Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

Dear Ma and Pa,

I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.

I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 5 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.

Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much.

We go on "route marches," which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A "route march" is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.

The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none.

This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.

Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake . I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I'm only 5'6" and 130 pounds and he's 6'8" and near 300 pounds dry.

Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.

Your loving daughter,

Alice

 

[diana a]

Happy thanksgiving! God bless you and your family

 

[Paul B]

You also Diana. I can always count on you to read my dribble on here.

On wednesday we went to City Island off the Bronx. It is an old, small Island full of sea food restaurants. We used to go there by boat all the time.

Greta, our Grand Daughter loves crab, so we got her some.



She didn't eat the entire Feast for two, just a small part of it.



I thought she grew so tall.

 

[diana a]

Oh my gosh those boots!

Greta's face has matured...looks so different.

I'll take the clam chowder and paella please

 

[Paul B]

I found this on this thread from 2014:

Paul B said:
I would like to keep the tank running at least another 7 years until it is fifty. At that time I am not sure what we are going to do as we may downsize our house to a condo. We also may want to take long cruises on our boat so I am not sure if I can keep the tank going after that. I don't have any plans yet, just thinking out loud. I will also be kind of old in 7 more years but so far I have no definate plans to do anything.
I have had a tank of some kind continousely for over 60 years so I think I am well along in the hobby as I put some time into it. I just hope I don't start forgetting the things I learned before I get a chance to write them all down. Some of the old school techniques like treating water with Clorox or feeding fish Plaster of Paris is not well known.

We did actually downsize and move to a condo. We also did take some long cruises on our boat and much larger boats on a river through Europe. I don't use Clorox any longer in my new water because I have a much better source for water now and I forgot that I used to make food from Plaster of Paris mixed with I think Bananas, clams and other things to feed my moorish Idol and some butterflyfish

 

[Paul B]

So yesterday I broke my 2 front teeth. One is a temp until an implant sets so he took a cap off the next one and had a temp made of the two teeth. Of course it broke in half leaving a vertical, dagger that is sharp as a razor and it is cutting into my lip. I think it's a law that these things only happen on a Sunday.

I can't glue it back because it is kind of in a few pieces so I will try to grind off the sharp parts so I don't make a hole in my face from the inside.

I also need to remove about 8 stitches from the back of my arm but my friend who was going to do it today is in the hospital now with his wife.
We went out to breakfast and she fell pretty hard so he won't be back for a while.

If doctors and dentists knew what they were doing, I wouldn't have these issues that I now have to resolve myself.

I think my dentist went to Evelin Woods quick Dentist school.

 

[Paul B]

Morning walks are great. I go early to see the sunrises. These were yesterday.

 

[diana a]

bellissimo

 

[DaveK]

Morning walks are great. I go early to see the sunrises. These were yesterday.
...

I see pictures like that and I just can't help feel that it's great to be alive.

In your other picturers, I see that your grandchildren are now old enough to help you do a lot of work on your tank and such. (grin)

 

[Paul B]

Oh yeah, they can "help" a whole lot.

 

[Paul B]

So for two days I haven,t seem my favorite fish. This fan tail file. I crawled around the back of the tank with a flashlight and there he was.
Dead. He seemed to have gotten stuck in the tube that goes along the back bottom of my tank to feed one of the undergravel filter plates. It starts about an inch from the glass and gets tighter and tighter. He must have swam through that space and got stuck.



His side fins were against his body so reverse didn't work and his gills were forced shut.

I figured I would try to get him out of there but it was a very tight spot under all sorts of things and behind all the rocks. I got a long acrylic rod with a plastic toothpick thing sticking out of it. (feeding stick) and tried to nudge him out.

His eyes were white as was his skin. Poor fella. After many tries I gently nudged him out where he floated to the bottom and laid there.

A few seconds later,,,,,,He moved. Then he twitched........Then I swear he winked at me.

He got up and swam upright and went in a cave. A few hours later I fed the tank. He came out and ate some mysis.

Today, he is back to his normal self looking just perfect. If I didn't look for him, I am sure he would be sushi now.

 

[Paul B]

When I moved here almost 5 years ago I had a Handicapped elevator installed. I went in there yesterday in a pouring rain and the thing is full of water and that elevator is not an outdoor machine and is not supposed to get wet.

I opened up the top door while the car was down and saw that the Jiboni who installed the thing cut the hole in the wall for the door.

(It's outside in the side of the building) they didn't put the tar paper up over the cut where the door goes so the water cascades down into the car.

Anyway, I need to remove the deck boards to access it and of course the "deck screws" they installed it with are rusted so the "torx" head screws are stripped. (of course they are) If you need something done, do it yourself but they wouldn't let me build this house myself so I had to have their "expert Jiboni",,,,I mean house builders do it.

Now I need "easy out" screw extractors to remove the screws to seal the shaft. I have screw extractors and I don't know where I got them but they are made in China so of course they also are stripped and rusty so don't work.

I just ordered some "American made" screw extractors from Amazon which is surprising and I had to look through many pages before I found one.
There is a huge difference between Chinese steel and American steel in tools or hardware which is why you can get a Chinese drill bit for 50 cents and that same bit made in America may be eight bucks, but if you need to drill something in hardened steel instead of butter, you need a good tool.

Chinese grade tools are good for a homeowner who is going to drill one hole in balsa wood once every two years, but a serious crafts man needs a much better tool.

I only buy American for other reasons also because I am an American and a Veteran but almost nothing is made here any more. If I look long enough I can get most things but it isn't easy.

Not just China, I am talking the Philopeans, India, Viet Nam, Sri Lanka, Korea etc.

 

[Paul B]

Today my Gyre pump was making noise so I took the thing apart and found the problem.



These brittle stars must have gotten in there and were having a hoedown making a racket. I talked them into going back in my tank if they remained quiet.

Then I figured I would remove some sponge which resulted in me crashing a good part of my aquascape which I had to re build after I removed about a quart of sponge.




I even cleaned some of the bottles. This one is partially cleaned. I am running my diatom filter through this as the tank now looks like sheet metal as the detritus that was in places I didn't even know I had flew all over the place.
I like the new aquascape and only one end of the tank collapsed and I had to re glue quite a few corals that I needed to remove from sponge encrusted rock.

 

[Paul B]

I got a text this morning that read:
Hello, this is Karen. "The $8,750.00 we owed you has been paid back and will be going back into your bank account"

I texted back and said: "You know Karen, you have been so nice, why don't you keep it. Maybe go out to dinner and have a nice Pino Grigio."

I was born at night but not last night so I know that "Karen" is probably a terrorist in Somalia, Ethiopia, Iran or Brooklyn and wants me to go to my bank account to see where this money is.

Banks don't generally text someone on their cell phone especially before 7:30 in the morning

 

[Boehmtown]

Heard you on YouTube and about halfway through realized I've been reading your posts here and as well as some of your various posts on diy solutions. I can't believe it's all the same guy

 

[Paul B]

Unfortunately, it's me.

 

[Boehmtown]

Your brine shrimp feeder gave me the confidence to get a mandarin. I've been working on a design that's L shaped and traps air at the top and has a feeding screen on the end of the L. That way I can just load the thing with eggs, and lower it in my tank to the sand with a magnet mount. The eggs will hatch and the eggs will stay trapped in the device and the brine will slowly trickle out or get stuck in the screen for the Mandarin to eat. Haven't built it yet, but that's the goal over the winter to get a working design. I've always been in favor of the natural approach (maybe not as natural as you ). So I wanted to thank you for all the advice over the years you've given me without either of us knowing it

 

[Paul B]

Boehmtown, I actually built one of those slightly different. Mine is the same as my regular feeder but much larger and there is a small trickle of water that flows into it to keep the eggs aerated. The water in ther gets funky very quick if you don't add some water. I also added a dry food feeder on top of a funnel that goes to the thing so new eggs get added to it every day.
I use it for a vacation feeder and will work for a week before I remove to clean.

 

[Paul B]

My Grand Kids are coming over so I put in the bubbler sunken ship they gave me for Christmas 5 years ago because they look for it whenever they visit. :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

 

[Boehmtown]

Boehmtown, I actually built one of those slightly different. Mine is the same as my regular feeder but much larger and there is a small trickle of water that flows into it to keep the eggs aerated. The water in ther gets funky very quick if you don't add some water. I also added a dry food feeder on top of a funnel that goes to the thing so new eggs get added to it every day.
I use it for a vacation feeder and will work for a week before I remove to clean.

Ooooo I really like the auto feeder idea. Off to the drawing board. Thank you !!!