Thank you to everyone for their responses to my last posts (the alternate
air valve and the "depressing event").  My heart rate has finally subsided,
though my depression is still fairly high.  I will be making an insurance
claim for the prop strike - the numbers really add up quickly.

I blame no one but myself for my prop strike.  It was a poor decision on my
part- in spite of walking the ground first.  That said, what the helicopter
pilot did was very inconsiderate and indirectly cost the aviation community
about $15,000.  I don't blame him for my poor decision, but I do blame him
for putting me in a position to have made a poor decision.

Matt