Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[diana a]

Okay...I shop like you and have no patience when returning. I seldom return items. I don't want to have a conversation with no one there. I bee line to the item I want and leave. I hate the mall. I only go food shopping on mondays when most are at work.

 

[MadReefer]

Same, in and out. Get what I want and leave. I shop at night less people.

 

[Paul B]

There is a huge outdoor Mall here with thousands of stores. I think I have been there once in the 5 years I live here. And it is only about 4 miles away. People in there really have no life.

 

[redfishbluefish]

There is a hugs outdoor Mall here with thousands of stores. I think I have been there once in the 5 years I live here. And it is only about 4 miles away. People in there really have no life.

I like to get my hugs indoors and in smaller mom and pop stores! I'll give you one next time I see you....indoors of course.

Sorry Paul, I couldn't resist your fat finger typo.

 

[Paul B]

I just seen it and fixed it. "Hugs" OMG.

 

[Paul B]

Happy New Year. Lets hope 2024 is better than 2023.

Today is the day all the tourists go to Times Square. YYYyyaaaaaa. Us New Yorkers know better and wouldn't be caught dead there.

But have a Happy and healthy New Year, wherever you are.

 

[diana a]

Same to you Paul and everyone else

 

[Paul B]

I think I want to talk about health because today I am all excited. People health, not fish as that has been done to death and IMO fish should never get sick, we make them sick.

But since this is my thread and very few people read it I am going to discuss our health a little. Of course I am not a doctor and don't play one on You Tube but I lived a long time and this last Christmas I turned 75 years old.

Yes, the world was here 75 years ago and it was much better then, but thats for another thread and the opinions would curl your toes.

Many hobbyists seem to be afraid of their fish getting sick and I can understand that. For quite a few years I also worried about that. Not any more but more importantly I have been trying to get myself and my wife, who has MS into better shape without relying to much on medications.

Except for arthritis that most of us get especially if we had a physical job and didn't sit in front of a computer all day looking at the ceiling going Doot da Doo- Doot da Do, all day.

This morning I stepped on a scale and realized that in the 5 years I have been living out on the east end of Long Island, I lost 30 pounds. I wasn't a Moose when I moved here but obviously I needed to lose 30 lbs. My wife nagged me for almost all of the 50 years we have been married to lose weight so I decided to do it and it was no problem. I am a good Italian cook and I cook a lot. I also like to eat so I eat a lot. I like a drink now and again or at least once a day so I have that.

But every morning just before the sun comes out I walk. I walk for almost an hour even in the pouring rain, driving snow or freezing temperatures. It seemed to work. But I wanted to lose more and also feel better. I have been taking acid blocking medication for as long as I can remember and I didn't want to because like copper and Prizapro, the stuff is poison.

My wife used to get terrible pains at night so her doctor gave her pills. Most older people take pills for everything just like many of us use medications on our fish all the time. But it may not be needed and natural is almost always better.

I make my wife what she calls "Jumping Juice" once a month and she drinks a little every day. If she forgets, she is in pain at night but the juice fixes that with no meds. It's just beets, tart cherry juice, ginger, berries and a few other easy, cheap things.

We take a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar twice a day. It cured my acid and bloating and as an added benefit, I lost more weight. It was supposed to do that but I am not gullible so never believed it.

The only other thing we do is take a spoonful of something else I make. It's whole garlic cloves, "local" honey and fresh ginger. You leave it in a jar for a couple of months and it tastes like candy.

I used to look like Tim Conway, but now I look just like Brad Pitt.
I feel great and if I could get new bones, I would probably be able to fly.
My thoughts on fish are nearly the same which is why I don't have to ever quarantine or medicate as I think that is counter productive.
I wish good health and a Happy and Healthy New Year to everyone.

 

[Paul B]

I like this small diatom filter so much that I put it on the tank almost every day just to look at it.

It's on it now. I just stick the suction hose in the tank to start the siphon and plug it in.

I may build another one just because I can even though I now have 2 of them.

 

[Paul B]

I take silly Cholesterol pills but I think I will throw them out. Maybe feed some to my firefish. They are 33 years old and they annoy me as I can't put my hand in the tank. They are also "constantly" spawning and it annoys me. They think they are teenagers.

(Yes I am Jealous)

My cholesterol has never been high but the doctor tells me that because my Dad had a severe heart attack and died when he was 47, (I was 10) I should take cholesterol pills. So I guess if he got hit by a New York City subway train and died, I should have walked to work for 48 years.


They didn't do an autopsy on my Dad so we really don't know why he was just standing there and fell to the floor and died. But that is actually common in men in their 40s. He also had a fish market and ate nothing but the healthiest, oiliest fish all his life. Go figure.

He was seemingly very healthy, could swim for miles and was a Golden Gloves Boxer.
Also very calm and peaceful but my Mom used to say, he is very nice but don't touch his nose as he was not afraid of anything or anyone. Growing up on the docks of New York City in the 20s will do that to you.

My Dad probably had an aneurysm or defect in his aorta that he was born with. He lived in Brooklyn so maybe he had Brooklyina. Who knows.

(My Wife's Dad also died of the same thing, the same way, at the same age and they are buried facing each other in the same cemetery.)

I get a stress test every few years where you run on a treadmill as fast as you can while your overweight Cardiologist monitors you.

During the test he keeps saying "Fabulous, just fabulous", and the last time I took the test I told him, " you know you could give up some of those Jelly beans you have on your desk and jump up here to see how you do".

Thats my Dad on the left when he was 17 and his Dad on the right in his fish market. The guy in the middle is probably Jimmy Hoffa.

 

[Paul B]

Cold, dark, 23 degree, windy walk this morning. This is a Mans walk just before the sun rose.
It makes you feel alive. (I know, I look like a terrorist) Hard to take a selfie with big mittens on.

Walking, especially in the cold, rain or snow clears my head and allows my wife to sleep without me making a lot of noise.

 

[Paul B]

• So now cocaine is legal in Oregon, but straws aren’t. That must be frustrating..
  
  Still trying to get my head around the fact that ‘Take Out’ can mean food, dating, or murder.
  
  Threw out my back sleeping and tweaked my neck sneezing so I’m probably just one strong fart away from complete paralysis.
  
  The older I get, the more I understand why roosters scream to start their day.
  
  Being popular on Facebook is like sitting at the ‘cool table’ in the cafeteria of a mental hospital.
  
  You know you’re over 50 when you have ‘upstairs ibuprofen’ and ‘downstairs ibuprofen’.
  
  How did doctors come to the conclusion that exercise prolongs life, when… the rabbit is always jumping but only lives for around two years, and… the turtle that doesn’t exercise at all lives over 200 years.
  
  I too was once a male trapped in a female body…but then my mother gave birth.
  
  If only vegetables smelled as good as bacon.
  
  The biggest joke on mankind is that computers have begun asking humans to prove they aren’t a robot.
  
  When a kid says “Daddy, I want mommy” that’s the kid version of “I’d like to speak to your supervisor”.
  
  It’s weird being the same age as old people.
  
  Just once, I want a username and password prompt to respond CLOSE ENOUGH.
  
  Last night the internet stopped working so I spent a few hours with my family. They seem like good people.
  
  If Adam and Eve were Cajuns they would have eaten the snake instead of the apple and saved us all a lot of trouble.
  
  We celebrated last night with a couple of adult beverages …… Metamucil and Ensure.
  
  You know you are getting old when friends with benefits means knowing someone who can drive at night.
  
  Weight loss goal: To be able to clip my toenails and breathe at the same time.
  
  After watching how some people wore their masks, I understand why contraception fails.
  
  Some of my friends exercise every day. Meanwhile I am watching a show I don’t like because the remote fell on the floor.
  
  For those of you that don’t want Alexa or Siri listening in on your conversation, they are making a male version….it doesn’t listen to anything.
  
  I just got a present labeled, ‘From Mom and Dad,’ and I know darn well that Dad has no idea what’s inside.
  
  Now that Covid has everyone washing their hands correctly…next week…Turn Signals.
  
  Someone said, “Nothing rhymes with orange.” I said, “No, it doesn’t.”
  
  The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The realist adjusts his sails.
  
  There’s a fine line between a numerator and a denominator. Only a fraction of people will find this funny.
  
  Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.
  
  I have many hidden talents. I just wish I could remember where I hid them.
  
  My idea of a Super Bowl is a toilet that cleans itself.
  
  Exercise helps you with decision-making. It’s true. I went for a run this morning and decided I’m never going again.

  
  

 

[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 posted this on some other forums and figured I would also put it here.

I have been SCUBA diving since Nixon was President (right after Lincoln) and a couple of hundred of those dives were right here in New York in near zero visibility. Every year the sea changes and sometimes so much you think you were in a different place.

Sometimes the sea floor is covered in red algae, sometimes sea lettuce, and sometimes nothing.
I used to dive for lobsters every weekend and normally the lobsters are in holes during the day so we dove a lot at night.

One year the sea bottom was covered in a "mat" of some type of "algae" or other organic "stuff" about a foot thick and it went on as far as I could swim. I could only lift it at the edges but it was very heavy.

The lobsters were all on top of the stuff "staggering" as they tried to remain upright..

I called the EPA to tell them something was wrong with the lobsters and explained what I saw. They told me that maybe the lobsters were eating mussels on top of the seaweed and there was nothing wrong.

Then all the lobsters in the Long Island Sound disappeared for a few years. I never heard a word about it but the lobster industry crashed.

Also the Sound used to be covered in starfish. All at once, they disappeared and are now extinct here. I haven't seen a starfish in years but they used to cover the rocks at low tide.

I am here every day and never find one starfish. No one knows why.


I used to have an urchin collection business where I would collect them for hobbyist tanks for algae control. They were all over everything. Now extinct.

When I used to fish here I would catch 10 blowfish for every flounder. The blowfish disappeared and we had all the flounders we could spear. Sometimes I could spear 3 at a time because they were so thick on the bottom.

Then all at once the flounders left and we were left with bergills which are trash fish and mostly bones. They are now extinct and we have almost nothing but sea robins.

The sea like our tanks change greatly but most people don't keep a tank long enough to notice these changes.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Paul, you just gave me a rush of a déjà vu moment…..

Lobsters: Bob A. taught me the best way to catch lobsters. We were originally told to bring a prod…a stick…and use it to prod the lobster out of the holes. Bob told me to forget the prod and simply make a fist and stick it in the hole. If there’s a lobster, he’ll grab your wrist and now you’ve got it. Worked great. And yes about visibility. In NJ, if we got in the water and could see our hand with an extended arm, we’d call our friends and tell them visibility was excellent.

Blow Fish: When they were running, we’d be down on the beach with one of us casting and pulling them in with the other one cleaning out that small little piece of meat….who couldn’t keep up with the fisher. We’d dig a hole in the sand and bury their guts. Couldn’t get your line back into the water quick enough. As soon as you’d cast, you’d have another fish. I haven’t seen blowfish in NJ since the early 70’s. And forget about what we’d call doormat fluke…..gone!

Once I started diving in Florida in 1972, I no longer dove in NJ.

 

[Paul B]

LOL, I dove for lobsters in the western sound for many years and many times at night when the visibility was better (with a light) but still never much better than 2' or so, usually about 12"

I used a CB antenna that I put a wooden handle on. I would touch their tail and they would turn around and I would grab them. I didn't just stick my hand in a hole because some of those lobsters were like 2' long and would have pulled what was left of me into the hole and feed me to his kids after he took my arm off.

I knew where one of those giant lobsters lived and I used to feed him a flounder every time I went there.

I don't have any SCUBA diving pictures here in New York because you couldn't take a picture. This was off Execution Lighthouse in the western Sound, one of my favorite dive sites.

 

[Paul B]

I am so excited, I just now received this E Mail from "Reefing with ReefBum" who interviewed me on YouTube. It blew me away and I can't wait to call her.

I remember this letter.

Hi Paul, I hope you are well. I received a very unique email from someone who is trying to contact u. Below is the entire email.

Happy New Year!

Keith

From: Kathleen F_______
Subject: Paul Baldassano

Message Body:
Dear Keith:
My name is Kathleen F______. I wrote to Sargent Paul Baldassano in Vietnam when I was in 4th grade as part of a Junior Amvet program I was in. My Dad was very involved in Veteran organizations so he signed up his children to participate. I have a returned letter from him and just found it again in my attic.
I just did a google search and find your interview with Paul posted to YouTube.
I would very much like to reach out to him. Would it be possible for you to reach out to him and if I could write to him? My address is ------------

I remember that letter and texted her. She said she has Goosebumps and will call me tonight. She sent me the letter that I sent her in 1970.

She texted me the letter I sent her but I can't figure out how to put it on here from my text.

 

[Paul B]

Kathleen called me last night and my wife and I were so excited. She is a very well read and intelligent sounding Lady who is also very accomplished. She is still working as an executive for a huge company that everyone knows. She can speak some Spanish and French and traveled and lived much of the world.

We spoke about 45 minutes and we invited her here as she is in New Jersey so not to far away.
Very nice conversation and I can't wait to meet her.

Recently she visited the Viet Nam Memorial Wall in DC and searched for my name on the there. Of course I wasn't there so she figured I lived through the war. (I am also happy about that)

She was cleaning her attic and came across the letter I wrote to her from Viet Nam. She Googled me and came across my interview with ReefBum on YouTube and in the beginning of that interview Keith (the owner and interviewer) mentioned that I was a Sargent in Viet Nam and lived on Long Island so she figured it had to be me.

 

[redfishbluefish]

What a great story Paul. Thanks for sharing.

 

[diana a]

So nice to read