It's the truth. When I paid last months cell phone bill, I noticed that my own daughter sent 13,264 texts that month. And she's not even close to a record, which is somewhere around 80K, I'm told. Part of my problem, in addition to just being a busy guy, is that I belong to four other message boards. 3 are car-related, one is WWI aviation, and then there's this astro list. There isn't time to spend hours on each of them, so I just have to dip in and out, between real life and computer work off-line. There are even replies to my own posts on this list that I haven't read yet and am not likely to...that's why I ask anyone who *really*wants to communicate with me to use my yahoo address or the phone. My Gmail address is used for this list only. Other messages won't stand-out, in all likelihood. Astronomy as a hobby is a time-hog. It requires more time than any other hobby I have, and eyepiece time means that sleep will be lost- and I'm only getting about 5 hours per night, as it is. People with a full daytime schedule six or seven days a week just can't afford the night-time requirements of the astronomical hobby. To pull it off, you need to structure your life such that it is supportive of it. If you are raising a family, and the other family members do not share your enthusiasm for astronomy, it's just not going to happen until you have effectively completed your family obligations (read: when the last kid turns 18). Hanging-on around the edges is just frustrating. That's one reason why, when I have to drop on-line activities, the astronomy board suffers and is always the first to get ignored. Astronomy is my oldest and most deep interest, but it's also the biggest consumer of time. It can't be worked into a tight schedule. I don't even have the time to read the magazines anymore. I dropped S&T last year when I noticed most of the prior year's issues piled-up unopened on my night-stand. Astronomy requires a lot more research than rotary-engine banter. Oh, well. At least there's cold beer at the car club meets, lol. I'm guessing that, not counting the day job, I won't be in the "hours and hours at the computer per week" category until I retire. And if my 401(k) performance lately is any kind of indicator, that will be NEVER. The best I can do this year is try and get out to SPOC more than the one time I made it last year. I hope to volunteer to run the 32" for a lot of public star-parties this year, and in that small way, give back a little to the hobby and club I've loved for over 40 years. SPOC is close to home, and I can be in bed with only a few hours of sleep lost afterwards. I, and one other operator, will be on the 32" on the 18th, if anyone wants to stop in and say hi. On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:07 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:

But if it helps any Chuck, I just checked and saw that so far this year I received and/or sent 2,632 emails. 'Course that's about par with the number of texts a typical teenager sends each week... :)