You are very welcome. I appreciate some of your informative responses on certain topics. You are a part of the Dope mosaic (a nice way of describing what is actually a random arrangement of odd shaped pieces). I can’t speak for others, but I don’t personally have difficulty with you being a Canadian 
I thought it was a mutant mosquito.
Bagpipes! It’s bagpipes, for a Piper! Why is that so hard?!?
And no, @psychonaut , it’s not a whale getting acupuncture !
I find your (collective) lack of visual acuity disturbing.
I realized that it was bagpipes after initially thinking it was a hummingbird and then enlarging it to see what was off. I will always subconsciously think of you as “Piper, the hummingbird aficionado.”
I love this place. It keeps me sane.
It likely doesn’t help that the late Colibri’s avatar actually was a hummingbird, and looked, at first glance, not unlike @Northern_Piper 's bagpipes.
And by that chance word “late” did I learn of @Colibri’s death. That happened during the time I was on sabbatical and although I’d noticed his absence since my return a few months later, I didn’t realize quite how complete and permanent it was going to be.
Damn. That hurt. And yes, I did just read the 200+ post death notice / sympathy thread. And the 100+ post Ed Zotti tribute thread.
But we could say the same about you, NorthernPiper! Thank you! I doubt if any of us had lives free of stress before Covid, far less so after. The Dope has taught me much, asked for little, put up with a fair bit…
Yes, yes. So you claim. You didn’t defend yourself in the Mis-identified Avatar thread, so my identification stands!
Someone is going to start regretting this thread before long…
Hey, hey, Hey! Let’s not be dissing one of everyone’s favorite posters.
At least he had the integrity to keep his avatar, not replace it with an indistinguishable kitty pic like about a dozen people did the last time we had an avatar pile-on.
If he says (his?) bagpipes are green, who am I, a non-piper, to dispute that?
At least my indistinguishable kitty pic is wearing Jedi robes!
I like it here too. Even more than I used to.
With God as my witness, I thought that was a rain slicker*. The scales have been pulled from my eyes!
Those are cool Jedi robes.
* I also thought turkeys could fly, but I was wrong about that too.
Um…I thought it was a hummingbird, too.
Signed,
Disturbed Visual Acuity
But you’re one of my faves, bird and all. And kitties. Also doggies.
Heck, this board is what passes for a Social Life in my corner of the world.
I love you all, and I’m not drunk.
Sometimes it’s the same feeling as when there’s simply no room at the kids’ table and you get to sit with the adults and listen in on their conversations and once in a while chime in. And oh, the things you learn…
This seriously calls into question your much-vaunted (by me above!) aviation expertise! Do you really fly planes or have you just been fooling us all along?
I’m assuming you got the WKRP allusion. If not, we need to talk.
I finally came out of the lurking closet a few years ago. This place is my lifeline in these times.
Coming up on my 20 year Doperversary. Averaging being here every other day, and that’s with various multi-month or -year sabbaticals. Read 22K topics and 340K posts. Written 33K posts totaling almost 3M words. Mot of which are spelled correctly. 
Yeah. This place and you people are a mission. One I’m glad to shoulder because I get back 10x what I put out. It’s “stone soup” everywhere we look, but y’all are bringing prime rib and succulent fresh veggies and champagne, not mud-encrusted rocks and oil-slicked water.