Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Paul B]

This week I took my Bride to Cape Cod for our anniversary. We took the ferry from Orient Point on the end of the North Fork of Long Island about 45 minutes from my house.

It takes about an hour and a half to get to New London, Connecticut. Then it's about 2 1/2 hours to the B&B that we stayed in.

I kind of screwed up with the ferry schedule and got there an hour early. Just before the earlier ferry left so they squeezed us on the earlier boat.
(You take the car of the ferry). When my wife booked the ferry, she paid extra for Handicapped space, which leaves you off right near the elevator, but because we checked in at the last minute, they had to put us on the other side of the ship from the elevator.

My wife can't walk at all without a walker and the thing couldn't fit between the cars to get to the seating area of the boat. There happened to be a bunch of Hells Angels on the boat with their bikes so they wanted to help us. (Hells Angels like Veterans and I have Combat Veteran plates on my car and had my Veteran hat on)

My wife squeezed out of the car. They put you right next to a wall and it is very hard to get out of the car for a healthy person, but for her it was a big job. I held her up as the bikers lifted her walker over the bikes and cars. Then we helped her around obstacles to the elevator.

My wife was not happy and didn't speak to me for most of the cruise as she was embarrassed and she paid extra to get the spot by the elevator.

So we get to the B&B which was very nice. I also brought her powered chair in case we had a long walk. My wife has friends from near Boston somewhere and they made plans to meet us at this restaurant near our B&B. We went there and of course it was pouring rain. We discovered the place was closed so we found another sea food place near by. The Cape, which is in New England is full of sea food restaurants and thats mostly what we eat.

All was well and our friends came back to our room for drinks. We walked around in the rain and left the next day.
I checked on my GPS to see how long it will take to drive back to the ferry and I noticed it would take 3 1/2 hours so I said, we have to change our reservation to the next boat an hour later because we won't make it.

Then as we left I noticed I put the wrong ferry into my GPS. The one I put in takes an hour longer than the ferry we wanted to take. Both ferries would get us near our home but we booked the closer one. So again, we get to the ferry an hour early so they checked us in at the last second.

Again, my wife booked the handicapped space, but since we eeked on, we didn't get it. As soon as we got on the ferry, they made my wife get out of the car and wait there for me to park because the place to park was in what they call the tunnel and there is even less space to open the driver's door, and maybe 4" on the passenger side so she had to get out before I parked.

Not happy again because she had to stand there with someone helping her until I squirmed my way back there through the cars that are packed in like sardines.

She is not speaking to me again.

Now the good part comes. The elevator is in the back of the boat, but my car is in the middle, and there is absolutely no way to get her walker to my car, so I asked one of the crew how I would get her off the boat when we dock.

He said I will drive off the ship, then make a "U" turn and drive back on the ship to pick her up . This is while 100 cars are waiting to get back on.

OMG. So I drive off and stop at the side near the crew that don't know that I am going to turn around and drive on the the same boat I just got off so they come running up to me screaming. I had to explain what I was doing so they said "LIKE REALLY!".

Anyway, thats what I did,. I drove back up the middle of the ship while all of Long Island waited for me to pick up my wife. She was not happy at all.

 

[atoll]

Oh dear Paul, making one mistake is unfortunate but making a second similar to the first is hmmm, well.I hope you made it up to your wife?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

oh paul. i sorry for both of you. just reading this made my chest tight!

 

[Freenow54]

This week I took my Bride to Cape Cod for our anniversary. We took the ferry from Orient Point on the end of the North Fork of Long Island about 45 minutes from my house.

It takes about an hour and a half to get to New London, Connecticut. Then it's about 2 1/2 hours to the B&B that we stayed in.

I kind of screwed up with the ferry schedule and got there an hour early. Just before the earlier ferry left so they squeezed us on the earlier boat.
(You take the car of the ferry). When my wife booked the ferry, she paid extra for Handicapped space, which leaves you off right near the elevator, but because we checked in at the last minute, they had to put us on the other side of the ship from the elevator.

My wife can't walk at all without a walker and the thing couldn't fit between the cars to get to the seating area of the boat. There happened to be a bunch of Hells Angels on the boat with their bikes so they wanted to help us. (Hells Angels like Veterans and I have Combat Veteran plates on my car and had my Veteran hat on)

My wife squeezed out of the car. They put you right next to a wall and it is very hard to get out of the car for a healthy person, but for her it was a big job. I held her up as the bikers lifted her walker over the bikes and cars. Then we helped her around obstacles to the elevator.

My wife was not happy and didn't speak to me for most of the cruise as she was embarrassed and she paid extra to get the spot by the elevator.

So we get to the B&B which was very nice. I also brought her powered chair in case we had a long walk. My wife has friends from near Boston somewhere and they made plans to meet us at this restaurant near our B&B. We went there and of course it was pouring rain. We discovered the place was closed so we found another sea food place near by. The Cape, which is in New England is full of sea food restaurants and thats mostly what we eat.

All was well and our friends came back to our room for drinks. We walked around in the rain and left the next day.
I checked on my GPS to see how long it will take to drive back to the ferry and I noticed it would take 3 1/2 hours so I said, we have to change our reservation to the next boat an hour later because we won't make it.

Then as we left I noticed I put the wrong ferry into my GPS. The one I put in takes an hour longer than the ferry we wanted to take. Both ferries would get us near our home but we booked the closer one. So again, we get to the ferry an hour early so they checked us in at the last second.

Again, my wife booked the handicapped space, but since we eeked on, we didn't get it. As soon as we got on the ferry, they made my wife get out of the car and wait there for me to park because the place to park was in what they call the tunnel and there is even less space to open the driver's door, and maybe 4" on the passenger side so she had to get out before I parked.

Not happy again because she had to stand there with someone helping her until I squirmed my way back there through the cars that are packed in like sardines.

She is not speaking to me again.

Now the good part comes. The elevator is in the back of the boat, but my car is in the middle, and there is absolutely no way to get her walker to my car, so I asked one of the crew how I would get her off the boat when we dock.

He said I will drive off the ship, then make a "U" turn and drive back on the ship to pick her up . This is while 100 cars are waiting to get back on.

OMG. So I drive off and stop at the side near the crew that don't know that I am going to turn around and drive on the the same boat I just got off so they come running up to me screaming. I had to explain what I was doing so they said "LIKE REALLY!".

Anyway, thats what I did,. I drove back up the middle of the ship while all of Long Island waited for me to pick up my wife. She was not happy at all.

What can I say. That is how the Hells Angles started they were disgruntled vets from WW2. Man if my wife stopped talking to me ...... ( have to be nice ). I am starting to wonder about how you mysteriously crashed Two Helicopters Though

 

[Paul B]

She started speaking to me in an hour or so.

 

[Paul B]

I am starting to wonder about how you mysteriously crashed Two Helicopters Though

One of the helicopter crashes was also my fault, kind of. They are in my book. If I have time before my upcoming surgery, I will put it on here again. I think they are also someplace in this long 11,065 post thread.

 

[Paul B]

I found the story that I posted about the helicopter crash in 2021. Here it is. I didn't want to copy it from my book because that would mean too much typing, and my shoulder is trying to rip through my skin. That is why I will have it changed in a few days.

Here it is, This was in 1970.

On a firebase, we needed a pickup truck to take the expended 105 Howitzer shells out to the tree line to dump. (all solid brass, tons of them, I wish I had them now) And we also wanted to dump the garbage there, so my captain asked me to go to this semi-rear area and get one.

My friend flew me there in that small LOH helicopter and it was on top of a steep mountain called Nui Ba Din (spelling is most likely wrong)

My "friend" told me to get the truck and weigh it then see this guy from the Air Force and he would fill the truck with 3.2 beer but don't tell the Chinook helicopter crew what was in the truck or I would have to split it with them.

So now the truck has a thousand lbs of beer in it under a tarp. About 20 of us get on the Chinook.
Maybe this one.



And we take off. As I said it was a high mountain with a steep cliff. Right after we were airborne, we started to lose altitude. The door gunners were frantically trying to release the lever that held the truck, and I was yelling at them that that was my truck and I needed it.

Finally, the truck released, but we were too low and the front rotor hit the bamboo, and we gently fell into a rice paddy. The truck was about half a mile away.

We hiked up the mountain, and I called my pilot friend on the radio and told him, "We have a problem!"

He said stay there and he would come get me in that small Loh helicopter.

We made three trips that night in his Loh in the dark to get all that beer out of that truck because we didn't think we could pay for that Chinook Helicopter.

Then we all had hot beer for a week.

This is the Loh he came and got me in that we loaded with the beer. (Loh = Light Observation Helicopter)

 

[Paul B]

Wisdom.
There is an old Testament reading (6:12-16) that explains if you are generally seeking wisdom, then open your mind and heart and wisdom will seek you out and be found sitting by your front gate.
That is a little before my time (not much). Religion and science have a lot in common. Most of us believe all scientific principles come about from thought, assumptions, experiments, study, and then fact.
Science's main method is deduction. It moves in a precise and convincing fashion from general to specific.
The process of discovering some "fact" is based on solid starting "assumptions".
Science relies on a starting assumption. Not necessarily fact. Where do the assumptions come from?
Scientists use life experiences and detailed observations to guess at starting assumptions. But they are guesses and for the most part, can't be proven.
(Ref: James Magner MD)

Many Scientist "facts" in the past are no longer facts today. The GPS in your car would not function on Newtons "facts". It needed Einstein's input about space, light, time and hair styles to correct the "facts of the past. Although Newton was close and close was good enough at that time.

The "fact" that the Earth was flat turned out to be wrong. But it was a good theory because many times when a boat ventured out to far, it never returned so they figured it fell off the "face of the earth".

In reality what could have just as easily happened is that on those boats, half the sailors were hired rowers and the other half were boat owners. They all took part in rowing. But the hired people (maybe were Liberals) were mad that they were rowing as hard as the owners, but the owners were making more money. They didn't get along so the owners started rowing on one side and the hired people were on the other side.

After a loud argument, the hired people stopped rowing to spite the owners. So the boat just kept going around in circles until the batteries went dead on their I Phone-4s and they couldn't text so they got bored to death and jumped overboard. It's just as plausible as any other theory.

Galileo surmised that the Earth was not the center of the universe. The Pope wasn’t amused by that one at all and at the time, Popes didn’t have much of a sense of humor so he ex communicated poor Galileo and took away his free pass to the Venetian public aquarium.

Scientists today try to explain their "facts" but often fall short. They fumble through trying to explain gravity and it is all around us. They teach that the Earth has a solid iron core and it forms a giant molten magnet that attracts everything.

I am in my workshop and have plenty of magnets. So far, I have yet to find a magnet that would attract one of my fish that jumped out and rolled under my tank.
Scientists speak of the vastness of the un- ending universe. My mind can't envision that much space so I just believe that at the end of the universe there is a brick wall with tar paper on top. Beyond that there are Strawberry fields forever.

That assumption makes as much sense as any scientific theory.
Many scientific discoveries came about by accident. I can think of four off the top of my bald head. X Rays, Microwaves, safety glass and smoke detectors. . Darwin also surmised that life came about by accident in a primordial pond. So far, that has not been disproven.

I of course think life was brought here by Aliens. Bowlegged bald Aliens who were just bored and wanted to go to a disco. (Remember, this was a long time ago)
There is a term used by medical “experts” whereby the cause is deduced from the effective remedy. This term is called “ex juvantibus”

“If the patient fails to respond to a specific treatment, the cause of the illness is a different one”
(ref: Water Chemistry for Advanced Aquarists “Guido Huckstedt” )
In other words if a sick patient is treated with antibiotics, and doesn’t recover, the cause will probably not be bacterial.
What is the point of this discussion? The point is not everything we do in life, or reef aquariums will have a basis in scientific research. Much of it, like scientific research is guesswork, conjecture and yes, luck.

 

[Freenow54]

Wisdom.
There is an old Testament reading (6:12-16) that explains if you are generally seeking wisdom, then open your mind and heart and wisdom will seek you out and be found sitting by your front gate.
That is a little before my time (not much). Religion and science have a lot in common. Most of us believe all scientific principles come about from thought, assumptions, experiments, study, and then fact.
Science's main method is deduction. It moves in a precise and convincing fashion from general to specific.
The process of discovering some "fact" is based on solid starting "assumptions".
Science relies on a starting assumption. Not necessarily fact. Where do the assumptions come from?
Scientists use life experiences and detailed observations to guess at starting assumptions. But they are guesses and for the most part, can't be proven.
(Ref: James Magner MD)

Many Scientist "facts" in the past are no longer facts today. The GPS in your car would not function on Newtons "facts". It needed Einstein's input about space, light, time and hair styles to correct the "facts of the past. Although Newton was close and close was good enough at that time.

The "fact" that the Earth was flat turned out to be wrong. But it was a good theory because many times when a boat ventured out to far, it never returned so they figured it fell off the "face of the earth".

In reality what could have just as easily happened is that on those boats, half the sailors were hired rowers and the other half were boat owners. They all took part in rowing. But the hired people (maybe were Liberals) were mad that they were rowing as hard as the owners, but the owners were making more money. They didn't get along so the owners started rowing on one side and the hired people were on the other side.

After a loud argument, the hired people stopped rowing to spite the owners. So the boat just kept going around in circles until the batteries went dead on their I Phone-4s and they couldn't text so they got bored to death and jumped overboard. It's just as plausible as any other theory.

Galileo surmised that the Earth was not the center of the universe. The Pope wasn’t amused by that one at all and at the time, Popes didn’t have much of a sense of humor so he ex communicated poor Galileo and took away his free pass to the Venetian public aquarium.

Scientists today try to explain their "facts" but often fall short. They fumble through trying to explain gravity and it is all around us. They teach that the Earth has a solid iron core and it forms a giant molten magnet that attracts everything.

I am in my workshop and have plenty of magnets. So far, I have yet to find a magnet that would attract one of my fish that jumped out and rolled under my tank.
Scientists speak of the vastness of the un- ending universe. My mind can't envision that much space so I just believe that at the end of the universe there is a brick wall with tar paper on top. Beyond that there are Strawberry fields forever.

That assumption makes as much sense as any scientific theory.
Many scientific discoveries came about by accident. I can think of four off the top of my bald head. X Rays, Microwaves, safety glass and smoke detectors. . Darwin also surmised that life came about by accident in a primordial pond. So far, that has not been disproven.

I of course think life was brought here by Aliens. Bowlegged bald Aliens who were just bored and wanted to go to a disco. (Remember, this was a long time ago)
There is a term used by medical “experts” whereby the cause is deduced from the effective remedy. This term is called “ex juvantibus”

“If the patient fails to respond to a specific treatment, the cause of the illness is a different one”
(ref: Water Chemistry for Advanced Aquarists “Guido Huckstedt” )
In other words if a sick patient is treated with antibiotics, and doesn’t recover, the cause will probably not be bacterial.
What is the point of this discussion? The point is not everything we do in life, or reef aquariums will have a basis in scientific research. Much of it, like scientific research is guesswork, conjecture and yes, luck.

Thinsulate was a mistake too. The inventor tried as he would in so many ways to stretch it. He got so frustrated he just took a piece and yanked on it in a temper . Guess what? lol

 

[Paul B]

Invasive species and I can't even keep them alive.
https://keysweekly.com/42/looking-f...be-on-the-lookout-for-this-nonnative-coral-2/

 

[Paul B]

Invasive species and I can't even keep them alive.
https://keysweekly.com/42/looking-f...be-on-the-lookout-for-this-nonnative-coral-2/

 

[Freenow54]

Invasive species and I can't even keep them alive.
https://keysweekly.com/42/looking-f...be-on-the-lookout-for-this-nonnative-coral-2/

Like This ? I cant stop them from growing taking over but so far I like them. Don't even have to split th

em

 

[twentyleagues]

Invasive species and I can't even keep them alive.
https://keysweekly.com/42/looking-f...be-on-the-lookout-for-this-nonnative-coral-2/

I cant keep xenia alive either.

 

[Freenow54]

You all want some?

 

[Paul B]

Most people feel they are a pest, I keep killing them.

 

[atoll]

Pulse coral often do very well and spread for quite sometime in the aquarium. Then all of a sudden they melt away. It was once said a lack of iodine was the issue

 

[Paul B]

Pulse coral often do very well and spread for quite sometime in the aquarium. Then all of a sudden they melt away. It was once said a lack of iodine was the issue

This is true. That happens in my tank also. They grow like crazy than in a year or two, they melt. GSP also. They cover everything for a few years, then die. I imagine they use everything they need, maybe iodine, then croak.

 

[atoll]

This is true. That happens in my tank also. They grow like crazy than in a year or two, they melt. GSP also. They cover everything for a few years, then die. I imagine they use everything they need, maybe iodine, then croak.

I don't think it is iodine at least not alone but nobody seems to have come up with the definitive answer.

 

[Paul B]

My power was out last night and it just came back on. But being an electrician, I have emergency lights all over the place including in my workshop near my tank so I had light to connect my car battery jumper which I keep charged all the time.

It has a plug where I plugged in a powerhead on my tank, so they had some circulation, so my fish slept right through it.

Now, before my shoulder surgery I would like to build a UPS so my garage door opens in a blackout.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Sending all the best vibes, juju and energy from the aliens who made us the species we are, for your impending 39th surgery.