Where is Eric Johnson? and Gooserider?

TacoSteelerMan said:

I have been away from this site for a while, Now that I am back I was wondering where one of the past contributors is. Eric Johnson was one of the major contributors when I was frequenting this site a while back. Anybody know where he is, I can only hope he and his are ok. Eric if your out there give a shout please..

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Ditto, I'd like to hear from Gooserider too! Randy

Funny how some just stop posting. It was a year and one day since his last post.

I think eric iheard eric liked to get paid for what he would comment on?? Just Saying.

I met Eric in the fall of 09 and he had just gotten through with a few serious health issues. I did hear from him about a year or so ago and he said he was doing fine. I'm hoping he just got really busy.......

When I was planing my install I always looked foreward to gooses comments to my posts. Since his accident I think he may have lost intrest and moved to other things.

TacoSteelerMan said:

THANKS for some of the background i've missed.

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Ditto. Hope they're ok. I got a lot from their contributions here.

I, too am an on again off again member here. Eric's contributions were great. I hope "Goose" and Mary Anne are coasting along. I wish I could have gotten over there to help out at the time. It was nice to see some folks over there helping out and even some that traveled from far away.
Mike

Ah, I can answer those questions....

As y'all probably know, Goose had a VERY near death experience when a tree fell on him and, realistically, has a lot on his plate readjusting to life without the use of his legs.

Eric also had some serious medical issues - and is doing better now, but when you have those experiences you tend to want to spend your free time doing FIRST priority on your list....in Erics case, that is his job and his pursuits, especially bicycling.

The world keeps on turning....the seasons change...

It is unrealistic - well, all except for BB and BG and some others - for anyone to stay here forever and a day 24/7/365.
I know myself...that in most life pursuits, I eventually like to move on. With Hearth.com it's been 16 years do far....so I'm not quick to do it, but then again I'm the boss and collect the big bucks.

Some of you may also know that Rick (fossil), one of our mods, lost his beautiful wife suddenly a couple of months ago. Our family also dealt with extremely serious medical issues over the past year......

As the Buddha pointed out - "Life is Suffering" and none of us is exempt from the visits of fate. But that is a topic for another thread.....and another day.

Thank you Craig for the updates. This is a good example on the excellent forum that you and the mods run as someone in Michigan is concerned about someone who I have never really spent anytime with except here on the forum. Maybe my wife is right and I do need more of a life......nay, I do like it here sharing my wood burning porn :red:

As there is obviously concern being expressed, I figured it would be a good idea to give an update on what I know about Goose. I was a part of the crew on the day the wheelchair ramp was installed (I was working inside on the bathroom). To put it simply, Goose is facing a long, painful struggle. Along with the paralysis in his legs, he has a great deal of ongoing pain. I had a chance to speak to him very briefly at the end of the day, but I could tell that he was VERY tired, and so I cut it short in a hurry and left. There was a thread on another Hearth forum that had lots of details about what he was going through, and how he was trying to cope with it. Goose is battling this very difficult situation that he's in, and it's probably consuming 100% of his being. So, I don't think he's "lost interest" in the stuff he used to do on the forum - he likely just doesn't have any room for it now. I haven't seen an update recently and don't know exactly where he is with this now, but I wish him the best - he's on a long, hard road. And one personal thing that came out of his accident - I used to check everything twice whenever working with a saw. Now I think about what happened to Goose, and run through the whole plan one more time.

willworkforwood said:

As there is obviously concern being expressed, I figured it would be a good idea to give an update on what I know about Goose. I was a part of the crew on the day the wheelchair ramp was installed (I was working inside on the bathroom). To put it simply, Goose is facing a long, painful struggle. Along with the paralysis in his legs, he has a great deal of ongoing pain. I had a chance to speak to him very briefly at the end of the day, but I could tell that he was VERY tired, and so I cut it short in a hurry and left. There was a thread on another Hearth forum that had lots of details about what he was going through, and how he was trying to cope with it. Goose is battling this very difficult situation that he's in, and it's probably consuming 100% of his being. So, I don't think he's "lost interest" in the stuff he used to do on the forum - he likely just doesn't have any room for it now. I haven't seen an update recently and don't know exactly where he is with this now, but I wish him the best - he's on a long, hard road. And one personal thing that came out of his accident - I used to check everything twice whenever working with a saw. Now I think about what happened to Goose, and run through the whole plan one more time.

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Yes, I used to be somewhat careless about dropping a tree, not any more. Thanks to you & the Webmaster for the info. I hope some of the ones that have "left" return, Randy

Thanks for the info. Good Guys.

Im really happy that I read this thread as I was wondering where the guys went . Everyone keep up the great discussions and advice. I got an abudance of ideas and info from this forum. Thanks

Thanks for the updates! I met Eric a few years back and was wondering how he was.

Thanks for the kind words folks... I am still around a little bit, but as others have said, I have lots of more pressing issues to deal with... I won't say that I've lost interest in Hearth type issues, but it's hard to have the same level of enthusiasm when you can't really process wood, or even get to the wood pile so as to bring it inside...

I will try and post a more detailed status update in that long thread about me (if I can find it...)

Ex-Gooserider

Gooserider said:

Thanks for the kind words folks... I am still around a little bit, but as others have said, I have lots of more pressing issues to deal with... I won't say that I've lost interest in Hearth type issues, but it's hard to have the same level of enthusiasm when you can't really process wood, or even get to the wood pile so as to bring it inside...

I will try and post a more detailed status update in that long thread about me (if I can find it...)

Ex-Gooserider

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I hope the pain is more managable for you Goose & although I can't pray for you given my beliefs, my best wishes are there, Randy

Singed Eyebrows said:

I hope the pain is more managable for you Goose & although I can't pray for you given my beliefs, my best wishes are there, Randy

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The pain is considerably better, though not gone... And I will always welcome good wishes no matter what form they take... Supposedly there is some evidence that "prayer" helps, but there isn't really anything that says any one flavor is more efficacious than any other... Thus I welcome all sorts, regardless of my own personal beliefs.

Ex-Gooserider

Gooserider, I sat here this morning in thoughtful silence, stunned. I hope for the best for you and your family. Thank you for all the help you've given all of us through the years. To all of those who have unselfishly contributed to this forum and all who continue to do so. Thank you.

A few years ago at the expo in Burlington, I had the opportunity to meet three of our members. They are great men and comrades. I hope all of you are well.

Left to Right, Eric, NoFossil, Craig, and trehugr

Thanks for the kind words Trehugr, I agree the folks here have really been wonderful, and I wish I had more time / energy to spend here, but I have to admit that when you can't realistically do things to do with burning, it is really a challenge to keep up the enthusiasm...

Your picture brings back some memories... I met Eric a couple years back up at one of the Bangor shows, and I've had several visits with Web along the way, including a couple of very welcome visits while I was in rehab at Spaulding... Never had the chance to meet NoFo, but was a serious admirer of his work from a distance...

Gooserider

Goose - I seem to remember that you had an interest in programming and non-Windows systems. Are you still playing in that sandbox? I have a pretty interesting toy that I picked up recently - the Barnes&Noble; Nook Color tablet with the pre-release Android 3.0 running on it.

Very cool in general. I'm thinking of it as a heating system control panel (what else?) but it does a lot of things very well, even at this very early stage. If you're inclined in that direction, here's what it can do:

- WiFi
- Stunning display at 1024x600 pixels, capacitive touch screen
- Stock browser supports SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
- sshd with root access
- SDK released for Eclipse
- Access to Android Market - a bazillion apps

Here's a picture - sorry for the poor quality - haven't had my coffee yet. The schematic is live, updates every 5 seconds (in the background - no flickering) and is touch-sensitive so that system states can be set by touching the valve or whatever. Pretty cool for a $250 gadget that's also a great bookreader.

Drop me a line if you're interested.

I am into GNU/Linux as an operating system, and try to avoid allowing Windows machines on the home network. However I'm not a programmer to any great degree (My GF Mary-Anne is however)

Before I got injured, I had great dreams of how I wanted to do a wood / solar system, and your Nook might have been really good for that, though I sort of suspect that your dedicated processor setup might have been slightly better as a controller. As an interface the Nook looks nice, and sounds like it does some cool stuff, but I wonder if it's enough better to justify the extra expense over the web-page setup you used to use... At any rate the existing NG HVAC forced air system doesn't seem to need anything more than the thermostat on the wall...

Now we are back to feeding the gas company, as I can't even feed the existing stove. Doing a system is pretty much out of the question as I can't get in and out of the basement without major assistance. I certainly couldn't do anything to build a system, and even if I had someone else do it, I'd be unable to run it w/o major efforts to make my wood piles wheelchair accessible...

I haven't had any chance to play with any sort of tablet machines, but my understanding from several folks that have (including some who do development on them) is that nobody really has them down to the point where they are 100% "ready for prime time" as general purpose machines. For dedicated stuff, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them do a great job. OTOH, the only thing you mention that isn't pretty easy to come by on a laptop or desktop machine is the touch screen display. Other folks may differ, but I have a very negative impression of the touch type interfaces that I've had to deal with thus far... I had a friend loan me an I-phone while I was in rehab, which drove me nuts. I also have had various touchpads on different computers that I've used. My current Lenovo ThinkPad laptop has both an "eraserhead" pointer and a touch screen. I finally disabled the touchpad as it was driving me nuts with unplanned and unwanted actions because of accidental contact with it. Now I have added a standard USB external mouse, and use that and the eraserhead in combination, and am MUCH happier...

ex-Gooserider