New Family Member: Impawator Augustus

 

Things have been a little quite on the blog lately, but not that quite in real life.  We’ve added a new member to our household - a puppy who has been named Augustus.  Now this is pretty big news as I’ve been asking for a dog since my lovely wife and I got married.  I was very surprised to find that on our 34th anniversary she finally agreed to add a dog to the family mix - Best anniversary present EVER!

Augustus is 11 weeks old and is a Lagatto Romagnolo - an Italian water dog which are used to hunt for truffles.  He is a wonderful addition to the family!

Here you can see Augustus advising me on strategy as I get ready to play a game of Blucher online against Alex from the Storm of Steel You Tube channel.  Augustus proved to be a canny strategist and is a very good boy, indeed.

The Hunters - U-Boat Solitaire Game

It was a rainy and unseasonably cold Saturday morning so I decide to break out an old gem of a solitaire game "The Hunters" for a little diversion.  The Hunters is a fun little game where the player is in command of a U-boat and you see how far you can get before, well, the allies catch up to you.

I stated with a basic Type VIIB boat.  Thew mechanics of the game are relatively simply - you roll to see which theater your next mission is - my first few where the British Isles.  The sub marker is then placed on the right track and you roll for encounters which are varied and based on where you're patrolling.  Earlier in the war (I started at Sep'39) you have a greater chance to catch single, unescorted ships.  As the war progresses the allied escorts and air attacks become both more numerous and more effective.

My first victim is an unescorted small freighter of the coast of Britain.  Knowing this poor ship has no escort and it is a Daytime attack, I elect to approach on the surface so I can use the deck gun.  I elect to shoot a single torpedo and fire two rounds of my deck gun.  The torpedo hits and the deck gun proves to be overkill.

Progress is tracked by mission, with the tonnage of each ship engaged written down - circled ships have been sunk.  After my first three missions my U-boat had racked up an impressive 8 kills and 42,900 tons.  We also successfully deployed mines on the third mission.  I also almost lost the U-boat on the way back from the mission as we were attacked by allied aircraft and heavily damaged.

After repairs, we shall see what more havoc we can inflict on allied shipping.  Hopefully we roll up a Norway mission as it is rich in potential capital ship targets!

The Hunters is available from GMT games.   

Basement Flooring Done

 

The basement re-flooring project is now complete.  Well the flooring is now all down.  I still have to attach the shoe moulding around all the trim but that's on order as it appears are most building supplies these days.

I am forced to admit that my lovely yet fierce wife was right (again) this type of vinyl flooring is superb - it feels like wood, looks great and is nigh on indestructible. 

The gaming area is looks great and is now due for a major refit since everything had to be moved.  Moreover , the prospect of moving all of that "Sh**" oops - I meant to say "treasure" back really brought home that I can get rid of half of that stuff and clear out a lot of space.  I often tease my wife about her hoarding tendencies with her research papers but I now realize that I "might" have a similar issue with tiny little figures.  Somewhere in the world Marie Kondo is smiling.

The sharpe eyed amongst you might be wondering - hey where did that massive table go?

It's on wheels!  Very sporty.

I borrowed one of those large floor jacks from a friend who runs a car repair garage and used it to jack up one end just enough so I could attach some heavy duty castors and then repeated the process for the other end.  The castors have wheel locks and the table remains very sturdy when they are all locked up.

Now that the basement repairs are almost done,  I think I'm going to do a full refit of the gaming area.  At some point in the future, I will be able to host people for a game (with or without bubble suits) and I'd like to make it a memorable experience.

Adding the wheels was a great addition to the table but doing so has raise the table height from 42 inches to 47, which is a tad too high (in my opinion).  I'm going to replace the top of the table with 2 sheets of 2/4 inch plywood so its nice and flat and maybe trim the edges in walnut.  Technically the current table top was meant for storage under the playing surface but I've never used it so I can reduce the height back down to 43 inches and make the table look a bit better.  I'll give the potential changes a "think" over the next week and then get to work.

I need to move fast, as the Boss is coming up with other home improvement projects for me to do.  There are rumors of putting in a heated floor in the master bath and upgrading it's counter tops and cabinets.  We do live in perilous times.

Project Stalingrad: A Super Exciting Administrative Task

 

Hex terrain has the wonderful aspect of modularity - you can assemble them in all sorts of ways to make just about any battlefield one wants.  It does take a little planning in design to ensure things like roads and streams match up but I really like the flexibility.

Except for one thing - if one is crazy enough (or stupid - its hard to tell) to use hexes to recreate an approximation of a historical event, for example the battle of Stalingrad, well that flexibility becomes problematic.  I discovered this fact when we were setting up the a section of the board up at the club for the recent test games.

I had help from both Ed to set up a 6x4 section and it took us way too long to do so.  I was working off a picture and trying to get the hexes in the right spots was a pain-in-the-, well you know where.

The Stalingrad table is a bit of an approximation but the street pattern and location of the main historical buildings is both accurate and specific.  The location of generic buildings and ruins within blocks created by the street grid is more an approximation but the set up needs to be consistent.  A consistent set up will also be important for how I'm planning to use an off table map for sewer movement and combat.  
 

The solution is as simple as it is tedious - mark each hex's back with its specific row and column location.  Borrowing from the late and great Redmond A Simonsen of SPI fame, I'm using a 4 digit hex numbering system where the first two digits are the column (north to south) and the second two digits are the rows (east to west).  My previous attempt at just marking the column wasn't all that helpful setting up at the club.

There are 30 columns and 18 rows for the 10x4 table and I'm about 75% done.  My home gaming table is 8x4 so I can only work on a section at time.

Just like a jigsaw puzzle, I will pack away the edge pieces in a smaller tub and set them out first and then use then fill in the rest.   The table consists of 540 hexes (30x18) and the goal is to be able to set it up in under 30 minutes.

Granted hex numbering really isn't the most exciting of war game game blog topics, but it is an example of the planning that is required to pull off a large participation game outside of your home.  You need to get all the stuff there, set it up and not be exhausted or frazzled before even starting a game.  So while tedious, putting in this level of preparation is really important to ensure the game runs smoothly and your players have a great time.  If the players have a great time, so does the GM.  If the players don't, then it's pretty much a disaster for the GM.  The single biggest influencer of player satisfaction is the GM's attitude so a frazzle GM starts off at a huge disadvantage.

OK, enough about hex numbering and the logic behind it - I suspect all of you are on the edge of cardiac arrest from the pure excitement of the topic.

Maybe, if you're lucky, the next post will be about alphabetizing Vallejo paints or organizing game components and dice.  Yes, that is just the kind of edgy, avant-garde topics one should expect from this blog and it's author - that's just the way I roll, baby.

  

Historicon Has Been Cancelled & Idiotic Musings from Me

 

The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS) announced yesterday that their summer convention, Historicon'21, can not be held given the continuing restrictions in place for COVID-19 and the uncertainty of what restrictions will be required this coming July.  Given the trends, I just don't see how they could have made any other decision and commend the group for both making a tough call and doing so with a good notice period.  

It would also be very fair to say I'm really disappointed, I really enjoy these conventions and had personally set Historicon'21 as a bit of a benchmark for when things return to normal.  It was a little foolish to do so, but sometimes a desire for a return to "normal" outweighs the facts on display.  The lack of these conventions also reminded me of a time during my hobby journey where the three HMGS shows (Falli-In, Cold Wars and Historicon) were my primary venues to play games with other people and interact socially in the hobby.  I suspect that is still the case for a lot of people who aren't as fortunate as I am to have a club and close circle of friends to game with locally.  Now I will not bore you with "deep thoughts" and moralizing statements but I will say as this pandemic drags on that it's more important than ever just to be kind to other people - everyone is hurting in one way or another, some show it others don't but we're all worn down.  

Civility in your comportment is always a virtue but really never more so than now.  

It does seem as if this pandemic has elected to crawl across, rather than race across the finish line, doesn't it.

Still despite the loss of silly toy soldier shows things are definitely on the upswing and I consider myself impatiently optimistic, which is a bit out of character for a CFO/Investor type who specializes in crisis management (and looks dashing in green eye-shades).  By the way, when one becomes a CFO, you are issued a designer set of green eye shades along with the secret handshake.  Its all very Illuminate-like and hush-hush.  I best not go into the details for security reasons and you'll all just be jealous of the glitzy, jet-set lifestyle we CFO's secretly lead.

I didn't say Historicon was canceled above because in a welcome bit of scheduling sleight of hand, HMGS has changed the name of it's Fall event from Fall-In to Historicon and will be adding an extra day (from 3 to 4 days) to match the planned length of the summer event.  That is welcome news and I've now declared "Historicon-Fall" as my new talisman for a return to normalcy.  The "delay" in Historicon also provides a little bit more time to make the Stalingrad game even better.  I wonder if they'll allow me to use tiny pyrotechnics during a game session?  I'm sure they will and more importantly I shouldn't bother the convention runner with silly questions as they are very busy adjusting plans for this Fall.  Besides, what could go wrong with tiny pyrotechnics in a packed gaming hall, right?

Bucentaure Update

 

Spring is almost here and that means its time to get Bucentaure ready for the water.  Last July she got a little scratched up during a storm and very high tide so we need to get the hull repainted along with some other minor repairs.  The paint work will be done by professionals as I would just screw it up.

I’m going to try something new this year with the boat.  Rather than keeping her tied up at a dock during the sailing season, the boat will be stored at a “Boatel” facility.  What’s that?  It’s an steel cradle that’s on land and the boatyard uses a big fork lift to put her in and out of the water.

I’m really ready for Spring

Merry Christmas from my Lair to Yours

 

Merry Christmas to you and your families from St Michaels, Maryland.  I know 2020 has been a difficult year for all of us and we're learning to celebrate the holidays in different and "more distant" manner.  Still we can test new ways to celebrate and it's better to have a positive outlook than not.

At my house, this will be the first Christmas we will not have our son in the house with us Christmas morning - an inevitable outcome but one that will take some getting used to.  On the positive side we will get him and his girlfriend for a socially distant Christmas dinner and is suspect Mary Beth will be pulling out all the stops to impress his young lady.  Impress or Intimidate - I never under this  higher level female communication stuff.  It's probably best if I don't trouble my pointy little head about such matters.

We'll be trying to create some new traditions this year and will likely be having a large Christmas dinner with the extended family over Zoom.  It will be a shambles but a shambles that I will really enjoy.

Speaking of new traditions, I finally broke down and built a Eastern Shore of Maryland holiday mainstay - a Christmas tree made out of crab traps.  Yes these little beauties adorn houses, docks and boats during the holiday season and the scream out class and sophistication.  I bet you can hear from wherever your reading this blog right now if you listen carefully...

Anyway, I kind of like the tree and it's nice to see peeking through the trees as one trundles up the drive way.

Be safe and be positive this Holiday season - we will get through this period of trial to better days in 2021.

Office Clean Out

On Tuesday, I finally got around to cleaning out my office, which really hadn't been cleaned since the start of the year.  It's amazing how much crap one can accumulate during a pandemic.  Before you ask, there are no "before" pictures they are just too embarrassing - suffice it to say the papers covering the desk where anywhere from 12 to 18 inches deep and I really couldn't move the chair given the stuff that was "temporarily" stored on the floor.

I'd like to take credit for this amazing act of selfless organizational effort but that would be untrue.  Lets just say the CEO of the household suggested that I should, maybe, clean things up a bit.  You know, one of those offers that couldn't be refused.

I discovered a good number of hobby related items including the Gamecraft bridge kit in the lower left of the picture

In cleaning out my cabinets, I found this really useful manual from 2003.  I don't even remember owning a copy of FrontPage.  There were a lot of other useless stuff I tossed.  In fact I generated 5 large garbage bags of paper that went to the incinerator.

It's really nice to have a clean office and I have pledged to keep it clean and organized from now on.  Betting has commenced on when that last statement is proven to be untrue with the prevailing sentiment being late September of this year.

TMP Wars and Changing Media Consumption Patterns

My Alternative Logo for TMP

Over the past week I noticed that an old post of mine from May of 2017 was getting a lot of traffic.  The post is titled "I've Been Banned From TMP and I Feel Fine" and you can guess the topic from the title.

I've got no issues with being banned.  TMP is a privately run site and can choose who can have access to the "service" and who can't.  I was a free user and really don't have any rights to access.  The degree to which these decisions are good business practice is another matter but the proprietor both makes those decisions and deals with the ramifications.

Against my better judgement, I hopped onto the site to see what was driving the new traffic and was was not surprised to see there is yet another flame war.  This one was a bit different as it wasn't with a competing forum or subgroup of TMP users but with an Advertiser in the form of Richard Clarke owner of the TooFatLardies rules publishing company.  TMP's revenue model is add driven and getting into a public snit with an advertiser seems to be really, really silly.  I suspect Mr Clarke has also learned the lesson about wrestling with a pig in his pen.  You just get muddy and the pig kind of likes it.

For fun, I looked up TMP's traffic stats - I use a number of paid tools for investment purposes but even TMP's self reported stats tell a pretty damning.  Lets just look at those self-reported stats:

                Hits.                  Avg Daily Visitors

2Q'17:    24.7MM.           4Q'17     8.9k/day
2Q'20:    15.0MM.           Current.  6.6k/day

Wow - that's a 40% decline over three years.  To honest the decline is even worse once traffic for 'bots are separated out but an ominous trend when overall online traffic metrics are skyrocketing.  Theres a similar trend in terms of average daily visitors which has declined for just over 8.9k/day in 2017 to a current level of 6.6k/day.

While it is tempting to just continue to beat up TMP and they sure make it easy to do so, similar sites like the Lead Adventures Forum are also seeing traffic declines - not nearly as large but still steadily down.

The tabletop industry as a whole has never been better - so why are these general purpose sites seeing a decline in both traffic and business relevance?

In my opinion, there are several factors at play from both a consumer and business perspective.  Now just because I say it doesn't mean its accurate and your milage may vary.

Consumers:
Like or hate Facebook, general purpose platform like it are winning the consumer eyeball wars because they work and provide a single user interface to use.  Special purpose forums like TMP have their own unique infrastructure and interface (I never really figured how to post pictures on TMP) and that creates a form of user "friction" and a tech backlog as they just dont have the resources to keep pace with the competition.  Both facebook and Youtube have a simple interface that once you learn it it works for every site / group / topic your interested in.  One of my main uses for TMP was reference material on uniforms and other historical minutia - now there are innumerable Facebook groups on the same topics with integrated images and a simple user interface.  Other than watching the spectacle of people squabbling over how HMGS should run a convention, I really have no effective use for TMP.

Business:
The internet has made it even easier for a business to interact directly with its customers on a global basis.  A small manufacture of historical figures used to have to market through physical game conventions (the vendor booth) or sites like TMP or magazines to announce and sell products.  Now they can reach out directly or use very sophisticated marketing tools to target their audience.  Throw on top of that the evolution of platforms like "KickStarter" which effectively perform a combination market test and trade finance platform and the need for an intermediary site really needs to be questioned.

In real life, I'm a very active tech investor and have observed these trends impacting a number of industries.  I am intrigued by the impact and implications these forces will have on the historical gaming industry and will be doing some more research on the topic.  The downside of that for you is there will be a few more really boring "business trend" posts on the blog.

Back to TMP - I fear the site and, others like it, are condemned to a continual downward slide in relevance and economic viability., with the only variation being the slope of the decline.  Like large format department stores, their value in the delivery chain has been supplanted by superior technology.  I suspect the questionable decisions of TMP's owner will hasten it's demise but that's just speeding up the inevitable. 

Lockdown Haircut

It had to be done.  OK, it only had to be done because my wife decreed it so.  Since she out ranks me, my only course was to follow orders.  That's right, I got a home hair cut after four months.

I'm sure that last statement disappoints a lot of my blog readers as you were are were all anticipating the debut of my silver haired man-bun.  Please direct your outrage at this artistic denial to executive management.

After procuring some hair clippers (DAMN YOU AMAZON!) and watching a you-tube video, my surgeon wife declared herself a barber and set about her task of shoring me like a sheep. 

Before we go any further, I should point out that I have developed superb hair coloring skills as I've done my wife's hair twice.  I may open a salon post lockdown, that's how good I am.

So how did it go?  Well, first off, it is very unnerving when a surgeon is cutting your hair and wondering out loud about how long it would take to suture an ear back on.  As for the haircut.  Well lets just say I have a lot of hats.....

When Animals Attack!: Eastern Shore Version

The first weekend of June 2020, promised to be perfect - a strong breeze, temperatures in the high 70's / low 80's and sunny.  A well needed respite during these troubling times.  However, mother nature had other ideas.

Dun, Dun, Daaahhhhh.....

First I awoke Saturday to find this lovely lady Diamondback Terrapin laying her eggs in front of my garden gate.  The gravel of our driveway seems to be the perfect material for turtle nurseries as this happens a lot.

These turtles are on the EPA's "Threatened List" as some idiots used to like to eat them in soup.  I find them fascinating and a really neat neighbor to have.  Maybe having the Perry brothers as neighbors might be cooler (maybe).  Anyway, with the nest in place we've now roped off the main gate to the garden so have to use the side gate.  Score 1 for you mother nature,

 On Sunday, I decided to go for a bike ride with the Dr/Mrs (woe be unto the fool who uses the term Mrs/Dr).  In fact we had just been on one Friday - Friday as in two days ago.  I went to get my helmet and discovered that a local bird had claimed said helmet as a homestead.  Now this nest building took less than 24 hours as we had the garage open all Saturday while I was painting the patio furniture on the driveway.  We never saw the bird(s) in question.  I'm pretty sure whatever the species they have evolved to use some form of "Amish Barn Raising" process to build their nests.

Who knew birds were such fast engineers?  You know if the British XXX Corps had birds as bridge engineers in Sep of 1944, they would have been in Arnhem within 2 days.  Just saying.

Score Mother Nature 2, me 0

After surviving two very dangerous animal encounters and a raft of home improvement projects, I finally settled down to pursue my study of nature - for scenery making purposes of course.  It's a scientifical fact-like statement that the study of nature, both textures and colors,  is best done in a hammock.  After 10 minutes of so of concentrated cogitations on the form and function of ground foam, I entered a trance-like state.  I'm sure I learned a lot about terrain making while doing so.  Because the knowledge I gained was so deep, I'll likely need to take a refresher course next weekend.

Historicon 2020 is Cancelled

HMGS recently announced via an email to the membership that their flagship event, Historicon, has been cancelled given all of the issues associated with COVID-19.  Historicon is, traditionally, the highlight of my gaming year and an event I really look forward to.  Readers of this blog are normally bombarded with Historicon prep posts at this time of year as I frantically get ready to put on a game. 

To be honest, I'm a bit relieved that the HMGS board made the decision to cancel the con.  I had made a personal decision to skip this years event out of health concerns voiced by my wife - who is a Dr and is pitching in to treat COVID patients.  That said, I was also wavering on my decision as I really enjoy the convention and putting on games.  It's my only chance in life to pretend I'm a ringmaster in a three ring circus.  I want to thank the HMGS board for making the right decision and canceling the event and preventing me from flip flopping.  How ironic would have been for my my wife to treat me for covid that I got at HCON only so she could kill me later for being so stupid?

I've actually been very impressed with the board in terms of how they've handled the situation.  I've often been very critical about the board in the past but I think they're doing a good job in very difficult times.  Let's face it, if a police sketch artist was drawing up a picture of a likely victim of COVID-19 it would pretty much look like the average attendee of a historical miniature gaming convention.

There are lively debates on facebook about the wisdom of canceling the event and, I even went back to TMP to see what's up there - after donning PPE to protect me from the slime.  I think it's a universal rule that wargamers have extreme views along all ideological bents and that was in full display on the web.  What has surprised and disappointed me is the vitriol some people have in questioning the courage/intelligence of individuals who are choosing caution over playing with toy soldiers.  Thats just not necessary - make your own decision but don't denigrate others who live in different circumstance.

All I can say is my wife's experience treating these patients with the virus has been harrowing and the social distancing has saved lives that would have been lost in March and April with hospitals being overrun even more so than they were.  If you've failed in life to the degree you seek solace in conspiracy theories, well that's on you.  Pro-tip - looking to blame others for your problems only ensures you keep wallowing in your on form of self pity.

I was planning to do a large Napoleonic campaign game at this year's Historicon.  With that now cancelled, I'm thinking about changing up and doing a Russo-Japanese War themed campaign - both land and sea.  I've jumped into to the R-J was in 6mm in a very big way and there are rumors floating about that someone at my address may have ordered and received a miniature of every ship from both the Russian and Japanese fleets in 1/2400 scale from War Times Journal.  Of course these are only rumors that can NEVER be confirmed in any way whatsoever to my lovely yet fierce wife.  Capice?

Sky Galleons on Mars

 On Saturday, Bob G ran a rather silly but really fun game set in a sciFi Mars but with a colonial theme.  The best way to describe the game was flying sailing ships and ironclads.  It was a blast.  Tony and I command the British and were pitted against 3 Martian ships.

It  was a full 3D experience as bob used used plexiglass rods to indicate altitude.  It was a grand game and super creative.

Sadly about 1.5 hours into the game, I received a notification of an emergency board call for an institution that is dealing with some aspects of the Coronavirus.  I turned over my ship to a player whose floating barge Tony and I ganged up on and left the game.  That was a real shame as Bob puts on a great show.  Thanks Bob!

The call ended up lasting 2.5 hours and we ended with more questions than answers but it was the right decision to convene the board.  I try not to get political on this blog (it's just toy soldiers, after all) but I can say the lack of any coherent guidance from the Federal government is shocking.  The state of Pennsylvania's health department was competent and more importantly they were clear on what they knew and didn't know.  The Feds are a dissembling mess, which seems to emanate from the orange moron at the top. 

Merry Christmas from St Michaels, Maryland

Merry Christmas from the Lair of the Uber Geek to you and yours this holiday season.  I can't believe that Christmas is just a few days away but there you have it.  I've got a frantic few days to finish preparations - somehow it always seems to get done.

The picture is of the main street in St Michaels.  Christmas is a surprisingly big tourist event for the town and its really fun to experience.  Post Jan 1st we all pretty much go into hibernation mode until the Spring.  The winter is one of my favorite times to be on the Eastern Shore.  Its very quite and affords a lot of painting time.  What's not to love?

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone.

Challenge Prep Setback

Normally, the handful of days leading up to the Challenge kick-off are filled with frantic miniature prepping - filing mold lines, attaching to bases and priming.  This year's a bit different.  Don't get me wrong - there's a great deal of frantic activity but it's more focused on repairing the broken water line in my hobby area rather than the more important hobby related items.

The culprit - the leak happened at the upper junction 

A copper joint failed and my hobby area was subjected to a bit of water damage.  Luckily it was more of a pinprick leak / spray rather than full on broken pipe and the resulting gushing torrent.  Thankfully no miniatures were lost in the flood but a lot of my sectional terrain pieces got ruined and a good deal of terrain supplies (matte board, foam core etc) was damaged  Note to self - water soluble glue is really easy to work with but does have a bit of a flaw when a pipe leaks.....

I think the wet ground foam has dealt a mortal wound to my trusty shop-vac.

The carpet in the basement got wet and will need to be dried and then cleaned.  All of this means I'll be off to a bit of a slow start to this year's challenge.  I'm off to rent a carpet cleaner tomorrow.  Exciting times!

You can see the water creeping along the carpet.  Since the carpet is over 15 years old, I suspect my wife may attempt to justify a "its time for new carpet" argument. She's likely right but I fight a delaying action to get through the Challenge.  Some things  need to have priority in life.

In some ways we were very lucky - the spot where the leak occurred was the area where we used to hide our sons Christmas presents in the days that Santa Claus "existed".  Now that would have been a disaster

It's Christmas Present Time in the Workshop

 It's that time of year to make some presents for the family.  First up is a contraption for my lovely yet fierce wife. It should be pretty easy to guess what I'm making from this picture.

The weather is really warm for this time of year so I've taken a few days off to get these gifts banged out.

My sons is a bit smaller but a lot more difficult.  I may need a fall back plan for that one

Happy Thanksgiving

 Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out on the inter webs.  A roast Turkey is a beautiful thing, indeed so I thought I would share.

Turkey induced comas for Sean and his two college friends he brought home for Thanksgiving.

I have much to be Thankful for.  I would be even more thankful if I could find my pants with the elastic waist.  It seems my current pair has shrunk - funny that?

Jasper and team over at Wargaming, Soldiers and Strategy have started to publish some of the findings from the 2019 version of the Great War-gaming Survey.  The 2019 survey had a record level of participation and yielded some interesting insights about the state of the hobby and both some opportunities and challenges ahead.

I encourage you to go over and take a look at the results that Jasper will be discussing over the coming weeks.

Here is a link to the first post, "The Basics"

Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween everyone!  I know this is a day late but we were having internet issues given the winds here on the Chesapeake Bay.

This year we had our traditional one group of trick-o-treators (the neighbors boys).  It was just me this year manning the door as MB was on her way to Chicago to speak at a conference.  What moron schedules a professional conference on Periodontics the day after halloween?  That's just mean.

Fall has finally arrived here on the Eastern Shore, which means wonderful weather for the last few sailing days and signals the beginning of prep work for this year's version of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - issue #10.

I've got a rather audacious idea for this years challenge that will end in either triumph or ignominy - perhaps both!  What is it?  Well you'll just have to wait to see.....

One of the saddest days of the year.....

Its Autumn here on the Eastern Shore and one of the sadest days of the year is upon me - the removal of my power boat for the winter.  There she is waiting for the trailer to show up and begin her long winter hibernation.  It was a spectacular day for a last run down the creek to the levy.

This Boston Whaler is a bit long in the tooth as she is 13 years old but shows no sign of slowing down.  I may get another 10 years out of her.

Next week my sailboat comes out of the water and I'll be seasonally land-locked until spring.  Still when one door closes, another opens and that newly ajar portal is lots more time for painting miniatures.  I am planning a rather daft stunt for this years Painting Challenge (which will be #10).  What is it?  Mum's the word for now but I'm pretty sure it will be an epic undertaking.  Epic in either its stupidity or execution but epic none-the-less.