I had been looking forward to my 135 mile (each way) trip to Niles, Michigan and a visit to Doug Fattic's Frame Building School. I had a bike to take to Doug for paint and also was looking forward to seeing Jonathan Green who was attending the school for the week. We had been planning to go out for lunch. Arrived about 11 AM and everyone was unbelievably busy. Some of the folks were leaving Saturday and felt they were a bit behind schedule. Doug observes The Sabbath on Saturday, so there was added pressure because no work would be done on that day, even for those who could stay another couple of days. Jonathan had to leave Saturday and was especially pushed. They had been working long into the night and everybody was a bit tired at the end of the week. It was a couple of hours before everyone felt they were at a stage where they could knock off for lunch. I spent the time watching what they were doing and learning a whole lot ( Man, Doug has some really cool tools!) and meeting the rest of the crew from places as diverse as Oregon and Scotland and Michigan. CR List Member Stan Violetta was there too and I had not met him before. It was a great and jovial crew...a great deal of joking about who might be a fluxing gas hole...a frame builder's joke, they tell me. We eventually walked to a newly opened Chinese Restaurant nearby and even there, the talk was just about all bicycle. I was amazed at what a grueling week this was both for Doug and the class of students. There is just no miniscule detail on the bike that does not seem to involve more than meets the eye...so much that can go wrong! I'll tell you what...anyone who thinks that hand built frames are overpriced just has not been around when they were being built! I took a few pictures that I have not downloaded yet...if anyone wants to see what this all looks like, drop me a line and I'll forward them to you. Back home in Lansing and dragging (but grinning), Tom Sanders