Re: whereabouts of John Pumpernickel?

"Gary Listberg" <erilda21789@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gm8bps$830$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"John P" <none@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gm86kq$p7j$2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Gary,

Got a phone call that you were asking about me. I'll bet this is the
first
time I've been in unet for over 10 years. How have you been? Still
visiting SAA I see.

Oh yeah. Been pretty much consistent since the groups got started. I'm
mostly a lurker here as most of my friends have moved on over the years.
I've been good. Just retired after nearly 30 years at the plant.

Congratulations! You're still young enough to take on another job. Is that
in the works or are you going to sit out this bad economy? Tell you what,
I'm old enough to remember the Great Depression as you know and the way
things have become is very similar to the conditions at that time.

After awakening from the coma, I lost all interest in astronomy. The 29"
sat here for who knows how long until a guy stopped by one day about 5
years
ago asking if I wanted to sell it and for how much, so I let it go. It
was
a bargain for the price at the time as you know and I spent many a nights
sketching. I don't know why I lost nearly all interest in my old
hobbies.
The docs say I had some sort of a stroke during the coma that affected
memory and personality, so maybe that's why.

I wish I had known about the 29" being sold. I'd have made you an offer.
Granted, I don't have the space and I probably would have had to borrow
some of the neighbor's property to store it, but somehow I would have made
a way.

That Coulter was a beast alright. I remember when the delivery truck
arrived at my place of employment at the time. My coworkers had lots of
surprised and puzzled looks on their faces. Took over a year to receive it
from the time I ordered it, but it was great to have despite being so
awkward.

Do you still have your 12" SCT? That was sure a beauty of a scope. If I
ever got another, that one is nice and portable so I'd probably get
something like it.

No, it never did have the best of mirrors, so I traded it on Astromart for
a C14. I had the guy send me results of mirror testing first though. You
just never know when you buy a scope what sort of mirror it truly has.
Oh, you can go with some of the guys that make mirrors like Royce, etc and
then you are pretty assured of quality, but with the Chinese stuff now
it's hit and miss. I don't know if you've heard of a company called
Orion, but I favored their little 6" Mak. Because they're made in China,
quality is not assured. Had to go through 3 scopes before I had a decent
mirror. They never asked any questions though and paid the shipping each
time, so I can't complain.

I came across the Orion website one day recently when I was trying to get
reacquainted with scope venders. They have a large variety of scopes.
Sounds like they back up their scopes to from what you say.

>> They say that during the 5 years or so I was "out", Mars drew closer
to us
than it would for the next 60,000 years and there were some big sunspots
around that time also. Sorry I missed them. Geez, I have a LOT of
catching
up to do. Is Hawking still alive? Last I heard he was trying to come up
with a theory to explain everything.

Yeah, that was all back in '03. In August of that year, Mars had a very
close opposition. I tried to get some images, but never had anything
decent as it appeared pretty low for most of the US at that time. '05 was
better, but of course more distant, but by then I had sold the C8 I used
for planetary. Then there were the giant sunspots in Oct '03. Aurora lit
up as far S as FL for several nights. I do have some images of those huge
spots if you would like to see them sometime. Hawking is still alive, now
66 I believe, and the disease is causing him to be almost totally
paralyzed now, but he still keeps on working. I'm not up on his theories
presently though.

Did Celestron stop making scopes? Can't tell from what I've been
reading.
It's either that or they are importing from China.

Celestron still makes them, but I believe most, if not all, of their
scopes are Chinese imports. Can't say one way or the other about the
quality though since I haven't owned a new one since the takeover. I
think the scope firms are hurting pretty badly right now due to the poor
economy.

What is all this hype with Chinese importation. When did that all start
happening in mass? I really must have missed out on all of that. Why has
the economy become so dependent on them. As you know, I come from a time
where the upper echelons would have greatly frowned upon this relationship.

I spent many a nights looking out the window at the stars while I was in
rehab. There wasn't a whole lot to see with all the bright city lights,
but
I did make out URSA Major a few times, along with Cass and of course
Lyra.

Overall, I guess I'm beginning to miss the hobby once again. They said
much
of my personality/ interests would return with time and I'm hoping that
they
do.

After my uncle had his stroke, his personality completely changed. He was
never the same person. He still had many elements of his former
personality though that would come through from time to time, but he never
did regain what he once had. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing as we all
learned to accept it. Funny how medical science can do wonders with eyes
and infection, but when it comes to things that deal with the brain or
heart they still have a long way to go. My brother used to say that it
was because of penicillin that people lived longer much more frequently
and I used to laugh, but now I think he was right.

For the most part, my former personality has returned. It took quite some
time as there was memory loss too. I think the greatest challenge was
regaining movement. Being comatose for so long, many muscles atrophied to
the point where the docs said my arms/ legs were like a ten year olds.

Well, stay warm and let me know what you've been up to.

It was -14F here last night and expected to get a bit colder. We have
plenty of wood and coal to keep the fire going. Great to hear from you
again, John. I was beginning to think that you fell of the face of the
earth!

Didn't fall, just stumbled a little :). Thanks for contacting me after all
of this time.

Ciao,
John

Gary

John

"Gary Listberg" <erilda21789@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gm8140$b81$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Used to be a gentleman who frequented here by the name of John
Pumpernickel? Is he still a member of this group or does anyone know if
he's still on usenet at all?

Thanks,
Gary L.







.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: whereabouts of John Pumpernickel?
    ... I had the guy send me results of mirror testing first though. ... quality is not ... Had to go through 3 scopes before I had a decent mirror. ... After my uncle had his stroke, his personality completely changed. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: whereabouts of John Pumpernickel?
    ... I've had several offers despite the bad economy but then ... I had the guy send me results of mirror testing first though. ... They have a large variety of scopes. ... After my uncle had his stroke, his personality completely changed. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: Buying a new telescope...LONG
    ... sound advice. ... the smaller scopes you had first selected are a poor ... secondary mirror support spiders, and horrible Primary Mirror ... An 8" Dobsonian Reflector has advantages that it will be relatively ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: DOB Dilema
    ... > want to seek out as far as a Dob goes...yes, I can try them all at a star ... though in larger scopes even fairly ... of the 100% illumination area, ... Mirror Quality is an issue. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)