Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

I realize many people don't believe and it doesn't matter. In my house we say Grace before Christmas dinner, or at least Christmas Eve dinner and we always add a prayer for the children who are very sick in hospitals like this one in NYU in Manhattan.
I am not sure if it helps or not but we feel it can't hurt.

Those kids and infants all have a very severe case of cancer and many of them don't make it. I have had many chances to experience this first hand so for the people who do pray, I would like to ask for a prayer for these kids and their families.

 

[Paulie 069]

I realize many people don't believe and it doesn't matter. In my house we say Grace before Christmas dinner, or at least Christmas Eve dinner and we always add a prayer for the children who are very sick in hospitals like this one in NYU in Manhattan.
I am not sure if it helps or not but we feel it can't hurt.

Those kids and infants all have a very severe case of cancer and many of them don't make it. I have had many chances to experience this first hand so for the people who do pray, I would like to ask for a prayer for these kids and their families.

Thoughts and prayers for those children

 

[Paul B]

Many people think that Zombies get smarter with every brain they eat.....
Just food for thought.

 

[Paul B]

Most of us get cool stuff for Christmas and our birthdays but I am lucky as my birthday is actually on Christmas day.

Years ago I used to get a lot of presents because of that, but in those days everyone used to get more presents than now and that happens as we get older. We already have everything that we need so we get things like gift certificates for restaurants, Home depot, Regain, liposuction etc.

One big problem I, and I assume many older people have is we get a lot of electronics for gifts. Electronics don't work for old people and I honestly feel that feature is built into the device.

For instance this year I received from my wife a pedometer. I have been walking every day and I don't know if I am walking a mile or 20 miles so she got me this thing.

It is tiny and you wear it on your wrist. The "instructions" came on a piece of paper the size of those strips they put in fortune cookies and it is written in 5 languages none of which is English.

I just want the thing to tell me how many miles I walked and maybe the time, but that is an option I don't really need as I am retired and I don't care what time it is. I also don't need it to tell me what day it is because I am retired and every day is the same.

The device only has two buttons in it. One is marked "R" and one is marked "M".

I fooled around with it for most of Christmas day and it seems the "R" turns on a small light so you can read it after you fall in a storm drain because it is so tiny and you have to stare at it for a while and don't pay attention to where you are walking.

I think the "M" tells you how much weight Marie Osmond lost on Jenny Craig.

I am not yet sure how you can get it to tell you anything else but on the box it has all sorts of functions like your latitude, temperature, Blood pressure, footsteps, battery life, age of some rock singers, recipies etc.

So I wore it on my morning walk and all I can get it to do is tell me what time it is, in military time, but it is five and a half hours off. (I haven't yet used the function about Marie Osmond's weight) I was in the military and even then the time confused me so the thing is a great conversation piece and it will be relegated to my electronics drawer where I keep all my electronic gifts from years past because I have no idea how to use them.

Another gift that will go into that drawer is a lens set for my cell phone so I can take better pictures. There wasn't even a fortune cookie piece of paper to explain how to use these things but I figured out most of them through trial and error. The only part of it I can't figure out is the little remote push button that is supposed to tell the camera on your phone to take the picture. It says on it that it has a blue tooth. I swear I looked very hard and can't even find it's mouth so that will never work.
View attachment 1945064

Also, what is this obsession with passwords? Why do I need a password for everything? I am running out of passwords and had to start using Greek Characters. Why do I care if someone steals my password for my electric bill? If you want to pay it for me, go ahead. Or my cell phone. If someone steals my phone and they don’t have my password, how would they call me to tell me where it is. I don’t keep any banking information on my phone because I don’t know how to.

Speaking of cell phones, I have an I Phone 4. I think they are now up to 42 or so. My wife keeps telling me I need to get with the times and get a new phone. But I think mine is much better than hers. . When she wants to make a call or ask the thing something, I hear:

Siri, call,,,,,,Siri,,,,Si,,,,Siri cal,,,,"Who do you want to call?"

Siri, Call Bob,,,,,,,,,,"Who do you want to call?" Siri, call Bobby Str......

"To make a call, you can say things like Siry, call so and so" . And it goes on like that.

Also her phone sometimes talks to her when she is not even asking it anything. Once we were in Church for a funeral mass. It was dead quiet as it is for most funeral masses. The priest was in a part of the ceremony that called for total quiet and no one was making a sound.

All of a sudden, from seemingly nowhere everyone in the church hears this blasting from my wife's pocketbook:

"I didn't get that. You can ask me things like When is George Washington’s birthday, How much does it cost to ride the subway, What is Bono's middle name, who was Julius Caesars accountant". Would you like to ask me a question?"

I have a really nice, simple phone and it is also nice looking. I am not sure what type of wood it is made out of but it always works no matter what.

When I want to make a call I just look up the number in my phonebook, which I keep in my back pocket. Then I put a dime in the slot and dial the person I want to call. It always works. (Only in my area code of course)

These electronic things also come in such small boxes that it doesn't seem like there is anything under the tree. I liked the old days when there were such big presents you couldn't see the tree. Like for instance one year I got a set of tires for my 1962 Pontiac Bonneville and once I got outdrives for my boat. Now those were some cool boxes.

 

[Paul B]

We really need gender specific stores. because Men, like me have no patience. How many times do us men go into a store and there is a woman in front of us checking out. and she doesn't have exact change and searches in her bag for 15 minutes looking for it. My wife does that.

I say just give her a 20 and forget abut it. It isn't worth the wait.
Once my wife sent me into a Mall, a place where I would "never" go, to return something. I would just throw the thing out no matter what it cost. I get that "Mall look"

So I was on line thinking of what disease I would rather have that waiting here on line. Maybe irritable Bowell. Then, I figured the wait wasn't going to be to long because there were only two Ladies in front of me.

The first lady walked up to the cashier and also wanted to exchange something so she put it on the counter and explained to the salesgirl if she had this thing in yellow.

Now the two of them had to go look through the aisles for this yellow thing and couldn't find it. So now of course they had to order it so she had to look through a prism of colors to find the right yellow to match her shoes. If I had a chain saw I would have cut my head off.

Finally she was done. So there is only one lady in front of me so I figured I was almost out of there. Wrong.
She put the item on the counter and gave the salesgirl her credit card. It didn't work. Then she gave her a different credit card which also didn't work.

Now of course they have to call the bank because it just worked a while ago when she got her hair colored to pink.
The bank put her on hold as I was putting gas in the chain saw.
Then the sales girl and the customer realize they know each other and their kids went to the same school. Now they are showing each other pictures of their kids and their dogs.
I looked around for a file to sharpen the teeth on the saw.so I would get a clean cut on my neck.

Then it was my turn. I put the thing on the counter, told the girl to keep it and have a nice day and I walked out.

In a Men store we wouldn't have any of those problems.
There would be a girl, it doesn't matter what she looks like or if she had a nice personality because she doesn't have to say anything. She would be holding a pool cue stick.

The real man would say something like where are the "cro Bars". She would smile and point the pool cue in the direction of the cro bars. She would also have a box near her feet where the real man would put some money. Maybe five or ten bucks depending on what he is buying. That is not sexist . (A Ladies store could hire a man for this) It is so the store doesn't have to waste time paying this girl and she should make a good living and be paid in cash so she doesn't have to claim it on her taxes.

The real Man would then go to the cro bar aisle (because in a real Mans store only manly things would be sold, no incense burners, bed sheets or pink cell phone cases.)

At the cro bar aisle the price would be marked on each cro bar in red permanent marker and it would be priced in whole numbers, no 99 cents or anything silly like that.
If it is supposed to be $49.99, it is fifty bucks. $37. 23 would round out to $37.00 or $40.00. Real men don't need change as I always leave it on the counter or put it in one of those boxes that say homeless dogs, homeless Aardvarks, homeless Veterans, whatever is closest to me.

Then when we had the cro bar that we wanted we would look for that girl at the door.
Just inside the door would be a bucket. We would throw approximately how much we owe the store into the bucket.

Sometimes more, sometimes less. At the end of the day it will almost even out and everyone is happy.
If the store ends up with more money than they are supposed to get, they give it to the girl at the door.
This solves a multitude of problems and there are no lines in a Mens store.

I sometimes go food shopping with my wife and it is painful. It takes hours because she has to read every ingredient. Then she puts it in the carriage and in 5 minutes finds something better so she makes me put that first thing back.

Men have a different way of shopping. The first rule is never let the cart stop. If it stops you are finished.
Go in the store and head straight for whatever you want. Don't look at the colored donuts near the door or the paper towels on sale. Just head for the hamburgers, beer or whatever it is.

As you approach the item, raise your arm and in one quick movement grab the item and keep going. Then head to the next item. If you accidentally skip something, forget about it as you probably don't need it. Never go back.
Then search for the aisle that is the least crowded. Put the stuff on the belt as quickly as you can and estimate how much the stuff will cost. As soon as she scans everything put down a few bucks more than it is worth and run out without looking back.
Thats the way a Man shops.

Ladies should also have their own stores where no men are allowed. (Except the one at the door) They could have chairs, benches, tables with caramel lattes or anything else to make them comfortable. Then they could talk and show pictures of their kids or dogs. Everyone is happy and if the man is waiting home he makes dinner.

Now if this seems to anyone to be racist, sexist or anything not correct, delete it and send me a nasty letter, it seems fine to me. (and my wife who is a Lady and also read it and agrees I should have my own store)

 

[Paulie 069]

Great idea Paul , when do we break ground for new MAN STORE,, lol
by way I have pink cell phone case

 

[Paul B]

I just cleaned around under my tank and found a small, very stiff fish. I think it was one of my ruby red dragonettes.
Oh well. Better him than me.

I think it was there for quite a while because it is a hard place to get to.

No, he didn't have parasites, intestinal worms, velvet or all those other silly things that are talked about on forums.
Maybe those parasites that can fly 10' grabbed him and flew him out of the tank.

Actually it was the female as I still see the male, and he looks fantastic.

 

[Paulie 069]

I just cleaned around under my tank and found a small, very stiff fish. I think it was one of my ruby red dragonettes.
Oh well. Better him than me.

I think it was there for quite a while because it is a hard place to get to.

No, he didn't have parasites, intestinal worms, velvet or all those other silly things that are talked about on forums.
Maybe those parasites that can fly 10' grabbed him and flew him out of the tank.

Actually it was the female as I still see the male, and he looks fantastic.

Well least still have one

 

[Paul B]

This morning I got up at my usual 4:30 or 5:00 and I normally go for a walk. It was predicted to be 16 degrees now so I didn't prepare to go but they lied, it is 33 degrees which would have been fine. Too late now as I lost my window of opportunity.

As I am waiting for my wife to get up I am baking muffins for breakfast like I do when I have nothing else to do and my fish are also sleeping and don't want to be bothered.
Muffins are very easy to bake and I find it relaxing.

We are having a couple of neighbors over for New Years eve for dinner. They were just tested for Covid and we think it will be fine.
I will bake some bread and my wife started spaghetti and meatballs/sausage.

She makes a great sauce and it has to simmer all day. I think my Mother taught her and my Mother was very Sicilian. She was born in Manhattan near the Bowery like my Dad and grew up speaking Italian because her parents came here from Sicily in about 1900 and didn't speak a word of English.
My parents learned English in school like all people living in Little Italy in Manhattan in those days.

Across the street was China Town and no one there spoke English either as they all came from China.

I would imaging the people who came from Tunisia spoke Tunionese.

Yesterday we went to the Italian market 40 minutes away. You can't get the proper ingredients in a regular supermarket even if it says "imported from Italy" .

You need an authentic Italian market and they are few in between. Not many left.
The place we go makes the pasta there in front of you as well as the sausage, right from the pig.

It isn't cheap but if you want good food, thats what you have to do. Us Americans (including me) are totally spoiled with the food we get here in the US.
The olive oil we have available isn't even close to what they have in Italy, Greece and Spain.

When they open a bottle of olive oil in Italy you can immediately smell it all over the room. Olive oil here is good for rubbing on your feet for callouses or putting a nice sheen on your stainless steel refrigerator but thats it.

We can't get good oil here and I spend over $100.00 for a gallon of the stuff. We think it's good. But we are wrong.
The good stuff is made by small families in the mountains and each batch is pressed by hand and not processed at all.
It's the same with cheese. The stuff we get thats made in a factory and mixed with a Toyota tractor is not good cheese. Thats another thing we can't get here. Italian specialty stores get a good quality cheese and it is as good as we can get. But if you only have an A&P, or 7 / 11, forgetaboutit and go to "Red Lobster"

I was going to make stuffed calamari, baked clams and clam chowder but the people coming are not Italian and a lot of people don't eat that stuff. I grew up on it so for me it is a normal breakfast.

Italian market in the Bronx




One of my favorite meals is clams over black linguine.

 

[Paul B]

CRASH!!!!!!!.

No, not my reef, don't be ridiculous, I have a reverse undergravel filter and everyone who has a reverse undergravel in their tank that crashed, raise your hand.....Higher.

My worm culture crashed. It didn't crash because the worms died, it crashed because I have to many worms. And flies. My two worm cultures are inundated with flies. The fly larvae looks just like worms but a little shorter and the flies are really annoying. They fly around and crash into my bald head.

I tried many things to rid the thing of flies including completely flooding the culture overnight and leaving it outside when it is 35 degrees. The flies just laugh at my feeble attempts and their squeeky laughing really grates on me and exasperates my already grated PTSD.

I also built a container with a small fan on top where it would collect the flies as they hatched and sucked them into a net.

So today I left them outside where it is 30 degrees to stop them from laughing then I quickly flooded their container while holding a huge shop vac over it and as each fly warmed up and climbed out, I sucked them up.

I don't have one of those Sissy Girly shop vac's, this one I built and it will suck the ear wax out of your ears from 10' away through 5/8" sheetrock.

Then I kept running water into the container and pouring it out until it was clean with not a trace of worm or fly poop. After that I poured the entire thing through a course net and ran water over it for 15 minutes which removed most of the soil and those pesky gnats or whatever those little bugs are.

The next step was to swirl what was left, a little at a time in a round container. That congregates the remaining worms in the center and now they feel like they just went to midnight mass and drank to much wine. I sucked up masses of them with a baster thing that I built and put them in a clean container.

I collected about a pint of pure worms. I am sure some of those fly larvae got in but I can't be sure.

I threw out thousands of worms but I still have another culture that has even more flies in it. They are outside now where they may freeze. I will show them.

I may rescue those worms but I have so many that I really don't have to.

I am also considering a new way to collect the worms. I am going to try to use vermiculite which is really tiny pieces of Styrofoam instead of soil. To collect the worms I will just flood it and the vermiculite floats while the worms sink so I can suck them up with a baster. I am not sure how the worms will fare in vermiculite but the next time I go to a garden center, I will get some.

 

[Paul B]

Playing with my new lenses. I got this Hippo when she was very small. She has never eaten seaweed, algae or nori.

Very pregnant Watchgirl

 

[Paulie 069]

Looks great MR. B

 

[diana a]

What does the Hippo eat?

 

[Paul B]

The Hippo eats what the rest of my fish eat. Cake on Christmas but the rest of the year they eat LRS food, frozen mysis, clams and live white worms.
They have not complained yet and I have not had a fish die from a communicable disease since probably the 80s.

 

[deepblue68]

My mom just made stuff calamari Christmas eve love it!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

[Paul B]

 

[Paulie 069]

View attachment 34177

Now that’s a good looking couple

 

[Paul B]

Today I took our Christmas tree down. For many years I would remove the ornaments and lights then carry the thing outside and spend the next few weeks picking up needles. About 10 years ago I started doing it this way. I put a fifty gallon garbage can on a dolly and roll it next to the tree. Put down a drop cloth and with a pruning sheers remove all the branches and put them in the can. Then throw out the middle stick. Very little mess. This is whats left.

I also kept my indoor lights in this box. You can see how old it is. It was made in the US in the town I lived in. I used that filter for many years.

 

[Paul B]

Someone on another forum (yes, there are other forums) asked me if my theory of no quarantining and medication would work in a brand new tank.
I put this here on my thread because I know no one comes here so no one will argue with me.

I posted this:

You are correct, it will not work in a new tank. Especially if you are using dry rock and ASW. Nothing will work in a new tank because no new tanks are healthy. I wrote an article in my book about this but somewhere in the beginning of my book it reads, "This book is not for Noobs with a new tank" or something like that.

Noobs will always have problems but it is not your fault so don't beat yourself up. It is the bacteria and other micro fauna's fault. Those are the things that run our tanks, not you. They determine when you can add corals, when certain fish can be added and when the tank will generally be healthy. It will not happen in a year or two, sorry.

But to make you feel better, this hobby has no end (I just posted this someplace) There is no time you will say, I finally did it and can call my tank a success. (I can and will explain)

Keeping a tank is like sailing an expensive Yacht. You don't really want to get any place, you are enjoying the journey, the scenery, the breeze, and gentle water splashing on you, the conversation and wine.

The only end to that pleasure is the dock at the end. Unless of course you sink. Just like your tank crashing.

If you wanted to get someplace, why would you board a very expensive piece of machinery and go maybe 5 MPH while getting splashed?

In March of this year my reef will be running fifty years. All of the time that I have had this tank running I said many times that I won't call it a success until it is 50 years old. That is the age I placed on what I can call success. Some people may say 6 months is success. That is their goal.

I also said many times, that if it runs 50 years I will call my theory about not quarantining and how bacteria and parasites react with the tank correct.
I think that time is long enough to prove my thoughts as no scientific test lasts that long.

All the people for almost 50 years that keep saying "I have been lucky" that velvet didn't crash my tank are wrong. It is not luck and in March I will call it a success. If it crashes then. It is still a success.

Using my own criteria for my own tank, I can't call any quarantined tank a success until one reaches 50 years old. I am not sure how long I can wait because as my tank has been aging, I have not been in a coma or in space traveling faster than the speed of light looking for the end of the universe which I know is a brick wall with tar paper on top and beyond that, Strawberry fields forever.

Prove me wrong.

 

[deepblue68]

Always enjoy and anticipate your next post paulie!