I can't thank you all enough for the help this site has provided me. Steve, thanks from the bottom of my heart
I got my foot pedal... and I'm loving it! I not longer have to take my hand off my work to stop the saw. I still every now and then smack my hand up on the power switch... but it won't take long and I'll stop that.
I fixed my thumb screw (and the screw on the other side of it - I forget what it's called) and now my blade is square. I also learned that I don't need to over tighten that thumb screw. Since my blade is now straight, I no longer have to push the wood into the blade. Now I know how it feels to "just let the blade cut the wood". And since the top of the blade stays straight because I fixed the thumb screw setup, the blade slides easily into the drill holes.
Also, I now know (or at least have a rough idea) of which blade I should be using. I chose a scroll reverse and it worked great. Although I think any blade would work great because I got the saw so tuned up
I could go on... I'm one happy camper
Many thanks!