PM to 11PM.

Today I have to monkey about with loan stuff....  just yesterday I got two emails from separate folks about separate loans and suffice to say I need that stuff.    So today I'm at least going to get started on the information gathering and application process for those. I also have to get together some documentation to send to the unemployment people. GOD I HATE DESK WORK/PAPER WORK.  I'd rather be out... like.... shoveling dirt and making money at it or something. This is just dull, makes me no money (at the time) and is tedious. Of course, if everything works out I'll be getting funds but taking hours to do mind numbing desk work while other things go by the wayside is wack, man. 

[NARSES2]

exercise and knock out house chores at the same time. Definitely helped to feel better! The physical activity does its own thing but also enjoying clean and orderly surroundings improves the mood.

Sounds odd, but I do know what you mean. Sometimes, just sometimes I to can feel "good" once I've done the housework. Normaly it's a chore, but sometimes 

[TheChronicOne]

Definitely odd, and I'm a weirdo. Sometimes give me strange looks when I suggest chores as a means of felling better. lmao  A lot of times when we feel ahhhh... "less than optimal" doing exercise can remedy that. It's not natural to sit idle for too long. Exercise releases serotonin which is a natural high and will make you feel better then the peace of mind of occupying clean orderly surroundings does a psychological number to help things so doing chores is a one-two punch! Add to that, being moderately or even just slightly dehydrated can make ya feel bad so a lot of times my remedy is to get lots of exercise and drink lots of water and usually it helps.

That said, I think the diuretic I'm on is wreaking havoc on my system. I stopped taking it for about 10 days and felt better than I had in months... like.... in multiple ways. The very first day I started taking it again I felt like utter trash and have ever since. I started looking into it and a lot of my symptoms are tied to it so... I'm going to likely get off that crap. I'm going to stop taking it again for another 10 days to see if I feel better again and if I do I'm telling my doctor to take that crap out of my BP medicine.

[Rick Lowe]

Good thinking. The Doctors are the Professionals and give the best advice they can, it's what we pay them for after all, but only you know what makes you feel better or not.

Hope you can get it dialed in and nailed.

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks, me too...   Tomorrow is day 1 without the diuretic. I have an appointment on the 11th so I figure between now and then I can run my experiment then when I go in for check up, report the results.

I always figured this stuff was a side effect of one of the meds I take and just accepted it as a part of getting older and as a necessity because I needed the medicine but I realized just how lousy the side-effects actually were when they went away for over a week...  and then how they returned with a vengeance the same exact time I started taking it again....      It COULD all be mere coincidence but I'd say the connections are worth investigating. 

Got some good, albeit short work done on the 737! The tedious masking is done... I have to cut out one last little panel type thing but that's it.. it'll be very easy then I can paint and get on with the show. I also got out some of the stretched sprue I made... uhh... like... over a year ago to make the little vortex dissipater rods on the engine cowlings. I plan to get those built, glued on, and painted... and also finish the masking tomorrow. As far as the main painting, I'm not so sure.. I have to do some test runs on some spoons to make sure things will work so might hold off on that until Friday or something.

[Rick Lowe]

Something I found mention of and used myself, is that for thin stuff eg static wicks, try plastic bristles from a dust brush or similar - they still glue with superglue (or even styrene cement in some cases) but they give and bend, unlike stretched sprue, so you won't be constantly replacing them *when* they break.

And just one brush will provide a lifetime supply and still be serviceable as a brush!

[TheChronicOne]

Whoa!!  Hell yeah... I'll grab a couple when I hit the Dolla Sto next. That's brilliant and what a time saver. I found I was rather good at making stretched sprue but the process is still time consuming and you have to drag together the stuff to do it...   A lifetime supply of antennas, probes, etc. for a dollar........  totally onboard. 

Trying to finish the masking today (I just have to cut out one little panel thingy), you can see it here up front:

Then on to paint. I'm going to use my fancy silver paint... the good stuff that can't be cleared over with ANYTHING and can never be touched with bare hands, even after sitting around for months... but damn it looks nice...  Anyway... I have no gloss black to use as the undercoat for it but I found a really dark gloss green that should work and hell... maybe it'll ever so slightly give a greenish accent to it which isn't a problem seeing as green is rather prominent on the rest of it.