Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

So I finished my Pre Surgery check up yesterday for the Knee I am getting for my birthday on Christmas and they asked me if I had any loose teeth. I said no.
Just now I was brushing my teeth, and my front tooth fell out. You know you are old when parts start falling off of you. (it was an implant)

Now I have to try to get that fixed before my surgery in 2 days or I can't fix it for months because I am not allowed to have dental work after the surgery. I am not quite sure why as I didn't know your tooth nerve was connected to your knee nerve.​

 

[Paul B]

The Grand Kids are all excited for Christmas and kind of noisy which is driving me crazy so I decided to take them for a little walk by the sea. In their Pajamas

 

[diana a]

God is checking to make sure you're ready to deal with the pain. Good luck with the dentist. My 15 year old dislocated his knee last Monday and will need will need surgery to repair the torn tendon.

Wow I feel for the person who owns that car! Love the look of the trees!

 

[Paul B]

I have to say I have a great wife. Last night she threw me a fantastic surprise birthday party at a hard cider mill here. She had about 40 of our closest friends and it was a blast. Well, as blasty as it can get for Geezers.
Some of these people we know from high school.
I was totally surprised, everyone kept it a big secret. She threw me a 30th, 40thy, 50th, 60th and I still didn't catch on. Boy, am I easy to fool.

 

[Crabby48]

Happy birthday @Paul B. Your wife and you have something that a lot of couples don’t have anymore. Your both lucky.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[diana a]

Happy birthday! Sounds like you had the perfect day.

 

[Paul B]

There was a little complication with my knee surgery that the nurse filmed for me.

 

[diana a]

Hope you are doing okay and the pain isn't too bad. My mom had knee surgery a few years ago and she said the pain was horrible. PT was painful too. Hopefully that isn't the case for you. Hope you bounce back 100% quickly

 

[Paul B]

Thanks Diana

I think I found out why I am in so much pain. I noticed this morning that my backside is all black and blue. So they must have dropped me off the table, then dragged me over railroad ties by my feet before they got me back on the operating table using a bumper jack from a 196 7 Oldsmobile Cutlass. That must be it.

My PT girl will be here any minute to push me around a little. But she is very nice and loves my art work.

Yesterday we were laying on the bed and she was massaging my leg to try to get some of the swelling down. My wife called and I told her where we were and asked her if she knew where any massaging lotion was.
Only a great wife would laugh at that. A Snowflake wife would run home to see what we were doing.

Like this 40 year old Therapist would take that kind of interest in a lug nut like me. Like Really! ​

 

[Paul B]

I made it downstairs to my workshop to see my fish. It wasn't easy and it's the first time I got off the walker since the operation but my fish needed me.
I was going to jump down,but I figured it was prudent to use a cane. I had to take extra drugs to get here but I saved some for my fish, who look very good by the way. Nothing at all has been done to the tank in 2 weeks and I have had multiple people who have no idea what a fish is besides dinner feeding them. I made up some frozen food packates and thats what they use. I normally thaw and rinse them but I can't ask people to do to much so I just tell people to toss them in. By doing this, I really should change the water but thats not going to happen. I only did one water change since I moved here 5 months ago which is almost normal for me but not after all this abuse.
My algae scrubber is growing produce and my skimmer looks like a cement mixer but the fish have to live with me, I don't have to live with them, so they will have to conform.

Everything looks great, no dying corals or croaking fish and the spawning fish are still spawning. I am surprised the 2 dragon faced pipefish are still in the front and partying as I have not target fed them yet.

Of course if I ran a sterile, quarantined tank, I would be looking for a new hobby by now as those tanks can't take any abuse. I also have no idea what any parameters are but whatever they are, it's the same as the Long Island Sound where I got the water from. Now that I am thinking about it, I may dose some calcium. I don't remember doing that yet.

 

[Paul B]

If I choose to lose the walker for a few minutes and use the cane, I pay for it. That titanium in my leg may have come from a Snowflake titanium mine
In Girly Man town because it won't let me put my full weight on it yet. But I keep pushing it. They also forgot to put a grease fitting in it.
I spent the day yelling at elevator construction workers but I think I got it to where they are coming at 8:00am and I am not allowing them to leave until I ride the thing down. Then they will have to get every greasy fingerprint off my siding and every piece of saw dust off my driveway, and remove every piece of trash before I pay them. And they have to take that trash with them as it is not allowed to go into my dumpster. I made sure that was in my contract. ​

 

[diana a]

Good grief! Your elevator isn't fully functional yet? I am sure they want their money with Christmas just around the corner. Hope it is finished by tomorrow.

 

[Paul B]

Diana, I have some Gabapentin pills laying around. I am going to try a few of those just for fun. I threw out the OXY pills as they are only good for Christmas Tree fertilizer and don't do anything for pain.

YYYYyyaaaaaaaaaa My elevator is working. It was a long process but it is finally done. I had to do some of the work because I doubt these guys would ever get it running but now it is. Many "Craftsman" can't figure out things unless they have the exact part or tool. Thats like if I said, I have a piece of cheese cake, but I can't eat it because I don't have a fork, only spoons.

 

[diana a]

Happy to read that it is working. Kids these days are no MacGyver..lack of extraordinary knack for unconventional problem solving. My oldest son was attending 3 1/2 years of college at Rowan U here in NJ. He decided he wants to be an electrician. We have found that there seems to be no great trade schools. It seems to be a lost art.

Hope with each passing day you are feeling better.

 

[Paul B]

Yes it is. But if he could get in the Union, they will send him to school and train him.

 

[Paul B]

A little Viet Nam memory I learned about this morning.

This morning I called my old Captain from Viet Nam who is now a retired General. We stayed friends after the war but he lives in DC. He has a great memory and I barely remember why I started to write this. I remember almost nothing from my time in Nam. I have PTSD which may have something to do with that. I also have two Bronze Stars for Valor that I have no idea what I got them for. It must have been for my winning attitude or great smile.

I stayed on LZs or landing zones for helocopters all over the Jungle mostly on the Cambodian border. Thats the way that war was fought, from those small clearings.
Anyway I had a duck there. I have pictures of the duck but I remember little of my duck except he was the best pet I ever had.
My General friend told me that one day we were going on a raid. It was me and him in a Jeep, a Duster, which is a lightly armored, tracked anti aircraft vehicle, a few trucks and 3 Howitzers.
About 20 infantry were also with us. Bill, my Captain told the Duster driver to lead the way.

The guy says: "I am not a bomb detector so I am not leading the way" (big sissy) So Bill says "No Problem, me and Sgt. Baldassano (me) will lead the way in a Jeep." (lucky me)
It was raining so hard and it was so muddy that the rain would kick up the mud all over you so we had to wear goggles. Army Jeeps had no windshields or roofs. He told the "convoy" to keep going and not to stop no matter what.

After a while I looked back and there was no one behind us. With the roar of the monsoon rain we couldn't hear anything. The Captain called them on the radio and they took some fire so they all stopped and started firing into the trees. It was probably one NVA or Viet Cong with nothing to do.
Now we were so far ahead and it was raining so hard we couldn't find them. We also had to keep emptying our goggles of mud. Bill told them to fire one red shot straight up in the air so we could see their location. They did that and eventually we found them.

This was supposed to be a one day raid but it took five days.
We get to the village where we were supposed to be and set up the three Howitzers. The infantry set up a perimeter. There was something happening a few hundred yards away so I said (stupidly) I will go and see what it is.
He said I was gone for half an hour and he sees me coming back with this duck. I don't remember what else happened there, but I got a duck. He was my best friend for the rest of my time and he would not leave my side.
But my Captain said he got into a lot of trouble for that duck.

We were loading a Schnook Helocopter with ammo and the Colonel was there.
Me and Doc, the Medic were carrying a stretcher into the helocopter and tied to the stretcher was our dog "Ratsass", on the stretcher we had Judy the monkey and Pete the other monkey and my duck.
The Colonel was furious and yelled at Bill.
Then another time the Colonel came to visit us on an LZ and I had my duck in an enclosure made out of artillery shells with a roof for shade and a pond. He again went nuts. But Bill told him "Just leave Sgt. Baldassano alone, He will do anything or build anything I ask out of bamboo or crashed helocopters".
He also told me I made chop sticks and cups for everyone from bamboo. Another memory I lost.

My friend DukDuk

 

[Paul B]

I looked close at my tank last night and I still have a load of those flatworms but they are darker. That usually means they are on their way out (or they got a tan) They did not hurt anything and are welcome back. I don't know what is in Flatworm Exit but I doubt it exists in the sea. Almost all "pests" will leave on their own and I have never in my life dipped a coral in anything. Maybe I am very lucky or just stupid.

I also don't fresh water dip my fish or ever had to de-worm anything. I am not sure why. I never remember losing a fish to worms or flukes. Maybe the naturalness of my tank somehow alleviates those concerns. I find that a natural tank with natural methods and foods, with no Alien chemicals equals success in this hobby.

I consider quarantine an Alien method that short circuits my entire method and, to me anyway, almost guarantees disaster "eventually". A tank can not be self maintaining for an extended amount of time using that method unless you continue to use un-natural methods because by short circuiting the natural life style of the fish you are dooming them to a much shorter lifespan.
All of our fish should only die from jumping out or old age. Anything else is a total failure. If a clownfish dies of something at 15 years old, that is a failure as that fish can live 30 years.

But for a fish, any fish to complete it's presumed lifespan, it needs to be a complete fish, eating it's normal complete food which means parasites and bacteria. A complete fish has a complete, working immune system that is used constantly for what it was designed for. Quarantined fish lack that ability and IMO, not a complete fish but a fish artificially being kept alive by extra ordinary means in an un natural, quizi sterilized system.


Of course there is bacteria in every system, but disease bacteria is needed along with good bacteria, viruses and parasites as they all work together to keep each of them in check.
I know I am beating a dead horse with this and that horse is beginning to stink, but just look at the disease threads on any forum. Look at all the medications used. See how many fish are dying un needlessly.

It is all due to un natural conditions that people invented through out the history of this hobby to try to fix a situation that we ourselves created.

Quarantine "causes" disease, not the other way around. Of course if you get a fish in the process of getting last rites, you need to do something, but you should not have gotten that fish in the first place.

Most threads start out with . I bought such and such a fish, it was eating well then in 4 days it developed spots. I dipped him, treated with Prizapro and watched him deteriorate for a week until it died so I blame the store.


Isn't it odd that that never happens to me. Am I that good an aquarist? No, I am not. I do have experience and common sense that came from killing many many fish.
Unfortunately these methods have been rumored into us for decades and we will never be successful in this hobby until we turn to a more natural approach which is also much cheaper and easier.
Just my pain induced, drug related opinion of course.
I am also a year older today so that makes me more senile. I am old, senile, in pain and crotchety so if you don't agree with any of this. Forget about it and plant some tomatoes. ​

 

[diana a]

Happy birthday!!!!!

 

[Paul B]

Thank you Diana.

 

[Paul B]

I am all excited, soon I will go to my Doctor to get my "glue" removed. You can't get stitches removed any more because they don't use them. Only glue which they stick you together with and put a piece of tape over. The glue and tape is all scurvy and filthy looking from the last 2 weeks. I assume they will need nail polish remover to get this stuff off of me but it is itchy and ruins the beautiful shape of my leg.

I asked Greta my Grand Daughter if she wants to see it. I said it is all yucky and oozing. She ran away and yelled DISCUESTING, NO.

Today I will also buy some fish food because my Dr, is right near a large LFS and I am almost out of food. Another day and my fish will have to eat linguini can clams like the rest of us.

The tank is doing great but needs a water change. When I can walk better I will collect some water and hopefully some mud.
Everything is doing what it is supposed to do and nothing jumped out in quite a while. I do need a new white worm culture as mine is just to old and stinky. It is many years old. Luckily I have some fresh clams to feed the fish.​