Paul B's thread

So yesterday I had to go to a Hand Doctor. For some reason I am susceptible to this trigger finger thing (maybe I got that in Viet Nam) But as you get older, you are susceptible to all sorts of things which is why it is so exciting to wake up.
For instance last night I slept in my Grand Kids bed (with my feet hanging off the end) and my wife slept in our bed. It's OK because after 44 years married we know what each of us looks like. We do this occasionally because I "may" sometimes snore. At least my wife tells me. She doesn't exactly tell me, she kicks me and says OOOOOOoommm, go somewhere else. Thats my cue.
Old people also don't sleep during the night, they get very tired in the day but can't sleep at night so I met my wife at 2:30 this morning in the kitchen looking for melatonin and other things that are supposed to make you sleep but really don't. We both had some and went back to "beds".

But as I was saying about the thrill of old people waking up, you never know what is going to hurt. I had a dream last night that I was dancing with Christie Brinkley, but it could have been Govenor Chris Christy, my memory is foggy.
I was swinging her around and I think I also picked her up a few times to throw her over my head. On second thought I am sure it was Gov. Chris Christie because this morning I can't move my wrist. At my age, even dreams cause injury.

I didn't go to the doctor for that because those dream injuries generally heal by the next nights dream where I may be an orthopedic surgeon working on Evel Kneval .
I went to that hand guy for the trigger finger. I told him I am moving in a few weeks and really need my right hand so what are my options. For people who don't know what trigger finger is, it is when you open your hand to like slap yourself awake or block your wife's hand from slapping you and one of your fingers stays closed. Then you have to take your other hand and use that to open your finger.
It is an easy operation and I had it done on other fingers 3 times, but I still have 8 more that will probably get as we are not supposed to live past about 37.
But he said ,after the operation you can't lift anything heavier than a tea cup and I also have mugs, platesand coral banded shrimp to pack so the operation is not an option right now. So we decided to do a steroid injection.

This didn't work on my other three fingers but it was free so I said, what the heck. I also forgot how it feels when he sticks this needle into the palm of your hand. I was lucky because this time he didn't have that cute assistant there so I could scream without being to embarrassed. The last time I had to go all the way to my car and close the windows before I screamed.

This Monday I have to go and have a tune up on my knees. I probably need new knees as industrial construction is not kind on your knees. When I get my new knees I want those good Home Depot Pressure treated ones so I can go through metal detectors. The same thing happened yesterday at the Knee guy. Instead of operating (for the 6th time) he will inject me with this grease mixed with Prixapro after fresh water dipping them.
I also may have to quarantine one knee from the other one for 72 days. The needle that they inject this Goo into your knee looks something like a turkey baster and it has a crank on it. Not a pleasant feeling either.

The whole point of this story is when I was driving home there was this gray foreign car in front of me going very slow. About 50 feet from the corner the car makes a right turn. Of course this was a sidewalk and he crashed into a "no parking sign" and bent it over. I put on my emergency flashers and got out to see if he was OK. At first i didn't see anyone in the car and figured it was parked and started moving. But I remembered following him for a while. I looked closer and this ancient little guy was in the drivers seat looking through the steering wheel. I think he was texting. He looked to be about 100, I asked if he was hurt and I assume his wife, but it could have been his nurse, BFF, heart doner, driving instructor or Karate teacher was in the passenger seat. He put the car in reverse and backed up into the oncoming traffic. I ran to the back of the car to stop the cars because i don't think this guy could hear me yell STOP!.

I ran to the front of his car and took a picture of his license and he drove off at two MPH.

I called 911 even thought I felt real bad for the guy, but he was going to kill himself, me or the Rock singer he had with him.
Unfortunately there is no age limit for driving but I think they should at least give you a test to see if you can remain conscious long enough get to a corner before you make a turn.
 
Sponges must love nitrates. It is getting hard to keep trimming this almost 18" blue sponge I have on one side of my tank. It started creeping up my bed last night. I thought it was my wife so I hugged it. But it was all cold, slimy and spongy smelling unlike my wife so I just said EEwe and threw it back in the tank
 
I just had to change 5 water cooled LEDs on my tank as the blue lights went out and while I was fixing it, I must have shorted the white LEDs out and had to change some of those. But I have a bunch of old ones around and I wanted to take the thing apart to clean off some corrosion anyway.



It's a pain in the neck testing 62 LEDs. :rolleyes:



 
So today I had to go and get a shot in my knee. You need 3 of them so I have two more visits. I had this a few times before and I know it doesn't work. I just like to me a real man so I go for the pain.
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I went to the Dr's office for the shot and I felt bad because everyone in the office was sicker than me. I am not even sick, just worn out knees. If you work all your life and don't wear out your knees you probably had a Sissy job or didn't do it correctly. I think a lot of the people were there for eating too many of those little packets that come with electronics that say "Do Not Eat".

The Dr, has a very pretty, very young assistant, about my Grand Daughters age which disappointed me because now I can't scream and look like a Wuzz.
The Doc comes in and he is a friend of mine so we talk fish for a few minutes. Then he brings out the "Needle". I try not to look at it because it isn't an ordinary needle. He is injecting this gel in me that I think is a combination
Of Vaseline and Rowaphos with a little Prizapro to keep parasites off the injection site.

The two of them had to wheel the needle in on a dolly because this thing is so big, it has a crank a foot pedal and a ground probe on it. (I may be exaggerating just a little) I am not afraid of needles but this is more like a Javelin on steroids.
The assistant takes out this little tiny container which I thought was that stuff you use in cold climates to defrost a lock, either that, or lipstick, and she uses it to chill my knee. I said, "Is that it?" Don't you have like a fire extinguisher or a case of Novocain to use first? She just smiled and took something out of her eye.
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So he says "Little Pinch". I love it when they say that. Little Pinch. I said to him, Have you ever tried to stick this thing in your leg? He just smiled as I left.

So I limp to my car, close the windows so I could scream in private and I went home. My wife was there doing something at the sink. We have this insinkerator that you can put food scraps or fish in that died from Whopping cough so it goes down the drain. She turned the thing on and I hear, GGGGGGGggRRRrrras%%%%%%"GnnAAsshhhhhh, or something like that. Now water starts coming out the cabinet door under the sink.
I hobble over to it and look down in it with a flashlight and see the problem. The Goomiseguam that grinds the food up, ground itself up and made a hole in the side of the thing. Great. I sold the house and didn't want to replace this thing just now. Like it couldn't last a few more weeks!
So I go and order another one from Amazon because my knee won't allow me to go to Home Depot. It will arrive tomorrow. I am all excited because now I can jam myself under the sink and replace the thing.
It never ends.
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I built a Sulfur Denitritor for kicks. I won't install it until I move. I just want to experiment to see how they work.



 
So I fired my elevator contractor because he was a Jiboni and I don't think he knew an elevator from a lighted refugium.

I hired a new one yesterday and will see how that goes.

I also called a builder today because I need a licensed carpenter to build a shaft inside the original shaft which is much too big.



I really hate this because I have never hired anyone in my life except on my job. Everyone seems like Jibonies to me as this stuff is so simple I could build this shaft in a few days if they would let me. But of course you need to be licensed, insured and good looking.

It takes 6 weeks to get the prints which I could draw myself in a couple of hours. The elevator car takes over 3 months to build, another thing that probably takes 6 hours. Everything is a big deal. How do people live that have to hire people for everything? I would blow my brains out after I blew their brains out. Like OMG just do something! even if it's wrong, thats better than nothing. :confused:
 
I just remembered this story, but I am sure I posted it on here somewhere so if you read it go and watch Oprah give houses to homeless cats with Alzheimer disease.



I had a guy on the job who we called Speedy. This was the remodel of the New York City Playboy Club (where I would have worked for free but they insisted on paying me)

I never saw someone as incompetent as Speedy. I don't know how he got dressed in the morning.
For instance. I told him to install the little grills on the stairs in the night club so the light shines on the steps. Night clubs are purposely dark so you just want to light up the step. He installed all them up side down. He said you couldn't see the light if they shined on the steps. I told him: You don't want to see the light, just the step.

Then around the perimeter there was cove lighting at the ceiling with a little flood light every 6". There were hundreds of them. We had to install these metal plates that were 6" X 6" in between every light. Simple because there was a screw sticking out for each one and all he had to do was put a nut on each one.
We turned the lights on and I said Wow, he really did it good. Then the steel plates, which would give you a nice gash if it hit you started to fall down.

I looked and they were all taped up with electrical tape so when the lights heated the tape, they all fell down. He said he couldn't get the nut on.

I had him install a baffle over the lights on the bar. He slipped and pulled the entire fixture down and broke it.

Going to lunch as we walked down the stairs I told him to straighten the switch plate. (we didn't want him come to lunch with us)
He hit the plate with a pliers and broke the plate and switch.

I told him to gather all the tools and put them in the gang box (big tool box) on the sidewalk and wait for the truck to pick them up.

I went outside (on Fifth Ave, and 59th st Manhattan) and thousands of dollars worth of tools were scattered all over the sidewalk and the box was locked. No sign of Speedy.

So I knew we couldn't get him to do the simplest thing so I had him sit in a chair in the middle of the showroom and I took two dead wires out of the ceiling and told him to sit there and don't move. Just keep putting these wires together every second and I am going on the roof to test for them.

After a few hours i forgot about Speedy and was going home. I came to the place where he was, and he was still sitting there putting those two wires together.

My Union had us keep him working no matter what because he was some important guys son and he needed a couple of weeks working to get his card and no one else could take him because he was too stupid. Then they wanted to make him an office worker probably throwing out the garbage but I doubt he could do that as he was under qualified.

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I just cleaned my algae scrubber and I noticed in my UG filter manifold that one tube was clogged wit tube worms. I made a hook on some wire and lifted some out then I had to chop the rest of them up to restore movement. In doing that a tube that feeds the left UG plate came apart. It is right in the middle of the tank behind the reef structure so it will have to remain disconnected until I move in just over a month.

The fish will just have to get over it.
 
I never hired anyone in my life for anything and can't stand the fact that I now have to hire someone to build my elevator shaft in my new home for the handicapped elevator for my wife.

I can do this with no problem for about a grand but you have to be licensed and insured for that town.

I am getting bids but it breaks my heart to do this.

I built my second floor installed my solar panels and wired and plumbed the house. I have been doing this all my life and it's easy but I am not allowed to do it there until I own the place.



Next week i am having surgery on my right hand and I won't be able to use it for a month so moving everything in my tank is going to be fun using only my left hand. I wanted to build some rock but i don't think I can do it in a few days although I may try.
 
I just got my undergravel filter and I am all Goo Goo over it. OK not really. It is extremely cheaply made compared to my old one and I hope my rocks don't crush the thing. It is one step above that plastic packaging that roast chicken comes in. It also has some very thin tubes that I will throw out and put in real tubes, not Sissy, Girly Man tubing. Then I have to bend them near the gravel and bring them up into a manifold that I will start designing now as my old one has seen better days although it works well. I am not sure if I will plumb my algae scrubber into it like I have now or make it so my algae scrubber feeds my skimmer and that feeds the UG filter. I have not thought about it yet.

Right now there is a 5' trough that sits near the back of my tank where the skimmer dumps on to, then it goes back into the tank, but if I could eliminate one pump, that would make it a little simpler as I decided not to add a sump. I may in the future, but I don't have time for Girly frivialities yet. :rolleyes:



My algae scrubber flows into a PVC pipe then down into the UG filter manifold.

I realize all you Noobs don't do it this way, (or have any Idea what I am talking about) but I like to be different.



 
Can you remind me - are you moving your old tank or starting fresh?
 
I am leaving my old tank because it is in a wall and I built the house around it. I am buying a new tank and will set it up in the new house and fill it with NSW because I am right near the sea. Then, if all goes well (I doubt it) I will come back here (If the new people let me) and take everything out of the tank including water, rocks, gravel etc. Then I hopefully will bring my gravel down to the beach and rinse it off. I do this every 25 years or so if it needs it. Then I will rush back to the tank and if any fish are stil alive i will throw them in the tank right after the rocks.

Thats the plan. What will most likely happen is my house won't be built fast enough and me and the fish will have to live in a van down by the river. :rolleyes:
 
Are you getting the same size tank as before?

I designed the house I'm in around my tank as well. Building it took a full year which just seems crazy. I understand many of the reasons why but it sure is frustrating. Perhaps if I had more of your skills I could have gotten it done faster.
 
Joe, I now have a 100 gallon long tank. The new one which will be a 125 gallon has the same size footprint it is just about 6" higher so my lights will fit. I could have used my old UG filter but I hope to set that tank up with new NSW before I bring my old stuff there and I am n t sure if the thing fell apart or if the Godzilla larvae ate it. :eek:

 
Is this thing on? Is anybody here? I know Joe is here. HELLO. This feels like "Invasion of the body snatchers," the original, not the remake which was for Sissies. :p
 
That’s a nice box in the wall you have, it’s what I’m going for as soon as I find a house.
 
Thanks Chris
We have a closing date of the 21st of this month but I will still live here for a few weeks and pay rent. This may work out very well because if my house ever gets finished I will be able to move my fish there while I still live here. Thats the new plan. I wanted to build a large rock to support my reef on but I am having hand surgery Monday so I won't be able to use it or wave to anyone for a couple of weeks.
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One more thing, I may keep my nitrates up high as my gorgonians, sponges, fish and most of the rest of my corals including three SPS corals are thriving fantastically. They are practically growing out of the tank. I am interested to see what else will live so nice with 160 nitrates.
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