Hello, ALL

News of Matt - -  I had lost contact with Matt after he moved back to
N.O. and in with his daughter and her family.  Got in touch with him
back in Sep of this year, and had good intentions of posting an update
here in TECH, but I goofed and lost the paper where I had written down
his celphone number.  Received an email from him just before
Thanksgiving, so I now have contact information for him.

To contact Matt:
Celphone- - (504) 377-1380
Email - - mmc_c{at}juno.com

He had not been doing email, but has recently built a new system, and is
tied in to his daughter's broadband cable connection.  He says he keeps
his celphone with him most of the time.

Matt's in good health, and is still staying with his daughter and her
family.  His home was in an area which flooded, and he did get a permit
for repair/rehab, but I don't think he has done any of that as yet.

One of the things about repair/rebuild was that in order to get a
permit, estimated repair cost had to be less than 50% of value of the
building.  Matt said he did a bit of negotiating and reached this mark.
Otherwise, due to the elevation of his neighborhood, the house would
have had to be rebuilt with the floor level at least 7 feet higher than
before (IOWs, rebuild up on stilts).  First things Matt's place needs
are some foundation underpinning/levelling and a new roof.

Another stumblingblock - -if doing work over $3K or so, all of the
building's electrical, plumbing, gas and other systems must be brought
up to current codes.

Matt often mentioned here his computer work with his "Dealer."  That
business is now defunkt, and the Owner has relocated to another state.

Meanwhile, all who know Matt know that he has been keeping busy.  His
daughter's place had old knob-and-tube wiring, and Matt has rewired a
lot of it.  One of his current projects is that he is welding up a
support stand for a recent acquisition - - a metal milling machine.
He salvaged a number of lawnmowers and other gas-powered equipment which
was being discarded due to being flooded.  Other projects include two
outboard motors - 5HP already fixed, and a 10 HP still to come.  Early
on, he did a major rebuild job on the engine of an emergency generator,
and BIR they used it at his daughter's place for awhile before power was
restored.

Sorry I didn't post the contact info for Matt earlier.  Please feel free
to email him or give him a call- -  I'm sure he'd be glad to hear from
you.

- - -  JimH.

... "Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying
...  for." - - Will Rogers


--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47