Tank turned 49 this year

[Paul B]

I built a new Steam Punk Lamp. This one is a floor lamp. My Daughter gave me this for Christmas because she knows I like to build things It's an Autoclave from the turn of the century so dentists can sterilize things. It was all tarnished and rusty.



Now it is re purposed and has flame lamps in it so it looks like there is a fire in the base.

 

[DaveK]

A very creative use for something that would otherwise get tossed out. Reminds me a bit of a Coleman lantern.

 

[Pancho75]

Really nice lamp Paul [emoji1360]


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[Paul B]

My Biggest, oldest, coolest coral bit the dust. Or substrate. I don't know why as I didn't play any RAP music and my collection of Nancy Pelosi pictures are not in view of the tank.

I have 3 other corals of the same type that are growing up the walls and reaching into my bathroom. Maybe it just got homesick.

Everything else is doing great and I couldn't be happier. Well, if Christie Brinkley rang my bell and wanted to help me care for my tank, I would probably be happier, but I keep it quite here so I don't miss the bell sound, so far, nothing.

I just made some waffles (yes, of course from scratch,, I don't use Girly Man mixes) and I also made some chopped up, cooked apples with cinnamon, cloves, honey etc to put on them and I am waiting for my wife to get up. (I love to cook)

Anyway I am still looking for more corals and especially gorgonians to put in the tank. I go into all kinds of LFSs with all kinds of money, but no ones got nothing. It is disheartening and I think the hobby is waning, at least here in NY anyway.

I flew over the South Pacific quite a few times and there are so many tiny deserted Islands where I wish someone would start a fish/coral farm. If I were 102 years younger and had all sorts of money, I would look into that. I absolutely love tiny un- inhabited South Pacific Islands anyway.

Yesterday my Viet Nam Buddy and his wife (who I know longer than I know my wife) came over for a visit. I haven't seen him in years. He was a Grunt in Nam and like me has a couple of Bronze Stars, purple heart, PTSD and Agent Orange so we are very much alike, except for the hair of course.
We went to dinner at a really nice place here that gives Veterans half price dinners on Mondays which is really nice, and the food is great. I love it.
My wife and I are very lucky to have so many friends, many from high and even grammar school.

Wow, I was fat then.


​

 

[Paul B]

My wife and I were cleaning out pictures to give to our Daughter and I found one of my Gangsta pictures probably from 15 years ago. (Maybe 20) My wife was and still is a Supermodel.

On another note, I had a flood. Luckily it was RO water. The bucket that is hanging from my ceiling that gravity feeds my tank sprung a leak. I built an acrylic sight glass into it so I could tell the water level and the thing cracked. I don't know why, it has worked for 20 years. So I had about 15 gallons of water on my Man Cave floor. Not that much of a big deal because I built the place knowing I will probably have leaks at times.

I plugged the hole where the sight glass used to be and made an internal float so that I can see a rod on a float and a tube coming out of the top of the bucket. When the tube hits the ceiling, the thing is full.

 

[Paul B]

I went to an LFS yesterday with a pocket full of money, and I got nothing. No one has anything worth buying, it's all the same boring things. Yellow tangs, copperbands, wrasses, but nothing unusual and almost no corals. I have way more corals than this store has. He told me that on Sunday, he is getting a large bunch of fish with a lot of interesting ones. Probably flounders, but I will try to get there on Monday.

I also need a new plastic box to start a new whiteworm culture. I have so many worms that they have to take turns sitting in the existing box and the rest of the time, they crawl around my Man Cave.
I need to get my car inspected next month. (In New York they still bother you with that nonsense once a year) I think it's just a money making thing for the MVD and the place that inspects it. Now, if you fail the inspection, you are not even allowed to take your car home.
So I just pulled off the front wheels and one brake pad is a little thin so I will put brakes on it this afternoon. Installing brakes is simple (if you are not a Girly Man) but getting down near the floor is hard with a semi new knee so I may have to lay on the floor to do this. I already jacked up the car and am waiting for my wife to get back from the gym so I can use her car to buy the brakes.
I will rotate the tires and wax the car while I am at it .
I didn't keep the red ribbon on it.

 

[Paul B]

I always seem to be dealing with Jibonies. I swear I don't know how some people stay in business. As I said, I needed front brakes so I jacked up the front of the car and took off the wheels. Then I went to "Auto Zone" which is the closest place to me to buy them. In my old neighborhood I was able to go to a wholesaler because a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away I used to be a mechanic for General Motors.

So I go to the store, wait on a long line, (which I normally would not do because if I see more than one person on line, I leave.) The PTSD did that to me as I have no patience for waiting.
I get to the counter and the guy can't find the listing for my car. It's a Jeep, it's not like I got a DeLorian or Excaliber.

So the guy finally says, He has them. Great I pay for them and start walking out when he calls me back and says. "Wait a minute, those are for a Wrangler, I have a Renegade."
He has to order them. I am also not used to that because everyone stocks brakes for everything. (If I knew I had to order then I would have called Amazon)

I go home and figure while I have the front wheels off, I would rotate the tires. I take off the back tires and notice I also need back brakes. I call "Auto Zone" to get the rear brakes and of course they don't have them so they have to order them. They would come in tomorrow. Like the song from Annie, Tomorrow is always a day away.
They call me right back and say they have them. I drive to Auto Zone and tell the guy to get me my brakes. Oh No, we made a mistake, we don't have them. They are on order. ;Woot

I get home and take my wife out for a nice seafood dinner. We had the stuffed grouper. Fantastic, Stuffed with crab meat, lobster and shrimp with a nice glass of Pino Noir.

As we are eating, "Auto Zone" calls me and says we have the brakes. I say, do you have both sets, front and rear. "Yes both sets". We are having guests over for the weekend, which will get her any minute so I rush to Auto Zone to get the brakes figuring after our company leaves on Sunday, I will install them on Monday.

I drive to Auto Zone. Oh no, we just have the front brakes. Who called you? I don't know, you only have 3 people working here. Ask someone. They have no idea so It must have been in a drunken stupor or maybe I had too much Pino Noir and was in a Coma.

I said, now you guys have to deliver them to my house and install them because you are all Jibonies and I can't believe how you stay in business.

Installing brakes on a car takes about an hour, that includes jacking up the car and having one or two beers and talking with the neighbors. Getting the parts can take forever and I am old so I don't have forever.

 

[DaveK]

I feel your pain. Any decent auto parts store should have breaks for any reasonable vehicle today. Even if they don't ordering them should be a simple process. Maybe your next car should be some sort of super exotic sports car. That way you would know just to order the parts on Amazon. (grin)

I find myself getting more and more things online. Even though I'm now retired, I figure my time is worth something. I push a few buttons on the keyboard, and it's here in a couple of days.

 

[Paul B]

A couple of days, or even hours is too long for me. I am old and have PTSD so I want things not even now, but before Now. I never had to wait for brakes in my life. I have to find a wholesaler here who wants a fish tank.

 

[Paul B]

I finished installing my brakes today. It was a beautiful day so I decided to do them outside in the sun instead of in my garage. I took off the wheels and of course it started to rain....Hard. It's a good thing I am a Veteran and the rain doesn't bother me.....Much.

I also started a new whiteworm culture in a larger plastic container. I am taking dirt and worms from my years old, stinky culture and drowning them so I can eliminate the tiny white bugs as they float. Then I rinse the worms and dirt in a coarse net and throw them into the new container nice and fresh. These things multiply very fast and I have thousands of them, not that I counted them. If anyone wants a culture and lives near me, I will give them to you. No, I don't ship them as you can get them on line if you want them.

 

[Paul B]

When I was a mechanic for Oldsmobile I was able to take customers cars home on the weekend to try them out to see if they had rattles or stalled. In those days we were real Men and spent our time looking for girls, like real men did for 4 million years. Now Sissy, men just text or go on sites like "Desperate, Girly Man looking for a date.com". Then you have to write about yourself, things like "I have more degrees than a thermometer and my Dad finances me because I don't know how to work. But I can text really fast".

Anyway, many weekends I had a new 442 or Toronado which was one of the most expensive cars at the time and most cars were American. We wouldn't think of riding, mush less buying a foreign car.

I also did pretty well with the girls in those days. I didn't always look like this you know!!!!!

Then I met my wife at a wedding. She was 12 and I was 18 so of course I didn't go out with her, or even talk to her that I remember, but I went out with her older cousin.
I was not a Perv.

When I was a little kid cars didn't have air conditioning but it just came out. I was at my much older cousins house out on Long Island (where I live now but it was desolate then with a few small towns)

When we would drive past a pretty girl he would say "Close all the windows and smile".

It was like 100 degrees but we rolled up the windows and smiled like we had AC to impress the girl. We were covered in sweat. Of course we never impressed anyone.

 

[Paul B]

HELLO!! Is this thing on? Where is anyone?
I think I am talking to myself and I am tired of listening to myself rant.

 

[Paul B]

HELLO!! Is this thing on? Where is anyone?
I think I am talking to myself and I am tired of listening to myself rant.

 

[DaveK]

I think a lot of people are trading this thread, but so few are old enough to remember all the stuff your talking about. For example, air conditioning in a car was an option for many years, and you paid a premium for it. Then it reached a point were most cars today have it as a standard option.

Even on hot days not having air wasn't too bad as long as you were moving, but it was bad if you were stuck in traffic. Plus traffic today is so much worse. This means you need the "life support" systems in a car.

 

[Paul B]

Dave, maybe so. My Dad had a 1947 Pontiac. That's the only car i remember because he died when I was 10 (1959) and they didn't sell cars during the war. WW2.
For "Air Conditioning" the car, Like all cars had a big handle under the dashboard that opened a little vent just at the bottom of the windshield. A little outside air came in from there. Mainly to clear out the cigarette smoke because everyone smoked.
We also had no AC in homes. We had little window fans so you slept with your head near the thing and filled the sheets with sweat. But we were Men and didn't know better so we got over it.

Today if there is no AC, internet or microwave oven, people think it's the end of the world.

 

[DaveK]

My family had a 1956 Pontiac when I started to drive. So it was about 10 years old them. That thing was a tank. The other nice thing it had was vent windows, so if you opened them all the way, to got a blast of air on you.

I got to admit that I've been spoiled by air conditioning. When we get those hazy hot and humid 95+ days in the summer, I like to stay inside with the central air on, and I stay all cool calm and collected.

I'm also a big user of the internet, but I can also live with out it. I feel sad for the people that feel the need to always be connected and text or tweet everyone with everything they do. I do stay off most social media, not because I hate them, but because of their almost total lack of security, and their unethical harvest of personal information. Perhaps all those years in information systems has made me paranoid. After all, I've seen first hand from the inside the quality of work typically done on an application and the kind of people you have working on them. As you'd expect, there is saome very good work, and some not so good work.

It's funny you should mention microwave ovens. I know more that a few people that can't even deal with that for heating up a prepackaged meal. Everything they eat seems to be either take out, delivery, or fast food. Now I admit I do that from time to time, but for the most part I want to eat real food.

As for working on the car, stuff like doing break jobs yourself saves a lot of money. Offhand, I believe a break job is the most profitable service job for a garage. Regretfully, once I moved to a condo, there are a lot of restrictions about working on your car. In short, you can top up air and fluids, and rotate your tires and wash and wax it. That's about all. I can see why they restrict this. While most proplr would be good about working on their car, there are always a few clowns that will have the car up on blocks for days or weeks, or spill old oil all over the ground, or generally make a mess.

 

[Paul B]

I also just moved to a Condo but I have a huge garage and workshop/man cave. I can work on my car but I would get dirty looks if I tried to change an engine unless I did it in my garage, which is large enough.

I would have never moved to a condo if I didn't have these things.

 

[Paul B]

Just now I threw in (after a little acclimation) a hippo tang and a coral. He is just starting to come out and play with the other fish. There is plenty of algae on the back glass to nibble on. Hopefully he will live 15 years and hopefully, I will too.

 

[DaveK]

This is indeed an historic occasion. @Paul B getting a tang.

Getting serious, with all that algae in the tank, that hippo tang will think he died and went to heaven. In a system like you have, the fish should live a long time.

 

[Paul B]

In the decades this tank has been up most of that time there was at least one tang in it. Except for hippo tangs, I find them and anglefish very boreing.

Look at the list of fish I kept in 1976 from my Log book.