How this Geezer did it in the beginning
- Thread starter Paul B
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ssdawood
Member
I would ask you sir to go back and read what Paul wrote. Paul said he sees people working 10 to 12 hours a day and he doesnt understand why people go to school just to work these many hours. He also adds that we should all get jobs with pension.
You tell me how many corporate jobs are out there that offer pension nowadays.
I know Paul worked hard, I didnt deny it. So are we working hard. Its just that at times are so tough for so many of us he came out as bragging.
Yes I had the gall to say. Sometimes the best of us forget basic human qualities like humility. If you see someone busting his *** to pay his bills you dont go and tell him to get a job with pension or why do you work so many hours.
Just because someone served or fought for my rights doesnt mean he can say anything he wants. I was still a gentleman and reminded Paul respectfully to be humble.
Paul worked hard, has great retirements and a pension. Served our country and I am thankful for that.
He was bragging and I reminded him to be humble, simple as that. I have no idea where you came from telling me " I have the gall to say that to Paul "
Lol please bud I respectfully ask you to go back and read again.
Paul B
Premium Member
Ssdawood is correct, I did say that.
I actually said: you will be retired for a long time and if you have a pension, it will be easier.
That probably came out as bragging, but it was meant to mean, think of your old age as well as your present responsibilities.
I realize everyone can't get a job with a pension. My pension is pretty good but I couldn't even pay my taxes with it. You still need 401Ks or other means of income if you want to enjoy your retirement. That is, if you want to retire, I know a lot of people have no interest in retiring and will just work until they die. I have a few friends like that and if that's what you want to do, go for it. :beer:
But if you don't want to or can't afford college, you can still make a good living, and, have a pension. But it will be a manual job which there is nothing wrong with.
Ssdawood, if you find me bragging again, please let me know. My wife does all the time. :worried:
I actually said: you will be retired for a long time and if you have a pension, it will be easier.
That probably came out as bragging, but it was meant to mean, think of your old age as well as your present responsibilities.
I realize everyone can't get a job with a pension. My pension is pretty good but I couldn't even pay my taxes with it. You still need 401Ks or other means of income if you want to enjoy your retirement. That is, if you want to retire, I know a lot of people have no interest in retiring and will just work until they die. I have a few friends like that and if that's what you want to do, go for it. :beer:
But if you don't want to or can't afford college, you can still make a good living, and, have a pension. But it will be a manual job which there is nothing wrong with.
Ssdawood, if you find me bragging again, please let me know. My wife does all the time. :worried:
Anyone who gives their life, willingly or not, for another human being is a hero in my book and most of the rest of societies book. It doesn't matter the profession.
Paul B
Premium Member
Back to fish. I remember when I first started my tank, it was brackish and held puffers, bumblebee gobies, archerfish, mono's and scats. Those fish live forever and especially scats, you have to step on them to kill them. But those were the only brackish fish available which is why I am grateful salt water fish became available.
I would go to the shore or a muddy beach and find animals to keep my blue devils company as them and sergeant majors were the only fish available. I would collect eels, minnows, horseshoe crabs, baby flounders, searobins and pipefish. My tank was very interesting, if not weird. All of those fish grow fast and I would have to bring themback to the sea. A flounder will grow a foot in a season and a sea robin will grow half that fast but eat everything in the tank while they are doing it. Eventually other fish became available and I released all the native stuff. I even had some tiny lobsters and large mantis shrimp.
I used NSW and the tank ran very well and was very healthy. For food I would crush snails or chop up sand worms that I would collect on the beach.
I miss those days as it was all you, no one to ask for advice and no books to read. You had to go to the shore to collect something interesting and build your own filters and lights.
It is a totally different hobby now. :sad2:
I would go to the shore or a muddy beach and find animals to keep my blue devils company as them and sergeant majors were the only fish available. I would collect eels, minnows, horseshoe crabs, baby flounders, searobins and pipefish. My tank was very interesting, if not weird. All of those fish grow fast and I would have to bring themback to the sea. A flounder will grow a foot in a season and a sea robin will grow half that fast but eat everything in the tank while they are doing it. Eventually other fish became available and I released all the native stuff. I even had some tiny lobsters and large mantis shrimp.
I used NSW and the tank ran very well and was very healthy. For food I would crush snails or chop up sand worms that I would collect on the beach.
I miss those days as it was all you, no one to ask for advice and no books to read. You had to go to the shore to collect something interesting and build your own filters and lights.
It is a totally different hobby now. :sad2:
Fishypapa
New member
Nobody's fault Paul. That's just the direction it took. I really enjoy reading your posts. :thumbsup:
Fishypapa
New member
I don't want to sidetrack this topic because I enjoy it. Everyone can express their opinion and there will always be those who disagree...
Not sad per say but like everything since the internet... it has changed. Everyone in the last 10+ years can be (or think they can) instant experts of anything after a few hours of browsing said inter-webs. Passing on and making information available is not a bad thing don't get me wrong, the problem is that people in this digital age form their opinions on things by what they saw the most of in those few hours looking not their own experience.
The age of "real" exploration and experimenting with nature and other things not on a computer is dead to most individuals in this day and age. This hobby will never again see or engage into the degree what you talk about in your 40+ years Paul. Sad but the truth. There will be people that test the limits but the true pioneering days are long gone and that is sad.
We are so "hands-off" now a days with everything as a society that new generations no longer see, understand or can be told where they came from and how we got here!!
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Paul B
Premium Member
Now everyone runs a tank in a similar was as we all get the information from the same place and all the suppliers sell the same type of livestock. The bread and butter in this hobby now is tangs, especially yellow tangs, hippo's, angels, and things like that.
I go for slightly weirder fish like clingfish, pipefish, possum wrasses and different types of gobies. I realize tangs are more colorful, but how many tangs can you have? And I find them boreing as they just swim and eat. Gobies, to me anyway, are more interesting, they spawn and sometimes hang out with shrimps, some dig holes or re-arrange the scenery, very few tangs, if any will text you.
I am babysitting now and just took Greta to the town pool. Now she is sleeping so I can get in some posting. :fun5:
I go for slightly weirder fish like clingfish, pipefish, possum wrasses and different types of gobies. I realize tangs are more colorful, but how many tangs can you have? And I find them boreing as they just swim and eat. Gobies, to me anyway, are more interesting, they spawn and sometimes hang out with shrimps, some dig holes or re-arrange the scenery, very few tangs, if any will text you.
I am babysitting now and just took Greta to the town pool. Now she is sleeping so I can get in some posting. :fun5:
Fishypapa
New member
Agree with most everything here and with what Paul was saying about it being completely different now. My 4.5 yo son is only allowed a tiny bit of computer and tv and only then, something educational which he loves. I work in biotech so I always bring home spare pieces of lab equipment when he love to do "experiments" with [mainly dirt and water and vinegar and baking soda stuff] and I tell him to try it and see what happens instead of explaining to him.
When he asks about the tank, corals, fish, etc. I either draw out for him what it is and how it becomes or show him on a good reference site. Unfortunately the societal things is systemic and not about to get "better" any time soon.
When he goes to the beach with his grandfather, he does what Paul was talking about and collects things then we see how and if they'll work in the tank.
Paul B
Premium Member
My Daughter always had a goldfish tank but never really got into fish. We did get her certified for SCUBA diving when she was 13 and she came on a few dives with us but she is not really into that either. I wish she was. She likes fishing and crabbing so at least that has something to do with the sea. I hope to get my Granddaughter interested but she lives in Manhattan and there is absolutely nothing to do there for a little girl.
We take her on the boat as much as we can and I hope she shares some of my interest of the sea, but I doubt it.
Probably next summer when she can speak and understand a little I will take her amphipod collecting. I wish someone took me collecting anything when I was her age. They just left me on a muddy beach for the day and I figured out everything eventually myself. No one in those days really took much of an interest in sea life except to eat it. I was, and still am fascinated by it and explore the same tide pool a few times a week even though I have been there a few times a week for years. I think it helps you to be successful in this hobby if you have a passionate love of the sea and it's creatures. It is not needed and people who live in the desert have fantastic tanks, but I would imagine it helps. People must look at me while I am collecting and say, what the heck is that Geezer doing looking under all those rocks. :lol:
This past week I found what was left of an old boat which was just a large, flat piece of fiberglass, I lifted it and there were eels, worms and dozens of crabs scurrying in all directions. I always put those things back the way they were so the creatures could go back to doing whatever it is that they do all day long when Geezers are not bothering them. :dance:
We take her on the boat as much as we can and I hope she shares some of my interest of the sea, but I doubt it.
Probably next summer when she can speak and understand a little I will take her amphipod collecting. I wish someone took me collecting anything when I was her age. They just left me on a muddy beach for the day and I figured out everything eventually myself. No one in those days really took much of an interest in sea life except to eat it. I was, and still am fascinated by it and explore the same tide pool a few times a week even though I have been there a few times a week for years. I think it helps you to be successful in this hobby if you have a passionate love of the sea and it's creatures. It is not needed and people who live in the desert have fantastic tanks, but I would imagine it helps. People must look at me while I am collecting and say, what the heck is that Geezer doing looking under all those rocks. :lol:
This past week I found what was left of an old boat which was just a large, flat piece of fiberglass, I lifted it and there were eels, worms and dozens of crabs scurrying in all directions. I always put those things back the way they were so the creatures could go back to doing whatever it is that they do all day long when Geezers are not bothering them. :dance:
reeftanknewbie
New member
Thanks Paul,
I was an mp/explosive dog handler in the Air Force (1991-1997). I would do the same exploring of tide pools when I was stationed in California. I had 42miles of untouched beach to play with since there was no access to civilians. Miss those days of living near the beach and smelling the ocean air.
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Paul B
Premium Member
Thats cool, a good friend of mine was a dog handler in Nam, now he is a dog trainer and trains hundreds of dogs here on Long Island.
No one went near the dog handlers because as you know, those dogs would tear your arm off if they mis-understood the handler. They were always by themselves.
I was scared top death of those dogs.
I hope to go boating tomorrow, I also can't be to far away from sea air.
Thanks for your service.
reeftanknewbie
New member
Thank you for your service. It was the same for me plus most of the army units I was attached to had no idea how to clear for explosives nor did they want to be around those who had bounties placed on them for the capture or otherwise of a dog team. The dog handlers worked hard and partied harder as there were so few of us. I even served with a French and British dog teams. Funny how they do things.
I had a dog training business for awhile and closed it when I moved back from New Mexico. Well enough about me as I am much less interesting then this thread.
How's the boat and tank.
Paul B
Premium Member
The boat is great and I plan to be on it quite often as the summer fades.
We are babysitting now but the baby comes on the boat as my Daughter always did.
I keep the boat clean and in perfect working order, and that is a lot of work with a boat. In saltwater, something always breaks or corrodes. I am still looking for the lower unit from my tiny dinghy outboard and will search some more this week as I have the GPS coordinates.
My favorite night is taking the girls out. They have a ball and we have been doing it for maybe 15 years. They are all my friends wife's and girls my wife works with. I have to take them far out because they all make so much noise and get back to their youth with the partying, dancing and singing. Of course we all like the oldies.
I want another waterproof camera before the summer is over so I can get some good pictures of the creatures in the tide pool.
The glass in my tank is filthy and gets like that every day now. This is new for the last few months and I don't know why it does that, but it will pass.
I like to clean my bilge and I am proud of it.
Time to take the little one to breakfast.
We are babysitting now but the baby comes on the boat as my Daughter always did.
I keep the boat clean and in perfect working order, and that is a lot of work with a boat. In saltwater, something always breaks or corrodes. I am still looking for the lower unit from my tiny dinghy outboard and will search some more this week as I have the GPS coordinates.
My favorite night is taking the girls out. They have a ball and we have been doing it for maybe 15 years. They are all my friends wife's and girls my wife works with. I have to take them far out because they all make so much noise and get back to their youth with the partying, dancing and singing. Of course we all like the oldies.
I want another waterproof camera before the summer is over so I can get some good pictures of the creatures in the tide pool.
The glass in my tank is filthy and gets like that every day now. This is new for the last few months and I don't know why it does that, but it will pass.
I like to clean my bilge and I am proud of it.
Time to take the little one to breakfast.
reeftanknewbie
New member
Very impressive on how clean the engine bay looks. You can tell you take a lot of pride in what you do. I would think having a boat would be a lot of fun and make you a popular guy. What was the most interesting things you found diving or searching the tide pools?
Paul B
Premium Member
My wife. Once we were diving in Turks and Caicos, it was a shallow dive but the curret was horrendous. On the way back to the boat I was clawing at the bottom to fight the current. I saw my wife having trouble so I grabbed her and with a lot of effort, we got her back to the boat. When she took off her mask. It wasn't my wife. Pretty girl, but not my wife. I ran to the back of the boat and jumped over the people coming up the ladder like Jacques Cousteau would have done. I get back to the bottom and see my wife, and she didn't look happy, so I grab her and she was fighting me as I dragged her to the surface. We get to the deck, she takes off her mask, and, she's still not my wife.
Another pretty girl, but again, the wrong one. Now I am really tired and I was trying to figure out which one of these pretty girls I will take home, when the deck hands help my wife up on the boat. That made my choice easy, but, boy was she mad at me. That was 20 years ago,. she only started talking to me last tuesday, and thats why we only have one kid. True story. :love2:
They all look alike underwater, don't they?
Another pretty girl, but again, the wrong one. Now I am really tired and I was trying to figure out which one of these pretty girls I will take home, when the deck hands help my wife up on the boat. That made my choice easy, but, boy was she mad at me. That was 20 years ago,. she only started talking to me last tuesday, and thats why we only have one kid. True story. :love2:
They all look alike underwater, don't they?
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