Very nice idea Leonidas! We've never met but I know who you are from passing during the fetes, You were always in a conversation and I was full steam ahead for where ever I was going, I'll make a point of shaking your hand this August!

New Years Eve, 2005 I said to myself, "This has been just about the best year I've ever had." That sentiment changed the very next day as I endured a very fast ride to the bottom of the mountain that lasted until August of '06. My relief driver went down with a serious illness (since recoved, bless him) and I was stuck running the Portland, OR. end of job singlehandedly. I might point out that I have additional to my other accounts, a single customer to whom I deliver 10,000,000 (million!) pounds of product yearly BTW. I now know with dead tired certainy that there are 31 days in May because I worked every single one of them in '05. Lucky for me the owners of the company and my immediate supervisor are some of the best folks I've ever worked for and I genuinely love my customers who treat me with great respect and courtesy, but Hey!, a fella's gotta have time for chipping, am I right?

The first three months I was working by myself, my longtime pet was dying of cancer. This faithful cat and I had been the only heartbeats in my house for 15 years. This guy deserved by his devotion the thousands I spent having tumors carved out of him and the final euthenasia and cremation.

What else? Well nothing that hasn't happened to everyone else here but there were a couple of disappointments to hopes of 40+ years and my immediate plans and lifestyle habits got upended several different ways.

A person I work with had a terrible tradegy in her family. Too, too sad to recount at the moment but guess what? My association with all those chip collecting folks I've run across gave me the wherewithal to make a difference in how this lady endured her bad times. I was able to extend to her enough help to make her dark days a little shorter she let me know later. I just followed examples of what I've seen and learned from my fellow chippers and it made a significant change for me, her and a couple of others. The saltiest dog working for my company after hearing my thoughts crystalized the lesson thus: "People think this is a Big Old World...but it's really not. It's really just small and the little things you do are important." I see that here in the hobby everyday.

So there I was, broke, broke down and going for broke every day. What to do? Well, I had an idea what would fix everything from day 2 of this crummy story. I needed to attend my third (forth? uhh ) convention! I'd made the '05 Gig at the Riv and managed to hit homeruns about six times a day. Met up with 3 past and present club Presidents so now I know this outfit is one for the history books yet to be written. Scored some great chips and was there the first year Splashbar got reoriented chipperwise. I knew that I'd be meeting folks left and right and I'd tell 'em, "Hey, I wanted to meet you!" and they'd say right back, "Well, I wanted to meet you too!" All the chip gurus would be there with their boundless help, enthusiasm and kindness...shoot, all ya gotta do is ASK! Crashing a banquet table stag, going to dinner with the fellow PNW chip-gnomes and taking some more $$$ off of Steve Wynn after a breakfast over at the Peppermill. One of the coolest things that capsulizes the event for me last year: Walking out of the first trade session after the banquet and from a very dark corner, invisible except for a blinking light LV necklace, I hear a warm, husky, "Well, hi there." LOL! Hiya Jukie Brown! There's a chipper friend for life for everyone!

Got home, shrugged off the previous months, gave the cat's urn a rub and headed back to life, rarin' to go. Yep there's a LOT of chips at the convention, and a lot of other things there too. Go and see.