Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

2 days ago, about 8:30 in the evening I was ready to jump into the shower. OK, I don't jump any more, but I was just getting into the thing.
Our doorbell rings so I yell to my wife to get it. She yells that she is also ready to get into her bath.

I yell, "I WILL BE RIGHT THERE" and quickly put on a bathing suit because very few people want to see me naked.

I looked out the window in the door and see a tuft of blond hair and I didn't recognize the person. Normally, at that time the only people who would ring my bell is a friend who sometimes brings me fresh fish he just caught, or my neighbor next door who bakes a lot and often brings us some cake or pie.

It wasn't either of them, so I opened the door and saw a woman about 55 years old who I didn't recognize, and I assumed she wanted me to sign a petition for something that I was probably against. That wasn't the case.

She said she saw me on the news from last year about my Vietnam story of a little girl who wrote me a Christmas card while I was in Nam.
She lives behind me here in the same development and she asked people playing pickleball if anyone knew me and where I lived.

I said: Can I help you? She wasn't holding a cup, so I figured she didn't want to borrow a cup of sugar, and she wasn't a Supermodel asking directions, so I had no idea who she was. She proceeded to explain to me that she was writing a fiction book about some guy who went to Vietnam to find his girlfriend or something like that. I wasn't paying too much attention as I wanted to take a shower.

My wife yelled "COME IN". which she did. She said she took a creative writing course, and although she knows nothing about the Vietnam War, she wanted to write this story about it and needed some input from someone who was there. She also said she ordered my Vietnam book.

She asked me many questions about the war and I lent her a book about a severe battle I was in but explained to her that it had a lot of military jargon in it and even I didn't understand much of it but she wanted to read it anyway. My book is much simpler because I am a simple guy.

She stayed about 45 minutes, and I hope to read her book if she finishes it.

 

[Paul B]

These guys are always having babies. I'm surprised the oceans aren't filled with them.

 

[Paul B]

Wow, I just went on Amazon to order new sneakers, or running shoes. I go through a lot of shoes because I walk at least 2 miles every morning and in the summer that is on a beach that is covered in rocks and pebbles.




I was going to re-order the same as I bought the last 3 times and now they are $300.00. When I was a kid there was only one kind of sneaker, "US Keds" and they were $1.75.

I just found the same pair on Amazon for $200.00 which I still feel is robbery but as an American Patriot, I only buy American if they are available, so I ordered the $200.00 pair. I still think it's a crime to pay that much for a shoe that probably costs $12.00 to make, but it is what it is.

 

[MadReefer]

Wow, I just went on Amazon to order new sneakers, or running shoes. I go through a lot of shoes because I walk at least 2 miles every morning and in the summer that is on a beach that is covered in rocks and pebbles.


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I was going to re-order the same as I bought the last 3 times and now they are $300.00. When I was a kid there was only one kind of sneaker, "US Keds" and they were $1.75.

I just found the same pair on Amazon for $200.00 which I still feel is robbery but as an American Patriot, I only buy American if they are available, so I ordered the $200.00 pair. I still think it's a crime to pay that much for a shoe that probably costs $12.00 to make, but it is what it is.

Used to buy my Converse sneakers from Woolworth as a kid.

 

[Paul B]

MadReefer, I remember them. They were also probably less than 2 bucks.

I used to buy my fish at Woolworths.

 

[diana a]

I got goldfish from Woolworth!

 

[MadReefer]

I got goldfish from Woolworth!

Me too

 

[Paul B]

In those days, you could go into Woolworths with two bucks and come out with 20 fish. But it was real hard to get those 2 buck.

 

[Paul B]

Yesterday I took my 11 year old Grand Son fishing on a party boat out of the east end of the North Fork of Long Island right near Plum Island where the Government did experiments on animals giving us ticks that carry Limes disease and probably two headed goats.

WE woke up early and he wanted a hard boiled egg which my wife made the night before. I peeled a hard boiled egg for him and put it in the microwave for 10 seconds.

At about 8 seconds, I hear this big explosion and being a combat Veteran, I hit the deck.
Then I realized the egg exploded, causing the microwave door to crash open and depositing pieced of egg all over the kitchen. I mean I didn't think there was so much egg in an "egg".

Thank God my cleaning fanatic wife wasn't up.

I cleaned much of it up with a hand vac which I had to then take apart to wash and wiped up all the rest of egg on the stove, wall and floor so Teddy didn't get to eat his egg.

Because of all the time I wasted cleaning up egg I only had one cup of coffee where I normally have 3 before I leave. Now I know what it means to go out with egg on your face.

We went downstairs where my friend Richie was waiting as he came with us .

WE drove about 35 minutes to the boat, The "Peconic Star IV" and we were the first "fishermen" there.

There was Captain Paul and Captain Rachelle" (I think). I introduced us as Captain Paul and Captain Richie because we are both Captains.

Soon other fishermen came aboard and 3 of them were young girls about 20 with their boyfriends, or bodyguards.

We left the dock and headed out. There are lighthouses all over the east end of Long Island in various stages of disintegration as some of them are 200 years old. This one is pretty good.

We got to the first spot and dropped out lines. Teddy almost immediately caught a tiny sea bass, which we threw back. Richie also caught a small sand shark which we threw back after all the girls played with it and were amazed.

In a few minutes we all started catching fish, mostly porgies as that is what we were going for. Porgies are normally not that big but they have to be at least 11" to keep so we threw back the smaller ones. We did catch some fluke and sea bass but those were all to small.

Teddy, who was fishing about 10' from me yells "Hey Pop Pop, what's that?"

I look out and say thats a buoy. The Captain looks out and says, no, Thats a "Great White Shark".

I looked closer to the boat and saw this fin sticking out of the water about a foot and a half and he was heading for our boat. Of course I immediately yelled out "We are going to need a Bigger boat".

The thing was about 10 or 12' long and swam under out 60' boat without eating any of us. They normally go for accountants, and I don't think we had any on board.

We also didn't have any lawyers which is a good thing because I may have been tempted to throw one over which would have given the shark indigestion.

In a while, Teddy caught his first porgy. This is the Captain holding it.

Between the three of us we caught about 18 porgy keepers. This is one of 3 5-gallon buckets of them

Captain Rachelle cleaned the fish and my best friend Richie caught the biggest porgy at 15" and he won the pot of $75.00 which the 3 of us split.

At home I cooked the fish and we had a feast. It was a very good day.

 

[Paul B]

This beautiful morning I didn't go for my beach walk. My wife wasn't doing very well last night and I wanted to make sure she was OK which she is and I am happy.

I cherish those beach walks as that is my happy place. I usually get to the beach in under 5 minutes because it is only a short walk to the stairs and a pleasant walk down 176 wooden steps.



I stop a few times on my way down to just watch the vast expanse or nature with very little man made things except the steps.



There are a few "landings" on the long way down where I look east and see the sun rise. It's always awe inspiring and starts me thinking of how lucky I am.

At the bottom I step on the rocks as this beach was formed by a glacier and it very rocky from tiny smooth pebbles to boulders larger than my house.

At one time, all those small rocks were as large as that huge boulder. If it's low tide, I cautiously walk on the algae covered rocks and look for flat rocks that I can lift to see the life under it.

Normally I find hundreds of amphipods, crabs and sometimes baby eels which quickly scuttle under another rock.

Those rocks are very slippery so I am very careful because there is no cell phone service here which I see as a plus.

The very rare times that I see another Human either fishing or walking their dog I notice that I have never seen one of them looking at their phone. I never look at my phone unless to take a picture and don't think I ever checked my E Mail on my phone. I grew up without a cellphone and those times were the best in my life.

As I walk there is a 150' sheer sand dune on my left. I alternate my walks to walk just at the bottom of the dune where all sorts of interesting nature falls down to the beach or I walk just at the breaker line to see what the sea has brought in at the last high tide which travels up about 75' or 100' almost to the dune.

A few times a week I stop to help a conch or stranded horseshoe crab who unfortunately is on his back and can't right himself.



I wonder if they remember me the next time they come close to shore.

I normally walk west to another set of beach steps which gets me to a road that I take back to my house, but sometimes when I get down the steps I walk east towards the sun. About 3 miles away are 5 WW1 shipwrecks half on the beach but only one is still visible and it is only large timbers. I have no idea why those ships were beached there so long ago.

I can look 360 degrees and almost never see anything man made except the stairs I came down. There are no sounds except the wind, surf and seagulls. Sometimes a fishing trawler sails by a few miles out and I hear the low drawl of his aging diesel engine.

On a clear day I can just about see Connecticut 25 miles out.
I can't believe I reached a point in my life where I can experience all this beauty. I grew up in New York and worked in Manhattan for almost half a century never realizing that places like this still exist.

When I bring people here, they can't believe the beauty and solitude, especially in New York.

As a small Kid my cousin built his own home here at 16 years old. He was on the Ed Sullivan show for this. (Google him) That was in the 50s and this place and much of eastern Long Island had few people here and the roads were dirt or gravel.

It has changed a lot but there are still some places left like this and I am so glad I can experience it in the short time I have left to enjoy it.

 

[Paul B]

Happy Fourth of July.

 

[Paul B]

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July. We had a pool party here with 30 of our friends.
We had it catered.