Hobbies, Woblies and other this & that's

A while back, I decided to try and find an alternative hobby, seeing as PC's & playing music on Electronic Keyboards is not particularly conducive to my wrist ache's and pains ... ummm yea ... now I have yet another pet peve giving me grief which I am refusing to give up ;P.

My batteries in my R\C Helo died on me about a month ago, refusing to charge, so I went out and bought some new ones this weekend after spending an exhaustive time running around in gift shops and scrap-booking shops looking for something else and ending up empty handed.

I don't know wether it was due to the Electronic Keyboard playing on Friday & Saturday or from gripping the radio control with one hand while picking up the Helo (after crashing into the couch), but now my right hand's fourth finger, on the first joint, is hurting everytime I flex it.

To the "norms" out there, that would sound like just plain whinging over a sprained finger and I would have agreed ... had I been a norm.  Unfortunately, more-often than not, these things tend to be permanent.  Joint problems is a real pain ... pardo the pun ...  Sure, it's not going to hurt ALL the time, hiding away every so often and luring me into a false sense of security, biding it's time so it can leap out at the most inopertune moment ...  Going to the doctor?  Yea right ...  Unless something is broken and/or torn, there is virtually nothing my GP would be able to do, apart from giving me Anti-Inflams which is not going to do anything as the pain is not Inflam based but rather joint position based ... and which he would be reluctant to do in the first place given my families history with pain medication and the fact that too many AI's will start to negatively impact on your digestive system, especially liver and kidneys.

At any rate, complaints aside, I haven't had a LOT of practice with it, but slowly and surely I am getting there.  I can now at least hover it in one place without it weaving around like a crazy dragonfly on drugs, smashing into everything it can and being magnetically drawn to fixed objects.  My next challenge, will be to start getting it to move forward, back and from side to side without losing control over it, which becomes difficult as all the messing about with controls could cause it to end up in the wrong orientation, which is something I haven't gotten used to yet.  It's what is called "Nose in flying" when the helo is pointing towards you instead of away from you and somehow, my brain just can't figure out what's happening even tho it is as simple as the fact that the left, right, forward and backward is reversed.  One would think it simple, as land-based R\C's has the same issue and I don't have the same problem with them, however, given the additional dimention of up and down, as in flight, seems to confuse the issue... sheesh... weird...

I am however enjoying it tremendously ... apart from finger strains ... and one thing I must admit, thank goodness for replacement parts!  Even tho it is a "Trainer", with a dual rotor setup instead of a tail rotor and soft flexible skin,  things still break.  I had gone through 3 sets of blades, one main landing gear and one rear landing gear ... not to mention two confused doggies and stressed out furniture ...  I finally got some "Unbreakeable" blades which helped a heck of a lot as they withstand impact better than the standard carbon fibre blades.  The only draw back is that they are solid plastic and thus heavier than the more flexible and light carbon fibre blades  but that's not concerning me, as at this point I much rather prefer NOT having too much speed and lift.

Also, on another front, I have been on the ***** council for about two years now but it's becoming way too draining to visit ***** or even going to ***** council meetings.  I advised them yesterday that I am struggling with acceptance as well as energy at the end of the day and that I am not able to perform my duties as expected from me.  To my surprise, I get a response today, stating that they fully appreciate my situation, that I should complete the current round of visits on my own time and that they will be looking into getting me discharged.  Things are looking much brighter now, as I was really demorilised and depressed about not being able to perform my duties properly and having them understand, means a lot.

~ Drake ~

P.S.  If you were wondering why I was masking out ***** ... for some reason I just don't feel comfortable talking about it in the open ... and yes, that is a flaw, but Social Angst works in mysterious ways.  Also, my dad has taught me that there are two things you need to avoid discussing ... lest you become the target of redicule, ranting, raving, flaming etc.  and even though I wouldn't mind standing up for my self, this is not the place for that ;D