Hello, Geezer coming back to this forum. Paul B

[Paul B]

I went to my favorite LFS today and picked up a couple of tiny neon gobies. Those fish used to be very common in the hobby but I rarely see them any more. $25.00 for both of them.

I am trying to put up a picture but I am having trouble doing this on my new computer and I normally just E Mail them to myself but that doesn't work in my Man Cave as I don't have cell service here.

 

[Paul B]

Today it is having an issue. It's a new computer and I am old so these things never work the same every day.

My new Jeep is also acting up. It went from Miles an hour to Kilometers, so I thought I was going 120 MPH.

I got out the book and changed it. Then our phones wouldn't pair with the car. I finally got my wife's phone to pair so if I need to contact anyone I will just write them a letter.

Of course my new car like all new cars allows me to talk to it. There is like a 200 page manual to explain how to do that but I don't think my car read it as it just argues with me. I asked it to change from KPH to MPH and it told me things like "You can ask me all sorts of things like George Washingtons social security number, Doctors appointments or the year they built the Brooklyn Bridge but anything else will be a problem".

I would like a car with just 4 wheels, a radio and engine. I have friends and don't need to have a conversation with a senile vehicle that I paid quite a lot for. My wife will talk my ear off for free.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Me too--computer keeps dropping Wi-Fi & is slower than a snail waiting for 5 o'clock to punch out!

 

[Paul B]

This weekend we went into Manhattan for my Grand Sons play. It was "Finding Nemo" and he had a starring role as "Gill' the moorish Idol. He is ten.

Anyway after that our Daughter took us to Keens Chophouse on 6th Ave in Manhattan near Penn Station where I took a train for about 45 years and walked past the place every day but never noticed it.

It has been there since the mid 1800s so just before I was born.

Many famous people used to eat there including of course Washington as he ate and slept everywhere,

The thing with the place, and I assume many places at the time was when you went there, you asked for your pipe. The "Pipe Boy" would fetch your clay pipe and bring it to you. All the pipes, 88,000 of them each had a number on them attached to a specific client. The pipes were to fragile to put in a saddle bag and Toyota Land cruisers were not really available so they left the pipes there. They were about a foot long and all the same.

Pipe smoking was assumed to be good for "dissipating Homourse of the brain". An affliction some people and their fish still seem to have today.
Those pipes are still there covering every inch of the ceilings and walls right next to each other on all 3 floors.

The membership consisted of over 90,000 names but not one Woman was allowed until about 1910 or so when a Woman tried to get in and was not allowed, so she sued them and won.

This is my main squeeze of 50 years. You can see the pipes on the ceiling.

Our Daughter is kind of a celebrity there as she spent a lot of time there when she was in college and gets Royal treatment and gave us the nickel tour. They all know her and the owner came over and also treated us like he would Washington. But I didn't tell the Pipe Boy to get me a pipe.

 

[Paul B]

Good morning. It's pouring rain like monsoons here and I know what monsoons are like and I didn't take my beach walk. The rain has nothing to do with that as a real Man walks in any weather but my wife has an early doctors appointment so we are going there and for some reason doctors never have an office right next door.

When we lived near the city all our doctors were out here on Long Island. Then we moved out here and all our doctors are now there.

The good part is my favorite LFS is across the street from the Dr.

But tomorrow it will be dead low tide at 6:30 am so I hope the amphipods will be there spawning in the millions like they are every year. My friend is coming to help me collect,
(if he gets up)

I will throw all of them in my tank so I hope we get enough.

 

[Paul B]

Lets remember that today is the 80th anniversary of D Day. 5 years before I was born.
Many thousands of American Hero's died storming the beaches of Normandy. Thats one big reason we are free today.

May they rest in peace.

 

[Paul B]

How times have changed.

I was just reading a Sharper Image Catalog and now they sell so many things that we didn't have when I was a kid. Did you ever look through one of those catalogs?

We used to play this game where you got a ball and you threw it at the other person to see if you could hit him. Now I see they got this thing where each of you get this stick looking thing and you can shoot real lightning bolts at each other.

They also have this little drone helocopter thing that you can fly right into your neighbors window and see what they are having for dinner. I would imagine the thing can also steal a drumstick right off their table. How much fun would that be! I am sure your neighbors would really like that.

Then you can walk around with this virtual reality thing on your head so you never have to visit the real world. You can have a virtual reality girlfriend, go to a virtual movie, drive a virtual car and I would imagine you could eat all your meals virtually. I amnot sure if it comes with a virtual doctor for when you starve to death. There is even a program where you can watch yourself watching a virtually reality show of yourself doing nothing.

There is virtual ping pong where you hit a ball of light. That seems really good for your muscle tone and overall fitness. I mean you probably have to change the batteries every so often and if you lift a lot of those AA batteries it can get exhausting.

Of course they have a few radios that you can listen to in your shower. Like, how long do you stand in the shower, are you really that filthy that you can't miss one version of Lady GaGa's Papparazi.

There is this Hover board thing that costs $300.00 and it goes 3 1/2mph. Isn't that walking speed? Why would anybody spend $300.00 to go as fast as you can walk? Maybe it's me!

I don't know how many nose hair clippers there are but apparently this is very important. Just last night I woke up from a dream where I was on a tropical Island sipping a Pina Colada with all 12 apostles, Leonardo DiVinci and 2 of the Radio City Rockettes and I realized I didn't clip my nose hairs. Today these things are so powerful that you can put it up your nose and it will clip your ear hairs at the same time. You can't make this stuff up.

Oh this is something I can't live without, right here on page 25. For just $100.00 you can order your own personalized bobble head doll, with your head on it. Wow, how great would that be. You stop at a light and your head nods up and down like you are some sort of an alien nerd weirdo. I can't wait to order that. I wonder if I can get one with hair on it.

This can save you some time, There is this Lady's hair drier that is so powerful that if you open your window while you are using it, it will melt up to 6" of snow on your sidewalk. I am not kidding.

Some of the things seem to stretch the truth just a little like this car vacuum that is so powerful you need to wear earplugs, not because of the noise, but because it may pull the wax right out of your ears and God Forbid if you are wearing earings, or worse, a nose ring.

I really can't see much value in this one. You hang this thing over your toilet bowl, and it lights up the water. I won't comment on that as I don't want to go there and if I saw that in someone's house, I would go to the bathroom in their neighbors house. Wierd.

But my absolute favorite if this refrigerator for a lonely bachelor who wants to feel he is married. Every time you pass it, it says,

"HEY LAZY, THROW OUT THE GARBAGE. TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES. DON'T DRINK OUT OF THE MILK CONTAINER. TAKE OUT THE DOG. FILL MY CAR WITH GAS. RUB MY FEET. GET ME A BEER".

These are all things you can buy now. We didn't have toys and stuff like this when I was a Kid. I remember asking my Dad once to get me a toy and he came out with a piece of wood, a couple of nails and a hammer. I played with that until I got married. Now I can get rid of that talking refrigerator.

 

[Paul B]

Beautiful beach walk this morning. We were out late last night and I wasn't sure I was going to go but salt water is in my veins, so I had to go.

(doctors can't understand that seawater thing but they won't let me give blood because the amphipods clog up their catheter. )

This must be an old beach because I often find Neanderthal items that wash up from 10,000 years ago.

For instance this morning I came across this ceremonial stick formation. It is amazing how good condition it was in.

Not far from there I found this piece of cave art that must have chipped off a cave as the Neanderthal was making axe heads.

Looks like some sort of Prehistoric cicada which this being was probably going to have for lunch.

As I walked I surmised that this fellow lived near a Walmart.

 

[Paul B]

My wife had an almost brand new, $600.00 I phone so she decides to buy a "Waterproof" cell phone case made in China.

She went swimming with it.
Short story. We have to buy a new $600.00 cell phone.

 

[BeanAnimal]

This weekend we went into Manhattan for my Grand Sons play. It was "Finding Nemo" and he had a starring role as "Gill' the moorish Idol. He is ten.

Anyway after that our Daughter took us to Keens Chophouse on 6th Ave in Manhattan near Penn Station where I took a train for about 45 years and walked past the place every day but never noticed it.

View attachment 32401957

I was at Keens last trip to NYC.

However, my absolute favorite is Jongro Korean BBQ (well and Joe's Pizza).

If you have not been to Jongro, you really should go (if you like Korean BBQ).

 

[Paul B]

Beach walk this beautiful morning.
I walked the beach as I do almost every morning and came upon this hat. I doubt it was from one of Columbus ships because it says something about a goat and Long Island and he would have called it The West Indies or Columbus Ohio.

This Horseshoe crab was beyond saving but I know some people would have dipped it, then soaked it in coppersafe and methylene blue while trying to feed it store bought Tiger Pods then quarantine it for two months in hydrogen peroxide then give it CPR by blowing into it's tail spike. All that you would have is a very smelly crab and a sore lip.

It's amazing how fast trees grow on the beach. This wasn't here yesterday.

I don't remember what I did last night but I missed this party.

And someone is missing a piece of their dock and bouy

 

[Dustin07]

your posts crack me up.
Glad to see that buoy with line made it ashore. out here we have constant battles between local tribes and non tribal folks for crabbing rights. the bays turn into mine fields of buoys and sadly many of those traps are lost as sea forever. lord only knows how many critters find themselves locked in a cage for eternity in puget sound never to contribute to the cycle. the rest of the contraption ends up wrapped around props causing an unknown number of issues for boaters.

I love crab, and crabbing, but that is definitely one of the sore points in my region.

 

[Dustin07]

I don't feel like I'm old enough yet to say things like this, being only 41, but I remember when a bad day of fishing was only catching one Chinook Salmon and not filling your crab quota.

now days, catching any fish is a good day and many of the marine areas have been closed to crabbing for years.

one of the best things that ever happened to our region was covid when everyone shut down for 2 weeks. It really made me wonder if we should just shut down our state for 1 week every year. I'm not really a tree hugger, but I have been an avid outdoorsman in my life and our population has boomed.

 

[Paul B]

We get a lot of crabs here. I catch them next month.

They are very common and no crowds. I can get them on any pier like here in my friends back yard. They were also all over my marina.



I can also get clams.


But you need a permit and where the clams are, I don't live there so I can't get a permit. The Sound, behind my house doesn't have a lot of clams near shore.



But I can catch porgy's and stripped bass from shore.

 

[Dustin07]

we have horseclams on the bank down below our house, but there is a steep drop off so crabbing isn't really an option and the fishing there is minimal. our region has just become very very populated over the last 2 decades. The marina where my wife and I keep our boat (for sale! lol) had a 3 year waiting list just to get a slip, we only got one because it came with the boat so now days, the slip is more valuable than the boat you keep in it...

 

[Paul B]

I sold our boat last year. We had a boat about 45 or so years but it was time. Our marina here was about $7,000.00 for the summer which seemed like a bargain because our last marina, 6 years ago was closer to $10,000.00.

I took a picture of this neon gobi. I have 2 of them but almost never see them.

 

[griss]

I sold our boat last year. We had a boat about 45 or so years but it was time. Our marina here was about $7,000.00 for the summer which seemed like a bargain because our last marina, 6 years ago was closer to $10,000.00.

Wow, I guess we're lucky here. Our slip on the Mississippi River is $2,500 for the entire year and includes a lift, electric and water.

 

[Paul B]

Griss, my marina was more than that for the winter to keep the boat on blocks in the parking lot.

 

[griss]

Griss, my marina was more than that for the winter to keep the boat on blocks in the parking lot.

That's crazy Paul. Before we got our slip at the marina, we kept the boat/trailer on a lot for $750 a year.

 

[Dustin07]

that neon is pretty cool! We have a neon dottyback I rarely see, largely cause my female clown is a jerk.

Our marina here was about $7,000.00 for the summer which seemed like a bargain because our last marina, 6 years ago was closer to $10,000.00.

Wow, I guess we're lucky here. Our slip on the Mississippi River is $2,500 for the entire year and includes a lift, electric and water.

In 2020 we had a marina not too far away with covered moorage for $225/month. Problem is, it was 30 minutes west of my house, and my job was about 90minutes+ east of my house so while it was close (ish) to home, it was a lot on work days. Our current marina is uncovered, 5 minutes from my house. prices just went up to $395 from the $320 it was when we first got in back in 2021. It's a bargain by puget sound standards but even our average $500/month+ sounds less expensive than yours, Paul.

it's very hard to find winter storage on the hard out here though, especially for any boat over 22-24ft. Our Carver is about 31ft LOA and finding a good haulout for winter just isn't really an option. it's a large part of why we are selling because we don't enjoy winter boating out here and I am tired of having to deal with the maintenance issues that come up mostly due to the 8 months we don't want to use the boat.