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

[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.

 

[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. :scratchch

 

[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.

 

[Paul B]

I took a picture. The 2 SPS corals at the top center are new.

 

[Timbo]

Always watching and listening to your wisdom Paul! My favorite thread on MR.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, but that's not wisdom. It's mostly senility. :sleepy:

 

[4Fish]

Hey. you mentioned you were a prior mechanic for oldsmobile. I would love to show you my 1986 98 coupe. I spent 3 years restoring it; stripped to metal. Chrome, trim and all body parts replaced with NOS. I will never get the money I put into back, but that is not why I did it. The coupe had such a nice body style.

 

[Paul B]

That would be interesting. I was an Olds mechanic in 1967-69.
Drive by here someday. I am in Baiting Hollow.

 

[Paul B]

I just remembered a story and the rare times I remember something I want to post them. I know I posted this on here probably near the beginning of last century so if you heard it go and watch "Naked and Afraid".
I think tonight they are hunting newts with spears.

I was in Kings Cross in Sydney Australia on R&R from Nam in 1970 and I just got off the plane. I went on a double decker bus (which I had never seen before) and I went to the top and looked out the front window. I turned around and saw that there were mainly girls on the bus (in those days everyone was in the war) They all had mini skirts on which was new to me because I just spent 10 months in the jungle and when I got drafted not many girls wore them. All I saw in those ten months was monkeys, and some of them were starting to look good. Anyway, that doesn't matter. Well, to me it did. I saw this pretty girl in the front of the bus and she smiled so I sat down next to her. I would have sat next to her even if she threw a flounder and tire iron at me, but whatever. :p
She is for another story (which I also posted on here someplace. ) Anyway she gave me directions to my hotel even though I had a map. I was on this busy intersection trying to figure out where I was and these two guys older come up to me. One guy says something to me that sounded like "Hey Chap, woud, you % mind if & yu heped, guy $ street ##. Or something like that. I said "What!? He said it again a little slower. I could barely make out that he wanted me to help this blind guy across the street. (You Aussies speak funny) So I took the guys arm and I am standing there waiting for the light to turn green.

After a while I noticed that there was no light. No YIELD, no STOP, no CAUTION, no NOTHING. The cars were zooming all over the place with no spaces in between for me to cross, especially with a blind guy.

So the guy mutters to me, "Whats the matter Chap?" I said, How do you cross the street? Now I come from New York so I know what traffic looks like, but here we have traffic lights and everything.
He said "Oh No Problem Chap" and he lifts his cane and drags me into the street. I covered my eyes and got ready to scream in pain as we walked. I opened my eyes and noticed that the cars were going around us, on the sidewalk, in front and in back of us. They didn't slow down, they just kind of barely missed us.

We make it to the other side and the guy thanks me and walks off. Now I take out my map to see where I am.

Another blind guy comes over to me and he wants me to cross him back across the street. The same thing happens and now I am on the wrong side of the street looking for a blind guy to get be back to the other side.

There was a "Lighthouse" blind people school, or social club on the corner so everyone, but me was blind.
You can't make this stuff up.

 

[Paul B]

I have a problem with flatworms. There are so many flatworms that they are laying on top of each other and the bottom ones don't like that. That is not my problem. In some places they are so thick that I can't see the gravel. That is also not the problem.
The problem is that I like to name things and I am running out of names. :help:

 

[Paul B]

I need to cut back on this sponge and throw a bunch of it out. (unless anyone wants it)
It grows rather fast but it is easy to cut. I lie a lot of sponges because they eat microscope particles (and parasites I would imagine) and they keep the water very clear. I just need to watch it because it takes up spaces where I would rather grow corals.

I also notice my new, small hippo tang just started to swim around and not be afraid of anything has a white patch on his black stripe. I didn't look at him when I bought him out of a tank of a bunch of them. I just told the guy to catch one. I think it s a type of fungus but I am almost 100% sure it will heal on it's own with no help from me.

 

[Paul B]

I collected water today as it was 70 degrees. The air, not the water which is probably about 40. I tested the alk and it is 5. No wonder my tank is so low. My calcium kit doesn't really work as I can't get the reagents out of the bottle.

The salinity is also good for catfish so I had to add a lot of salt. I had to diatom filter it as it was a nice shade of green. Now it looks like gin and after I warm it up, I will dump it in.

 

[Paul B]

"Soon" I am going on a trip to the Caribbean and I have a tank "feeder" who knows absolutely nothing about fish except to eat them. I would like a person on stand by in case he has a question or finds all my fish on the floor. I moved here a year ago and don't know many people here yet and I certainly don't know anyone with a fish tank. I live near Riverhead on Long Island if anyone is interested. I doubt you will be needed but just in case. If anyone is interested PM me. I would have to show you my set up and maybe give you a Shock Top beer.

Andy, if no one responds, your it. :tongue1:

 

[Paul B]

I am working on a new recycling device. How's it coming?

 

[gobywon]

I like it . It's the scrap collector's motto. "In the end it's all worth something" . Funny!

 

[Paul B]

After a week in my tank my new little Hippo Tang lost that white fungus or whatever it was, spot on his black stripe. I just took this picture.



This is when I bought him a week ago.

 

[Paul B]

I just discovered 6 or 7 tiny creatures about 4 or 5 times the size of a new born brine shrimp on one of my powerheads. They were running all over the place so I caught one and put him under my microscope.
I am not sure what they are but they are not fish and probably not Godzilla larvae so some type of invert. The only inverts I have now that could spawn are my hermit crabs so they may be them. (but I doubt it)
I didn't add anything from the sea since last summer except NSW but I diatomed that because it was green so I am not sure what these things are. I don't have time to seperate them and see if they grow because we are babysitting this weekend but if I can catch some next week, I will try to do that.

 

[Paul B]

I know I put this on here a while ago but 99.7% of those people already left the hobby and now are running the French Fry cooker at Costco so I will add it again. If you already read it close one eye and read it again as it takes on an entire new light that way:

Well since the last time I was on here I did go to a few places. A riverboat cruise through Germany on the Danube river and 3 Hawaiian Islands. We just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary and that is where we went on our honeymoon.
This time we went to Maui, Kauai and Lanai as Lanai was not open to the public the last time we were there and it is secluded. The diving in Hawaii is not very good but I did three dives anyway just because I could.
Early this week I had to go to Florida on business and I flew Spirit Airlines. I usually go on Jet Blue but Spirit had a flight that was a better time. Have you ever flown on Spirit?

It is an experience and there is a reason Jet Blue charges in excess of $300,00 and Spirit charges $17.67, round trip.
The first thing you notice on the flight is that there are no TVs, no little hole to plug ear phones or charge electronic devices in, no blankets, pillows, magazines or those little papers that keep the grease off your head from the last guy who sat there.

There is also no free soda, water, peanuts, juice or anything else. as a matter of fact, when you take your ticket and scan it at that little kiosk, it asks you how much you want to pay for your seat. There are $10.00 seats, $20.00 seats and $50.00 seats. I took the $10.00 seat as I assume the $50.00 seat you have to sit on the pilot's lap, but I am not sure. If you don't pick a seat I don't know where they put you as I didn't see anyone lying on the floor and it was night time so I couldn't tell if anyone was strapped to the wings. Carry on bags cost you $50.00 and if you want to take luggage there is a "Bank of America" there where you can take out a home equity loan.
The hostesses were friendly but they didn't have much to do as there was nothing they could give you except a smile when they told you "Sorry" we don't have that or Sorry, you have to pay for water and peanuts.
I noticed a guy near the back of the plane with a bow and arrow, I figured he was the air marshal.
I sat by the emergency door and she instructed me that in an emergency I would have to open the door. I said "fine" I have no problem with that. It was a door knob with two deadbolts. So we are flying and it was a very turbulent flight. I spoke to the hostess for a while as she was standing in front of me ironing. It got very rough. She leaned over and took a book out of the overhead compartment. It was a bible.
I read the Bible a few times in Viet Nam, but that was just before we would go into battle, a hostess on a plane reading a Bible in rough weather is not very soothing to me.
Then I tried to remember all the safety features of the plane. Of course, the safety features were the smoke detectors in the bathrooms, the little plastic card in the seat back that has the emergency instructions on it and those little orange life vests under the seat because whenever a plane traveling at 600 miles an hour hits the sea in a fiery crash, we always see all the people in perfect health floating with those little orange vests.
So I looked under my seat to see if there was a credit card slot next to the life jacket just in case I needed it. Then I was thinking, if anything happens I am going to be the safest one on the plane as I will take all the safety devices. The first thing I will do is make my way to the bathroom so I can grab a smoke detector. I will have to be fast as there are only 6 of them. Then I will get that little plastic card from the seat back and swipe my credit card under the seat so I can get the vest and if I have time, I can grab that bible. I may even be able to grab a few more of those plastic cards in the confusion.
I am seated by the emergency door and I know how to open it as I have the key. I am just waiting for something to happen.
Generally if you see the pilot running towards the back of the plane or if the hostess is having no trouble laying on the ceiling of the aircraft, those are sure signs that you can start reading that bible. But none of those things happened. Speaking of the back of the plane, that is the safest place to be as whenever you see pictures of a plane crash you always see that tail in perfect shape sticking up out of a sand dune.

There was one Supermodel on the plane and she was about 7' tall and if I was standing she could probably eat spaghetti off the top of my head. She had a ponytail and she sat a few rows in front of me on the plane. I kept watching because her pony tail almost got stuck in the overhead bins.
Speaking of overhead bins, I was sitting there waiting for the plane to take off and I was bored as I only had that pony tail to look at and the big guy who couldn't fit into the seat. So I take out my book just as the Captain shut off the lights. I wanted to turn on my overhead reading light but I noticed you had to put two, size D batteries in it and I didn't have any. So as I am sitting there in the dark it started to get stuffy and I reached up to turn on those little air things. I turned it and nothing happened. A few seconds later the hostess comes over to me and hands me this little paper envelope.

I open it up and it is one of those little paper fans that they used to give you in cheap Chinese restaurants. You can't make this stuff up.
Anyway the flight was uneventful but it gave me time to think, why don't they just make the entire plane out of the same stuff they make the black box out of? That always survives.
As I left the plane I had to squeeze past the hostess selling time shares as the co pilot was holding one of those cardboard containers with the slot in it for quarters for homeless dogs.
Make believe there is a picture of a plane here, I am standing next to it with a Supermodel who has a ponytail