Guilty!! I joined the CF's nearly five years ago and just started posting this week. In reply to your queries, Rich, I was very apprehensive - and continue to be. I guess I felt that I could not participate in an intelligent fashion because all of you Wacko's were so experienced in everything Harbour Lights. I read meticulously everything that Jim Rutherford's publications offered until he disappeared. That gave me the background but not the marketplace knowledge. But I am really not interested in the latter. I collect because I love the sea, am a history buff and love to travel; lighthouses give me the opportunity to combine my interests. I display all of my lights but I buy only those which I find historically significant, feel are architecturally beautiful, have a particularly special family story, or which I have visited. Actually, I can't afford to buy all those which I have visited. One of my "turnoffs" has been the expansion of Harbour Lights into other areas - I liked it when they were all absorbed in the lights like the rest of us. Danny, I have to agree that some of the quality has succumbed to numbers. A case in point: the Christmas lights - although they are lovely pieces, they are ruined by adapter receptacles which are very poorly placed. Get rid of the lights and keep the see-through windows. And, Todd, some of the old excitement has disappeared; "the thrill of the hunt" is not there anymore and edition sizes are too big. I suffered from burnout, too, but reunions have definitely rekindled the old spark for me. I actually managed to plan ahead and save so that I could attend the Maryland and Michigan reunions. It is a gift to myself every few years and a way to rekindle the "flame" for me.
Danny, yours is the most poetically splendid writing I have read in the CF's. Todd, I loved visiting Saginaw River Rear Range; I am overdue posting something in that thread but will do so soon. Thanks for listening, guys.