Tank birthday, 47+ years

[beaslbob]

You didn't invite us. So 2745 people didn't attend.

ps I still here.

pss hubba hubba

 

[Paul B]

I did invite you guys but it must have gotten lost in the mail.

I am going to my boat now even though it is 90 degrees because I have to load it with beer and wine as we go through a lot of that for some reason. Depending on who we bring we need different things, last week we needed Vodka. The boat can only hold so much drinks so we have to know what that particular crowd is drinking. The refrigerator is tiny.
Today I won't take the Sea Ray out but I may just go out by myself in the dinghy for a little bit.
SCUBAbeth, if you and your husband were here I could take you diving. No sharks or manta rays but since the visibility is so bad, you can imagine anything you like

 

[Paul B]

I just came back from my boat and am thrilled because not only is the bilge bone dry, but it is spider web bone dry, and not just any bone dry, because bones can get wet, but bones from a Tyrannosaurus Rex that died of thirst in the middle of the Sahara desert on a Tuesday.

 

[Paul B]

I am looking for a new (or used) outboard for my 7 1/2' dinghy. I bought one two years ago but it is from China and a piece of garbage. It is a 2 1/2hp 2 stroke something I can't pronounce but the main problem is that it is air cooled. Air cooled anything run by gas is silly. I want a water cooled, 2 stroke 3 1/2 or 4 hp motor not from China because I want it to actually run without blowing up after one season.
I will probably get a used one because I only use it maybe 2 or 3 hours a year so I don't want to spend over $1,000.00 for it. I can probably get a used 2 stroke for 3 or 4 hundred.
I want a 2 stroke because they are lighter and smaller as I am not interested in gas economy when I am using less than one gallon a year. I can go for the extra fifty cents in gas a year.
2 stroke motors are so simple a 5 year old girl could pull it apart in ten minutes with a pliers and a comb from a Barbie Doll. Maybe Airline Hostess Barbie or Supermodel Barbie.
On my first boat I had a 140hp 2 stroke motor but one day it blew up.

We were out with some old people (who at that time were much younger than I am now). It was a beautiful night and all of a sudden I heard this "Pop". The engine stopped. I tried to start it but there was no sound.
I took off the engine cover and saw all these parts fall into the ocean. The connecting rod came right through the side of the block knocking the starter off the engine and I could see daylight coming right through the cylinder.
I had a pliers and maybe a screwdriver with me and my wife said to me, "Can you fix it?"
I said, Yes I can, after I buy a new power head for about $5,000.00 and spend a few days installing it.
That is exactly what I did but it took all summer to get the new power head.
Of course I had to buy new pistons, rings, reed valves and everything else except for maybe the propeller.

 

[Paul B]

My new pair of Janss Pipefish seem to be doing fine. I needed to really step up my brine shrimp hatching operation and I am probably still woefully to short to provide enough food for all the planktavores I have
If I get time (and that won't happen until the winter) I will build another shrimp hatchery that I can fill in between the times I fill this one now, which is every day. But the shrimp take about 36 hours to hatch so I play RAP music near their hatchery which cracks their eggs and they get out faster. Then they cram themselves as far from the music as they can so I can easily get them.

 

[biecacka]

Paul, so you won't go to manhattan for 4999.00 but for raw oysters you are all in (or $5k)!!!!
I see your train of thought on that. Anyway you boat looks like a good time and I'm glad you get to enjoy it buddy.

Corey

 

[Paul B]

Corey, that is true. I will not go there for less than $5,000.00 "Unless" it is for my Kid or Grand Kids who were there. I will do anything for them, but otherwise, it is five thousand dollars or I'm not going. (Unless of course my wife makes me)

I totally hate that place and seriously don't see the attraction. I mean, if you are from Tibet, Siberia, Tunisia, the North Pole or some place like that where there is no crowds or big buildings I may see a little attraction. But if you come from almost any other place I am sure you have seen buildings. Even if you come from a place that only has buildings that are two stories tall, you can just imagine that same building with 100 other buildings on top of it,it is the same thing. Cement, windows and bricks don't do it for me.
Also no one speaks English in Manhattan either. When I worked people came up to me every day asking me questions in every language on earth like I had a sign on me saying I speak Russian, Czekoslovian, Swahili, Mozambican, or Spanish. The only word I know in Spanish is Ricardo Montalban, and he's dead.
I can speak English and I am not to good at that.
I always tried to answer questions of tourists (especially the Swedish Supermodels that we often get) because us New Yorkers have a bad reputation for being cold and heartless and I tried to change that.

Tourists have a very hard time on our subway system. And I always felt bad for them and tried to direct them the right way, even if I had to go with them. I rode it all my life and still have problems on it as it is very confusing and I think the guy who designed the signs was from Mars.
You can walk for miles following some of those signs and end up where you started.

Once I was on the Long Island Railroad coming home from work and it was on a Saturday which was unusual for me. The train was empty except for these two Supermodels in bikini's with tiny cover ups on. "I hardly noticed" But one had a bright red bikini on with a blue sun visor on her head that read Ray Ban, she also had red shoes on and a leather thing around her neck with a tiny wooden pendant that read California Red Wood Forest. She was between 31 1/2 and 32, But Like I said, I didn't really notice them.

The train stopped at Jamaica and they got off. A few moments later the one with the red bikini, that I hardly noticed got back on and ran over to her seat obviously looking for something.
By the way, this was probably 30 years ago.
She ran to get off the train, but the doors closed.
Now she is frantically running the length of the train car trying to get off but of course the train is moving. Her friend was back in Jamaica.

The next stop is mine and she gets off as do I.

She runs across the tracks to where the train would take her back to Jamaica.
Now she is standing on the platform, miles from any beach on a train line that doesn't go to a beach and I notice that she is crying.
The Gentleman that I am, I go over to her to see what is wrong, even though I already knew.

She is from out of town visiting her friend in Manhattan and they were going to the beach in Montauk which is 100 miles east.
She thought she left her bag on the train and came back for it, but it wasn't there.
They don't put pockets in bikini's so I knew she didn't have any money, and this was before cell phones.
I told her we can call Jamaica Station and see if her friend went to the police.
No luck calling there so I offered to take her back to Jamaica which is a dump and not a real nice place to be especially a really beautiful girl wearing nothing but a bikini.
I wanted to take her home but I figured my wife would frown on that.

So she hesitated but got in my car and I drove her back about 15 minutes to the Jamaica station.
I gave her ten dollars and let her off right near the police station and told her to run as fast as she can for the station.
She wanted to write my number down but neither of us had a pencil but I would have liked to now what happened to her.
Hopefully her friend would have known she would take the next train back and find her there.
I never knew.

 

[Paul B]

I just made the most delicious meal of linguini and clams. Clams are very cheap now and are one of my favorite foods. We also had a nice salad with all garden vegetables, a bottle of wine, crusty Italian bread, good music and my main squeeze.
My kind of night.

 

[Scubabeth]

I did invite you guys but it must have gotten lost in the mail.

I am going to my boat now even though it is 90 degrees because I have to load it with beer and wine as we go through a lot of that for some reason. Depending on who we bring we need different things, last week we needed Vodka. The boat can only hold so much drinks so we have to know what that particular crowd is drinking. The refrigerator is tiny.
Today I won't take the Sea Ray out but I may just go out by myself in the dinghy for a little bit.
SCUBAbeth, if you and your husband were here I could take you diving. No sharks or manta rays but since the visibility is so bad, you can imagine anything you like

Hey, Paul! It's been so long since we've been diving that I'll take a "refresher" class when we do book another diving excursion. I know HI is not the best diving, but we love the big island (diving included) more than Maui or Oahu; never been to Kauai yet. I also love to snorkel and there are always lots of things to see in the areas we've gone. I know what you mean about coral reefs making for better diving usually.

Looks like you have a NICE trip planned!! Vacations in more secluded areas are the best...we don't "do" crowds, either, when possible. The Windstar sounds like a fabulous option, and I can understand how it has kind of spoiled you. Wow!

 

[Paul B]

Beth, we also love Hawaii and we know a girl there that I dated before I met my wife. She was in our crowd and my wife also knows her. She used to run Avis on Maui now she is retired and lives all the way up in the mountains, a place where tourists never go. She takes us around to great places we would never find.

If you ever get to Kauai there is a road there on the side of a cliff that almost no one drives because it is like those old road runner cartoons where the road is 8' wide and nothing but a very long straight drop to the rocks below and the other side is nothing but rock cliff. The car rental places forbid you to go there. I will ask my wife the name of the road because I forgot.
You need to go very slow and sometimes you need to pull in your mirror so it doesn't hit the rock. The road goes for a few miles and it is a 2 way road but we didn't see anyone else. If someone is coming in the opposite direction you can see them around the rocks on the next mountain and one of you have to find a place to stop to let the other car pass. You may have to back up half a mile to do it because there are very few places wide enough to have a car pass.
There are no railings because there is no place to put them, that is how narrow that road is but the views are unmatchable any place in the world.
You can see where parts of the road collapsed and they stuck pilings into the rock to "repair" it.

There was one place around a turn that was wide enough for two cars to get by and we stopped to take pictures. This very old and skinny guy appears on a bicycle and he says his name is Marty, Marty the Jew.
Marty the Jew said he was following us up the mountain and he rides there almost every day because at the end of the road is a stand where they sell banana bread.
He said it is the best banana bread on the Island.
I told Marty the Jew that even if it was the best banana bread on the planet, I wouldn't ride a bicycle miles up this skinny road for it, not even if Christie Brinkley was on the back seat.

He said he was from New York and him and his wife retired there and loves banana bread.
We left Marty and continued up to the banana bread stand. There was this bored looking girl there on a bench with a few loaves of banana bread which of course we bought. It was good, but I wouldn't ride a bicycle up there for it. We told her Marty the Jew was on his way and she said, she knew, he comes there 4 times a week.

This side of Kauai you can't get to unless you go by boat or like we did, helicopter. That road is not in this picture but it is on a cliff like the top part of the picture. This is the kind of places I look for when I travel. No people and nothing like it.

 

[Paul B]

SCUBAbeth, my absolute favorite place was as I said, Bora Bora. But not like a tourist. While on the Windstar we anchored in the lagoon of Bora Bora and the back of the ship opens up for divers and snorklers. This day we were going snorkeling with Moorish Idols because the water was shallow.
6 of us went out in a Zodiak and we traveled until we couldn't see any life, buildings, huts, nothing. We stopped in a small, shallow lagoon and got out. There were huge stingrays all over the place in the 4' deep water. The guide brought us to the cliff face where we saw a stair way hewed into the mountain. WE climbed up to a beautiful terrace not seen from the water. It was a very secluded hotel on top of a mountain. One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.
A girl brought us drinks and fruit and we stood there an hour or so.

Then back at the Zodiak we traveled around volcanoes just to look up in awe at the sights. The guide asked if anyone was hungry, but we figured he was kidding because there was no signs of life. We went into this cove on the side of what looked like an uninhabited Island and there was this tiny dock and a sign that read "Ches Louise",(it was French so I am spelling it wrong and I can't find the picture right now.)

We get out and sit at the only table there under jungle like foliage. It was fantastic. This chubby Tahitian woman comes out with this magazine.
"Gourmet Magazine" printed in Manhattan. She opens it to a page she had folded over and there she is in this place and Bill Gates has his arm around her.

Now this is the kind of secluded place I am talking about and you have to search hard to find them, but they are there.
I will look for the picture, in the meantime I will post a sun set not too far from my house.

 

[Paul B]

I found it. This was Bora Bora. The "rocks" in the lower picture are giant clams and are all over the place because they are protected. That is the "restaurant" in the middle of nowhere, no I mean, really "nowhere"
My wife is in the middle to the right.

 

[mcarroll]

Iron and steel is a stupid thing to use in a boat.

Same salesmen responsible for that who sell flat roofs to put on buildings?

Is jaboni Italian for genius?

 

[Paul B]

Is jaboni Italian for genius?

Not exactly

 

[Paul B]

It's almost 100 degrees here on Long Island today but in my house I am nice and cool and for free. * or so years ago I installed 22 solar panels on my roof which are making about 1,000 watts right now and my AC only uses about half of that so I am staying cool and saving money at the same time. It's a no brainer
Of course being I was an electrician I was able to install them myself saving ten grand. But even if you can't do it yourself, it pays. Just buy the panels, don't rent them as I think that is a scam.
Look into the rebates from the electric company and the Federal Government. Mine were almost free after I did that.

 

[Paul B]

I will tell you about a Jiboni. A few years ago I went to an optometrist, or optomoligist, I forget, but it is the one who tests your eyes for glasses so I guess they have to go to about as much schooling as a guy who takes up the hem on a Supermodels dress.
But I don't really know.
Anyway when I would look to the side, I would see double. That was fine if I was looking at a beautiful woman, because I would see two of them, but if I was trying to change lanes, I would see two tractor trailers coming at me and I wouldn't know which one to get out of the way of.
So this "Jiboni" is examining me and he notices this so he turns to my wife and says. Your husband has a Brain Tumor.
This coming from an eye glass guy.
My wife immediately goes into panic mode and gets the horrors calling my life insurance company and sizing me up for a suit.

So he says I have to go for an MRI of my head.
I go for the MRI, then a brain tumor test where you look into this black box and you have to push the button when you see little Supermodels running across the screen like comets.
I did all that and what do you know, No brain tumor (Thank God)
Not that I got upset anyway because like I said he was "Jiboni" eye glass guy.

It turned out to be a slight weak muscle in my eye and I needed eye muscle surgery.

So I go to Manhattan to the Eye hospital and this normally only happens to little children so the doctor comes in with one of those flashlights on his head with a "Big Bird puppet" hanging on to it.
I go in for the surgery and of course I have to get naked, I ask if they are sure they are working on the right end of me and they assured me they were.

So they wheel me into the operating room and stick me on this aluminum table which I think they just removed a case of Bud Light from because it was ice cold. Then the nurse sticks me with the IV which she just took out of the same place they stored the Bud Light so I am shaking because I am freezing as there are parts of me that are not used to being on such a cold table.

(I know I told this story on here but I am not sure if it was last week or last decade so if I just posted it, go and watch Oprah, I think she is giving away cat chow to homeless bowlegged cats on welfare)

The nurse (who of course has her face covered with the surgical mask) sees me shivering and she comes over to hold my hand. She says "Oh Honey, don't be nervous, this is a simple procedure"

I said "Nervous!" how could I be nervous? I am laying on a table naked, surrounded by 7 beautiful Babes!

They all laughed so hard they almost lost their masks.

Then the Dr. comes in and he says, "you have him on the table backwards" which didn't give me a lot of confidence. Now I was shaking because I figured they would mistakenly remove my gall bladder through my nose or some other "important" part that I may need.

 

[beaslbob]

I

...

. Air cooled anything run by gas is silly.

...

.

My corvairs do pretty well. LOL

 

[norfolkgarden]

Been busy hanging out with Supermodels but wanted to pop in and say hi! [emoji41]

Still following. [emoji4]

 

[Paul B]

My corvairs do pretty well. LOL

I took my road test in one, silly car,

 

[Paul B]

We took the boat to the Bronx last night for dinner to my favorite clam place and on the way back to Long Island as I was driving I held the phone behind me and without looking I took this. I think it was kind of cool.
To make this post about fish (because I know I don't do that a lot) There were a lot of fish jumping but I doubt they were copperband butterflies.