Jim Dabrowski

Now that the draft is over and we’ve had time to let it all settle in, here are my thoughts on who they picked and how it went for them as a team. And I wanted to get this out there before events happen that make much of this look really silly.

Round 1: I was not surprised by the Loveland pick. Pre-draft I heard several people characterize Warren as “a taller Cole Kmet” and other knowledgeable folks say Loveland was the better prospect despite Warren generally being ranked higher. When it came around to the Bears, picking Loveland made sense to me.

Round 2 was a bit of a surprise with the Burden pick. A WR?!? Listening to folks post-draft it sounds the Bears didn’t expect him to make it out of the first round so when he’s there for you, you take the best player available and leave it for the coaches to figure it out. Isn’t that what everyone says a team should do? It will be fascinating to me to see what Johnson does with the offensive weapons they have. Everyone says he runs 12 personnel more than anyone in the league. Well, that was with Detroit. Will he do the same in Chicago given who he has available to him? More 3 wideouts? Who knows. It will be fun to watch.

They finally take an offensive lineman in Trapillo at the start of round 2. Here’s how I see this playing out: They have 3 guys, Jones, Amegadjie, and Trapillo fighting it out for the left tackle position. That’s it. I don’t think you can write off Amegadjie just yet. With a full year in the league, a full off season and better coaching, they might just have something there. We’ll see. I won’t be surprised to see Trapillo win the job and the other two become swing/backup. Will be nice for them to have competent backups on the offensive line.

Also in the second round they address the D-line with Turner. People seem upset they didn’t upgrade their edge position, but I’m not so sure about that. I’ve heard people say Allen puts more emphasis on the edges compressing the pocket and containing the quarterback and less emphasis on speed-rushing to get to the QB. I won’t be surprised to see overall sack numbers for the Bears not be league-leading, but they’ll still have an effective D-line holding offenses to a lot of 3-and-outs.

Not much thought about Hyppolite, Frazer and Newman other than more depth and special teams folks. Who knows.

Finally, their last pick was RB Monangai. I’m still of the opinion the Johnson isn’t as down on Swift as a running back as most folks seem to think he is. I think there’s a big difference between looking at your roster and deciding which player you need to let go vs. actively going and getting a replacement. I believe Detroit’s GM picked up Gibbs because he was a weapon and when cut time came decided Swift was expendable. I think with Swift and Monangai the Bears have their version of “Thunder and Lightning” and Roschon will be the odd man out.

Overall, I think their roster is improved over last year, though it seems the same can be said nearly every year. All we can do now is wait and see how Ben Johnson and the rest of the coaching staff make it all work.

That’s my $.02.

JIm

Concerns About Speeding

• I live in an area with many speeders.
• I try to adhere to the speed limit, but others often drive 10, 15, or even 20 miles per hour over the limit.
• This excessive speeding by others is dangerous and puts my safety at risk.

Proposed Solution

• We need to enact laws allowing individuals to speed as a means of self-protection against speeding, reckless drivers.

Accountability and Responsibility

• If I speed to protect myself and an accident occurs, it should not be my fault.
• The responsibility should lie with the original speeders, as the law would permit speeding for self-defense.

These are my thoughts on how we could address the issue of speeding and improve road safety.

Sounds kind of goofy when you put it that way, doesn’t it?

JIm

Our dear president announced recently that the 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada are going to take effect on March 4. But I don't think they will. I think this is just another negotiating ploy by Trump. 

See, when they were first announced, he had meetings with them and announced they agreed to do a bunch of stuff and as a result he was putting them on hold. The great negotiator!

Now many folks pointed out they didn't agree to doing anything they hadn't already agreed to or weren't already doing. So it was no big deal to humor him and agree to his demands at that time. I even saw a few memes about it on social media. 

But that was the hook. 

Like a typical mob boss, he got them to agree to a small thing. Nothing really. No big deal, just agree to this and he'll hold off on the tariffs. But now comes the second ask. This one too will be small. Just give him a little more, no big deal really and he'll pause them once again. 

Canada and Mexico will probably see this for the extortion it is and will weigh how important it is to stand against that or to give him what he wants, knowing that in a few months the next ask will be bigger, and then bigger, and then bigger. Who knows when enough will be enough for them or how they'll react. Or how Trump will react when they finally had enough. 

So no, I don't really think those tariffs will go into place on Tuesday--just far enough in the future to re-negotiate a new deal--but eventually there will be a reckoning. 

Sigh. 

JIm

“Embrace diversity,

Unite—

Or be divided,

robbed,

ruled,

killed

By those who see you as prey.

Embrace diversity

Or be destroyed.”

— Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower

Step V is complete!

Nearing the end here of building the hull. Once again this step was about building some odds and ends that will go in the lower hold, but not actually putting them in place—that’s for the next step. 

First up is a bunch of the stuff that goes in the hold. 

The barrels there were all pre-made. I just stained them a that light brown. Same with the buckets. I also had to make the brass handles they have. The “packages” are small blocks of wood covered in cloth then tied around with the dark brown rope. I think they turned out alright. 

Next up, I inserted the cannons on the lower deck port side. 

This was a bit challenging. I think in a more saner world I would have built and glued them in place long before the upper deck was put in, but silly me, just following the directions and doing things when they tell me to. I had to somehow grab hold of them, put glue on their wheels, then insert them in through the big hole in the hull on the starboard side without touching anything (think of the old Operation game) and get them to stick out properly on the port side. Took me a few tries but I finally figured out a reproducible way of doing it with an alligator clip attached to a long bamboo skewer. It worked. Here is a bit of a closer view of the cannons. 

Finally, I made a couple of oars for the skiff and tied it down to the grating that it’s mounted on. 

I like the wrapping around the handle end. There are a couple of other things, a capstan and a lid with a coil of rope inside it. I’ll show those in the next step. 

That’s it for Step V. Next step is putting all those things in place inside the ship and then I’m about done. With the hull work that is. Then I get to start masts and rigging. yay. ;-)

JIm

Step U is complete!

This step was pretty much all about gluing things onto the ship I mostly built earlier. Recall Step R where I had to make a bunch of things and did nothing with them, well in this step I got to add all those things and more to the ship. 

First I had to build a bunch of ladders? Stairs? Something. Seven of them to be exact. They were kinda fiddly, so I made a jig to help hold all the pieces in place as I was building them. 

Here you can see one completed one, and one in progress. At the top of the picture are the treads, and in the upper right are the pre-cut risers I guess you’d call them. Thank goodness those were pre-made. 

Here you can see three of the seven I had to build all in place where they belong. 

I also glued down the bilge pump there in the middle and the bell hanging from the overhang. Above all that is another rail I built with more of the skeleton bodies and bones for balusters. 

Then here you can see my nice little cannons have been provided with little piles of cannon balls. 

Also shown here are several of the belaying pin racks I’ll be using later to tie off some of the rigging. To be honest, I’m a tad bit concerned. Most of these rails had pre-drilled holes, but those pins are pretty darn close together. I’m not entirely sure how easy it will be to tie rigging lines around them. I guess I ‘ll find out. 

Then up in the bow of the ship I mounted and hung the anchors. 

There is one on the starboard side too. Here you can also catch a glimpse of some additional belaying pin rails and other rails I had to build on the forecastle (I think that’s the right word.) Also, notice the big chains hanging down...

Those go to the figurehead mounted right up at the prow. I think that’s really cool looking!

Finally, here is a view of the front of the ship showing the additional rail and skeletons and bones and belaying pins I had to install along with two more of the ladders I built. For those keeping count, the remaining two will go inside the grating that will support the little skiff to allow access to the lower deck. You’ll see that later. 

And that’s it! That competes Step U. 

Next up I need to take a small detour and complete Step U.5. Recall way back when when I had to build the lighting to go in the lower deck and was stalled for a while because I didn’t like the material that came with the kit and figured I could find other lighting that would look better? That all worked out fine, but I have additional lighting that has to be installed on the sides of the stern and I still have a bit of a wiring mess to clean up. 

This is what that all looks like. I need to finally do some soldering and finish getting all that wiring cleaned up and then add support for the lanterns that will be installed in Step W. In fact, I’ll probably just mount them now. I’m going to call all this cleanup Step U.5, and then continue on with Step V which is building a bunch of stuff that goes into the hold of the ship and mounting the cannons on the lower deck. 

Stay Tuned! 

JIm

As promised, here is my posting for completing Step T. 

Step T is finished! I built a skiff. 

I actually finished this a while ago. Sometime on Step Q or R I was stalled waiting on parts, paint, etc. and wanted to keep working on something. I looked ahead and Step T was to simply build this skiff so I thought, what the heck, let’s go build that. Here is a view from more of the top. 

It’s so cute! 

It was actually a bit challenging to build. The whole thing is made much like a ship with a keel and ribs to which planks are added. All this was done mostly from scratch (well, the ribs were laser cut, but the planking was all from scratch). Then, the piece that goes all around the top was laser cut, but the seats on the inside and whatever those brown sticks are and that “wall” around the outer edge was all by hand. Turned out really cool looking — I’m very happy with it. As you can see, it will rest atop that grating that goes in the middle of the ship and I’ll tie it down with some rope. Later on, I’ll be adding a couple of oars to the inside as well. 

So that’s it for Step T. Next up, Step U. Remember all those bits and pieces I had to make and paint in Step R? Now I get to attach all of them to the ship as well as add some ladders and some additional rails. It’s really coming into shape! 

Take care, 

JIm

Step S is complete!

This was a fun step. I got to add teeth to the prow of the ship. 

I built the gratings earlier. That was “fun”. Took me several tries to make a properly fitting template that I could use to cut the grating to shape. Turned out nice. The teeth are pre-cut and just look cool. 

Then I got to add the rudder. 

Those hinges attached to the rudder and the ship are called pintles and gudgeons. In my case, the pieces attached to the rudder are the pintles and the parts attached to the ship are the gudgeons. This was somewhat challenging getting them to line up properly and stay in place while I tried to nail them in. But it worked. And it actually moves! 

Next up was adding cannons to the upper deck. 

There are four on each side. Here is a close up on one of them. 

And here is what they look like from the outside. 

I like how dry-brushing white paint on the black hull really makes all the details stand out. 

Finally, I attached deadeyes and blocks to the outside of the hull. 

Here is a closer view. 

The round things with the holes are called “deadeyes”. This is where some of the rigging for the masts will be attached. You can also see a couple of blocks there. I sure what yet will be tied to those. 

That’s it for Step S. In step T I get to build a skiff. Spoiler alert, I already completed it. I’ll share that tomorrow. 

Until then, take care, 

JIm

Step R is complete. I actually finished this step a few days ago and am just getting around to writing about it now. This was a step of building out lots of little things that will go on the ship as decorations.

Not a very good picture really, but good enough I suppose. Most of these are cast metal parts I cleaned up and then painted. You can see a couple of lantern frames that will go on the stern. The figurehead of a sailor/skeleton with chains around his wrists, the anchors made from pelvis and spinal bones and a rudder. All these pieces will eventually be mounted on the ship in the upcoming steps. 

That’s really it for now. These next few steps pretty much focus on adding lots of these details to the decks. It’s really coming along. 

Talk to you all soon. 

JIm

Step Q is complete. 

This step was primarily about building cannons. Lots and lots of cannons. OK, 20 of them, but still. In addition to the cannons, I had to make a number of rails for belaying pins and a couple of other posts that just stick up here and there that things will get tied to. Here is a closer view of some of the cannons. 

Next up is step R where I continue with building and painting some more pieces like this. Steps S, U, and V I’ll be attaching them all to the actual ship. Tempting to just do it now, but I’ll be patient. 

Until next time. 

JIm