Hello, Geezer coming back to this forum. Paul B

[Paul B]

So a couple of weeks ago replaced all 5 smoke detectors in my house as they were 8 years old and I figured it was time.

This morning at 3:30 I was quickly and brutally awakened by all four of them going:

BEEP...BEEP...BEEP...FIRE...FIRE...FIRE...BEEP...BEEP...FIRE...FIRE
Etc.

I get up early but not generally at 3:30. I normally get out of bed at 5:15 or so to go on my Manly, dark, cold walk through the wilderness (street) and down to the churning and angry sea (Long Island Sound) where I mingle with the dangerous and terrifying creatures that lurk there. (seagulls)

I like to get up by the gently sounds of a mountain stream, the rustle of a breeze through the willows or my wife whispering in my ear: "Love of my life, you don't have to wash the floors today".

I checked around the house to smell for smoke and after not finding any, I took down the 3, still blaring detectors in my living area upstairs.

This wasn't as easy as it sounds because my new replacement shoulder doesn't like me to raise my arm straight up yet, not even if the house is on fire.

I could still hear the last detector downstairs in my "very cool and Manly Man cave" so I had to go down and check. I am running around in my "speedo" and it is 22 degrees outside so I didn't want any of the Ladies to catch a glimpse of me or they may want to follow me into my Man cave and do things like, help me feed the fish or worse.

I thought for a moment and realized I didn't have any firefish or flame angels but I do have two Fireclowns. Could they have spontaneously burst into flames?

I got my coat on and ran downstairs. I'm old so I don't run that fast, but I got there and opened the door. No smoke. No fire. No flood. I looked in the tank and the two fireclowns were just mating, something they have been doing for the 35 years I have them.

Now I have to see what I can do to slow down their lovemaking so I can get some sleep.

And today we are having a house full of people for dinner and I have to make bread, clam chowder and a seafood pasta dish.

 

[Paul B]

I don't understand these tests that many people get from Aquabiometrics to see if they have disease organisms in the tank. If they did that test in natural seawater all those diseases would be present like they are supposed to be and have been since we kept trilobites in wine barrels. The presence of different parasites and bacteria doesn't mean anything, since all healthy fish (in the sea) carry them. Maybe it's me because I like a natural, healthy, long-lived tank. I am going to eat worms.

My tank is running well, I don't hardly mess with it because I have other, more important things to do but I think it needs some calcium as I have a montipora that is bleaching. I rarely put in hard corals because I really don't test and just want an easy, no-maintenance tank, which I kind of have.

I am not really interested much in corals anymore and concentrate on fish health and longevity.

As I keep saying, I have not lost a fish from any of the diseases I see on these forums in many decades and I have never de-wormed a fish or cleaned one of flukes or anything else. I don't dip, observe, or medicate any fish, and I don't lose any during my very short acclimation. They are all happy, healthy, and many are spawning.

At my age, I am thrilled I don't have to go through all that nonsense.

I have enough trouble taking care of my wife.

Now I am going to sit back, put on some Righteous Brothers oldies and relax. It's too early to sip Grand Marnier.

 

[wvned]

It's 5 o'clock somewhere

 

[Paul B]

I don't think things cost more today than they did when the Salt Water hobby started in the US in 1971. I am speaking comparatively. Of course, everything is more expensive due to inflation. When I was a kid, a quart of milk was 25 cents, and gas was 32 cents. But I was also making minimum wage, which was about $1.25 an hour. So I could get about 4 gallons of gas for an hours work.

As an electrician, before I retired 20 years ago, I think I make $55.00 an hour. Now gas is about $3.00 a gallon so I could get 18 gallons of gas for an hour of work.

I think minimum wage now is $25.00 an hour so that hour of work, would get you 8 gallons of gas. It's all relative. I think. My math may not be 100% correct.

I bought my first house in New York in 1980 for I think $79,000. It recently sold for a million two. (not by me. I moved from there 8 years ago)

I can buy a modest house here on Long Island for about $750.000. It was just on the news that that's what an average home here costs. If I make $1,000.00 a week, it would only take 750 weeks to pay off that house. Of course, that's if that was your only expense with no interest or mortgage, and you didn't feel the need to eat, pay taxes, feed your fish, clothe your kids, not get divorced, buy my book, didn't buy Prizapro, and walked around barefoot.

 

[Paul B]

This morning I placed wreaths on the graves of Veterans in Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island near my home.

I went with some friends.

These are friends of my wife and mine for over 50 years. Sue is the "girl" who takes care of me when I have surgery for knees and shoulders.

 

[Paul B]

I still got it. Yesterday before we put the wreaths on the graves of Veterans we were in a bagel shop. Someone in the next booth tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around. It was a very elderly Lady. She asked if one of us "young" men could help her get to her car.
She was 94 years old and drove there herself but needed help walking with her cane. My friend Sue was next to me so I couldn't easily get up and my friend Richie helped her. As they left the table she asked him, "How old is your friend with the Vietnam hat?".

I still got it. I should have gotten her number. I don't mean her Medicare number.

 

[Paul B]

I just came back from my very Manly, dark, cold and windy walk to the beach.

I had to wimp out as I couldn't make it all the way there. To get to the beach I have to go down a very steep hill that goes for about half a mile. I started down and I could walk between the ice on old tire tracks where someone drove just after it stopped snowing.

As I got closer to the beach, I saw JoJo Starbuck come skating past me at a fast clip.
(Google her)

The road became a shining sheet of ice and there is no cell service there. I could see me slipping and falling on my new shoulder so next spring someone walking their dog would dig me up and put me in a museum next to Otzi, "The Iceman". (Google him too)

So I turned around and walked past a rescue horse farm about a mile in the other direction. In the 5 yeas I have been walking here, I have never seen another person walking early in the morning, especially during winter unless they were walking a dog. Bunch of Sissies.

 

[Timfish]

Well, guess I'm in that "Sissies" group.

 

[Paul B]