FLEM 2016 is on for March 4th and 5th!

[dkumpula]

That Holiday Inn Express in Tavares has a hospital rate (whichever hospital is the closest) that is less than $99/night. All you have to do is call and ask them if they have that hospital rate (lookup the hospital name) and then when they tell you what it is, book it directly with them. This trick works almost everywhere and is usually significantly less than any other rate you are likely to find. No hotel will ever ask you for proof that you have some relative sitting in the local hospital . . .

Adam - I'll miss Friday, but will be there on Saturday. Family stuff + Disney is occupying a few days prior this year.

Look forward to seeing everyone!

-David

[Bradfo69]

Hopefully wheels roll in about 9 hours. And I'm supposed to be able to fall asleep???

[ImageLight]

Be safe everyone and have fun... I'll see you all at SELEM..

[Lazerjock]

Too bad you can't make it Mark. See you at SELEM.

[ljk]

hotel is booked and will be in town Friday.

[buffo]

Hey LJ (and anyone else), if you are in town early, head to the venue around 10 AM. I should be there with Brad and maybe a few others.

Brad and I went out for sushi last night and had a great time. This morning I need to pack up a few more things into the Jeep, go pick up my U-haul trailer, and then it's off to Florida! Will not be able to check messages nearly as often once I leave, but I will try to check in here once or twice.

Technically we aren't supposed to be in the venue before noon on Friday, but I don't think they will begrudge us a few hours. On Saturday we will be cranking up between 9 and 10. See you all there. (Well, except for Imagelight. Was really looking forward to seeing you again Marc. Guess it will have to wait for SELEM.)

Adam

[buffo]

ARGH!!! Why oh why is nothing ever easy?

What should have been a leisurely 6.5 hour drive to Florida turned into an 11 hour ordeal. Problems right from the start! Trailer lights not working (bad adapter, fixed with a quick trip to WalMart). Jeep not running right and check engine light on - turned out to be bad spark plugs, but took 6 hours of agonizing driving at 55 mph before we figured it out. (And that was after chasing down several blind alleys that wasted time and tried my patience.) Then the driver's side rear brake caliper seized up. Whole tire was smoking, and for a moment I was wondering if it would catch fire. Cooled off, and now it's magically all better. And to top it all off, the damned drive-line U-joints are starting to act up. Fuuuuuuuuckkkkk!

I need a vacation! Fortunately I have one coming up... Friday is going to be one hell of a decompression (I hope!).

Adam

[Bradfo69]

FLEM hasn't officially started but, I seem to customarily do recaps on these adventures. And what an adventure today has turned out to be. A drive which should take under 6 ended up being about 10.5 with a series of odd travel events that any one could experience but, I don't know how many have this collection all happening on the same excursion. Our first stop was a block into the trip when I noticed the trailer door, while locked, was not actually latched shut. Second stop two blocks later when I noticed there was no turn signals and only 1 brake light. Third stop was Walmart a mile or two down the road to take care of sorting the trailer light problem. What followed for the remainder of the day included essentially a jury rigged flush and fill of a transmission in a Georgia Walmart parking lot, a complete replacement of spark plugs in an Advanced Auto Parts parking lot in Jacksonville Florida, following another great BBQ lunch with DZ and waiting at a gas station in the middle of the Occala forrest for a smoking, smoldering rear brake caliper to cool down. All the while in a frantic race to get to Tavares and pick up a rental truck and consummate a very time sensitive financial transaction. I know buffo was stressing but, as the saying goes, a bad day fishing (or lasering) is still better than a good day at the office so in the end.... who cares. And as I said, I don't have to be anywhere until Monday. It ending with a pleasant dinner with Adams mother and some much earned rest.

[HankLloydRight]

Woah. As I say everytime we get together, I'm more and more convinced that neither of you are of this world. I don't know how you do it, I think you're both aliens disguising yourselves as mere mortals. And we all know how much aliens like their laser beams.


I spent 10 hours driving and 4 hours charging today. The biggest problem I encountered today was I stopped for dinner in Lumberton, and by the time I could get my waitperson's attention, order my dinner, and have it delivered, my car was fully charged for the next leg. So that delayed me about 30 extra minutes.

I sure hope tomorrow goes better. For all of us.

[buffo]

Well, today is the main day for FLEM. Lots of cool things planned! Hoping to see some more new faces too. We should get started around 10 AM.

Yesterday was lots of fun, with only a few setbacks. Unfortunately, one of those setbacks included my 250 series racing quad-copter taking an unplanned flight over hwy 441 and into the Dead River for a terminal voyage to the river bottom. Fuck... At least I hadn't purchased or installed a first-person video system on it yet! So I guess now is the time to upgrade, right?

Later today we will take a group back to my Mom's garage to look at the remaining pile of laser surplus stuff. Everything is for sale! We also have some tinker-projects planned, including some surgery on a Q-beam beam rail and some more work on an old-school mobolazer rail.

Finally, rumor has it that even though he just got back from China, Bill Benner is planning to stop by! WOOT! Brad has a DLP projector that we want to hook up to do another "Emu-Laser" demonstration, but none of us have ever done it apart from the last time that Bill showed us how it works, so it will be very cool to have him there to be sure we do it right.

Now if only I could catch up on my sleep... Breakfast is on the table so I need to get off this keyboard. 1 hr and 10 minutes until doors and counting!

Adam