Viperfixr
Born Again Rocketeer
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2009
- Messages
- 1,474
- Reaction score
- 73
First of all, there's some real loss and pain out there associated with C-19, and my vent here is not intended to diminish that at all. My best wishes go with any of you affected in any way, to include job & income losses. That said, life's throwing me a curveball, and I just need to vent a little.
I recently retired from the military and moved back home to AZ. It took a few months to find a home, get delivery of our household goods from northern VA (DC) and sort through it all. It became immediately clear that an almost random 15% swath of our household goods was missing. Just missing, without explanation. And, of the things not missing, there was lots of broken/damaged items. For example, not a single bookcase survived (and we have a lot of books). Every garage shelf unit I had was either missing or broken. All of my tools were missing...all of them, to include the rolling Craftsman tool box they were in. My rocketry drill press is gone. And so much more.
We contacted the movers and they went through their warehouse twice, finding about 800lbs of the missing items. They delivered what they found. Then I started to inventory in full what was missing. I just did the rocketry claim portion. Heartbreakingly to me, the first tally is coming to nearly $4500 without including shipping or taxes.
I don't have a single electronics capable rocket in a usable/flyable state--every single av-bay is missing. Every single rocket my daughter made, to include her L1 cert rocket (Wildman Vindicator), is missing. My Madcow V-2 5.5" rocket that was 90% done is missing, and now no longer sold by Madcow. My L3 cert rocket (Wildman DSE) is missing it's av-bay, along with my only 98mm MMT rocket, a Rocketry Warehouse Maddog 6 (I am dearly hoping Madcow couplers fit it). A Q-Modeling XP-Raptor was crushed flat, and no longer made. My rare Eecee Thunder kit was broken in many places. A LOC Starfighter my daughter made that we painted to look like a USAF Thunderbird (and took pictures on the Nellis flightline with the real ones just for fun) is gone. My favorite RW Lil'Dog rocket that flew faultlessly on anything I could stuff in it is gone. The whole top part of my rocketry workbench (that I made) is missing. I am just so mad that I couldn't sleep last night.
Moved around the world for over 28 years, and this last move was ironically the worst one. I am sure someone justified abysmal service by saving $0.10/pound on the total move cost, or some similar thing. The military often wonders why retention suffers and servicemember morale isn't as high as they think it should be. To those who wonder, it's the never ending life impacts like this that cannot be erased or forgotten, nor adequately explained to those that haven't lived it. This doesn't even cover the other 14 moves we made over those 28 years, and all that was lost/broken along the way, never replaced at real value.
So many things that cannot be replaced like all of my Dad's tools (he passed away 2002) and military going away gifts that are irreplaceable/no longer made. I'll never get all the $$$'s back that the movers lost or damaged. I am betting they will fight me in the claim process. This whole process is insult to injury.
Yes, I do enjoy the building process, as many of you do. If only I could get right to repairing/building! So much to do until rocketry is moving forward again. So much work until my garage is no longer a disaster.
So, SARA and other Arizona rocketry brothers and sisters, it will be awhile until I am at a launch. My first attendance to an LDRS may be off--this will take a long time to overcome, rocketry wise. Vent over. Thank you for listening if you got this far. Complaining over, I am getting back to work.
I recently retired from the military and moved back home to AZ. It took a few months to find a home, get delivery of our household goods from northern VA (DC) and sort through it all. It became immediately clear that an almost random 15% swath of our household goods was missing. Just missing, without explanation. And, of the things not missing, there was lots of broken/damaged items. For example, not a single bookcase survived (and we have a lot of books). Every garage shelf unit I had was either missing or broken. All of my tools were missing...all of them, to include the rolling Craftsman tool box they were in. My rocketry drill press is gone. And so much more.
We contacted the movers and they went through their warehouse twice, finding about 800lbs of the missing items. They delivered what they found. Then I started to inventory in full what was missing. I just did the rocketry claim portion. Heartbreakingly to me, the first tally is coming to nearly $4500 without including shipping or taxes.
I don't have a single electronics capable rocket in a usable/flyable state--every single av-bay is missing. Every single rocket my daughter made, to include her L1 cert rocket (Wildman Vindicator), is missing. My Madcow V-2 5.5" rocket that was 90% done is missing, and now no longer sold by Madcow. My L3 cert rocket (Wildman DSE) is missing it's av-bay, along with my only 98mm MMT rocket, a Rocketry Warehouse Maddog 6 (I am dearly hoping Madcow couplers fit it). A Q-Modeling XP-Raptor was crushed flat, and no longer made. My rare Eecee Thunder kit was broken in many places. A LOC Starfighter my daughter made that we painted to look like a USAF Thunderbird (and took pictures on the Nellis flightline with the real ones just for fun) is gone. My favorite RW Lil'Dog rocket that flew faultlessly on anything I could stuff in it is gone. The whole top part of my rocketry workbench (that I made) is missing. I am just so mad that I couldn't sleep last night.
Moved around the world for over 28 years, and this last move was ironically the worst one. I am sure someone justified abysmal service by saving $0.10/pound on the total move cost, or some similar thing. The military often wonders why retention suffers and servicemember morale isn't as high as they think it should be. To those who wonder, it's the never ending life impacts like this that cannot be erased or forgotten, nor adequately explained to those that haven't lived it. This doesn't even cover the other 14 moves we made over those 28 years, and all that was lost/broken along the way, never replaced at real value.
So many things that cannot be replaced like all of my Dad's tools (he passed away 2002) and military going away gifts that are irreplaceable/no longer made. I'll never get all the $$$'s back that the movers lost or damaged. I am betting they will fight me in the claim process. This whole process is insult to injury.
Yes, I do enjoy the building process, as many of you do. If only I could get right to repairing/building! So much to do until rocketry is moving forward again. So much work until my garage is no longer a disaster.
So, SARA and other Arizona rocketry brothers and sisters, it will be awhile until I am at a launch. My first attendance to an LDRS may be off--this will take a long time to overcome, rocketry wise. Vent over. Thank you for listening if you got this far. Complaining over, I am getting back to work.