Tank Thread Tank reached 38 years old...in 2009!

[Paul B]

Good Mothers Day Morning.

Yesterday in my town they arrested a bunch of Jibonies stealing catalytic converters from under cars.
(they steal these things because they are filled with platinum coated pellets)

They jack up a car and using a gas saw (a very loud gas saw) they cut the thing out.

But these geniuses were stealing these from a parking lot of a security company. The side of the car was printed in large letters "SECURITY".

So of course they caught them because the place had alarms and really clear cameras all over the place.

 

[Paul B]

Good Morning. I had shoulder surgery in February which went great but recently I have been getting there terrible pains in my arm near the surgery. Of course the surgeon said it's not his surgery so he sent me to a pain management doctor.

She stuck a needle in my arm about 13 times and each time she wiggled it around.
As she was doing this, I also was wriggling around.

I asked what are you injecting?

She said, "Nothing", I am just breaking up "trigger points" with the needle.

What do i know? Sounds logical.

So now that terrible pain is really horrendous and I have a black and blue there as big as a manta ray.
(a juvenile manta ray)

I went for an MRI last night.

 

[Paul B]

Well I think this will be a test of my theory and my tank. My good "friend" Andy is getting out of the hobby and he just came over with a bucket of fish and corals. He told me he had a "small" blue angelfish that I had to take with the corals because he didn't know what to do with it.

I opened the bag and found this.

This is a pretty sick looking tang. I am not sure what it has but it doesn't look good. I, of course threw it into my tank and it immediately started eating.

He also gave me this angelfish which while beautiful is way to big for my tank. Both fish are way to big for my tank but what am I to do? He is a good friend and likes bigger fish.

This will be a test to see if my method can cure that tang. Thank you Andy. I will see what happens but these fish are really big for my tank. My copperband is half the size of them.

All the corals look good and are a welcome addition to the tank.

 

[Paul B]

Andy the coral polyps look great and are a nice addition. Those fish are a little big but I will see how it goes. How long have you had them?
That tang looks rough, did you use it to wash your car?

 

[LongIslandAndy]

Andy the coral polyps look great and are a nice addition. Those fish are a little big but I will see how it goes. How long have you had them?
That tang looks rough, did you use it to wash your car?

Hi Paul the angelfish is about year and half old bought him the size of a quarter. The tang is a yellow scopas tang that is about 7 years old he actually is extremely healthy but was given to me all ready beaten up . Unlike a lot of fish I was never able to grow his fins back. I forgot all about him and he was in the overflow because he isn't the best behaved fish but I could never kill a fish but if he acts up throw him in the sound. They are probably hungry since I ran out of food about 3 weeks ago and they have been eating Koi pellets

 

[Paul B]

he isn't the best behaved fish but I could never kill a fish but if he acts up throw him in the sound.

Andy, if he acts up, I am going to throw him in your bath tub, with you in it.
First you would have to come here and catch the thing as he is way to big.

As you know, I have a lot of very small, peaceful fish. You told me you had a "small" blue angelfish, this thing is like a halibut,

 

[Paul B]

Here is an old picture of me.



Here is an older one.

 

[Paul B]

My Grand Daughter, Greta's other Grand Mother (not my wife) wanted to buy a bathing suit because she is coming to the Caribbean with us and the family and hasn't wore a bathing suit for decades. She is kind of (and I don't know a PC word for this) so she is a "lot of Woman".

Anyway she mentioned to Greta that she wanted to buy a bathing suit but didn't know how to go about it.

Greta said to her "Don't worry Grand Ma Linda we can just find one on line".

Her Grand Mother said to her, what do we search for.

Greta said to her "Don't worry, I will just look up Fat Lady Bathing suits"

 

[albano]

‘Kids say the darndest things’

 

[Paul B]

My close friend for over 50 years and Viet Nam Buddy is being awarded today. They put him on an Air Force plane and flew him to Washington DC for a ceremony.
I don't know any details because I found out through his wife but will post something when he returns.

He was a Grunt in Nam and like me was awarded two Bronze Stars but he also got a purple heart. I didn't get one because I am faster than he is. :p

I am very proud of him.

 

[Paul B]

Nothing new on my morning beach walk except it looks like someone was doing devil worshiping or trying unsuccessfully to build a raft.

They also must have thought the winds at the beach here would move this 10,000 lb rock so they propped it up.

 

[Paul B]

Last year I put 4 tires on this Jeep. I only buy American tires which isn't easy but they are out there and they say "Made in USA " on them.

I put on larger, wider tires so I could more easily goon the beach.

I first went to Firestone and asked them where their tires are made and they didn't know, so I said, Have a nice day.

Anyway I got a slow leak in one tire last week so I brought the car back to Midas where I got the tire because I (stupidly) bought the road hazard insurance with the tires.

The guy found a nail in the tire near the sidewall in a place he said couldn't be fixed. (I could fix it)
So he says: Oh good you bought the road hazard insurance so I figured I would get a tire for free.....YYYyaaaaaaaa.

Nope!

It seems the original tire (last year) sold for about $150.00 but now that tire sells for about $225.00 and the insurance only covers the original cost of the tire.

(I am sure the people who sell this ridiculous insurance know this) So I figure, OK so I only have to pay $75.00 for the new tire which isn't to bad.

Nope!

I have to pay for mounting, balancing and probably the Mc Donalds hamburger and large Coke the guy was eating when I came in. Then I have to "Re-Insure" the new tire because it seems the "insurance" only covers one incident.

So the new "Free" tire will cost me about $125.00 which is the amount I originally paid for the tire.

It is my fault because I broke my cardinal rule of buying insurance. I never buy insurance because it is always a scam. If I didn't have the insurance I would have fixed the tire myself in 3 minutes for about 35 cents. And I already have the plugs so I wouldn't even have to spend the 35 cents.

Today they make a big deal out of everything and years ago these things were free or almost free as I plugged dozens of tires and never had a problem. But no one makes money when you fix things yourself.

Of course this is when I bought the car.

 

[Paul B]

Unfortunately being "old" brings on some health issues. Not as bad as my wife but I have been having some back pain lately, like most people and I figured it was from my extensive habit of bungee jumping, back flipping and ball room dancing almost every morning before breakfast and sometimes after lunch.

But for the last 2 years the upper back pain extended to my shoulders. I originally thought it was from my 7 shoulder surgeries and that probably didn't help.

I have been going for acupuncture and pain Management shots mainly because both my acupuncturist and pain Mgt Dr. are Supermodels but after a while, even a Supermodel can't help. Not to much anyway but I still like to go.

The MRIs show that my back looks like it came from a blue leg hermit crab but the X Rays show it more like an arrow crab.

I stand pretty straight but my spine has a big curve to it which made the Neurologist think they made a mistake and took a picture of a boomerang.

About 8 disks are to degenerated to do anything about and are all bone on bone. It is what it is and will always be painful and I will get stiffer as time goes on (like all old people) and my fish don't seem to care at all even though I hung my X Ray in front of their tank.

(I have been taking short baths in Prizapro)

He said it can't be fixed unless he cuts out almost all my disks and installs rods which will make me walk like an Emu looking up in the sky for eagles which is not the look I was going for so I will keep my old back as I probably can't get a new one.

Of course my main concern is my Bride of almost 50 years because I do almost everything for her and putting her walker in my car is getting quite hard. But manageable.

The Neurologist told us it is from my job as a Commercial construction electrician because that is not a Girly job as most of the equipment was a thousand pounds and wanted to be mounted on the ceiling.

Unloading all that from tractor trailers for half a century probably was not the best thing so I imagine those Neanderthals bringing down a Woolly Mammoth must have kept Pain Mgt. Doctors pretty busy and it was probably even harder then to get an appointment.

 

[Paul B]

I remember being quite cold many times but once in particular sticks in my mind. It was 1970 and I was a Sargent in the Army in Colorado before I went to Nam. I did my jungle training in Colorado in the winter and in Colorado if it doesn't snow at least 5' deep, they don't even notice it or take out a snow shovel.

We were doing war games which is totally stupid. I had to ride in a small "roofless" Jeep across these plains which stretch almost to Vermont with this skinny second Lieutenant who was not to bright.

We had to lay out this COMMO wire for a few miles by ourselves. We started out and the wire was going out the back. It was snowing. And snowing, and snowing. Eventually it was a foot deep and we didn't know where we were or why we were there.

Remember this is decades before cell phones or even credit cards. We didn't even have a working radio or a pen to write a post card.

Now we were covered in about 18" of snow and it was cold. The Army "Cold Weather Gear" at the time was about as good as Lycra that Nadia Cominich wore on her Olympic trials.

I was shivering, scared and disgusted. The snow was getting deeper.
The LT. tells me he is going to climb on top of a hill and see if he can tell where we are.

I said, "Good Idea because we are going to die"

So he gets out and leaves me there. Now it is getting dark and the snow is picking up as is the wind.

After a few minutes I hear: "HHHHhhhhhhhhooooWWWWWWWlllllllllll".

I am a New York City boy and the only thing we have in New York that howls are rats and roaches.

I must have been thinking "Big Foot", wolf, or the very strong Russian Cossack girl I was dating.

The Lt. is no where to be seen. I yelled for him but it was drowned out by:

"HHHHhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooWWWWWWWWlllll. HHHHHHhhhhhhooooooWWWWWllllll."

And, It, or THEM was getting closer. HHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhoooooWWWWWllll.
Then CLOSER.

I remembered, I have a weapon. An M-16. Yeah. But wait, I idon't have any bullets. I was praying for at least one bullet so I could blow my brains out before whatever it was that was going to kill and eat me any second and wouldn't have the satisfaction of hearing me scream. Or cry, maybe wimper. OK beg for my life.

I got out of the Jeep and climbed on the hood. Now I am at least two feet off the ground and we all know that Big Foot and wolves can't climb that high.

I held my rifle by the barrel and was ready to smash the first thing that came close.
My visibility was very limited by the snow so I waited until I could smell freshly killed accountant on his breath and I would strike. The cold was completely through the Lycra thin clothing I was wearing.

Suddenly and without warning, I HEAR:.....................................................
"Sargent Baldassino What are you doing?"

So we were lost and I had to walk in front of the Jeep a couple of miles while picking up the wire until we found our way back.

I

 

[Paul B]

Good Morning. I am putting this on here mostly for Andy because he lives close to me and he has the same News station as I do,

The news crew came here yesterday todo a story about a Christmas Card a little girl sent me in Viet Nam in 1970. They even got my fish tank in. I am waiting for Martin Scorsese to call me about the mini series.

Now it's on every 10 minutes all day so I am getting tired of looking at myself.

53 years later: Rediscovered 'thank you' card prompts meeting between Vietnam vet, pen pal

 

[LongIslandAndy]

Morning Paul, I saw the piece on news 12 it was really nice . I was impressed by your acting ability
If I was Scorsese I would cast DeNiro but of cause he would have to shave his head. I could see him staring at the fish tank say "Are you looking at me "

 

[Paul B]

Andy, I am hoping for a Mini Series with a cast of thousands like The Ten Commandments.
Too Bad Yul Brenner id dead or he could play me.

Yesterday we took the Lady and her sister around because they have never been on Long Island and she wanted to see the "Famous" Hamptons.

WE took them to a winery were we are members. There was a party going on so the place was crowded.
As we walked in, most of the people recognized us from the TV appearance and all came over thanking me for my service and telling us what a nice story it is. I didn't know any of these people.

Then a few minutes later, a guy came to our table and gave me a $30.00 bottle of wine saying his Dad was a Vietnam Vet.

Then I took them to a farm stand here because she likes horseradish and they grow and produce it there.

The woman who owns it saw us get out of the car and ran out to hug me.

Long Island is about 150 miles long, there are about 7 million people and we only have one local news station so most people here see it and it loops about every 15 minutes for like 2 days.

This morning everyone I ever knew in my life is calling to ask me if I knew I was on TV. It was a lot of fun.
The reporter and camera Lady took a lot of video of my fish and steam punk stuff and all the innovations I built in my man cave. She said there is to much going on here and they may have to come back and do another story.

This is Kathleen who wrote me the Christmas card in Nam in 1970.

 

[cb747]

Hey Paul it was good to see you on the news yesterday!

 

[Geraud]

This is a beautiful story Paul! And good to see that your personality shows on TV as much as in person and in writing!

 

[Paul B]

Thank you. The station told m I am on today also. I guess there are no cats stuck in sewers so I will be on until something like that happens.