Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

PS one book bought, paperback so should hopefully start winging its way to the UK any time soon.... Now how do I get it signed

I have no idea how to do that. I only have one book myself, of course I signed it.

 

[Paullawr]

Just can't get the staff these days..

I'll settle for a fun read

 

[Paul B]

Amazon prints the book, packages and ships it as they are ordered. I have nothing to do with it as I am not the publisher but I never see the books.

 

[Rybren]

Paul,

I think that you should sign the cover of your book and then take a photo of it and send it to Paul, who could print it and tape it over the cover of his book. No one would ever know

Then you should get a list of everyone who has bought your book - both paper and e-book versions - and send them the photo as well. Of course, you should personalize every photo so that we would all feel special.

 

[Paullawr]

Paul,

I think that you should sign the cover of your book and then take a photo of it and send it to Paul, who could print it and tape it over the cover of his book. No one would ever know

Then you should get a list of everyone who has bought your book - both paper and e-book versions - and send them the photo as well. Of course, you should personalize every photo so that we would all feel special.

See this should of been a private message. Now everyone knows the plan.

 

[Paul B]

Paul,

I think that you should sign the cover of your book and then take a photo of it and send it to Paul, who could print it and tape it over the cover of his book. No one would ever know

Then you should get a list of everyone who has bought your book - both paper and e-book versions - and send them the photo as well. Of course, you should personalize every photo so that we would all feel special.

I think that everyone who wants a signed book should invite me to their home, pay my air fare, feed me linguini and clams for dinner and have a friendly Supermodel come over for some friendly chat. Or just write my name on it, who will know. I wrote Angela Jolie's name on mine.

 

[shifty1213]

It really is amazing to see tanks that I have gone 40 years...gives us newbies inspiration!

 

[Rick Mathew]

Awesome !!

 

[Paullawr]

I think that everyone who wants a signed book should invite me to their home, pay my air fare, feed me linguini and clams for dinner and have a friendly Supermodel come over for some friendly chat. Or just write my name on it, who will know. I wrote Angela Jolie's name on mine.

See the print out idea was cheaper.

I had another cunning plan. I'm signing it To Paul from Paul.

 

[Paul B]

It gives me perspiration. The tank was actually 46 years old this month. I am not really sure if I started the tank in March but I had to pick a month, so I picked March, it could be November.

Today my wife went to the drug store and as she went down the porch stairs I saw that a few of the bricks on the top step were loose. Great, now I need to fix that so my wife of the mail "Lady" don't break their neck.
I put those bricks on there about 20 years ago and I didn't do a real great job. Of course there is a reason. I probably put this on here 80 pages ago but I will put it on again.
At that time I wanted my fieldstone and brick porch fixed and I was working around the clock in Manhattan so my wife said to hire someone. I never hire anyone because I always end up doing it myself anyway. WE have an argument and she won. So I get this guy who did my friends porch and did a good job. He comes to my house with a shovel that has a hole in it, a stick with a piece of string tied to it for a ruler and a sledge hammer that he has duct taped in the middle of the handle.
I also want him to make a new sidewalk in front of my house where a large oak tree broke up the walk.
He demolishes the sidewalk and stone porch. I built him a large wooden box that I wanted him to put in the porch and pour 6" of cement around and on top of it because I wanted the porch hollow unlike 100% of all porches that are filled with dirt. In the freezing winter, those porches expand and the stones bulge out and break. My way, the thing will last 1,000 years like the pyramids.
I come home from work and he has the box in there but he filled it with dirt. I tried to explain my pyramid method to him but it was lost in the translation. I told him I don't care how they do it in South America, here, you do it my way. So "we" removed the dirt from the box and turned it over.
The next day the cement truck is there when I come home and he poured cement over the box as I described. The cement truck driver said to this genius that he has cement left over and what should he do with it? The contractor told him to dump it in the "storm drain in the street". The driver who was not an Idiot just smirked and drove away. Like I need a half a truck of cement in my storm drain.

The next day he is installing the sidewalk and I told him to put a stress groove in front of the tree because that is where it is going to crack and the stress groves are there so you can direct the crack where you want it and not in the middle of the slab.
Of course he put a groove everyplace I told him not to so to this day I have cracks all over my sidewalk.

Again I come home to fine his guy building my stairs in my stone porch with cinder blocks. The holes facing up. The stone porch was built out of fieldstone with brick edging and the steps were supposed to be brick. The guy told me, "This is how we do it in Guatemala". I said, "look around, does this look like Guatemala?."

I come home the next day and he is installing bricks for the stairs. There are three steps. The top one is about 4", the second one is about 10" and the bottom one is about 14". I said is this also how they do it in Guatemala?
TAKE THEM OUT AND PUT THEM IN ALL THE SAME SIZE. or is that asking too much.

I come home the next day and he is finished. I try to go in my house, but I can't open the door because he built the porch higher than my door. It is also sloping into my house so if it rained, all the water would flow into my living room.
He tells me to cut the door. I tell him, I am going to cut his throat. Then he tells me he will "grind" down the concrete so I can open the door.

I said, "You have a shovel with a hole in it, a stick with string on it, and a hammer with fifteen dollars worth of tape holding it together and you are going to grind down the concrete two inches all the while I am standing out in the street because I can't get into my house. Is that what you are going to do?
He says, "I don't think you want to pay me" I said PAY YOU, I am going to kill you if you don't get off my property.

Now I have to find a neighborhood kid to help me smash up the new porch so I can get in my house, then I had to re-build it as fast as I could because I had to go to work.
That is one reason I never hire anyone for anything.
Just now I cemented in those loose bricks and if I get the time I will remove all the edging bricks and re-install them like they do it here in the US.

 

[Paul B]

Here is the porch as it is today. I have a planter over the broken steps until the cement dries. I also built that big rock in the foreground, it is hollow.
When that Japanese red maple has leaves on it you can only see a portion of it.

 

[Paul B]

We just came home from Church. I have to admit, I almost never go but my wife goes every week. I went today because in a few days she is having an experimental stem cell treatment so I wanted to do something and the only thing I could do now is pray which is why I went to church.
We got up to receive Communion and it is a big church so it is a long walk to the altar. My wife walks slow now so the priest saw her and ran down the Aisle to her so she didn't have to walk so far. I thought that was very nice and I am embarrassed to say, it almost made me cry.

 

[Ian Eisenberg]

We just came home from Church. I have to admit, I almost never go but my wife goes every week. I went today because in a few days she is having an experimental stem cell treatment so I wanted to do something and the only thing I could do now is pray which is why I went to church.
We got up to receive Communion and it is a big church so it is a long walk to the altar. My wife walks slow now so the priest saw her and ran down the Aisle to her so she didn't have to walk so far. I thought that was very nice and I am embarrassed to say, it almost made me cry.

Best wishes and hope for a positive outcome to you and your wife!

 

[Paullawr]

Never be embarrassed to cry Paul, that's part of what makes us human. Never lose faith either.

 

[Rick Mathew]

We just came home from Church. I have to admit, I almost never go but my wife goes every week. I went today because in a few days she is having an experimental stem cell treatment so I wanted to do something and the only thing I could do now is pray which is why I went to church.
We got up to receive Communion and it is a big church so it is a long walk to the altar. My wife walks slow now so the priest saw her and ran down the Aisle to her so she didn't have to walk so far. I thought that was very nice and I am embarrassed to say, it almost made me cry.

No need to be embarrassed to cry as at such an awesome act of kindness...made me cry...will also pray for your wife...beautiful couple

 

[Rick Mathew]

I just took this video which came out pretty good. The mandarins won't let me take closeups so they are not in it.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7dKzh6ZOYs&feature=youtu.be

What a beautiful tank...thanks for sharing it

Rick

 

[Chasmodes]

No need to be embarrassed to cry as at such an awesome act of kindness...made me cry...will also pray for your wife...beautiful couple

I couldn't have said it better. I'll pray for your wife (and you) too, Paul.

 

[Paul B]

We just got back from Southern California a few minutes ago. I took my wife there for experimental stem cell treatment for her MS.
We won't know if the treatment works for maybe 9 months but she feels great. We are very hopeful for the outcome of this as we heard some great stories from other patients there.

When I got home I immediately heard the pumps on my tank. The water level dropped about 4" and the powerheads were splashing all over the place. I have a tank sitter who is also a Supermodel and a very good friend but she knows nothing about fish tanks. She is always kind enough to feed my fish so I would never say anything to her. Once before when we were in Germany the water level went down about 7" and killed most of my corals. This time it is not so bad but I do smell the corals as they were stressed and when that happens they shed. The lights are still off and I see the fish swimming so I think it will be OK. My skimmer is going nuts after I added five gallons of fresh, cold water but I am sure they will get over it. I will see what it looks like tomorrow after the lights come on.

This happens because my gravity fed ATO sometimes gets a bubble in it and stops. Of course it only happens while I am away.

 

[Dub_G]

I hope the treatment for your wife helps as well as a quick recovery for your tank.

 

[Rybren]

Paul, I'm not normally a praying or church-going kind of guy, but I fully understand the urge to pray under the circumstances and truth be told, I did a heck of a lot of it as Suzie went through her illness. I also shed more tears than I care to admit. Both activities can really help in dealing with the stress and emotional upheaval that comes with having a loved one so seriously ill, even if it goes against our normal thoughts or behaviors.

I think of Mrs B often. I hope that the treatment helps. As we discussed before, if she needs to get into the treatment system here in Ottawa, my door is always open to you both.