09.10.24
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This Evening?

I have today and tomorrow as good working days. Then it gets rainy/windy for a few days. So I go to the river, and dig shells today.

When I roll back in this evening I have to unload my take, store them in the shop, and put water in the buckets they are in, so they can hopefully stay alive for a couple of days. (They are a lot harder to process when they start dying.)

Then I have to take stock of my gear, make sure everything is up to snuff, and gas up the boat for the following day. Pre trip inspection goes like this: bags/flags/buckets/tools/fuel/wet suit/cooler. By now it’s darn near dark.

Day two, same as day one.

Then the day after that, I have to cook all of them out. Estimate 750-900 lb green shell for 2 days. Then, when I can manufacture a minute, I have to bag them up, according to predetermined sizing, and weight, for sale.

…and that folks is how two days of work, turns into nearly four days of work. Then it takes me a couple days to get over my exhaustion and pain, so I can go again. I have to be careful the entire time, not to have a muscle spasm, because then I’m done for a good while. Have to pace myself, and rest when necessary. Believe it or not, getting the shell is the easy part.

Wife is going with me today, so I’ll have a deckhand 😉

P.S. Our local buyer is currently shut down. Or I’d sell the shell green and avoid the extra work. But, there is an out of state buyer who wants them. So, they have to be processed. I also had to get a commercial tag for my 3/4 ton truck, as hauling shell out of state is interstate commerce. Also, have to carry $300,000 of liability! (all tax deductible!) And, if that isn’t enough, I have to keep a log of any commercial trip. Plus… The state of Tennessee wants to be paid a shell tax! (The buyer takes care of the tax, but it’s another step in the process.) Are we having fun yet?

It takes me a good while to get up enough shell to make a trip. Which by itself, is one long day. My truck is rated for hauling #3000. That is also the maximum weight I can legally carry, as that brings my total weight, truck and load, right up to the commecial tag rating of #9000 total weight.

I can only make three trips a year, as there is a limit to how much $$ I can make in actual profit. To be honest, it’s about all I can handle anyway, and that’s pushing it. But I’m going to get what they will let me have dammit.

Everything is loaded up, I got to go.

Daily writing prompt
What are you doing this evening?
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20 thoughts on “This Evening?”

  1. Are you also sharing all this to let us know you won’t be watching the debate?? 😁

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    • Looks like he is signing off so we don’t get to ask him about it

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    • There’s a debate? What’s the topic? Who’s to be the affirmative and who’s to be the negative?

      If this so-called ‘debate’ is between the two people I suspect it may be then I’d say that time might be better spent hauling shellfish interstate. It certainly sounds like a more honourable profession than that of those debating, anyway.

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    • Spent a little more time on my last dive than I thought. You lose track of time down there. By the time we got home, and got the shell out of the boat it was good and dark. The debate was about to start, I took a quick shower and caught the debate.

      …and wow! Kamala wiped the floor with that idiotic jackass.

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      • Here it was described as ‘90 minutes of passive aggressive marriage counselling’ with Ms Harris ‘spending the majority of the debate looking like a bemused parent entertaining a babbling toddler’.
        I’m not sure that there was really an overall winner (is such a thing even possible?) but the final assessment of that same reputable Australian news source summed it all up as ‘a masterclass of sweeping statements, baseless claims and deflections’.

        The high point must surely have been (I missed it myself, I was washing my hair) the convicted felon who definitely didn’t lose the 2020 elections and only inherited loose change from his daddy before transforming it into zillions of dollars, providing the startling revelation that hordes of voodoo inspired marauding Haitians and accompanying zombies where BBQing dachshunds in Springfield parks.

        This is entertainment folks!!

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        • It was something to see. That’s for sure. The loon was extra loony. Immigrants eating dog/cats, he has “concepts” of a new insurance plan, 2 cities in Minnesota apparently burned to the ground and nobody noticed but the orange asshole, everybody in his former administration speaks badly of him because they were fired, and the endless fear mongering about the immigrants being criminals, and insane asylum escapees.

          Probably a few more whoppers I don’t remember atm.

          There’s a lot you can miss washing your hair. 😉

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          • But you ought to see my hair! I look in the mirror and admire it based purely on its tangible nature in an intangible world.
            And in many parts of the world stray dogs are such an issue that harvesting them from time to time might help to deal with some starvation issues. Has Mr Trump even tried it himself? He seems to be a big fan of bacon – so why not dog?

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  2. You seem busy mate. All the best with the work.

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