School resumes tomorrow. For the first time in weeks, I painted a little. The above tiny group is a partial result. The figure in front was an unpainted holdover. Once again, I marveled at the deficiencies in my work.

At the moment, I am priming with a white enamel undercoat. I have enough figures to keep me excruciatingly busy and expect a shipment from the Last Square and a seller on e-bay any day now. Satisfaction comes from knowing that I am getting closer to an ideal balance between time spent and quality. I have taken to correcting this and that, turning figures upside so that all the flaws become shockingly visible.

I remain retired. I left my job without even a fare you well card. It is ok. It was my last job and I could not say there were any memorable moments other than struggling back after trying to walk a half mile at lunch.

I did notice that the e-bay seller trying to peddle a group of Archive Miniatures space aphids as Ral Partha frog people finally made a sale. Good for him.

When I look at these, I feel like I owe Tom Meier an apology. Where is all that gorgeous facial detail now buried under a layer of poorly applied acrylic paints? Well, they are not quite done. Leonardo Da Vinci said art is not finished but abandoned. Though not art, it applies here. There is a point where you give up, where you have chased things far enough.

I have always wondered about the motivation for creating this line. It was certainly poorly represented at the time. Even now, the 15th century mercenaries and the wars they fought remain like some remote thing seldom mentioned. When I bought my first packs, I purchased arquebusiers thinking that anyone carrying a gun would hold a significant place in battle. Oops.

Meier had urged Ral Partha refocus on fantasy figures. The market for fantasy was considerable compared to the rather limited number of people who might even have heard of landsknects let alone were eager to buy a package of them. The Condottieri Range was never easy to find in the dark ages when there was no Internet. The Ral Partha booth at Historicon had an enormous box of them for $1 a piece at the time.

Sadly, the range was never expanded though it certainly cried out for a greater variety. Grenadiers in marching order might be indistinguishable as individuals but landsknects were much more varied.

Now, I look at the large group of figures and see it as a sign of misspent youth. Lots of figures but not enough. Lots of painting but hardly adequate. In fact, the figures remain unused while a set of Hinchliffe English Civil War figures purchased at roughly the same time have seen routine use with additions from Old Glory and Wargames Foundry. In some ways, the incredible detail and the limited variety has kept me away. Now, I am looking again and can hopefully offer something to showcase Meier’s brilliant achievement.

I think I understand why people play golf when they retire, not that it seems anymore meaningful to me but I like to think I understand, the way I think I understand why the blue head wrasse produces a super male. It is not relevant to my life but nice to know why people make these choices.

I reach retirement age shortly and, after years of avoiding staff reductions and hanging on through half a dozen, I will finally be set out to graze. Not that I can look back on a lifetime of work with considerable satisfaction.

My best moments are odd ones and few related to work. I recall an intense period of on-call overtime working through a charity event featuring Nell Carter. I went down to the abandoned service trays of food at 5 in the morning and ate what I pleased. It was not good but satisfying. Not much else stands out in my mind except a long history of working for people who wanted to make programmers superfluous. Moving IT centers to India seemed to be the next best thing.

But of course this is neither here nor there. People get what they expect to get. At one company, a programmer found a discarded printout showing all raises and ratings everyone was to receive at the end of the year. Somehow, we always lived up to their limited expectations.

Ok, so I will retire but I am not going to play golf.

There is a nasty bit of fault finding in me. When browsing that dark pool of overpriced miniatures known as E-Bay, I sometimes come upon something obviously mislabeled (a figure from the Ral Partha’s Condottieri line labeled as an AD&D figure, for example) or something equally misguided. Oftentimes, a dealer has something rare but receiving no bids because of a poor guess at the product line (almost everything is Warhammer or Ral Partha) or overpricing something that is still in production and can be purchased for a reasonable price elsewhere (RAFM Traveller figures are a good example).

It may be worth knowing to anyone interested in following my self-righteous need to correct sellers with little interest or knowledge in the figures they sell that most of the time my e-mails are ignored or perhaps given half-hearted attention. The seller who insists that a Ral Partha Battletech Flea is actually a 15mm Traveller Walker for Striker rules from GDW will not be dissuaded.

But, on a happier note, the largest collection of Heritage Napoleonettes I have got a hold of was listed on E-Bay under Revolutionary War Militaria. So, if you are patient and have the time, a bargain is still to be found though probably not as often as in the past. At least you can have the joy of finding 25mm Space Aphids listed as 15mm frog people for whatever pleasure that may bring.

Some days I wake up and have no idea where I am. Sometimes it is an interesting sense of disorientation, sometimes disturbing. You cannot get used to anything when nothing is in its proper place long enough to allow it.

My life has a certain inevitability about it. Part of that seems to involve being constantly on the move. In the last few months, I have moved from one campus to another campus and now to a building midway between both as a result of work. My tiny apartment remains the same though the people around it keep changing and more often than not disappearing.

Tonight, I will be back home but only until tomorrow morning when I drive the 120 miles back here again.

On the plus side, the 6mm Roman figures seem to be moving closer and closer to completion with a significant number of cavalry painted and a bunch more in process. Additionally, I finally decided on a look for the RAFM 15mm Traveller figures and they are looking pretty good. I have put a moratorium on figure purchases though I do not know how long it will last. The huge array of miniatures remains an island of tranquility in a steadily deteriorating world.

Yes, I am still here.  Both cameras have disappeared as usual.  Due to my 2-hour commutes and advancing years, I find that I am falling asleep a lot more than I would like and in those few conscious moments, either eating, cleaning the apartment, or watching TV.  I feel like a retired person who has not yet retired and find time very difficult to come by.

But recognizing my faults, I plan to do better.  At least, the Perry Confederate army is well on the way to completion.  I found the very last plastic figures off the sprues and it looks like a relatively small number.  Once I get them painted, I will be free to do some playing around with American Civil War Rules.

I also found that Warehouse 23 was selling plastic Ogres so now have a couple of poorly painted Mk III and Mk V Ogres as well as some GEVs which were on sale during the holidays.  I have never figured out what happened to my ancient copy of Ogre but I do have the miniatures rules, the GEV game, and a lot of old Martian Metals pieces so will get those photographed as soon as I figure out what I am doing with the cameras.

On a more upbeat note, I have become better at playing the banjo.

Summer is gone very fast. The weather has cooled and Homecoming Day is only one day from now. The rainy days have ended and the blue sky days have arrived. I am making plans for Christmas but thought a recap of summer was in order.

The trip to Prague went without any real missteps or successes. Once again, I missed doing the things I had planned to do. Prague was not as friendly a city as some. People would get a ‘look who’s just walked in the door’ expression when I would come in. I did just through dumb luck chance upon a hobby store. It was a disappointment. A lot of Airfix and Revell plastic kits and not too much else though there were some nice vehicles for model railroads. In my finest Czech, I asked how much they cost. With a withering look, the man behind the counter handed me a card, told me that there was a website listed on the card, and I could look up the price there. I retreated quietly from the store.

Not much else happened in Prague. There were hordes of tourists where one expected hordes of tourists. The only time the Czech language was useful was once when I tried to get a small plate for my daughter and the waiter thought I was asking for a side dish. The Vyzerahd Citadel was a pleasant walk and Andel was an interesting area. My daughter was delighted with the Kingdom of the Railways and had to be dragged away. Beer was plentiful, food was hit and miss. The trams were fun to ride on and I had my one moment as an experienced tourist instructing a British woman to board the No. 22 tram on the other side of the street to reach Prague Castle.

Back home, I weathered a hurricane. The storm was expected to peak at 2 in the morning but when 2 AM arrived, the rain and wind lightened and the frogs in the backyard started singing and the hurricane was past. Nothing was broken or pushed over and nothing flooded. The toddler slept through it all.

I have stacked as many rule books as I could find on a bookshelf. I am furiously trying to paint all the plastic Perry miniatures that have been piling up and am within sight of success. I painted enough Assyrians to start looking for some matte board to mount them on. I also have more 10mm Saxons than I know what to do with.

It was a forgettable summer in some ways. At least, I have a moment to write about it.

Looks like the annual summer conference season is upon us so it is off to Europe for a bit. Perhaps I will have the opportunity to bring back some amazing photos or perhaps some mediocre ones. I suspect with a toddler and mother-in-law on hand, there will be less footloose wandering than in previous times.