I struggle with puzzles. They don't hold my interest.
I know it will sound arrogant, but I'm pretty sure I know I can do it.
I like things that I don't know the answer too. It's probably why I'm so damn bored in retirement.
Like my heating system for the garage. There is still a pretty good chance I can F'it up.

Of course, my Dad came home from the hospital after his first heart attack and sat doing a model.
He never finished it before he died. I've never done one since. It'll be 50 years come March.

 

It was a tough crowd last night!

 

How about a Rubik's cube?

 

I'll admit I suck at that. and then my adhd kicks in.
I do want to solve it but i haven't truly spent the time to look at it.

 

I've seen "the solution" on You Tube. I haven't ever tried it.

 

Probably not anyone in here is familiar with but I'll share the story.

There was a world class dart player from Mercer County, NJ many years ago. Conrad Daniels was his name and he was one of the foundational players for steel tip darts in the US. He won many events in the 70s and into the early 80s. He owned a bar in Trenton and rumor has it there were many high dollar matches between the greats along the east coast in the upstairs room. I never played in the league with Conrad. He is currently 83. When ESPN ran a million dollar dart tournament in 2006, Conrad came out, we played many practice matches together. He went to the qualifier and didn't make it. That was the last time he played. At various local events we've sat down and the stories are fantastic to hear. There are still a few league players that overlapped with him.

Our dart league runs a yearly player tournament, with the winner getting the Conrad Daniels Trophy. I have 4 wins and a 2nd place since 2015.

In 2018, Conrad came out for the finals night (the 1st time I didn't win it), and gave me a box of "stuff". In the box were some patches and posters, some from very important dart tournaments from the past, plus a jersey of his and one of Eric Bristow, arguably the greatest darts player ever. Working with some dart historians, we determined that Conrad's jersey was from 1981 when he signed with Accudart as a sponsored player. Eric's is from 1976 and we believe to be the earliest match worn example in the US. It's an odd design and the historians are all amazed when they see it. We scoured old YouTube videos to find info on it, and some people reached way back into the contact list to get information on the patches worn that year, the style/color of jerseys, etc.. We have very high confidence its a real match worn jersey. We believe Conrad/Eric exchanged jerseys at at 1976 tournament they were both at but didn't play each other. Eric passed away in 2018. I even found these stock photos (https://www.alamy.com/nineteen-year-...463869045.html) B/W, but the same jersey, with an additional patch pinned on it for some photoshoot in the UK.

I had Conrad sign a few copies of the "story" of the jersey and how it got to me, and I also signed and had them notarized. Anyone who donates/buys something will get a copy to have the history / provenance.

Today, I packaged up the Conrad jersey. There's a collector in California who played Conrad when he lived there before NJ. He has all kinds of Accudart history and is missing a Conrad jersey. He's making a nice donation to Make-A-Wish for it. Conrad's business always supported MAW among other kids charities and told me to do what I wanted to help the kids with the items.

So, its a little sad to see it go, but it's just collecting dust in my closet. I've got it wrapped up. That's the first step. Next is putting it into an package and finally, getting to the post office. Might take me a few tries.

Thanks for listening.

 

We went back and hit the slopes again today. Last week we didn't over there. for one reason or another.
We didn't do a lot of runs but finally got onto steeper trails and it felt really good.
Technically they are rated black diamond butt in most places they would be intermediate at worst.

So not double black or "Do Not Fall" trails.

 

I have not been out on the snowboard in 2 years, besides going down the hill next to our house when it snowed recently just for giggles I really need to plan some trips for next winter, I sorely miss snowboarding regularly

 

The minisplit I ordered just arrived today, so I can get some more permanent heat in the shop and be able to just go out and work when I want in the winter, so that will be super nice. Always projects or just dinking around in the shop I can be doing, but lighting a wood stove and waiting for it to heat a large shop makes it not practical on work days. Still have some insulation work to do as well in spots but getting it closer!

 

The only hobbies I find interesting are related to cars, wrenching on cars is a form of therapy for me as most days my head fills up with work related craziness. Coming home an messing around with car in the garage soothes me. I find myself fixing things that really don't need much fixing, or making changes that are not all that important, maybe a form of OCD ? I enjoy it though. I think the S2000 fulfilled that roll really well when I had it, almost as much as driving it.

For my new car I have some small brake upgrades on order, which should give me something to do over winter.