Rod being upset

[John Hofstetter <hofs@domain.elided>]

Digesters,

In regard to Rod Phillip's anger at the misrepresentation of his 
weatherstrip prices. 
First of all, I have always only bought non-local parts from Giddum-Up, 
and Giddum-Up has given me lots of free phone advice. Some of that advice 
may have been inaccurate, for example popular opinion holds that the poly 
bushings hold up better than rubber, and somebody at Giddum-Up told me 
differently and I have passed that opinion along several times here on 
the digest. I don't know which material lasts the longest, but the point 
I'm making is that maybe the guys at Giddum-Up aren't perfect either. 

Meanwhile, here on the digest, I don't think anybody pretends that they 
know all the answers, nor that the answers they suggest are necessarily 
correct. Over a period of a couple of months, I was pontificating on the 
increased current flow from bad starter connections, and Howard, 
privately and kindly, showed me that I couldn't be correct. I 'fessed up 
to my sins, declared my contrition, and yet insisted that I probably was 
still legally correct within the confines set by the judge (g).

Whoever made the weatherstripping post, and it isn't at all important to 
know who made the post, didn't do it out of malice, it was undoubtedly an 
honest mistake, if it was a mistake, and I assume it was. 

Rod meanmouths the internet as a waste of time and as a source of 
misrepresentation and error. Perhaps.....

But to you guys and gals and me, the digest is a forum for discussion of 
a common interest, our IHC vehicles. Lots of good information is 
disseminated, lots of bad information is disseminated some of it by me, 
none of it deliberately, but as has been frequently stated in the last 
week or so, we are friends !  We like talking to each other, we like 
sharing our experiences, we like each other's humor, we like kidding each 
other, and occasionally we even manage to help solve one another's 
problems. 

I now consider a couple of the people I met on the digest to be among my 
best friends, and their posts convinced me that they were intelligent 
alert people, but the posts didn't convince me that they were perfect. 
That isn't the point, and I'm really sorry that Rod is upset and misses 
the point, that we're here because we like each other, and not because we 
think we're all perfect sources of all that is correct in IHC knowledge.

I thought Bill Thebert, who is perhaps closer in his IHC business side to 
Rod and John G. than most of the rest of us, expressed the value of the 
digest really well, even though he was talking about the fraternity of 
IHC lovers, and not directly about the digest. In my opinion, the digest 
directly contributes to the building of this fraternity. 

Let it be known that I like you digesters, I get a lot of pleasure out of 
the digest, I'm going to continue to participate in the digest as soon as 
I get back from meeting some of you midwest digesters, and I'm going to 
continue to offer advice, some of it bad, and I'm going to continue to 
appreciate you all sharing part of your lives with me, and acting as if 
you're interested in my sharing part of my life with you. 

Sorry Rod, this is what its all about. Having already made up your mind 
that the internet is a waste of time, you'll never understand what I'm 
talking about, but that's OK, we appreciate your part is acquiring the 
Light Line, and making parts and advice available to us, but you just 
won't ever understand. 

Regards,
John