Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

My Crab is so happy for some reason that he is doing the macarana. :anguished-face:
Or he thinks he is an octopus.

 

[Paul B]

I was looking at my Hippo tang just now and I don't think I ever saw a better looking or healthier fish. His skin looks like velvet.
(No, he doesn't have velvet. Thats something only quarantined fish would get) :rolleyes: My fish can't even spell "velvit".

This picture is right out of my camera, no fooling around with colors or anything like that even if I knew how to do that. Those "spots" are bubbles. He has also never seen Nori. I am running my new small diatom filter just because I think it is so cool and I am trying to clog it so I can see how easy it is to clean. This one uses no powder.

 

[Paul B]

This is going to be a useless post about nothing but being it is my thread and very few people read It, I put it here.

About getting Old-er. I looked into the mirror this morning and thought to myself, Wow, I got old. I don't remember getting old, but I am there. My Mom died at 99 and never even took an aspirin or shot of Prizapro. She didn't need glasses or a cane. I can only hope to stay in that state of health for that long. My fish seem to be able to manage it and I smell better than them.

I don't remember going from this. (I am the good looking one on the back with the hair)



To this


I know a lot of things happened in between those pictures (Including a war) but I can't remember the vast majority of them. My wife may ask me to go downstairs to get paper towels and I will go there and try to remember what I came for. I may bring up, toilet paper, news papers, paper mache, paper clips, carbon paper, (google it) paper cups, paper plates etc. and If I think to much I may gather things that sound like paper. Things like black pepper, white pepper, red pepper lemon pepper etc.

Upstairs my wife will see me with a box full of these things and will ask, Wheres the paper towels?

It's weird because my mind seems clearer about things like fish keeping, which I see as a no brainer, building things or fixing things. I walk by myself every morning for an hour long before the sun comes up with a flashlight just so I don't get hit by a farm tractor or deer looking for love in all the wrong places.

As I walk, if I see a piece of farm machinery, airplane, car or almost anything mechanical, my mind will turn to images all sorts of gears, chains and pulleys.

I will get visions of the pistons going up and down in those engines, how the fuel swirls around the combustion chamber, how the transmission works or how the thing is cooled and I can't get these images out of my mind so I will start envisioning how I would build them better, nicer looking, cheaper, more economical or make a Steam Punk Sculpture thing similar to it. My mind wants to build so If I see a bare wall, I go crazy thinking of what I should build to make it really cool. Not a painting but something that actually moves and works. I often go to antique stores looking for anything interesting that I can turn into something useless but more interesting.

This is one of the useless things I built just because I feel it is cool.



Sleeping eludes me and if I don't take something to make me sleep I am wasting my time closing my eyes because I will go into "inventing mode". I get ideas at night and can't wait to get up to draw it and go get the parts. Of course these things hit me in the middle of the night so no stores are open.

I use these linear actuators now all the time. This was a simple thing I installed the day before my shoulder surgery to open the front of my tank



Since then I built a few other things using these actuators including a huge cabinet that disappears into the wall. I am now building another one just because I can. I need to stop.

In the last 4 years I lost 4 of my closest friends. We are all in our 70s and I can't think of one of us (and I have many close friends some from high school) who doesn't have some sort of ailment, many life threatening.

I am one of the only ones who is still pretty healthy except for ligament and bone things. (I can't find a piece of wood to knock on so I am hitting a tooth pick)

When the phone used to ring I was excited to answer up because it was usually about a party, boating trip, vacation, SCUBA diving or something fun. Now I dread when the phone rings because it is invariably someone is sick, hurt or dying.

All my doctors are much younger than me and some are my Grand Daughters age.



I just went to the dentist and as we were talking I mentioned a Disco. As she was using that sucky thing to eliminate the gunk in my mouth from all the drilling she looked at me like I had two heads and had to Google it.

Many things bother me now, especially traffic that I have no patience for, waiting in lines, so I never return anything and I can't think about politics or like Elvis Presley, (Google him) I would shoot my TV and I can't afford a new TV every time I turn it on. Sometimes I scream so loud my wife gets scared and has to calm me down.

When I drive to our Daughters house in Manhattan, I am so stressed by the traffic that when I get there she greets me at the door with a big glass of Vodka and some chocolate to calm me down.

The VA tells me this is all from PTSD even though I haven't fought in a war in 55 years.

I am married for 50 years and our marriage, although always great gets better with time. Now my wife has MS so I have to do many things for her. Things you wouldn't dream of doing for your girlfriend but thats what people who care for each other do.

It's all about helping other people now as I have everything I want and went to every place I wanted to go and did everything I wanted to do. (Kind of.)

We had a full life and I think we did more than our share of fun things. I look at our Daughter and wonder what they do for fun because it seems fun things are lost on the younger generation as it seems to us that they do nothing we would call fun. They do travel a lot but that isn't what I mean. Having lifelong friends at our age who we grew up with and are still better friends than family means everything.. That seems lost on many Millenniums as texting is their "fun" thing. Normally they text how bored they are even though there is an entire world out there.

As we get older, many things that used to seem important seem trivial now. Now it's all about health but it used to be about money, working, paying for a car, house, vacation, copperband butterfly etc.
Raising kids, fretting about the Prom helping them pick a college, get their drivers license, watching them get married then have kids and more kids. Eventually their kids will have kids and we wonder where the time went.

All in all I had a great life and still have a great wife. We have to many friends to spend the time with all of them as we would like. Our social calendar is booked up for many months which is a good thing.

So, so far, I think I did pretty good.

 

[tbrown]

You'd be surprised (or maybe not) how many people read your thread Paul!

 

[Cthulukelele]

Yeah any time your thread pops up it's an instant read for me. Always been a big fan

 

[Paul B]

You'd be surprised (or maybe not) how many people read your thread Paul!

Yes I would. But why? There is very little fish talk here as I ran out of things to say. :grimacing-face:

 

[Cthulukelele]

Yes I would. But why? There is very little fish talk here as I ran out of things to say. :grimacing-face:

Because it's a nice mixture of fish talk, long term fishkeeping goals, and hearing about someone's life! Those are all nice things especially when you really look up to someone's tank

 

[Frosty Latte]

What a great post. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Paul B]

Cthulukelele, (If that is your real name.) Thank you. I will try to add some fish stuff one of these days. Maybe I can get my fish to do something interesting so it doesn't sound so boring or maybe one of them will croak to give me something to post.​

You may find this slightly interesting. I took this in Nam with a Polaroid Camera.

All 4 pictures are me. :D

 

[tbrown]

Yes I would. But why? There is very little fish talk here as I ran out of things to say. :grimacing-face:

Honestly, the majority of the threads I follow and contribute to are little fish talk and lots of interesting life talk. That's what makes a community a community.

I understand it's a reef forum but does that mean the rest of life should be ignored? Nah. We build friendships and relationships here and reefing is just a big part of that, but not all of it.

 

[Debramb]

I didn't think they would remove silicate. :anguished-face:

Kudos to you for educating pre-diatom filtering. I wish we saved the 2or3 spent ones we had to send you for parts. I’m impressed with your DIY build, chasing husband around with your directions makes him try to shut me down about “PaulB” talk. I even place your dog eared copy of your book near him IF he stops for a minute. I use my own Home Depot bucket, the Magnum Polishing with filter, well water and 3 Tbls of diatom powder. I can do all this without being a pain in the you know what to hubby. During the yrs he spent as a homicide detective he really enjoyed watching the fish, he’s busier now, as I assume you are since retirement. I truly have learned so much from you! I hope you’re back is holding up and you and your wife have a Happy New Year
Your dork follower Debra

 

[tbrown]

Hey @Paul B you should see my threads! I spend more time talking about 3D printing than fish. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Jekyl]

Yes I would. But why? There is very little fish talk here as I ran out of things to say. :grimacing-face:

One of the only posts that I follow along to.

 

[salty joe]

So, so far, I think I did pretty good.

So far, I think you did outstanding!

I've learned a lot from you, thanks!

 

[Rybren]

You'd be surprised (or maybe not) how many people read your thread Paul!

I only look for pictures of the supermodels. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Subsea]

Yes I would. But why? There is very little fish talk here as I ran out of things to say. :grimacing-face:

Paul,
you have many things that are valuable to read and to laugh about. I have been around the World more than once and I value your Words. Don’t stop! I am 6 months older than you.
Let the good times roll,
A Cajun Aggie in Austin, Tx and
Your Good Friend,
SUB

PS: Instead of Classical Thermodynamics, I went to private Roman Catholic schools where in junior high we read a “Connecticut Yankee in King Arther’s Court”.
you are my hero.
Patrick

 

[Subsea]

Paul,
Last Friday, I spoke with a man waiting on fresh clams at H‑E‑B seafood counter. Before he finished talking, I realized he had been around the World several more times than I. Not only was he familiar with Isaac, his Father has letters from Isaac Asimov describing how the Fourier Equation predicted the outcome of Empires, Worlds, and The Universe and 50 years after Isaac wrote his father, I attended an advanced class of Quantum Mechanics at the Texas Maritime Academy where we used the LaPlace Transform to solve Fourier’s Equation.

While you are still a hero of mine, you are not in front of Isaac, He wrote the Foundation which is a Trilogy of Eternity…………………………

PS: Please find the “squirrel in the dark” scenario, it made quite a few of us laugh. You have a gift, to make people laugh. We do not need to fret about today, God will provide in His Time.

To a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur‘s Court
From a Cajun Aggie in Austin, Tx

Come Pass a Good Time Here, We Can Do It!!!

with a Cajun Microwave or a Dutch Oven.

Amazon product ASIN 0385068816
Foundation is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov. It is the first published in his Foundation Trilogy (later expanded into the Foundation series). Foundation is a cycle of five interrelated short stories, first published as a single book by Gnome Press in 1951. Collectively they tell the early story of the Foundation, an institute founded by psychohistorian Hari Seldon to preserve the best of galactic civilization after the collapse of the Galactic Empire.

PSS: First light in my world

 

[Subsea]

Paul,
I salute your service as Army Air Calvary. An older brother of mine, as an Air Force Captain, flew Caribou’s, C123, in support of ground troops. When not partaking in short runways in the Cambodian Highlands, he dispensed Agent Orange to defoliate jungle cover to protect troops on the ground. I was a mechanic on an AC47, we dispensed 223 fire from General Electric Gatling Guns and were affectionately called “Puff” by us. The Khmer Rouge had a bounty for the head of Captain Jack. Yet, I was protected in country by 82 Airborne Rangers who were the personal bodyguard for the Maintenance Officer of a Squadron of AC47

Those days were a long Time ago, yet there is still water that flows under the bridge. George says it this way:

Even though you may be old & grey, You still got something to say!!!

 

[Paul B]

I only look for pictures of the supermodels. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

I did work with a lot of Supermodels from Victoria Secret, to the Playboy Club.

But I prefer my own Main Squeeze. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Paul B]

I like walking early in the morning when it's pitch dark. My wife thinks I am nuts and is scared for me.



Not to many things scare me in the dark. OK a couple of things scare me a little such as maybe Nancy Pelosi's big sister "Helga-Bro" Thats her given name. :oops:



But the thing that frightens me the most are "Vampire Deer". Of course there is such a thing, Google them.

Being "Vampires" they only come out at night and only on Tuesdays. (Except during Lent, Good Friday or in a Leap Year.)

Vampire Deer subsist on a diet of Bullhead Catfish but I often see them eating those Wardleys sinking Goldfish pellets. If a deer accidently eats a bullfrog, it (the deer, not the fish) would go into severe convulsions where you would think it is possessed or is just learning how to do the "Freddie" Google it. Then it would violently spit out the frog where it (the frog, not the deer) would abandon it's tadpole Progeny and go on to give Jehovah's Witnesses warts.

Besides those things, I am perfectly capable and robust enough to handle any situation that may occur at night even those frightening grey squirrels or Carpenter ants.

I got back from my walk safe and sound, but that's because it's not Tuesday. :rolleyes: