Harry P.

John, your building skills are very impressive. Our preferences of subject matter don't exactly coincide, but your talent and skill as a modeler come through loud and clear.

NFL season opens today. How many players will sit out the National Anthem?

I've been to the ER concerning this issue four times already since June. Each time, they told me there's nothing they can do; they say they are no longer allowed to prescribe narcotics (which is what I am on for pain) due to rules changes made under Obamacare. They are not even allowed to write a refill for an existing prescription if it's a narcotic. I need a written prescription from a doctor. Today I was just about out of painkiller, I didn't have enough to last the weekend. I called my doctor, he said he was out of town and not back in the office until Tuesday. So in a panic I called my oncologist and asked her if there was any way she could write the prescription. I got lucky. Even though her offices are closed today (Saturday), it just so happened that she was going to be in her office for a short while for personal reasons, and she said she would write the prescription and leave it for me to pick up... taped to the door. So I went and got it, and headed straight for the pharmacy. And here is where my crappy insurance company once again became my biggest obstacle. What had happened is that my "regular" doctor had written the original painkiller prescription at a dosage of once every 8 hours. A few days later, in my oncologist's office, I told her the pain killer wasn't doing the trick. She told me that I can safely take it once every 4 hours, no problem. So I started doing that, and of course ran out of pills a lot sooner than the original dosing (once every 8 hours) had called for. So when the pharmacy tried to put through my new prescription (same painkiller but once every 4 hours instead of 8), the insurance rejected it. In their records, the original "every 8 hours" prescription was projected to last until a certain day, and they would not authorize a refill yet. So it took a series of phone calls between my insurance company and the pharmacy, the insurance company and me, and finally a three-way conference call to finally explain to the insurance why my original prescription had run out so soon. Finally the insurance company authorized the refill. That was my Saturday. We may very well have the best doctors in the world, and the best medical care in the world... but we have a third-world medical care system. Even the docs I talk to are frustrated. It's a convoluted, bureaucratic mess of red tape, delays, miscommunication, and over-regulation. I am experiencing our medical care system for the first time, and I can tell you the system and how it works has me more frustrated than my medical condition itself.

Yes, I know what's going on and yes, I was about to delete all of those comments (actually the comments you cited are aimed at a specific member, but not you). Then I decided to give them one last chance. If it continues on, I will delete the comments. Let's hope that the two members involved in this little spat can take it to private PM, where they can insult each other all day long, if that's what they want to do. But stop doing it publicly.

I disagree. You learn best from your own mistakes.

Doctor said I can have stronger painkillers, but the offices are all closed now. I'll have to wait and see if they have weekend hours.

Any particular reason why there are water drops all over it?

As of right now, 5:21 Central time, I am in excruciating pain. The painkiller isn't doing it for me. I need something stronger.

Just got back from first radiation treatment. First chemo treatment (in pill form) also starts today... 4 pills after dinner. We will see...

Oh, I see. Clever!

There is probably no one single consumer product that needs to be looked at more carefully by the consumer, price-wise, than insurance. Prices for very similar or even exactly the same coverage varies wildly from one company to another. Specifically, car insurance. By shopping around, I found the same exact coverage from Company B that I had been getting from Company A... for half the price. Literally half the price. If only I had shopped around sooner!

I think you do have the skill.

Radiator cap?

Yes, they do! Nice model.

Yes, the lever on the outside of the body is the brake lever.

Wow! The level of detail you're putting into this is amazing. Should make for a spectacular finished model.

With all the medical issues so many of us are facing, maybe we need a whole new Forum category... "Sick Bay!"

That's one of the ironclads from the Civil War... can't remember if it's the Monitor or the Merrimac.

Don't stores like Hobby Lobby and Hobbytown USA rely on outside shipping companies to deliver product to their stores? Hobby Lobby isn't packing the pallets. And besides, the boxes that contained the warped bodies weren't crushed, so it's not a matter of "overstuffed" pallets. It seems more likely that the parts were removed from the molds before they had cooled sufficiently to hold their shape. It's not a problem with shipping, it's a problem with manufacturing. Hobby Lobby has nothing to do with the warped bodies. That's like blaming the dealer if your car gets recalled. The dealer didn't build your car, the manufacturer did!

I've found that the easiest way to apply tiny decals is not to try and slide it off the backing paper into place, but to use a very fine-tipped tweezers to take the wet decal off the backing paper first, and then placing the decal using the tweezers. Then the tip of my Xacto blade to position the decal exactly.

Your attention to detail is really going to pay off. This is going to be a very impressive model!

Why blue headlights?

How does a '73 Charger have '67 truck plates on it?

I think you need more visual contrast between the wheel spokes and rims. Like this...

I begin treatment Friday. Three weeks of radiation, five days a week. Also will begin chemotherapy in pill form concurrent with radiation. Once the radiation treatments are done, chemo will ramp up (more aggressive) and will continue on an ongoing, as needed basis... assuming that I respond to the treatment, that is. The doctors all seem confident. In fact, the radiologist said I will soon be back to living a normal life. That, of course, would be the best possible outcome. But there are no guarantees. I will either respond well to treatment and beat this... or I will not. It's as simple as that. I am very scared, but to be 100% honest, I have a feeling I will beat this.