I was asked why I closed my account

and the answer didn't stun the clerk I spoke with. He's heard it before and likely will hear it again.

"For the same reason Donald Trump got elected. The powers that be were not paying attention to their customer base," I said.

It is true among the telecommunications companies as well as a lot of other businesses. They don't seem to me to be taking care of their long term customers.

They will offer people off the street a half-price deal that their long term customers are not eligible for. They also jack your rates up as soon as you come off of contract even though you have been on auto-pay the whole contract period.

Customers who simply pay on time like that are valuable. Slowly jacking the rates up is really not good business.

In short, I left my long term ISP and phone supplier because I got tired of the games they started to play when they thought they had me hooked and started taking advantage of my good nature. 


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I am now up and running

I now have a new ISP, phone and TV which is a pretty good deal because I bundled with one of the companies and got a pretty good deal.

Of course, now there is a major pain in the ass going on because I have to reset and plug in passwords and all of the usual crap that goes with getting things up and running.

This is no biggie to me as you can figure things are up and running however I just had to use my cell phone to log into my email which is a pain. I just reset that so I can use an old fashioned password.

Of course, the next step is the Mrs. wants to make sure everything works. She will call me the new phone from a landline, then her cell. I mentioned she has not tried calling the house from a phone booth yet.

I was hoping she'd take the bait but she didn't. I wanted to see her hop into her car and go looking for an operable phone booth somewhere. It's possible she'd find a blue serge suit in it depending on what Superman is up to now. Superman doesn't have too many places to change these days since the event of the cell phone.

It took me about fifteen minutes to get things up and running. That's not too bad.

Of course I have to go to the old carrier and cancel everything and raise holy hell about things. This is going to be a BIG suck pill because they have things hidden.

When you go into one of their offices they try and shuffle you around and pass the buck. I ought to simply strap on a pistol belt with an old GI holster and an airsoft 1911 in it. It looks just like a GI.45. 

Actually I ought to go wearing a couple of crossed bandoleers carrying an M-4gery like a latter day Pancho Villa but I suppose I'd go to jail for that for some trumped up charge. Someone would SWAT me in an instant.

Well, I am off to cancel one account and listen to them moan and bellyache. When they ask why I am going to say that is for the same reason we elected Donald Trump. They have not paid attention to me.

Actually they have. They have slowly raised their rates because they thought I would not cancel them out of loyalty.

Loyalty is a 2 way street. They have shown no loyalty to me, the customer so I owe them nothing.

Adios. I'm off to pick a fight with my previous provider. 





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Waaugh! Weight gain! Not good!

I stopped smoking cigarettes about seven weeks ago and have started to gain weight. It sucks as I had fought to get it down and was battling to keep it off.

And yet again the medical people lie to you because they are being self-righteous and know what is good for you... or they think they do.

I had  medico tell me I would just gain a couple of pounds and shed it quickly. What horse shit! I put on a FAST several pounds and have gone on a starvation diet to shed it and it is not dropping off very well at all.

I hate it when people like that lie to you. They know damned good and well that when you stop smoking cigarettes that one's metabolism changes and weight gain is very, very common to those that stop.

Incidentally I have not quit smoking I have stopped smoking. I am not a quitter and have not quit anything in my life. There is a difference.

My plan is to have maybe a drag or two on an annual basis to stay in the ranks of smokers. That is to make sure I do not become a self-righteous imbecile like many reformed smokers do.

I once watched a guy go from about 2 and a half packs of Camel straights to becoming a royal pain in the ass. If you would light up anywhere near him he would announce that he was allergic to cigarette smoke.

Interesting. He sure wasn't when he smoked 2 and a half packs a day.

Anyway I am not a happy camper with my weight gain and I am now going to have to go on an Auschwitz starvation diet of some sort to even break even.

I AM going to have to stop using alcohol in any quantities as it is a source of empty calories. What is interesting is that I dropped off much alcohol because it was a smoking trigger. 

My anger is directed to the medical community for not being 100% truthful over the weight gain issue. Had they been truthful I suppose I could have taken steps to fight this. Now I am playing catch up which is always a big suck pill.

In other news I am getting a new ISP tomorrow and that is a good thing as it will likely be a lot faster. I have a newer laptop I have not put on line yet but will when my new internet service gets going.

Yesterday I put my new smart phone on line the easy way. I did it the easy way. I just handed it off to the Walmart guy and went shopping while he did it.

I made a list of stuff I wanted and he did it in about fifteen minutes while I shopped. It is the only way to fly as I am not too computer savvy...or at least not as good as I should be.

What is astonishing about the new phone is how fast it is on line. 

I admit I have lived my life with a lot of surplus old laptops designed for physical toughness and not speed but it still strikes me as funny the the fastest computer I now own is my telephone.

That's crazy if you ask me.

I suppose that's technology for you, though.  

In other news I got my beard trimmed yesterday which I now have to do regularly when I am home. 

Personally I don't really care if I look like Father Time with my snow beard. Last winter I let if go for a while and while I was waiting to meet someone outside a McDonalds a patron there thought I was a homeless guy and handed me a couple of burgers and a Coke.

Another thing I am going to do today is have my oil changed and install new plugs. I am hitting the 100,000 mile mark on the pickup today or tomorrow and it's time.






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I had an interesting day so far.

I got the new ISP appointment confirmed and I'm good to go there.

I got my new cell phone squared away. It's up and running,

I grub shopped and paid a few bills and did some banking.

Not bad considering I really don't like to do a lot when I first get home.

I did weigh in and between smoking cessation and the holidays I have about 5 pounds to lose. Ouch,


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Sorry for no post yesterday.

It was a messed up travel day and I had a bunch of things to do.

Sorree!

Hey there, young man...You know who you are.

Swing by the house. I have a sharpener for your trench knife.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I have a new cell phone and have to get it up and running today. 

I, of course, am not too technically minded. I'm taking it to a guy I know that works for a living setting cell phones up. He'll square me away.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&




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Here's an interesting letter I got from someone (not the author)

For what it's worth:

Senator Patty Murray
Senator Maria Cantwell
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senators:

I have tried to live by the rules my entire life.  My father was a Command Sergeant Major, U.S. Army, who died of combat related stresses shortly after his retirement.  It was he who instilled in me those virtues he felt important - honesty, duty, patriotism and obeying the laws of God and of our various governments.  I have served my country, paid my taxes, worked hard, volunteered and donated my fair share of money, time and artifacts.

Today, as I approach my 79th birthday, I am heart-broken when I look at my country and my government.  I shall only point out a very few things abysmally wrong which you can multiply by a thousand fold.  I have calculated that all the money I have paid in income taxes my entire life cannot even keep the Senate barbershop open for one year!  Only Heaven and a few tight-lipped actuarial types know what the Senate dining room costs the taxpayers.  So please, enjoy your haircuts and meals on us.

Last year, the president spent an estimated $1.4 billion on himself and his family.  The vice president spends $ millions on hotels.  They have had 8 vacations so far this year!  And our House of Representatives and Senate have become America's answer to the Saudi royal family.  You have become the "perfumed princes and princesses" of our 
country.

In the middle of the night, you voted in the Affordable Health Care Act, a.k.a. "Obamacare", a bill which no more than a handful of senators or representatives read 
more than several paragraphs, crammed it down our throats, and then promptly 
exempted yourselves from it substituting your own taxpayer-subsidized golden health care insurance.

You live exceedingly well, eat and drink as well as the "one percenters", consistently 
vote yourselves perks and pay raises while making 3.5 times the average U.S. Individual income, and give up nothing while you ( as well as the president and veep ) ask us to sacrifice due to sequestration ( for which, of course, you plan to blame the Republicans, anyway ).

You understand very well the only two rules you need to know - (1) How to get elected, and (2) How to get re-elected.  And you do this with the aid of an eagerly willing and partisan press, speeches permeated with a certain economy of truth, and by buying the votes of the greedy, the ill-informed and under-educated citizens ( and non-citizens, too, many of whom do vote ) who are looking for a handout rather than a job.  
Your so-called "safety net" has become a hammock for the lazy and not the needy.  And, what is it now, about 49 or 50 million on food stamps - and the program is absolutely rife with fraud and absolutely no congressional oversight?

I would offer that you are not entirely to blame.  What changed you is the seductive 
environment of power in which you have immersed yourselves.  It is the nature of both houses of Congress which requires you to subordinate your virtue in order to get anything done until you have achieved a leadership role.  To paraphrase President 
Reagan, it appears that the second oldest profession ( politics ), bears a remarkably 
strong resemblance to the oldest.

As the hirsute first Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton ( 1834 - 1902 ), English historian and moralist, so aptly and accurately stated, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  Great men are almost always bad men".  I'm only guessing that this applies to the female sex as well.  Tell me, is there a more corrupt entity in this country than Congress?

While we middle class people continue to struggle, our government becomes less and less transparent, more and more bureaucratic, and ever so much more dictatorial, using Czars and Secretaries to tell us ( just to mention a very few ) what kind of light bulbs we must purchase, how much soda or hamburgers we can eat, what cars we can drive, gasoline to use, and what health care we must buy.  Countless thousands of pages of 
regulations strangle our businesses costing the consumer more and more every day.

As I face my final year or so, with cancer, my president and my government tell me 
"You'll just have to take a pill", while you, Senator, your colleagues, the president, and other exulted government officials and their families will get the best possible health care on our tax dollars until you are called home by your Creator while also enjoying a retirement beyond my wildest dreams, which of course, you voted for yourselves and we pay for.

The chances of you reading this letter are practically zero as your staff will not pass it on, but with a little luck, a form letter response might be generated by them with an auto signature applied, hoping we will believe that you, our senator or representative, has heard us and actually cares.

This letter will, however, go on line where many others will have the chance to read one person's opinion, rightly or wrongly, about this government, its administration and its senators and representatives.

I only hope that occasionally you might quietly thank the taxpayer for all the generous entitlements which you have voted yourselves, for which, by law, we must pay, unless, of course, it just goes on the $19 Trillion national debt for which your children and ours, and your grandchildren and ours, ad infinitum, must eventually try to pick up the tab.

My final thoughts are that it must take a person who has either lost his or her soul, or conscience, or both, to seek re-election and continue to destroy the country that I deeply love. You have put it so far in debt that we will never pay it off while your lot improves by the minute, because of your power.

For you, Senator, will never stand up to the rascals in your House who constantly 
deceive the American people.  And that, my dear Senator, is how power has corrupted 
you and the entire Congress.  The only answer to clean up this cesspool is term limits.  
This, of course, will kill the goose that lays your golden eggs.  And woe be to him 
( or her ) who would dare to bring it up.

Sincerely,

Bill Schoonover
3096 Angela Lane
Oak Harbor, WA












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I read where Dolly Parton

 has a program where she mails an age appropriate book to children from birth to age five.

That speaks highly of her.

What even speaks more highly is that she uses her own money to do this and not someone else's.

Ths is a great case of someone putting their money where their mouth is. 

We need more of this.



&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

People ought to learn how to mind their own business said an old classmate.

He's right. They certainly should.

A big part of the problems we face in this country is people that spend their lives trying to tell other people what to do.

While nobody likes being told what to do there are some people that ought to be. The people that ought to be told what to do are the people that try and run everyone else's life. They should be told to mind their own business.

It sounds like a round robin but it isn't.

***********************


One of the things that drives me nuts are hokey two sided things.

September's sticker reads 'Drive safely. School's in session'.

Of course come June the sticker changes to 'Dive safely. School's out'

When do you get to drive like a maniac?

Of course, one should always drive safely. The point is that it always seems like the do-gooders always seem to be playing a two faced game of Catch-22. They try and set a person up with a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario. It's really quite annoying.  

I could go with a simple 'Drive safely. Watch for children.' because that isn't a stupid little game of bogus excuses.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$



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It is beard season because it is cold out.

I generally do not shave between Halloween and St. Patrick's Day. While it makes me look about 20 years older it does keep my face a lot warmer. I work outside a lot and there is now a whole lot of windbreak 

I suppose I could get some kind of Grecian formula and color my snow white beard and look like a kid in my 20s or some damned thing but why bother.

Then again maybe I ought to. That and keep it trimmed. Last winter I was sitting outside a McDonalds waiting for someone while wearing a greasy set of coveralls. Someone came out ad handed me a couple burgers and a coke. They thought I was homeless.

I am what I am and come St. Patrick's Day I'll lose 20 years in one fell swoop.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

I just got off the phone with someone that I think ought to get promoted. He's a crackerjack at what he does and I damned well wish to hell I had gotten his name because I want him to serve me the next time I have a headache.

For what it is worth, I know this guy is some kind of minority and didn't sound like the most polished person I have ever met. I'm going to attribute that to a lousy inner city school education. It's a guess but that's what I think.

This guy sure made up for what he was lacking in formal education by attacking my problem and getting it fixed. He thought outside the box and came up with a pretty damned good solution. He did me right and from my way of looking at things, did his job above and beyond.

He ought to be plucked from his present position and be training the rest of the people he works with. It is a joy to find a guy that has a brain, even though his formal education seems lacking.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

The big issue these days is 'Fake News'.

Hillary ran her mouth about it a while ago and she really ought to shut the hell up. If if wasn't for fake news she would be in jail by now.




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Triple post. I'm running a special

If you are some kind of alphabet agency type and are reading this please pass this on to President-elect Trump.

Mr. President-elect,

You ought to get a ham radio operator's license, General class at least and set up a rig in the White House and go on the air every so often.

It would also be a nice way to take a poke at CNN. Maybe break a lesser story on the ham bands every so often to make CNN go nuts.

The president on 40 meters at, say, 0300Z which is 10 pm Eastern Standard time.

That's what I would do.

Besides, I'd love to work you on the PRC 320 as running 'guerrilla portable'. 

Having a head of state in my log would be a wonderful thing to have.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%


I think I should get a Helberg CH8 Dress Dive watch.

A shipmate says they are selling this on eBay and it makes sense when you think about it.

You never know when you're going to be dressed up in a suit or tuxedo to go on a dive. It would probably even go good with my zoot suit.

This reminds me that I have not seen a lot of naugahide wallets lately.

Maybe this is because naugas are on the endangered species list.


&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Someone commented that he hopes nobody ever finds Bigfoot because if they do they will probably kill him.

I do believe the man is right. Someone WILL probably kill him and come up with some lame excuse for doing so.

Why?

Bigfoot (if he does exist) has never done anything that I am aware of to anyone whatsoever. He just roams around being Bigfoot. He doesn't eat anyone or even their pets. There is no excuse whatsoever to do him any harm.

Yet because he is Bigfoot and therefore different some cowardly little dweeb will get all scared and pop him.

I hope they never do find him.




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I had to deal with yet another telephone headache.

 This one for Mrs. Pic.

She has a tablet and a flip phone and likes it that way. She doesn't want a smartphone.

I ordered her a flip phone off the web and for some reason  the company sent the wrong package. Instead of a phone I got a phone case. I called the seller instantly.

The woman at the other end of the phone tried to make it good. The problem is we needed it yesterday and there was no way she could have it shipped and arrive on time.

She said that she could get a smart phone of some sort delivered on time. I knew where this was going so I nipped it in the bud.

"My wife ins't very tech savvy," I said. "She grew up in a mud hut in the New Guinea jungle. I'm a sailor and I met her there. She's been stateside for only a few weeks."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied. "She learned to speak Pidgin English from missionaries. I've already had a hard enough time getting her to understand that she can't eat the neighborhood cats and dogs and the paper boy is definitely out of the question." 

"I taught her to use a flip phone. She reads the numbers I wrote down and pushes 'send'. That's about all she can do."

This actually served a purpose and kept her on track. She knew she couldn't substitute. There was no way in hell she would be able to divert me to a smart phone. She kept trying to find me the proper, simple flip phone. She really tried.

It didn't work out but I did score a battery which was the problem to begin with. It cost twice of what the entire phone cost but it got Mrs. Pic up and running again and that's what I was trying to do. 


&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

When the woman on the phone asked me if there was anything else she could help me with I had a VERY hard time simply saying no, thanking her and ending the conversation.

Every single neuron in my brain wanted me to ask the woman if she had any ideas of something my wife could use to replace the bone in her nose.

I didn't but I really wanted to. It would have probably been an interesting and amusing conversation. 




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About 1800Z today

I noticed that the largest segment of my readers today were Russian which is fine by me. Anyone is free to read my ramblings.

I am curious at what Russians would see in the murmurings of an old sailor. Then again I am curious at to why ANYONE would be interested in the murmurings of an old sailor. Who knows?

Anyway, if you are Russian I would sure like to know what you find interesting in this blog. Feel free to tell me.

As I write I realize I have offered President Putin the hospitality of my couch if he wants to visit. It has occurred to me that some people mght find that to be some sort of insult. It is not an insult in any way.

It is an offer of hospitality because it is all I have to offer.

Come to think about it, my offer would really give Mr. Putin an opportunity to wipe President Obama's eye.

I can hear Mr. Putin telling President Obama he had to call it an early conference because he had to get to Pittsburgh where he was spending the night on Piccolo's couch.

"He says he has a pretty good bottle of bourbon and he's promised to teach me how to make chili," said Mr. Putin, much to President Obama's shock and horror.

Hey....While we are at it, if Mr. Putin really does want to learn to make chili please give me notice so I can get some good, tough old steer meat and do it right. Some people use nice, tender grass fed Black Angus hamburger and ruin the whole wretched mess.

Anyway I wanted to clarify that by offering Mr. Putin my couch I was in no way trying to insult him. I am simply offering to share what I have with him.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Mr. Putin,

If you read this I am saddened to hear of the death of your ambassador. What a horrible waste of a good life! 

Ambassador types are the people that try and make peace and understanding between nations. Besides being an affront to the Russian people his death is an affront to world peace.

You people in Russia have my condolences for this meaningless death.

Pic



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Double post tonight politics and dealing with a chat situation on line

There were several faithless electors this election.
One voted for Trump but voted for Carly Fiona for Veep but we're only covering the actual POTUS candidates here.

Two Republican electors from Texas were faithless to Donald Trump and voted for Kasich and Ron Paul.

One Hawaiian and four Washingtonians were faithless to Hillary Clinton. The Hawaiian voted for Bernie Sanders. Of the four faithless Washingtonians, three voted for Colin Powell and one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle.

The irony of the whole thing is that an awful lot of liberals demanded the electors be faithless to Trump and when it was all said and done, Trump lost 2 Electoral votes and Hillary lost five.

I call that a $hit and fall back in it for the liberals.

Personally I find this hilarious.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Leaving politics, let's talk about dealing with people on those chat lines they give you when you buy something on line. 

Those are the experts that help you through. They range between total experts and complete idiots.

I am upgrding my cell phone. The chat person asked why.

I told her the model I have has too small of a keyboard for my clumsy fat fingers and when I texted 88500 Jerry I got a half off pizza coupon instead of being able to go on the Jerry Springer Show.

That got their attention!

I have found that quite often off the wall stuff like that gets the person's attention. If they have half of a brain or more they usually pick up on it and laugh like hell. 

If you can get at least a chuckle out of them they are very well more apt to help you out. Those poor people get more than their fair share of abuse and a wry comment can make their day and put them on your side. It desn't take much.

On the other hand if it goes over their head it's probably better off to stop the conversation then and there and wait until you can chat with someone else.

One other trick I sometimes use is something like this when the chat line gives a female name.

"XYZ specialist Gloria. May I help you?"

"Hiya, Gorgeous! Where ya been all my life?"

If they give a friendly answer like "Waiting for you! What can I do for you?" You will likely get something done. If you get a stick in the mud answer, you are probably in for someone that can't really think very well. Bail out now and find someone else.

 I got interrupted with the first person and had to open chat again. This person asked me what I needed the phone for.

I explained that I was a merchant seaman and needed it for porn at sea and to arrange for hookers, blow and whiskey to meet me on the dock when I got off for crew change.

Whoever it was on the other end was pretty amused and proved to be very helpful. I do believe that many of these people have some certain authority to pass on deals because the person that helped me gave me one hell of a deal.

On the other hand I have had people just drop me and end the conversation then and there. Actually that's generally a pretty good deal because that kind of person is generally unlikely to be very helpful.



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I just saw where the head honcho of some university

 made a vile comment about working class Christians. It was uncalled for.

While I don't believe government should be supporting a religion, they ought not to be badmouthing a religion.

Schools that take federal money are supposed to be neutral and not take political sides.

Quick fix.

Stop sending them federal money.



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I heard what Michelle Obama said

about Melania Trump the other day on Oprah. I was appalled. Michelle claimed Melania didn't have a good education for the job of FLOTUS.

It is common knowledge that Melania Trump speaks five languages fluently. 

Her native tongue is Slovenian. In addition to this she speaks English, French, German and Serbian. What does Michelle speak other than 'pretty good English'?

******************************

It was a pretty good day. I had a deal collapse on me and the company I am doing business with seems to be treating me fairly so I will continue to do business with them.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Sarcasm oozes in my family as you well know. 

One of my siblings came home to her dogs and reported that the dogs behaved themselves but apparently the Russians pooped on the floor of the laundry room.

Yeah. Musta been Russians. Lotta that goin' around these days.

%%%%%%%%%%%%

The United States that Tadamichi Kuribayashi explored in the thirties is very much gone. 

Then Captain, later Major General of the Imperial Japanese Army led the defense of Iwo Jima and did one hell of a job. He cost the Marines terrible casualties during the terrible fighting there.

As a young Captain he spent five years in the US and Canada. What stunned him was when his car got a flat tire and he was trying to figure out how to fix it. 

A teenaged farm girl stopped, showed him and had him back on the road in a very few minutes. Kuribayashi was amazed and wondered what the rest of the American population was capable if a teenage girl could fix a car so casually.

That generation is long gone. A pair of healthy American boys the other day had to enlist the help of a 65 year old man (me) to change a simple tire.

I normally don't accept money for things like this but the kids simply offered to pay me so they could stand back and not get dirty.

I told them they were going to do the work and I was there as a teacher and the tuition was $20.

They glumly paid.





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Maybe Vladmir Putin is reading the Hash!

There is a setting where I can see where my readership is coming from and I glanced at it the other day and saw that there are supposedly a Russian or more than one Russians reading this blog.

Far out! They sure are welcome to it and if one of them is Vladmir Putin that's even better yet. It would be nice to have the ear of a head of state. I don't have anything against Putin and I bear no ill will toward the Russian people.

While it is true that back in the 70s I trained to do battle against them, I really didn't have a burning deside to fight them.

Come to think of it, neither did my commanding officer, either. 

While I certainly support our troops and believe in having a strong military I hope we never have to uncork it. Especially against the Russians in a land war. 

Later on today I am going to the Army recruiting office to get some of the recruiters cards. I want to carry a few to hand out to people that run their mouths about how terrible the Russians are for hacking the DNC emails and how we ought to fight them. (They didn't. It was an inside job.) 

I'm pretty tired of people babbling about how we ought to declare war on this place or that.  It's always a case of someone being willing to send someone else or someone else's children off to the meat grinder.

Personally I would rather open win/win trade with someone rather than fight them. It's better for business and better for the working stiff. I should stress win/win because that make it become desirable for both parties that it continue.

Win/lose always seems to leave an upset loser and that can cause problems down the road.

Anyway, it you are reading this, Mr. Putin, I hope you have a good day. Maybe we can do business with you in the future.

Hell, you can come over to my house and have a few snorts with me. You can even sleep on my couch if we get too toasted. It's all I have but you're sure welcome to it.

I'll keep a couple of extra clean blankets and a pillow handy if you decide to take me up on it. Hope you don't mind cat hair, though. 


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To those of you that have steeled me with the truth, thank you.

To those of you that have lied to me as a feeble attempt to protect me from myself go f*** yourselves.

Thanks you goes to the small handful of long time reformed smokers that have told me that the urge to smoke is not going to go away and that I simply have to get used to it. This is doubly true to the two people that told me the urge is going to get a LOT worse before it is going to get any easier.

To those of you that lied to me and told me that I'd be over it after a few days, go straight to hell. Your lies did me no favors and weakened me. Thank God a couple of people stood up and steeled me with the truth. They told me I would never be out of the woods. I can live with that.

I get sick and tired of people that lie to me to achieve a result. I figure the liars didn't give a damn about Piccolo and just considered him to be part of their agenda to create a smoke free world. Go to hell.

It is and always has been an individual choice and really a right for a person to smoke or not smoke. I get sick and tired of all the do-gooders out there trying to force their values on other people. I have half a mind to carry a nice cigar with me to light up and blow in their faces just to pi$$ them off.

To those of you that steeled me with the truth and helped strengthen my resolve, a warm Thank You is in order.

Another thing, I truly hate people that try and save me from myself. It generally brings a knee jerk reaction from me.

Here's a sample of what I mean.

http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/at-quarry-40-years-ago.html

People that try and save me from myself will be the death of me yet.




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Here's to a smell I wrote about a few years ago.

 It's the smell of Ben Gay and Icy Hot.

I do not associate these smells with nice neighborhood pick-up football or basketball games.

These smells I associate as being mixed with the aroma of strong coffee being brewed, cigarette smoke, unwashed bodies and the remanants of fried meat hanging in the air with a light touch of both burned and unburned diesel added to it.

Add an occasional waft of good cognac added to the morning coffee and you have it. 

It's the smell that you don't get when you buy a package of fish at the supermarket.

It is, however, the smell that produces the fish you buy at the supermarket.

Commercial fishing is one hell of a hard way to make a living. It is hard on the body and takes young men and makes them old ahead of their time. It is one of the jobs where I hear guys say, "Holy $hit! He's forty years old and still working the deck!"

Anyone forty years old working on deck is one tough old bird.

There are other jobs out there that beat a person up like fishing does but fishing is one I am familiar with.

It's too bad one could not give a package of the odor to good old Suzie Homemaker to let her know where her delightful seafood comes from.

This is one of the smells that people ought to be exposed to as well as the smell of manure and the farms. 

Exposing the idiots out there to where their food, oil, electricity comes from would probably make a lot of naive attitudes change.

I have said that kids should spend their junior year of high school out somewhere getting some life experience before returning to finish things up as a senior and the more I think about it, the more I believe it.

Incidentally, the Junior year should egin about a week after they finish their sophomore year and continue until about a week before they return to finish their senior year. A good fifty weeks, more or less.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

One of the few truly wonderfully satisfying feelings I had in my life was coffee while standing on the back deck of a fishing boat followed a good breakfast. Enjoying a Hennessy spiked cup of coffee and a Camel cigarette after a hard night's fishing made life very satisfying.






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I find that over time I am getting less and less patient

with the stupidity of people.

Yesterday's post about getting a new cell phone was based on the experiences of a couple of years ago and they are being replayed as we speak.

A couple of years ago I wrote them and complained and they apologized and said they wanted to improve the way they do business and here I am again. I have to call Fedex and make arrangements to have something held.

I think from now my out of town address address is going to be 39 degrees, 32 minutes north, 49 degrees 35 minutes west, course 90 degrees, 12 knots.

It seems to be a good address to use because it makes heads explode in some cases, gets attention in other cases. This sifts out the people to the point where I can find someone that gets it and can work with me...of at least think.

People have no clue as to how things work and are getting worse by the day. Electricity comes from a plug in the side of the wall to most people. The don't understand that some engineer is up all night so as to keep the electrical grid up and running so they don't stub their toe at 0300 when they get up to pee.

Every so often the guys that keep things running ought to shut things down for about a week or so just to remind the public that it isn't magic that keeps things going.

Shut the whole thing down and make everyone freeze in the dark for a few days. That applies to everyone. Yes, everyone. The White House, Trump Tower, Graceland, everywhere. Make everyone watch television by candle light is how I like to put it.

It would do the entire country's educational system good.

One thing it would also do is show why us older people call George Washington's white horse white even though it was really light gray. That's because back in the day they only had black and white TV sets and when one saw George on horseback in the news his horse looked white.

Seriously, though. A person's junior year in high school should be spent away from home. City kids should be send to rural areas and vice versa to get a hands on schooling about how everything works. It would serve to create somewhat of an awareness of things that would probably last a person's entire life.

It would very well change the entire national outlook on things in about a single generation and probably stand to show kids to look for opportunity instead of a handout.

It would also serve them in later life to realize that things are not magic and the gas they put in their car or the electricity they use or the meat they buy comes from somewhere.

A year of working in places they only see on Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs would go a long way to smartening the people in our country up a bit.





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So you're going to have Fedex make an overnight delivery to the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean?

I asked the guy on the other end of the phone.

I was at work a while ago and my cell phone was on its last legs. It has been through hell and replacement was well in order. I got on the Internet and got on one of those live chat deals.

I guess I hit the lottery because I got a pretty hefty discount from the person on the other end. I couldn't refuse it. I took the deal and then the headaches started.

They offered me overnight shipping which was pretty worthless because I was at sea and had over 10 days left in the tour. I wanted them to simply hold it and not mail it until the day before I got home.

Of course, everything today is a mess because it is so automated and an exception causes major headaches.

Couple that with some clown in the middle of, say, the Kansas office that has never left the county. When I asked them if they could delay shipment the poor guy said they could deliver my package anywhere with overnight delivery. 

The person asked me what my shipping address was. I said 39 degrees 32 minutes north, 40 degrees 35 minutes west now, present courses 90 degrees at 12 knots.

"I don't understand," he said.

So I told him to open a window on Google maps and told him to type in the coordinates. I walked him through the process.

He sounded shocked. "That's in the middle of the ocean!" he said.

"Yes, it is," I replied. "That is where I am now. We are headed on a course of 90 degrees at 12 knots. You better make a note of the time so the Fedex people can figure out where we are going to be when they arrive."

"I...I...I..I don't know how to ship it to you," he said. It was obvious that confusion was reigning. His hear was ready to explode.

"If you can hold it and ship in a couple of weeks we can make this work," I said. "I will be on dry land then."

A couple of seconds later I was talking to  supervisor that came up with a pretty good idea. I could have it sent to a local Fedex place and they'd hold it for me. 

I gave him my zip and the supervisor gave me my choice of places. I chose the place I use periodically. Problem solved.

Actually it turned out to be a pretty good deal because I had a friend on the beach snag it for me and it was there when I got home.

As a sailor my life is full of having to deal with stuff like this.



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It is beard season because it is cold out.

I generally do not shave between Halloween and St. Patrick's Day. While it makes me look about 20 years older it does keep my face a lot warmer. I work outside a lot and there is now a whole lot of windbreak 

I suppose I could get some kind of Grecian formula and color my snow white beard and look like a kid in my 20s or some damned thing but why bother.

I am what I am and come St. Patrick's Day I'll lose 20 years in one fell swoop.



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One of the things government has forgotten

 is that they are supposed to serve us instead of running around telling us what to do.

It goes for a lot more than government. It goes for a lot of other people that ought to be brought up short. It is bad enough that government tells us what to do and how to spend their money. However when some little hippie dweeb starts to tell me how to run my life they generally get brought up short MOST riki-tik.

If someone has the right to tell me what to do, I have the right to tell them what to do.

I pointed tht out to a youngster a while back and when he stood there agape at having to deal with hard peasant logic I told him in an angry voice to get the hell out of my face.

He gave me an angry look back and I shot back with, "See? You don't like it when it happens to you, do you? Not one single little bit."

He started to hem and haw and I interrupted him with "Why don't you like liberty?"

He walked off down trodden.



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I am in a quandry over cell phone stuff.

I have this basic entry level smart phone that is a pain in the ass because the screen is so small. I am wondering what to do next.

For all the use I get out of my smart phone I am tinking of taking a step back and getting a $30 flip phone and maybe a tablet.

I have been hauling laptops around for years and I think that maybe if I can get myself the right tablet it will make things a little easier for me when I travel.

I am at the point where I either need more or less. Either makes sense. What doesn't make sense is staying where I am right now. 



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One of the things I would never do is run for president.

The way I see it is that Donald Trump is either a mass murderer or a candidate for sainthood. Nobody really seems to have anything serious on him that has stuck.

On the other hand if the Piccolo for President campaign had taken off there would have been a pretty good smear campaign going on because I am guilty as hell of just about everything except for worshipping graven images and maybe even that.

Like just about every soldier, commercial fisherman, carpenter and general laborer I drank, raised hell and whored as the opportunity arose. You expected anything less?

I suppose it would not be too hard to chase things down and get people to exagerate or even fabricate stories on my younger days.

On the other hand, my general defense is not what most people would think. I generally admit to something worse.

"No I did not do that after a couple of beers. It was after a bottle of scotch. Beer doesn't effect me that way."

Or this:

"Yeah? So? You jealous or something because you didn't have the balls to try it out?"

If possible you drag your accuser into it.

"Yeah? So? You're the one that supplied the whiskey. I suppose you were the shining example of sainthood that night?"

One of the things I ever learned was to admit to the truth. One of the sneakiest things I ever learned is to admit to terrible things I didn't do. It stops the argument right then and there. It generally sends the accuser right into shock. They don't know what to say. 





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Just ending a slow day

Today will be busy so I will post before I turn in even though it won't be much.

I am going to try and gear down from politics but it will be hard until after 20 January as I see that the Dems are still trying to cheat The Donald out of the Oval Office.

The latest thing I hear is that there is a movement to get President Obama to declassify anything the Russians had to do with fixing the election.

That's funny. First of all the voting machines were not connected to the internet and therefore were unhackable by the Russians. However, I'm fairly certain some of them had been altered to favor Hillary.

Secondly, Obama hates Trump with a passion because he knows Trump will likely destroy his legacy. If he had any inkling of Russian fraud he would have alrady let the cat out of the bag.

Right now I am tired after a long, slow day. I am trying to keep busy now to avoid the cravings for a cigarette, a habit I am trying to break. Staying busy is a good deal for me.

Good night. 






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I am rethinking my day to day electronics inventory.

Or at least trying to.

Someone showed me a tablet that was good anywhere there is cell reception and I thought of picking one up but I have rethought things. I actually have everything I need although I may swap a few things around.

I do need to update my GPS but that's about it.

All of my stuff is pretty mission specific. For years people have told me I could ditch the combat laptops for a tablet and I suppose that electronically they are correct but it is a bitch to write on.

Even the little dinky optional keyboard for a tablet is miserable to write with.

It's crazy but I do believe I have everything the way I want it and have had it that way for years.




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I am hearing more and more conservatives saying they are tired

of taking the high road and getting dumped on. Can't say I feel any different.

***********************

I told someone about telling a trio of college kids what Donald Trump was going to do as soon as he got sworn in.

I told them Trump was going to evict all the aliens from Area 51. They took the bait and started carrying on. I told a friend who told my neighbors who were greatly amused.

He came over when he saw me in the driveway and we painted pictures of government men stuffing little green men onto flying saucers to be sent back to the heavens to where they came from.

Actually we laughed at how stupid a lot of college kids are. 

Then we thought about it some more and we admitted we are scared. Those dumbasses will be leading the country in a few short years. It's scary as hell.






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I hate procrastination.

The people involved always seem to have time to do everything else except the things they want me to do.

Those things get put off until the last instant and I have been sick and tired of it for some time.

I hate procrastination and for the past while I have been pretty spiteful toward those that procrastinate and expect me to come to the rescue.

The case of the busted washing machine comes to mind. When I refused to put off leaving for work at a normal hour I had to deal with a case of "What am I going to do with the washing machine down?"

Of course, it would have been too easy to suggest they go to a laundromat so I suggested they be very, very careful.

After all, it they have an accident and go to the hospital the doctor is going to see that they do not have clean underwear on and will assume they don't come from a good family and they won't try very hard to save them.

Of course, this is actually a waste of time because nobody seems to understand that this game is going to play itself again in a few weeks.

Every single time the excuse for trying to make me late will change but the game will continue.

This has been going on for years and even though I have played my end the same way people never seem to figure it out. The clutch on my truck gets let out at 0800 and that's the way it is.

Of course, there is almost always wailing and gnashing of teeth but that's just too bad.

The day seems to nbe coming up in a couple of weeks and I am predicting the way it is going to go down.

My guess is that this tragedy that will be thrust upon me to fix before I return to work is the dryer vent that has leaked for months now. A certain someone will not be happy to learn that it will be leaking for another month or so until I get back to it.












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You want something to complain about?

I will GIVE you something to complain about.

I was kind today and said "Excuse me, young lady," to a woman in her mid 40s. I was crossing in front of her with a shopping cart.

She smiled and accepted the civil pleasantry with a 'Certianly."

Her husband said he didn't like the way I addressed his wife. He was looking for trouble.

I looked at the wife. "He doesn't think very highly of you, does he? Perhaps he would have been happier if I had insulted you."

I walked away and I just KNOW he is sleeping on the couch tonight.






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It is 0100 and I am up because I was a chowder head

and sacked out at about 1800 because I was fried.

I should have toughed it out like I generally do and stayed in sync but I didn't. I was hoping that I could simply go into a long sleep mode but it has been years since I have really been able to do this.

Oh, well.

Hmmm.... I just made me a hot buttered rum and that is making me sleepy. With any luck I will return to the land of nod unless I start carrying on here.

Adios. I think I will return to the land of nod.



Update:

This actually proved to be a smart move on my part as the HBR made me sleepy and I went back to sleep and woke up at about 0700 and felt great.




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Next thing to do is knock off the hootch for a while.

As of now I have been over three smoke-free weeks and because of that I have also cut down on alcohol to a certain degree as it tends to trigger a desire to smoke.

On the other hand, it seems like when I do have a drink or two there is a desire unleashed. It's time to throttle that one way back or there is likely to be trouble of one sort or another.

It is interesting how habits all seem to be inter related. 

Knocking something like smoking out of the pattern effects just about everything else one way or the other. It's amazing.

It is almost mechanical in a way. One part goes out and the whole thing changes.

Anyway, in a week it will be a month smoke free and I'll see what it looks like then.

I wish people would tell the truth about smoking cessation. Everyone tells you it gets easier over time and that inside a couple of weeks I won't notice it anymore.

Liars, the lot of them. I know they mean well but I do not take strength by being lied to and the ends don't justify the means.

The truth as I  see it is it has gotten harder and harder each day to stay smoke free. 

I wish someone had said it is going to get harder by the day but over time you will learn how to deal with it. At least I would have known what I was up against.

Anyway, last night a friend dropped by and we put a pretty good sized dent in a bourbon bottle.

While I am not sick or hung over, I do now realize that this whole thing is inter related. It is going to require a larger change in life style than it looked like at first.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

In other news I was on the air last night and listened to someone gripe about 'No Code Extras' ruining the hobby.

I went up just enough to not completely walk on them but enough so that my CW would bleed through on them and keyed, "Just another no code extra ruining the hobby."

When I was done with that I listened and figure that neither of them had sent or received code for years as they didn't bother or more likely couldn't  bother to read it.







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I am running late today

Which isn't a bad deal because I created a wonderful path of death and distruction a mile wide.

It started with morning coffee at the local 7-11 where I heard some kid bellyache about some damned thing or another.

I didn't have a whole lot of time for his bull$hit.

"OK, Mister Social Justice Warrior." I short back. "How about you find a safe space for the GI kid overseas who is covered with the brains of his best friend?"


crickets.



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You have to take things for what they are.

I drew a comment about my luck with finding people from my past.

I have also tracked down a person that was not directly a part of my past.

My most interesting track-down was several years ago when I learned of a relative that was KIA in the Pacific fighting during WW2.

It is a good thing I decided to dig around about him when I did because most of the people I contacted are now dead and gone.

It was interesting and time consuming to say the least.

I did have lunch with a guy that hit the beach twice with my relative. Once at Saipan where he was wounded by concussion and again at Iwo where he was killed.

I also had long phone conversations with two other guys that were with him on Iwo. It was an interesting track-down and it led me to a whole little culture of WW2 guys including one of the sons of one of the dead that has been the secretary of a group for years.

It will not be long until my turn comes up and I will be buried alongside the people of my parent's generation. I will be buried at sea.

When that happens I will have fully evolved into a soldier because at that point I will have achieved anonymity. 






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I ran into a Marine that was griping about the Air Force

He was being a Marine which is to say he was griping about how the Air Force guy was set up in an air conditioned tent sitting behind a computer. He was out in the heat of the day, of course, because that is what Marines do.

I told the Marine that if he had a single lick of sense he would WANT the Air Force guy in the air conditioned tent where he would be able to be sharp and attentive. He wanted the Airdale just the right side of chilly so he would be alert and on his toes.

The Marine caved in on that one because I didn't even get a "yeah, but..." out of him.

7777777777777777

Yesterday the mail guy saved me a trip to the post office.

Every now and then I hand him a cup of coffee or a coke and yesterday it paid off. He had a package that required a signature. Instead of leaving me a note to go to the P.O. to pick the package up he chased me down. 

When he found me I signed and took the package. It saved me from having to go to the zoo scene at the local post office.

What goes around comes around.

One of the neighbors thinks it is unfair the way the mail and trash guys treat me but another neighbor told her that it would happen to her if she'd just work at it a little.






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It has been a pretty good year.

I feel like writing now and feel a ramble coming on. It is one of those moods I fear I might slip into drink. There is only a half-bottle of bourbon in the house so it is not worth it. I think I'll write. A half-bottle is not worth pulling the cork off in this mood. Better I write. Yes, please tune up your sarcasm meters. It has actually been years decades since I have done anything that serious. 

I have the books almost balanced and have done a pretty good job of living up to my code of always repaying a kindness or settling a slight.

Actually the settling of slights isn't really that bad. You truly have to work at getting me upset. I will let just about anything guided by ignorance, stupidity or accident sluff of of me like water off a duck's back.

Malice is another thing altogether. That is never allowed to slide. I won't get into things here because it is very possible that what I did may or may not be out and out criminal. Whatever. The matter is now settled unless he wants to continue things. I doubt he will. He's not buried in my back yard. He's very much alive and now thinks that if he does cross me again he will be buried in my back yard.

If you are so damned curious that you just have to know, I will say that I actually didn't do anything illegal as such. I just simply didn't do something and let them do the damage to themselves. It is not really physical. It's mental. 

I also managed to chase down another person I owed a thank you a few months ago. It was a woman I met during my travels about 30 years ago that helped me along in life. She is about 15 years older than I am and back in the 80s we had a brief affair of sorts. She taught me a lesson I have never forgotten. We both managed to keep an eye of sorts on each other via mutual friends.

I heard she was going to be in Ohio so I called her and we spoke person to person for the first time in about 30 years. We agreed to meet for lunch so I drove to Ohio. Actually I found out that my debt to her was not one way. I never knew it but I had helped her out in the process of being helped. 

It's rather funny how things all seem to come out in the wash. We had an enjoyable lunch and swapped notes. Shortly after she and I parted ways she met someone and while they never married, they have been together for damned near 30 years.

It seemed she gave me the gift of confidence and I inadvertently introduced her to her mate of the past 30 years.

The other two are debts I can never repay because both of the people I owe are dead. One I did manage to settle up with in a way after he was gone. I found out a year after the fact and arranged to have a bottle of Remy Martin cognac dumped on his grave which is to say dumped into the Pacific Ocean because he was buried at sea.

The other is a rather odd debt. I didn't find out who I owed for a few years until I ran into someone a couple of years later in Ketchikan.

Just before I left Kodiak in my sailboat for the last time I came aboard and found an envelope on the galley table. It contained a $100 bill and a note that said, 'Follow your dreams!'. I didn't find out who left it for a a couple of years.

The man that left it was simply another liveaboard in the small boat harbor. He was basically unemployed and the $100 represented one hell of a lot of money at the time. Why he did that I will never know.

A couple of years later in Ketchikan I ran into a mutual friend who let me know it was Rob that had left me the note and the money. He also let me know that Rob was no longer with us. A few months after I left he was found dead. No details save that it was possibly his own hand as he had been diagnosed with a health issue a few months beforehand.

Still, the debt had to be repaid and I repaid it simply by passing it on. Over the years I have helped a number of total strangers continue their adventures with a quick unsolicited donation so in a way I suppose that evens things up.

As things stand now I've pretty much cleaned out that part of my bucket list out with one exception. I owe an old high school classmate a face to face thank you. I would really like to clear that one up.

Actually there is another that comes to mind as I write this. It is truly strange. I managed to track this one down after all these years.

A few years back when we were cleaning out the family manse I found a letter addressed to me through my mother. It was post dated September, 1986. The return address was in feminine handwriting and my address was written on it by yet another long dead friend. I recognized the handwriting.

The man that addressed it was killed in a skiff accident off the coast of New Jersey. A year later I was in the area he was killed and returned a Zippo to him by throwing it over the side of the boat I was on, hence returning it to his owner via Davy Jones.

The return address on the letter, in feminine handwriting had no name on it but the letter was signed with a name I did not recognize. It was from a city on Oregon and that provided me with a clue. It was a simple thank you letter for something I didn't remember doing. I put it aside for a while and forgot about it until several months later when I had some enforced time off from an injury.

I went digging on line and figured out who she was. I did remember her, but not by the name she signed the letter with. I had known her by her alias. She had worked in Kodiak as a hooker for several months.

If you are reading this and did not spend any time in Kodiak in the '80s it will likely wonder. If you did spend time there in the '80s you will grin. At the time it was quite possible to see the mayor, a fisherman, a hooker and the guy that ran the dump sitting at the same table having breakfast together. Kodiak was that kind of place. Racial, social and financial equality at its finest.

Anyway, the hooker that had written me was the same one I had taken to midnight mass a Christmas or two earlier. I wrote about the incident in Piccolo's Hash a few years ago. It's there. Google 'Piccolo's Hash' and dig around. Here's a cut and paste link:  http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/last-night-someone-said-to-me-that-hes.html.

I thought of not answering the old letter. Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. On the other hand, the woman was living in an Oregon fishing town and the fishing community is small. I was certain that in that town her career in Kodiak was pretty likely well know in town. I sent her a letter to the hair styling place.

A couple weeks later I got one back. She was amazed to hear about the 20 year old letter. She also reported she's doing quite well with both her hair styling business and a number of rental properties. She is one of the very, very few woman to survive prostitution. Most wander into drugs and die young.

It's nice hearing that someone is still alive and doing well.

I have to put this epistle down for now as it is getting late and I want to get my mind away from this sort of thing. I will explain in the morning.

I bagged this last night because it was getting late and I did now want to start drinking hard liquor to avoid getting a visit from the ghosts.

What? Ghosts? 

Yes, ghosts. Not to be mistaken for the demons that I have exorcised long ago. I have not had a visit from the demons in over two decades since I returned a Zippo to a friend of mine via Davy Jones. Before then a visit from demons in the night was a very, rare occurrence unlike a friend of mine I roomed with for a while.

Vietnam had been less than a decade earlier and he was carrying something from it that he never shared. I was sensitive enough not to pry. It finally came out one night over a bottle of Glenlivet and while it was somewhat ugly it clearly was not his fault. He was carrying the blame for someone else.

He later said that things got a lot better after he told me about what had happened. Actually he had done nothing wrong. Someone else had stumbled into a Claymore mine he had set after being specifically told to stay clear of the area. He felt responsible.

While I do not have demons that come in the night, I generally get a brief visit from the ghosts of the old gang of '78 along with a few others. The guys from the winter of '85-6 sometimes appear, too.

More often than not, at sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas I get a visit from the ghosts. It is not really a fearful experience. It's actually both a warm and sad experience.

The truth is there are only two of us left and the other one is living in a small cabin in eastern Washington. He's scratching out somewhat of an impoverished living doing odd jobs.

The rest of us are dead. 

Commercial fishing misadventures seemed to be the cause of the bulk of it. However, there were airplane accidents and a myriad of other causes including a murder, a couple of suicides and a number of overdoses.

A couple of years ago I really pissed off a policeman that was working narcotics and trying to bust a heroin dealer. I asked him why he was wasting his time on a self-solving problem.

When hes aid he was trying to save lives I pointed out that they really didn't want their lives saved. If they did want to live they would either have checked into rehab or avoided heroin in the first place. 

Someone once said that I survived because I avoided a whole lot of winter commercial fishing. I disagree. I attribute my survival and longevity to having avoided the drug scene. 

He countered that commercial fishing snuffed more lives out than drugs. I pointed out that a lot of fishing activity was actually based around drugs. Drugs cost money and drug users generally took more chances and as a result suffered much higher casualties.

I had only fished with family types and avoided druggies. Family types tended to run for cover in heavy weather faster than druggies did. They had wives and kids to come home to. Druggies only had dealers to come home to. They generally owed them money. As I sit here writing I can think of a half-dozen boats I refused to fish on that have since gone down with all hands. Of the half-dozen, five come to mind as having had crews that were in one way or another involved with hard drugs.

Strangely enough, the reason I avoided the drug scene was not because of fear of addiction or the crap the stuff the establishment ragged us with.

At an early age I noticed that most people that wound up getting beaten up, ripped off or were suffering major financial woes shared hard drug use in common. It was either that or heavy alcoholism.

The fact that I have been under DOT drug testing has not really changed things for me. I don't have a thing for drugs and actually look forward to going to work because there is no temptation to even have a drink there. I used to kid the guys that I came to work to dry out. I know of some guys that really DO come to work to dry out.

I recently told this to a young man of about thirteen in front of his parents. The mother looked quite alarmed, the father not so much. The father later questioned me about my attitude and I defended myself by explaining that the truth steels a person. I also pointed out that the lies the government told us back in the day only served to weaken their arguments. 

Anyone that has ever been treated to a "Marijuana: Teenage killer' type of thing knows that it is nothing but a complete, total crock based entirely on lies. If they lied to us about pot then they are most likely lying about everything else, too. When I pointed this out to the kid's father he admitted my argument made a lot of sense.

The paradox here is the guy that smokes an occasional joint here and there has fewer headaches than a drinker does. Back in the day I was known for being able to conjure up a bottle of excellent scotch and a pack of Camels out of seemingly thin air. I will say that I learned early to avoid gin and tequila. 

I suppose I should avoid alcohol use entirely. I have had my moments while using it, although it has never gotten completely out of control. I occasionally wander in and out of periods of hard drinking. As things stand right now, I have wandered out of it simply because I have stopped smoking cigarettes about three weeks ago and a beer or a snort is a cigarette trigger. I do have to stop smoking cigarettes.

Someone once told me that I seem to casually wander in and out of places where angels fear to tread and maybe they are right, maybe not. I am proud of the fact that I have little to hide. I feel comfortable telling anyone about my life.

While it hasn't been straight out of 'Leave it to Beaver', it hasn't been out of 'Helter Skelter', either. It has been at least interesting. Had it been like the Beav I likely would have just jumped decades ago.

The guy that I returned the Zippo to a couple of decades ago taught me a lesson. We were sitting in the middle of a terrible mess of halibut gear we had to get in repair overnight. He said to me, "If you don't have a sense of humor and an imagination you might as well jump."

The man that is living in a cabin in eastern Washington was with me whet the passenger wheel fell off of my pickup on I-5. As it went whistling by he folded his arms and looked at me. "Well, Stanley, here's another fine mess you've gotten us into," he said.

I did manage to mush it into the breakdown lane and a few hours later we were back on the road again. 

Sometimes I have stories that even make ME wonder but I guess it is what it is.




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY