bio - a little LONG WINDED (sorry!)

Re: New blood`ll do that.

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>Yeah Bob you're right, matter of fact I have him on my "troublemakers" list. Think we contact his wife and tell her that he needs a new "honey-do" list to occupy his time. That'll fix his wagon eh? ;~)

Yeah Frank, I've burned my hands to many times touching metal without thinking. Almost feel victim to heat stress injuries several times, and did once. Boy, that was a good one. Two summers ago I took down an oak tress and sawed it up all with handtools. Was working one day and I stopped sweating. Thought to myself, "Hey the humidity has dropped to the point where the sweat is evaporating off of my skin---cool" So I worked for several more hours, and than it dawned on me that I had made a bad conclusion. Heat stress will cause you to do that too without relizing it. WAs sick as a dog for 3 days, but I pulled thru. That's one. Two more of those and I'm gone.

Todd O.

Re: I warned him!

William Duffield, on the Cohansey

>I told him, "Don't do it, Todd!" I pleaded with him until I was blue in the face! Well, was I right, Todd? Did my forty years of experience living in Florida have any applicability to your current state of misery? Which is worse, Todd, mosquitos for eleven months, or black flies for a couple weeks? At least, he didn't move all the way down to the Gold Coast, where you get twice as much rain, more humidity all year round, more hurricanes, mosquitos every day, alligators as big as a Mini and pythons big enough to try to swallow them whole, and lots of exotic tropical varmints to stir up the mix. I warned him that when it got cool enough to work outdoors after work, it got dark early, just the opposite of Maine. I told him he would be a prisoner of his AC units.

I used to live right across the Hillsboro Canal from you, Frank. I got down to Coral Springs quite often. When did you live there?

a BLAST from the past!!!

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>william, to think that we actually share a common stomping ground!!!

i lived there (let's get out the calculator here...) from about 1980-1990. went to coral springs high where i attempted to play football and run track - royally SUCKED at both of them no matter what position or event i attempted, attended MATH competitions, made a bunch of friends who mostly wound up going to UF or FSU.

i have very VIVID memories of the summers in florida, peddling my SCHWINN bike down to wiles road where i worked at a publix, down university ave to get to the coral square mall, up sample road to take tae kwon do and piano lessons all the while DODGING gnats and SWEATING like a pig!

great place to grow up but i wouldn't want to live there anymore!!!

Re: New blood`ll do that.

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>todd, you must have penchant for living EXTREME - otherwise, why would you go from FREEZING cold to STEAMING hot? i was lurking on another woodworking forum one time and one floridian made the comment that if you use biscuits in florida, you don't need any GLUE! all you have to do is take it outdoors and let the humidity do the work!!! i will NEVER forget how many hours i spent trying to maintain the family lawn mower or getting the weedwhacker to start!

Another 'slacker' 'fesses up...

David Barnett

>Proudly descended from a slaveship captain on my father's side and from Donner Party survivors on my mother's, I served my stint as a Cold War Era technology transfer analyst before teaching bookbinding arts, historical scripts, jazz and classical piano, and erotic topiary. I've also worked variously as a defense team consultant on a major RICO trial, developed commodities trading models based on planetary and solar cycles, and directed training for a worldwide news and information service. In the late 1980s, I teamed with a NASA cyberneticist known for his bioelectrical innovations to combat osteoporosis and muscular degeneration during space travel, to implement spinoffs in non-invasive neuromuscular testing and pain control. Other facts: I was first published at the age of six in Jack & Jill magazine, got my SAG card when I was eleven, sporadically working in television commercials until I was sixteen, but my first steady job was as a liturgical organist when I was thirteen. I later formed a jazz trio and did several gigs as a pianist through high school. These days I dabble in mixed media including glass casting, goldsmithing, gem faceting, micromachining, and so on. I like making hand tools. Oh yeah, I've done a little woodworking, too. Weighing over five hundred pounds, I'm the natural enemy of wicker and aluminum lawn furniture.

Favorite music: Schubert

Favorite movie: "M"

Favorite TV show: "Fashion Trance"

Favorite author: Balzac

Last book read: "Biologically Closed Electrical Circuits", Bjorn Nordenstrom, Karolinska Institute.

Okay, there's one other thing to 'fess up -- I didn't really teach erotic topiary, but that was probably obvious.

EROTIC TOPIARY?!?

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>haha dave... you had me for a second!

So unlike you...

Bob Hackett(Mainely,Bob)

>to pad your resume'.

Are you planning to run for a federal post?

MB

Erotic topiary indeed.I`ll have you know The ETA(Erotic Topiary Association) will hear of this!It probably will only improve on your chances at appointment(or is that anointment)though.

Re: New blood`ll do that.

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>No, I have no Extreme penchant's, I got out-voted by the wife and daughter Maria to come here. Daughter really pulled on my heart strings by saying she wanted to return here to finish high School with her childhood chums. So, we get here, she finds a boyfriend and NEVER hung out with her childhood chums.--Go fiqure. I did make it clear that that wasn't coming here to stay, only until Maria was out on her own. Well, she is amost 20 now and showing signs of falling out of the nest, so we'll see.

William,

Prisoner of AC?! Not a chance! I don't even use it in my truck--ever! I stay out in the heat as much as I can just to stay out of the AC. Coarse, I'm not out in the sun-light, just in non AC'd spaces--My shop. the thing about living here is either you are boiling to death, or freezing to death. In the Summertime everywhere you go the AC is cranked up to meat-freezer temps, and in the Wintertime, the hear is turned up to cooking temps. These people are whacked!

Tell ya' something else. Folks down here are Grass Farmers. Spend unspeakable amounts of Time and Money to grow grass. Yeah grass. Sheeeeeeeeeeeesh, up home, if you stand still long enough the grass will grow on you, and down here they are all running around like madmen trying togrow it.

To top it off around Christmas time these peple put up lighted Snowmen and other related Snow stuff! Whack-o, just whack-o. not a flake of snow to been seen, and they put up snowmen. It's like seeing a diamond in a goats butt.

Todd O.

Yes, you did warn me, unfortunately you was preaching to the choir. It was my wife that needed the Sermons, but she never attended them. :~( Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh well, so it goes.

Dang Todder!

Bob Hackett(Mainely,Bob)

>You sound like Rena the dump queen(formerly of Shop&Save express line fame).She cornered me and the wife and started raving about how folks flock to the dump whenever it snows(like today).She also went off about how they used to come in to S&S and buy things like hams and turkeys before a snow."How the hell ya gonna cook a damn bird when the power goes out?"were her exact words.

I finally had to leave SWMBO to her and wandered down to the metal pile(Picked an old Diston rip saw off the stack).They were still raving after I loaded up some kindling for tonight.

Must be the moon.

Mainely,Bob

Oh, so you apparently heard about the 'incident'.

David Barnett

>Well, it was an unfortunate but innocent misunderstanding, Bob. I was a greenhorn when I auditioned for Sassoon in Manhattan. After just five minutes watching me cut, they suggested maybe I was more suited to trim the Potted English Box in the reception lounge, so I knelt down and got to work. I mean, the speech was slurred but the accent was unmistakable. How was I to know they meant the shrub in the other corner?

I hope you`re happy!

Bob Hackett(Mainely,Bob)

>I snorted coffee out my nose and it`s all your fault.

MB

Re: Dang Todder!

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native in FL. Exile :~(

>Naaaaaaaaaaaay, Bob Naaaaaaaaaaay, I'm not really raving. I just find things down here to be kinda' comical sometimes.

Wanna hear me rave? We we get together ask me what I think about our Judicial System. Have your ear-plugs ready. All the ridulous lawsuits that get filed and the Plaintiffs actually win really drive me mad. Criminals that get easy sentences really get under my skin. Once discipline is removed from society chaos will move in, and IMO where there now.

Todd O.

Who can rave on for hours even on a moonless night.

I guess you must just inspire me, Bob.

David Barnett

>And glad I could help! (slight and frequent shifts in nostril pH can prevent flu and cold viruses from taking hold)

Oh, and by the way...

David Barnett

>Although it's true I didn't actually 'teach' erotic topiary, I did model for it.

(rimshot)

Re: Oh, and by the way...

Bob Hackett(Mainely,Bob)

>I always wondered who that cherub filling the pool was.

MB

so i guess the real question is...

frank shic (walnut ck, ca)

>is your daughter's boyfriend WORTHY of her? i'm glad i won't have to worry about those horny little sacks of hormones coming around for another few years but unfortunately, i've got TWO of them and if they look anything like their mother, i'm going to have some SERIOUS vermin problems!!! maybe i should start collecting vintage WEAPONS as well... ;)