Danno

Nice job, Johnathan!

Johann, Good to know. I've been concerned for my friends in Fort Collins and Colorado Springs ~ ~ ~ hope they didn't get that much of that rain on either the High Park fire area or the Waldo Canyon fire area ~ they won't be able to withstand the flooding! I know Arvada ... I was involved in the development of Kenilworth Apartment Community (probably not called that any more) on the SE corner of 88th and Wadsworth in '72 - '73 and another large complex in Colorado Springs. I attended/graduated from CLETA in Golden in '74. Still have family in the Tech Center area, Northglenn and Ft. Collins. And friends all over the front range and Continental Divide ... Stay frosty ...

Save a seat for me, Brad!

I wasn't gonna say it ... I wasn't gonna say it.

Most! excellent,! brother!

What part of Colorado are you in, Johann?

I have the room ... I just don't have the time!

I searched for hours to find this thread! Bumpity bump.

I finally received pre-notice of pending shipment of my MCM 5,000-Post watch from Hawaii ... One selected randomly by the shipper. For 7,000 you get two. For 10,000 you get all five. I'm just eagerly awaiting its arrival ... yeah. Right. REALLY, Gregg?

But do you wear a helmet when you mix model paints? (That's humor, ... )

. . . ehh . . . maybe not. Seriously, guys, don't get hung up about the 'mixing paint for model cars' part of the story. That in and of itself is not likely the real problem here. It's the 'cleaning it up when it exploded' part that tells the real story. The model paints aren't volatile enough to vaporize sufficiently to ignite off a water heater or furnace ... even the amount of thinner involved would not be significant. [Assuming he was mixing quantities to paint a model or two.] [Assuming he was not mixing large quantities to bottle and retail to the rest of us.] What the story says that is pertinent to causation is that he was cleaning it up when ignition occurred. What solvent was he using and in what quantity? Those are the relevant issues and they really don't have anything to do with model cars. He was probably using a much larger quantity of a much more volatile solvent ~ or gasoline ~ to wipe up the spill and remove the stain. It was most likely the cleanup solvent that was actually the ignitable liquid, in sufficient quantities to vaporize and bring the room with the pilot light to the threshhold of explosive range. Spill several ounces of paint on floor. Get half a gallon of gasoline to wipe it up and remove the discoloration. A little wipey, wipey. Viola! Ergo *BOOM*. Probably not an indictment of modeling as much as yet another example of 'Stupid is as Stupid Does.'

No kidding? See what happens when you miss a few annual trips over a few decades? You lose touch. My family once had a farm near Bennington ... next to the Eisenhowers (brother of the pres) farm. All my Kansas family members are gone many years now and we haven't made the trek in probably 20 years ... A visit to Salina always required one of each ... my parents met at Cozy and Sundays were always Brookville's Chicken dinners ... Thanks for the info. Was just curious.

From many years of investigating fires and explosions, high on my list of personal favorites were all the motorcycles that were torn down in living rooms and parts washed in gasoline in the utility rooms ... near the water heaters ... until *BOOM* ...

I'll agree with you in large part, Jairus, except for one small point ... "Most of the profits of those companies go to union workers in my opinion." No, most of the profits go to union bosses, union managers, union "organizers," and campaign contributions and other paybacks the union bosses make to the political hacks they own. Union workers actually get a very, very small slice of the union pie. Otherwise, I think you're basically right!

Todd! You ever slip down to Brookville for the fried chicken (is it even still there)? How 'bout the Cozy? Is it still running?

That's when we have to break out our flash flood gear!

You can also find his products at policecarmodels.com.

I always told my troops they could usually make better time (on emergency responses) just running without the emergency lights and siren, especially in day light. Before every car had DRLs, a car running in daylight with its bright headlights on usually parted traffic even better than all lit up Code-3 style! They were usually skeptical ... until they tried it. With the cheapo Motorola electronic sirens we had, long Code-3 runs could get ... interesting. After continuously sounding for 30-40 miles, the silly things would get hot and start emitting the *strangest* sounds, and before you knew it, they'd just kinda die. Shut 'em off for 5-6 miles then turn 'em on again and they'd start all over ... good for another 20-30 miles before freaking out and dying again! Never a dull moment. Fortunately, we didn't have long runs like that very often, but the size of our county meant it would happen ...

Jus' sayin'.

New? Never used? In whose solar system? Burn 'im, Grasshopper!

Beautiful, Mark! I love it. One of my all-time favorite 'Vettes, too!

REALLY? You DID NOT just write that!

At the S/O, we had Motorola speakers (the rectangular ones) in the center of the old Federal Visibar (too cheap to buy the Federal CP speakers). One of the Motorola's "best" features was the fact that it would fill up with packed snow when you were patrolling in a snow storm. Then, when you needed to "go" ... the snow muffled the sound so much you could just barely hear the siren ... even though you were sitting right under it! It was comical. And dangerous.

Eh? Huh? What'd you say?