If you are thinking of the organic, biological, bipedal, air consuming, beer drinking, steak eating, variant of "FRIEND", the kind where you can show up unannounced and get handed a brew and there's a spare bedroom mostly available, well, that was then and this is now, and the years in between have taken their toll. Most of my old school Brothers have long since passed on. The few that do survive are individuals that, on the whole, I prefer to stay away from. They were fun, for the most part, but it was the sort of fun that took its toll on body and spirit and what is left of them is mostly running on memory and auto-pilot. Every so often I encounter a ghost of time gone past and learn that someone else I used to know has moved on for good. I have a list that I wrote for when I visit my church so that I can remember them; when I remember to remember them, y'all know how that goes.
I do have and use a package/mail drop point that I visit periodically but that does not solve the small matter of the government waiting for me to return so that it can its cut of the action. The people who run that facility are decent people but it is a business and I find it easier and simpler to treat it as such. Definition of decent? During the recent unpleasantness, they held and stored as many as 3 dozen boxes and packages that had come up for me, No additional charge. They were also extremely helpful when I had to deal with that "fill in the blanks" re-entry protocol that was still in effect last summer. So.
Right now all that is moot, the cost of parts and auctions is just too high. Moreover I can't return the favor by shipping stuff south. The paperwork is brutal and some states demand a sales tax be paid in advance for items being brought in, such as for a swap meet because they want their cut ahead of time.
Trust the bureaucraps to take the fun out of buying a bunch of greasy old parts and spending a day in the shed getting dirty.
Nick
I do have and use a package/mail drop point that I visit periodically but that does not solve the small matter of the government waiting for me to return so that it can its cut of the action. The people who run that facility are decent people but it is a business and I find it easier and simpler to treat it as such. Definition of decent? During the recent unpleasantness, they held and stored as many as 3 dozen boxes and packages that had come up for me, No additional charge. They were also extremely helpful when I had to deal with that "fill in the blanks" re-entry protocol that was still in effect last summer. So.
Right now all that is moot, the cost of parts and auctions is just too high. Moreover I can't return the favor by shipping stuff south. The paperwork is brutal and some states demand a sales tax be paid in advance for items being brought in, such as for a swap meet because they want their cut ahead of time.
Trust the bureaucraps to take the fun out of buying a bunch of greasy old parts and spending a day in the shed getting dirty.
Nick
