Monday, January 15, 2018

No Resolutions!

I never make New Year's Resolutions.
I don't ever keep them, so I never waste time making them.
Instead, I tend to make detailed plans, lists, and schedules to outline progress on my various pursuits and hobbies.
The other day I was inspired by a post on one of the model rocket forums by a member who was lamenting how few rockets he had managed to complete in 2017. This got me to looking at my own model rocket fleet and the even more dismal rate at which I get projects completed.
In the past year, I only completed 3 new rockets and a glider, plus a couple pieces of launch pad accessories.  This brought my fleet total up to a mere ten flyable rockets since I became a BAR a year and a half ago!
Pathetic!
The current BlastFromThePast fleet.

To my credit, however, I do have three more birds on the bench started in 2017 that are almost done.
Almost-done projects:  MPC Lunar Patrol, Estes Satellite Interceptor, and Star Seeker

Part of the issue is that my free time away from work is shared by many other endeavors:  Loads of family activities (the most important of all), music practice and performance, and woodworking projects, not to mention all the myriad things to be done around the house and yard.  Many times, I find that I can only snatch 20 minutes here or half an hour there to work on the latest model rocket project.  A bird that could normally be built and completed in a day or two takes me a couple of months to realize.  I definitely have to make the most of these short segments of bench time available to me. 

Nonetheless, I have sat down and compiled a list of all the model rockets I would like to get built in 2018.  I've got 18 projects outlined - six for each four-month time span throughout the year.  If I can pull it off, the fleet will be triple its present size by EOY. 

I think it's entirely do-able....