Tank birthday, 47+ years

atoll · Nov 24, 2020

My friend who had an established copperband decided to throw caution to the wind and get another to.pair them up. After a bit of a problem with a sail fin tang all turned out well and both are swimming around together. You know my thoughts on pairs etc fish Paul only way to keep them.

Victoria M · Nov 25, 2020

I saw this on my ride the other day.

Victoria M · Nov 25, 2020

why are there things all over my picture!?

Paul B · Nov 25, 2020

I don't know Victoria. I don't see any things. Where are you looking?

Victoria M · Nov 25, 2020

Pictures now seem to have letter and numbers at the bottom of the picture.
did you see that buck? He was magnificent!

Paul B · Nov 25, 2020

Yes I did. Cool. On my walk at 6:00am I saw 7 of them and one buck. Scared me to death because they ran out right in front of me.

Lowell Lemon · Nov 26, 2020

I had 4 does and 2 yearlings in the back yard waiting for me to come home...no I don't feed them but I don't run them off either. Happy Thanksgiving!

Paul B · Nov 27, 2020

This morning like most mornings I walked a couple of miles, but today I wanted to do a double walk to work off the Thanksgiving dinner. So a half hour before sunrise I started my walk. I went south the way I normally go because at the end of the road I can catch the sunrise

I stood there a while to watch then I started back. At this time my knees began to hurt, but not to bad. As I walked I came across a dead rabbit who obviously got run over by a car. Probably a Subaru or garbage truck because it didn't look like those paddles would have brought this poor creature back to life.

Then I came across an earthworm. I don't know why he felt the need to cross the street but I am very observant and wonder about such things. It's what makes my mundane walks interesting. I mean, think about it. You are a worm and have this huge golf course to spend your life in. Then one day you decide you are bored and want to brave traffic and go to the other side of the street which is just a defunct farm. I don't get it.

Anyway, as I walked almost back to my house I figured it was such a nice day I would keep going to the place where I normally take my other route.
It's north towards the sea past small summer bungalow's that are not used this time of the year.

As I got closer to the beach I noticed how quiet it was. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. To test this, I brought a bunch of pins with me and started dropping them. To my surprise, I couldn't hear any of them drop. I figured maybe it wasn't as quiet as i thought it was until I realized I was walking in the grass.

I keep going and it is a gradual hill that eventually makes it's way to the beach

The sea was very calm and it would be a great day to collect water because it seems I always go in a typhoon.

I have been walking about 45 minutes and started walking back up the hill to my house. I have one new knee that doesn't work to well as I think instead of titanium they used a ball joint from a 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Crusier. That was a station wagon and pretty large. I know because I was an Oldsmobile mechanic in 1969 and those ball joints were big.

That knee hurts but my other knee is worse and feels like broken acropora frags. It also makes noise like that and seems to drown out the sounds of pins dropping.

A few days ago as I was walking here seven deer ran out in front of me and kind of scared me because they had a mean look on their face. Luckily, for protection I carry an aluminum walking stick with a rubber tip on it.

If one of those deer tried to attack me I would have stuck the thing in his ear while using harsh language on him. Deer hate that because sometimes that rubber tip gets lodged in their ear and they can't hear those pins dropping.

I got to about 300 yards from my house and my "good" knee started to give out. It stiffened up and didn't want to bend and I knew it was swelling up. If I was a Sissy Girly Man I may have called 911 to get the paramedics to come and give me a ride home. I figured maybe one of the paramedics would be a Supermodel and would have taken pity on me. Then I thought maybe the EMTs would have looked like Otis the town drunk and if I fainted he would want to perform mouth to mouth on me. Maybe pound on my chest.

So I just walked home without bending that leg and all ended well.

GBRsouth · Nov 27, 2020

I don't know why the worm crossed the road, but it would certainly explain why the chicken crossed the road! Hope your knee is working/feeling better now Paul.

Paul B · Nov 30, 2020

Working on decorating the house.

Paul B · Nov 30, 2020

I just got back from the Bone Doctor. I went for cortizone shots in both knees because my knees are sucky. Commercial construction in Manhattan for 40 years messes up your knees because everything is 1,000lbs, even lunch. ;Yuck

So I get there and roll up my two pants legs, I actually wore sweats for this and the Dr, assistant said why did I roll up both legs. I said, both knees don't work and both feel like I have tiny sea urchins playing polo in there.

She said, she can't do anything with the left knee which is a titanium one because there is no more arthritis in there, just inflamed tendons and she can't fix those.
Another knee replacement, like the original knee doc wants to do would only make it worse so I am stuck.

I asked if she could fix the right knee and she said, any small amount of meniscus left in there is shreaded and it is bone on bone so I am just pinching the nerves when I move. Nothing can be done except a new knee.

I told her the other one didn't work out to well and I can't be laid up because my wife has MS and I even have to put her shoes on. She can't live without me for a day, much less a year.

So she told me I am in between a hard place and a rock covered in long spined sea urchins so a new knee is the only option.

I can take over the counter pain meds like Tylenol or Dr Pepper.
She gave me the cortizone shot and I can take them every three months until I croak, so that was good news.

Paul B · Nov 30, 2020

Unfortunately Our Daughters summer house in Vermont had a huge fire on Thanksgiving where we normally go for a couple of days burnt down. Not all of it, just the new extension that was just finished this year. That is the barn to the right that is totally gone and where the fire started The flames jumped to their house on the left.
That was a big front end loader in the barn

ramullins86 · Nov 30, 2020

Congrats. That’s a long time

fishybizzness · Nov 30, 2020

Paul B said:
Unfortunately Our Daughters summer house in Vermont had a huge fire on Thanksgiving where we normally go for a couple of days burnt down. Not all of it, just the new extension that was just finished this year. That is the barn to the right that is totally gone and where the fire started The flames jumped to their house on the left.
That was a big front end loader in the barn

Thats sad to hear Paul. I hope no one was hurt. Prayers for your daughter and her family.

mmw64 · Nov 30, 2020

Paul B said:
I just got back from the Bone Doctor. I went for cortizone shots in both knees because my knees are sucky. Commercial construction in Manhattan for 40 years messes up your knees because everything is 1,000lbs, even lunch. ;Yuck

So I get there and roll up my two pants legs, I actually wore sweats for this and the Dr, assistant said why did I roll up both legs. I said, both knees don't work and both feel like I have tiny sea urchins playing polo in there.

She said, she can't do anything with the left knee which is a titanium one because there is no more arthritis in there, just inflamed tendons and she can't fix those.
Another knee replacement, like the original knee doc wants to do would only make it worse so I am stuck.

I asked if she could fix the right knee and she said, any small amount of meniscus left in there is shreaded and it is bone on bone so I am just pinching the nerves when I move. Nothing can be done except a new knee.

I told her the other one didn't work out to well and I can't be laid up because my wife has MS and I even have to put her shoes on. She can't live without me for a day, much less a year.

So she told me I am in between a hard place and a rock covered in long spined sea urchins so a new knee is the only option.

I can take over the counter pain meds like Tylenol or Dr Pepper.
She gave me the cortizone shot and I can take them every three months until I croak, so that was good news.

I do that for my sucky feet! They don't replace those!

Paul B · Dec 4, 2020

Yesterday I was able to donate another $500.00 to the MS society from proceeds from my book. That makes $1,500.00 so far. When they send me a receipt I will post it so people don't think I am spending that money on new high heels for Supermodels.

I earmark the checks for research only so it doesn't go to pencil sharpeners, paper clips etc. in their office.
I hope it actually does some good.

Swanky · Dec 4, 2020

Thank you for your efforts with MS Research Paul! Picked up a copy of your book a few months back and with a Mother of 19 years now with relapsing / remitting MS, it means a lot to me to see anyone going out of their way to help further progress!

Take care of the wife (and your knees!) and best wishes for a wonderful holiday!

Paul B · Dec 4, 2020

I had this stupid anemone and the thing got huge and split. Then it split again so I have about 18" of anemones mostly in the back of my tank. If I could get them out I would but they are all twisted around rocks and I would have to tear apart the tank so I guess they will be there for a while.
I am very surprised my fish, especially my pipefish never got stung by them.

You can see a little of it here way above the hippo and with the fireclown but most of it is in the back. I never feed it or it would take over my Man cave.