Tank birthday and I'm a Geezer

[Paul B]

Unfortunately, I don't think my new tiny filefish will last the night. He likes to lay against the powerhead and being he is so slow and doesn't swim like Tarzan, he gets stuck there. Also my 6 line is picking on him.

I put rubber bands all over the intake of one of the powerheads but the other one is 10" long and I can't protect him from it so I feel he will get sucked against it

 

[Paul B]

I am going for my very dark morning walk but I wanted to see if my little filefish was stuck to the powerhead.

Using a flashlight I don't see him stuck anywhere so he may be OK.

I will look for the little guy when the lights come on. Now it's time to go to the beach

 

[Paul B]

Nothing exciting on my early beach walk. I had to wait on the beach for a while for the sun to come up.

 

[mrehfeld]

I am going for my very dark morning walk but I wanted to see if my little filefish was stuck to the powerhead.

Using a flashlight I don't see him stuck anywhere so he may be OK.

I will look for the little guy when the lights come on. Now it's time to go to the beach

Mine was VERY shy and seemed doomed when I got him but I've had no issues and he holds his own.

 

[Paul B]

This one is about an inch long so really small. He is not stuck to any powerheads but I can't find him today. That is not unusual in my tank so hopefully I will see him soon

 

[Paul B]

Because of this illustrious hobby I have to replace a HVAC duct that is up against my tank and got rusty. I just ordered the duct and will have to squeeze myself under and behind my tank to cut out the old, rusty duct and install a new one. It doesn't look too rusty but the bottom is very rusty. I will also have to "rustproof" the thing before I install it.

It's the white piece on the bottom.

 

[Paul B]

It seems that I need a new right shoulder. I think it got jealous because I have a new left shoulder and left knee.

The pain level now is getting bad especially when I am not moving it, trying to catch a fish with a net or waving at a pretty girl (who then basically spit at me)
This will be my, I think 38th surgery. I broke and tore everything, so I am full of hardware and when I go through the airport metal detecting machines the agents there put on sound deadening earmuffs because their machines are alarming so much.

The surgery doesn't bother me as I enjoy the sleep, but my wife is very handicapped so I am not sure how I will do this.
I will have one of our friends here to help for 2 days but for a few weeks I won't be able to drive or put her walker in the car.

She can't even take anything out of the refrigerator or oven without dropping it and she falls a few times a week and being her right leg doesn't move, I can't pick her up.

Gone are the days when I used to be able to throw her over my shoulder. I have to figure out how I am going to do this.
Now I am going for some shots to calm it down until I figure this all out.

 

[Paul B]

Lets remember that today is the anniversary of the attack on the WorldTrade Center.
All Americans should Honor this day and especially New Yorkers who saw the towers fall.

I actually worked on the construction of those iconic buildings.

It was a horrible sight and the City was dark and full of smoke for days. Here, we all knew at least one person who died then. We will never get over it or forget.

 

[Paul B]

Everyone in New York knows at least one person who died that day. My friends Daughter was working there but she got out just before they fell. As she was running away someone who either fell or jumped out of the window fell on the sidewalk right in front of her. That will stay with her for life.

 

[Paul B]

On another note. We eat all of our meals on our outside deck in the summer and this time of the year we get a lot of wasps. I have this Zapper thing that looks like a tennis racket and it made me think of this wasp story that I posted a few years ago but it is a true story.

Ok usually bees, wasps, snakes, scorpions, or Paris Hilton don't bother me but today I went upstairs in my house, a place where no one lives but there is an apartment there. I go up there occasionally to clean or fix the exhaust fan.
Before I went up we learned that our phone, which is attached to the wall, doesn't work. It rings but you can't talk.
Anyway, I see this dead wasp on the floor so I get the vacuum to pick it up, then I see another, then another and so on. So I look around and on the wall air conditioner I see part of a wasp hive that looked old and dead.
Wrong.

I take the vacuum and suck up what I thought was a very small hive.

Wrong.
2,863 wasps come flying out and they were not happy, Most of them had a scowl on their face, if looks could kill?
Some of them were so big that they had to stay in the hive because their antlers wouldn't fit through the gate. Yes, this hive was so big, it had a gate.
So I stick the vacuum on the hole in the wall (which was really a gap in the Air conditioner side panel)
And I am sucking up wasps.
No problem.
Wrong.
The 2,863 wasps that had already come out are stinging me.

They got me good and those suckers really hurt, especially like now, 30 minutes later. My elbow is swelled up. I wouldn't mind if they stung me in my biceps, then at least I would look like I had muscles.
So as I am getting stung and holding the vacuum on the hole, sucking up wasps, I take out my cell phone to call my wife downstairs.
Yep, the phone don't work. So I am screaming but she has the AC on and I have the vacuum on. I didn't want to put the vacuum down, but I was getting stung and I think these were the friendly wasps, the nasty ones, the tatooed ones with the leather jackets on were stuck in the hose of the vacuum, that antler thing again.

So finally my wife hears me and of course she takes her time coming upstairs, then screams. I looked like one of those guys that win contests for having bees all over them. So I drop the vacuum, still sucking and we run outside.
I found a can of that bug bomb stuff that you set in the room and leave. The stuff was over 33 years old because I bought it when I bought my house but never used it.
So I push the button and throw it in. It is supposed to emit a mist, but i guess it is no good after 33 years so it just sputtered. I wonder what that did to the carpet?
Anyway, a few minutes later I go up and find many of the little suckers are writhing on the floor but you could still faintly hear, "We will get you"
"We know where you live" But it was very weak and I am sure it was an idol threat.

So I made a larger hole in the wall and after soaking the insulation with wasp killer I sucked out the remaining dead wasps. Before I opened the vacuum, I sprayed wasp killer into it just to make sure. Then I dumped out the bag which was filled with hundreds of dead and dying wasps.
So now I have no more wasps, just a big hole in the wall and a house that smells like Napalm



OK, I thought this was over. Today I go upstairs to patch that hole in the wall. So I bring my big shop vac, a ladder, wasp spray (just to be sure) some calking for the outside, some tools and plaster. So I remove the wasp spray soaked paper towels that I had stuffed in the hole to keep any new creatures from coming in and at the same time I am holding the shop vac hose up to the hole so I can catch any loose plaster.

This is not one of those Sissy shop vacs that is good for picking up belly button lint, this one will suck the brains out of your head through your nose from across the street.
So I take out the paper and I couldn't believe it, there seemed to be more wasps than there was two days ago when I killed hundreds of them.

They were wading through the puddle of wasp spray like it was "Glade air freshener".

No really, you can't make this stuff up. But this time I was prepared, this vacuum was sucking them out from 6" away. They didn't know what was happening. The only problem was that the hole to the outside was still open and as soon as I sucked them in, more came in from outside. So I was alternating spraying wasp spray and sucking at the same time, spray, suck, spray, suck etc.

I also found out what that means on the side of the wasp spray can where it says Kills on Contact" I thought that meant, it kills the wasps when it contacts them, but I think it really means that it kills the wasps after the wasp contacts you. They don't really die that fast, Dying the next day is not exactly the time frame I had in mind.

So I finally eliminate most of the creatures and I make the hole in the wall larger so I have good sheetrock to patch. I kept cutting bigger and bigger because I found their hive. They didn't just have a hive in my wall, they were turning my house into a hive. This thing was huge and it was filled with babies. So I kept sucking them out until I got to good insulation. I wonder what they did with all the insulation that used to be in the wall?
Then I stuck in new insulation that I also soaked with wasp spray
(although I think they were using it for cologne) and I calked the outside.

I had to hold the vacuum with me outside because they kept coming back trying to get back into the nest from outside.
So I am done, at least I thought so and I start to go downstairs but I figure let me go and check on my tomato plants on the upstairs deck which is off the bedroom on the opposite side of the house from the wasps.
On the way out I notice that the wall next to that air conditioner is wet. Great. I don't go up there much and everytime I go, it is a surprise. So I go outside to see where the hole is that is letting the water in and guess what I find?
Yep, wasps. I mean, are they freekin kidding me. This time they are "in" the air conditioner that has not been turned on in over 3 years.

Luckily for me, I have the wasp spray in my hand because I was bringing it downstairs. So I spray the coil in the AC and it happened. I got flashbacks from the other day. Wasps are all around me and I think they heard what happened to their cousins and I didn't have the vacuum in my hand so I had to run. A few minutes later I put on my sneakers so they wouldn't hear me and I snuck out armed with more wasp spray, the kind they sell to Sissies because it shoots like 2 football fields away. My deck isn't that big so I was fairly close and like I said this stuff kills on contact, after they contact me so i had to bob and weave but I didn't get stung.

They were mad before but now they just wanted revenge.

I ran inside and quickly shut the screen door. They were crashing into the screen making a horrible noise so I closed the glass door, they were still coming, smashing their heads into the glass, wasp brains splattering everywhere, then I turned on the air conditioner and as soon as I did, I could hear "Ping, ping, bing ding" Yes they were flying into the fan and getting thrown all over the inside of the AC unit. There were wings, abdomens, tiny chains, little broken bottles, flying all over the place, these guys were preparing for war.
But they didn't know who they were dealing with. This reefer Geezer now has wasp experience.
The next time I go up there I will probably find snakes, but I do have to go again to remove the wet sheetrock and calk the AC

 

[redfishbluefish]

They are HERE....between your post above and just tonight on ABC 7 news with their report on yellow jacket wasps.....I find a nest just above the door to my pool shed. I've been walking in and out of that door all summer and never noticed it until yesterday. They are boldface hornets, not as aggressive as yellow jackets, but still pretty nasty. On top of that, if I get stung, my throat closes down and I can't breath.



Because I'm allergic, I'm not vacuuming or using hornet/wasp stray. I put together a DIY trap that truly isn't a trap, but a source for poison for the wasps to bring back to the nest and kill them off. Just put it together today and haven't noticed any of them going in. The YouTube said you have to wait for the solution/food to ferment and start to rot and stink. FYI, the poison is boric acid (Borax for the old timers who remember 20 mule team Borax).

 

[Paul B]

This morning on my beach walk I came across this poor creature. He didn't have any bites and looked in perfect shape. Except of course for that dead thing.

 

[Paul B]

I removed the old duct. It was getting rusty because it is behind my reef tank.

I had a new duct made (Quack Quack) and installed it yesterday.
I first coated it with a very expensive rust preventing paint.

 

[Paul B]

I wanted to hire this nurse to help me out for 6 or 7 months while I recuperate.

But my wife wants to hire this one.

 

[Paul B]

My first choice has a PhD as a Neuro Surgeon, Phlebotomist, agriculture,
Entomology, sheetrock, Canadianologist, archeologist. volcanologist, ichthyologist,
Beyonce ology, Captain Kangaroo, gemologist, horticulture, ESP, and pole dancing.

While the other one went up to 5th grade but she got an award for having the shiniest hair.