The SCHLEP Debacle

 

 The Thrifty Rocketeer bog continues...

Well, it all started simply enough several years ago, when I was flipping through the clearance section of an on-line rocket supplier retailer.

I was looking for a bargain, and my eye noticed several cheap prices for what turned out to be water-slide decal sheets.  The first was a Dr. Sues influenced head shot with the name "SAM-3" in big bold lettering.  I took a moment to reflect on what else could be spelled from these letters, when I realized you could turn the 3 into an "E".  I then took those four letters into a Jumbo-solver app and didn't really get anywhere. So I returned to  the hunt.

Shortly, I came across another sheet that was part of the Infinity rocket, with very modern, stylized printing like you would see on the bottom of your printed checks.  The Value read "PSC 473" along with some other design elements.

Again, I started turning this over in my  mind's eye, and realized you could invert the number and get instead of 473.... HEL.  Along with PSC, this made 6 letters to Jumble.  The solver app came up with only ONE combination that made a word out of all six letters.  I was hooked.

A few months later, after completing the "Egg-Crater" rocket, I decided I wasn't going to add any of the original decals to the ship, but started thinking about what other clever names I could come up with for the ship.  And I remembered my PSCHEL combination.

A short time later, I ordered the $2 clearance sheet of waterslide decals and they arrived with my order about a week later.

I looked carefully at the letters and realized that they were LARGE and may not fit on my payload section the way that I wanted them to.

I waited until a Friday night when I was rested and not distracted, and using a pencil and a ruler with a metal edge, I carefully ruled out a box around each of the  letters/number, leaving about a quarter inch of blank, clear water slide decal with each symbol.  I cut them out with a sharp pair of scissors and rearranged them to fit my word.  Yes, I was right, I had to cut the S and C apart to make the same spacing as the other letters were going to get.

I added a small saucer filled with hot water, and set to work.  The first letter was dipped in the water for only two to three seconds before I pulled it out and began to slide it off.  The "S" went into position perfectly.  Then came the re-trimmed "C".

Now it was the turn for the "4" to be turned and applied.  Somehow, in the excitement, the water slide decal slipped off the fingers and into the  water, where it folding upon itself and wouldn't straight out.  I must have struggled with  it for 4 minutes, but finally got to turned and unfolded, and smoothed it out on the rocket.   But something didn't look right.

Oh, I knew that the "H" was going to look VERY stylized, but I figured that I was going to add a black sharpie marker to fill out the "H" and make it look more normal.  Still, it didn't look right somehow.

I proceeded. Next came the "7", and then the "3" and finally the last letter.  I was pretty proud of myself, but still puzzled why it didn't look right.  

I turned the rocket around 180 degrees and my error jumped out at me.  The H was wrong. Not only that, but it was backwards.  How could that have happened?  And then I realized that in solving the flipped water slide decal, I had laid it out wrong.... on the wrong side of the decal...despite the fact that it had no glue on that side.

Now, it was too late. My "h" was out of shape, out of line, and too dry to move. And it also had been overlapped by the next letter and the next, and the next, so there was no way to adjust it.

I was crestfallen.

However, I knew that I had a uniquely named egg-lifter that would never be repeated.  Once it was dry, I resolved to show it off to everyone at the next launch.

I had a unique rocket.  The "SCHLEP"..... (look it up in the dictionary,  if you don't get the humor.)

This has been the Thrifty Rocketeer saying "double check your work on your decals before it dries!  Your two dollar investment is worth checking!"




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