Since I have received several messages from people I someone must have posted something about me and sure enough they did.
Therefore I thought it only proper to respond with a THANKS and to wish everyone a Happy New Year.
I am very grateful for the kind words said about me in the mentioned thread. I hope I live up to them.
In someone's private message they wondered if I had been offended by a post here. Not so at all. As I explained I just have been so busy. To make a living I have to turn in about 70 features and columns a year. No work - no pay. What with my medical problems this time last year and being deep into another book project I have just been swamped. (Well, there's also the fact that I fired in at least 25 BPCR Silhouette matches in 2010 and of course all of them required cast bullets.)
Also someone mentioned that my dog died. Its a little more complicated than that. I accidentally killed him in the driveway last September. That big collie and I were so close that many people often commented on it in our first meetings. He was almost always right at my side and attended all the BPCR Silhouette matches here in Montana with me. The guilt and grief from the accident nearly consumed me too. My wife was afraid it would kill me too. In an effort to do something positive we searched for and found a collie that desperately needed a good home as desperately as I needed a good dog. He was in College Station, Texas and I drove there in two days to pick him up.
Of course he is not my lost dog but he is a fine dog in his own right and we are getting along fine. Naturally I wish he was glued to me as my fine Brennan was and he seems to big by bit becoming that way.
On a happier note my World War II firearms collection has now reached 60 items: pistols, revolvers, carbines, infantry rifles, sniper rifles, submachine guns, and finally one rifle caliber full-auto. The two most recent have been a German MP44 "Sturmgewehr" and a Japanese made Lewis Light Machine Gun. Brothers are they hoots! Especially the Lewis gun.
Yesterday, I turned in my last two articles for 2010 and this weekend I'm going to do something very relaxing, like cast BPCR bullets while someone reads me a good story via a "book on tape."
Again, I would like to thank everyone for the well-wishes on that thread, and hopefully this year I'll be able to visit more here.
Good luck to everyone.
Mike V.