Has to be Kenya. I know a guy there. He might still want to kick my ass, but I think I can smooth it over.
Then we have a drink.
Tag Archives: dailyprompt
Not My Family
The only time a family member really helped me, my aunt helped me get a used outboard. I’d been treated pretty much like a red headed step child in my upbringing. Always feeling like an outsider. I was a step child after all, but not red headed. I’m sure someone can relate.
I had worked on a couple of boats in my early diving days. A local guy had a boat rigged for two divers. He was a neighbor, he dropped by one day, wanted to know if I’d be interested in diving? I was like hell yeah! He supplied all the gear, all I had to do was go down and dig shells. 50/50 split. I worked for him for a year and a half, one day he was being a jackass and I quit. (“Get down there and dig some shells!” I just came up from down there, there aren’t any shells down there in that mudhole you dropped us in. “Get back down there and get some shells, the other guys are still down there!” Those guys are idiots. There aren’t enough shells down there to fill my shoe. He kept insisting I go back down. Being an obnoxious jerk about it. I quit right there. If you can’t trust me to tell you the truth, and that we need to move, fuck it!)
But I knew another guy who had just rigged up another boat, hoping to do the same 50/50 split. So I was working again the next day.
I worked for this other guy for about a year. In that time, I was accumulating gear. I managed to put a boat together, with all the necessary diving gear, and strike out on my own. I made sure to train a new guy for the guy I was working for. My brother. Who also managed to work his way to his own rig.
Well, the boat I had, had an old 33 hp Evinrude outboard. It was a good engine, it served me well. One day I was heading in and that engine perked up and started running real strong. Then it croaked, never to start again. I discovered the water pump gave out, and one of the symptoms of that, is an older motor perking up and running great, for a few minutes. The pistons and rings start overheating, expand, which makes more compression, which makes the old motor perk up, in its last few minutes of life.
Some things you have to learn the hard way.
Well, I’m looking for an outboard, found one 20 miles away for $800. I didn’t have that much cash. So I took my boat to the river, launched at the boat ramp, jumped in and started harvesting shell. Not an ideal location, but I made $200 that day.
My aunt heard about that, she thought, if he can make $200 without a boat motor, he should be able to pay me back the $800 with a boat motor!
I paid her back. I paid her $799.99. I figured if I ever paid that motor off completely, knowing my luck, it would die the day I paid it off. She never bothered me about about that one cent I still owe her. I guess I should pay her. That motor has long since been in in the dustbin of old dead outboards at this point.
Try as I might, I can’t think of another moment in my life where I was helped in such a manner by a family member. Which makes me damn grateful for the one time it did happen.
Wait! That same aunt got me my first guitar too. So twice.
Happiness
- A good cup of coffee. Used to be a good cup of coffee and a cigarette, but I quit that nasty habit, cold turkey, over 30 years ago. I don’t need fancy coffee, been a Maxwell House guy for a long time. Getting the water to coffee ratio just right, to suit you, is well worth the effort.
- Music. Listening to music, playing music, either one. Playing a little more than listening, but definately both.
- I’m happy to work. I love being on the water. I love being in the water. I can’t wait for the weather to settle down so I can go. It’s been really windy the last few weeks, not condusive to being on the water. Water temp is 60 degrees. The bare minimum I can stand these days. (with a good wet suit and a hot water system.) Getting older sucks. Years ago I worked in water down to 38 degrees. Sometimes, heading out of the bay, the boat was breaking a thin sheet of ice. Can’t do that crap anymore. Don’t know how I did it then.
- Having a good series to binge. Been watching Star Trek Discovery the last couple of nights. Also been watching Resident Alien. If you haven’t seen Resident Alien, I highly recommend it! FYI, found both on the Superbox, no subscription required.
- I have to stop at 5? I guess I better put this down, happy fun time with the wife. 😉 Not exactly an every day thing anymore lol. But it makes me happy.
Best Olympic Sport?
Has to be “Womens Trampoline Jumping”
I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I can find the door.
Seriously though, I like most of the winter sports. Skiing, downhill, jump, slolem, as well as skeleton, luge, and bobsledding. I don’t care much for the snowboarding thing though.
Also enjoy track and field, as well as weight lifting, wrestling, volleyball, gymnastics, and ice skating.
I was an active kid. Spent a little time playing intramural sports, basketball, wrestling, flag football, and baseball. Also took part in Little League baseball, and was a damn Cub Sout to boot. Took part in many off the cuff, neighborhood basketball, wiffleball, badminton, croquet, lawn darts, and baseball games. Also spent many a winter day waxing up the sled runners and sledding every chance I got.
When I got a little older I took to riding a dirt bike too. So, I’ve always been a bit of an adventure junkie I guess, but even though I had been involved in sports, I was never the “jock” type. I didn’t like those guys, or even being in the same room with them for the most part. But I still enjoyed being involved in competition nonetheless. But I never tried out for high school teams, mostly because I knew I didn’t want to be around the “jocks.” I loved to play sports, but not that much.
I was also a nerdy type too. School was pretty easy for me really. I absobed the material and tested in the top 95% most of the time.* There was always a few who outdid me on my grades, but I was also out there doing things they were afraid to try. 😉
But, by my 2nd year of high school, family issues at home, namely, my mother divorcing my asshole abusive stepdad, I was uprooted from my neighborhood friends/school and basically lived the life of a nomad until my later teens. I dropped out of high school. But I tested for my GED in Muscatine Ia. of all places. They were quite surprised I tested so well*, and I soon went back and got that GED the year before my class graduated.
Didn’t mean for this to become a diary thing, but that’s an accurate depiction of my younger years.
* Right up until Algebra II! Algebra II kicked my ass.
*I went with a friend who had also dropped out, because for some of us, life sometimes gets in the way of otherwise normal things. We both scored very high on the pre-test. There were some wrinkled eyebrows at that, they found it odd. But, we weren’t your “usual” dropouts. 😉
Some More Than Others…
Unique, that is. In order of importance:
- Personality
- Intelligence
- Looks
Some people have the good fortune of all 3. My youngest son, who is home for spring break, went to town yesterday. At the local Sonic, where he was getting his mom a slushy, because he knows she likes them, he reported a car full of girls, waving and calling his name. He didn’t know any of them.
He is the sort of person that lights up the room when he walks in, without even trying. Everbody loves him. Especially us, of course. He is living off campus, splitting rent on a house, working a job, and going to school. We are proud parents.
The rest of us mere mortals are also unique. The abundance of things that make us all who we are, are rarely the same between individuals. But at the same time, no matter how much we may differ, we are all pretty much the same. At least in the capacity of meeting our basic needs of survival.
But there are always a few standouts. The gifted musician, the prose of the writer/poet, the extremely talented in their line of work, the math genius, the scientist, and so on. However, the gifted are often cursed with societal dysfunction, mental illness, etc. So it’s not always a rosey proposition being among that group of uniqueness.
In fact, the mundane normalcy, of most of our pathetic lives, might actually be better than we think it is. The grass might be greener on the other side, but is it really better for you? I’m not sure that our satisfaction with our lives is necessarily based on our unique.
…but at the same time, I’m also jealous of those who have it 😉
For the record, I would call all of my WP pals, unique. If you want to come and kick my ass, I’ll send you the address 😉
That’s Easy
My 7″ grinder, that I bought so long ago I can’t remember when, had the trigger switch fail on it yesterday. What I learned is, that the design of the trigger switch has changed, and no matter where I go on the internet, the switch I need no longer exists.
So now I have to buy a new *!#$%&@# grinder.
Not that anyone is probably over concerned what I need a grinder for, but I’m attempting to build a winch to haul my shell sacks off the bottom of the river, up into the boat. The design is based on the capstan I used many years ago as a deckhand on a towboat. I picked up a cheapie 3hp engine, bought a capstan drum off of EBay, and also got a shaft adapter made, to make a 5/8″ shaft on the engine accomodate a 1″ bore on the capstan drum.
I’ve already custom built the base, to bolt on to the front deck of my boat. The boom arm is almost done, I still have to mount a pulley I made from a hand truck wheel rim, to the outer end of the boom, and install the motor, with its new capstan drum, at the boom riser.
For anyone wondering, what the bejeezus is a capstan? A capstan is made with a cylindrical drum, tapered at both ends. This taper allows a rope to feed onto the capstan without fouling. With the drum powered by a motor, you wind a rope around the drum which will generate a pulling force. The relationship between the capstan and the rope is interesting. The more winds of rope you wrap around the drum, the harder it pulls, but how hard it pulls also relies on the person manning the capstan, you have to supply some pull yourself to make the rope cinch up on the capstan, for the rope to gain enough traction to pull.
In a sense it’s a clutched rope pulling device, that uses the pressure of the operator to act as the clutch. With some winds on the capstan, but no pull from the operator, the capstan will turn, but not effectively engage in its work. The number of winds around the capstan will dictate how hard it pulls, when the operator engages a pulling force on their end.
I still do not know if this will work. I will know when it’s time to test it, and prove, or disprove, the concept. I tried this once already, but I went with 12V DC instead of an IC engine. My first attempt to lift my weight belt harness of 45 lb went like this. The rope pulled tight, started to lift, and promptly blew an 80 amp fuse. Thus ending the experiment and demanding another attack angle.
I’m hard headed enough to make it work, one way or another.
Success is often measured in your failures. Which makes me a pretty successful guy 😉
P.S. I’m fairly sure the reason the fuse popped is, I did not have a strong enough electric motor. After researching electric motors, price/weight (last thing you want in a boat is dead weight,) I found that the IC engine weighs about the same as a powerful electric motor, and it actually costs less. So, here we go.
I’m bound to learn something else before this is done…
My Biography Title?
Way To Go Dumbass!
Ups and Downs and Round and Round
Is it Over Yet?
Pull My Finger!
Been There, Done That
If Work Smarter Fails, Work Harder
…and while I’m at it, some of the wisest words I have ever heard, from a grizzled old man running the sawmill, “Never stand up if you can sit down, and never sit down if you can lie down.”
Fun?
List five things you do for fun.
I work for fun! (Being a commercial diver makes every day of work an adventure.)
I have 2 large dogs. A Labradane and a pit bull. We also have a smaller mutt. One thing I’ve learned, is that dogs are very similar to young children, they just want to have fun. So, we do!
I cut up and joke around with family. We all have the same general appreciation for intelligent insults/dad jokes, that we know are just for fun. Too many people are too damn serious about everything, lighten up a little!
Call me strange, but I take great pleasure in figuring out what is wrong with things, and fixing them. Be it small engines, autos, boat motors, appliances, or every mundane thing that breaks around the house.
Finally, we have a Playstation 4, that I get to spend plenty of time with on rainy, or snowed in days.
If you can’t find some fun in this world, what’s the point?
Grandma’s Dilemma
Daily writing prompt
What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
My grandmother, on my fathers side, made it to 100 years of age. I loaded up the wife and kids and we made the trek to Ankeny Iowa, to celebrate the accomplishment.
She had been in a nursing home for some time, she could get around still, albeit difficult. Her mind, still sharp as a tack, I mean laser focus. She was really happy I, well we, had made the trip. It was a damn pleasure to be there. The kids got to meet their great grandma, and I got to visit, knowing that given the distance, it might be the last time I’d get see her.
As we were there, she had little to say about her 100 yr. landmark. She didn’t think it was a big deal. In fact, she looked at me and said, “it’s nice I guess, but I’m ready to go.” Which gave me a moments pause, wasn’t expecting to hear that. Most everyone she knew when she grew up, had already passed away. Grandpa died when I was a young teen, the first death in the family who I knew, and it hit me hard. They always treated my like royalty when I could visit. So other than my dad and his wife, she sort of had no one to relate to.
She had polio as a child, and always walked with an unusual gait. Never kept her from getting things done, and never a moments complaint. Any time I was there visiting, which wasn’t often, I was always trying to find things I could help with. I fetched water from the well, they had no indoor plumbing, and you had to use a pump handle to fill up the bucket. There was even an outhouse out back. That’s just the way it was. Even though times had changed significantly, they used what they had, and it worked well enough they felt no need to make the upgrades. This was not the only family we had, who still lived this way. I never gave it a second thought. It just seemed normal, even though since I was old enough to remember, I’d always had the benefit of indoor plumbing. Except when visiting our older relatives.
So, anyway, grandma had lived to 100 years of age. She had a good life, and the aches, the pains, the loss of friends and family, the feeling of isolation, it all added up for her, she was just ready to go.
She did not live to see 101.
There’s something to learn there I think. As appealing as living a long life might be, there will come a point where, the body, the mind, have just had enough. That’s where she was.
We can all only hope, with as much time we are allowed, we can make the best of what may come, and hopefully die quietly in our sleep.
Cities?
I’m afraid you are asking the wrong person. There is no city, anywhere, I want to visit. I’ve been all across this great country, and back again. I did not lose anything I need to go back and look for, in a city.
I’ve lived long enough to know most people are full of shit, just plain ignorant, or only looking to see what they can get out of you. I also understand that many people you might think aren’t ignorant, indeed believe ignorant shit. Conspiracy theories, flat earth nonsense, magic crystals, homeopathy, bigfoot, aliens, and that Republicans are upstanding, honest, and fine people! I saved the worst for last, the: “my invisible friend is better then yours, and everyone needs to adhere to MY ideology,” Loon Brigade, which are coincidentally, mostly, Republicans.
The one thing I want for myself in this world is to isolate from the vast sea of ignorance that is embraced by, and thriving with mankind.
Last time I looked, there was a lot more mankind in the cities than I see out in the boonies. And even at that, where I live, which used to be out in the country… Now it’s pretty much a glorified suburb between two hick towns. There are too damn many people HERE!
Why in the HELL would I want to go to a city full of people? When I already can’t stand to be around them in smaller doses?
If the complete moron, to ability to reason statistics, among people in cities, are anything like what I see here, then no, hell no. I’m not going to a city. In fact I think I will go to the river tomorrow. There aren’t nearly as many idiots out there, except the asshats in bass boats doing 70mph, and the 30′-40′ motor yachts peeling off huge wakes behind them. But, the bass boats come and go pretty quick, and the wakes eventually die down. (Hopefully you saw them coming and didn’t get tossed out of the boat. Every year a few uncle Bobs mysteriously fall out of boats and drown. I have a theory.)
Other than those things, which I have learned to cope with, the river/lake is my sanity zone. Come with me. I’ll show you.
Now, if some of my WP friends want to meet up somewhere in a city, and have a few beers, I might make an exception.
Evidence Based Reality 