I am gathering parts to put a new radiator in the Miata.

The current radiator has a plastic upper that was originally black and is turning close to yellow which means it's likely to spring a leak at any time.

It's a process and I have to do the best I can to make sure I have everything I need to hand over to me mechanic.

I think I'm squared away but time will tell. 

Normally a lot of fasteners can be reused but on a 35 year old car it generally pays to spend some chump change and use new bolts as the old bolts are either rusty or in some cases rounded off. It also saves a little money in labor which compensates for the added expense. 

Someone asked my why do it now and I explained that it is a lot cheaper than having to be towed from Erie or having it fixed someplace else.

You fix something before it breaks so you don't have to fix it when it breaks.

All in the part of maintaining a 35 year old sports car.

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I'm getting sick and tired of the USS Abraham Lincoln suicide attempt publicity

Most of which is fake news or damned close. The Lincoln task force has 8 attempted suicides and no deaths. Say again. No-zero- deaths. Those figures sound a little below average to me for a group of that size yet the media is making a big fuss over it.

Back in the day my battery had one attempt. The soldier in question was a dud to begin with and was trying to get out of the Army. He cut his wrists the wrong way and although he bled like a stuck pig he was discovered and carted off to the hospital and then the booby hatch for a while. 

When he returned to the unit to go through the separation process the supply sergeant made him sign a statement of charges for the bedding he had ruined by bleeding on. What a delightfully cold hearted thing that was to do! I admit it. I laughed when I heard that.

It should also be noted that we were in garrison in peacetime and the worst thing we might have to face was being told to pick up cigarette butts.  The attempt, like most attempts was simply a cry for help.

The military suicide rate is comparable or even slightly lower than their civilian counterparts. 

Looking at the 8 attempted suicides I am surprised the numbers are that low. Generally the attempts are made by sailors that have not been in the service very long and are having a hard time adjusting to military life.

When you consider that the task force has been to sea in combat operations for as long as it had, the low rate speaks highly for the serving sailors. They've worked their asses off day and night when they were in combat and stayed fairly busy afterwards because their mothers are not there to pick up after them.  

You also have to remember that some of these sailors are newbies that came aboard straight out of Great Lakes. They haven't adapted to military life yet. While many of them (Like I did) take to it like a duck to water for some it is a major shock and hard to adjust to. For the latter some of them don't know where to turn. 

I am not taking suicide lightly. I am pointing out that the military seems to have the same rate as the civilian populace. It's a problem and the military does what it can to prevent it.

This whole thing is just another case of the media creating a major problem out of thin air. One can't possibly hate the media enough.

If I were the judge on a case where someone bombed a television network and admitted it in open court i would probably punish him with a $25 fine and 15 minutes of community service.

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IMO the greatest ad campaign I have ever seen

was by the Dos Equis beer people when they came out with 'The Most Interesting Man in the World' ads.

It hit a spot in my mind because I have always kept my eyes open for interesting people. Not cool, not rich, not famous or sexy, just plain interesting.

It's kind of an intangible. Interesting. 

What makes a person interesting? 

Who knows? For different people I guess it's things.

One young man I found interesting was a village idiot type that one could describe as being mildly retarded which I suppose was an accurate description. However he was not a retard. An actual retard is different from a special needs person who is generally far more intelligent so I guess I can describe the man as being a little slow. He was clearly NOT a retard.

What I found interesting about him was that every so often he would belt one out of the park. One time an engineer turned fisherman was setting up a small pump to feed a stove on his boat. Tommy was watching him and asked him, "Gee. You must be pretty smart. I would have put the tank on the roof and let the oil run down to the  stove."

Duh.

The poor man's jaw dropped, he tossed his wrench into the tool box. I bailed out MOST Riki-tik. I didn't want to see the aftermath.

Call him slow, call him whatever you want. He didn't bore me. That says a LOT. 

Two days later I saw stove smoke coming out of the stove's chimney and a 15 gallon tank mounted to the roof of his cabin.

Another time one of the Filipinos I knew had me over his place and I met his aunt, an older woman and we discussed living on a trade/barter economy. She pointed out that not only could one often get a better deal, but it was tax free. She was pretty sharp and knew all the angles. The woman was interesting. I figure that if the woman had gotten a better formal education she could have gone to New York and gotten rich in real estate or something like that.

On the other hand, maybe she was smart enough not to want getting involved with that type of people. Still, although I was also heavily into trade/bartering I learned a few things. I actually still am. 

One deal I made is the time I helped a guy sheetrock a bathroom in exchange for a sail he had in his garage. It was practically brand new and was worth about $900 from a sailmaker. The job took about 3 or 4 hours and when you figure it out the deal net me a $900 sail. The pay rate would up being between $225-300 per hour.

Still, I do admit I like interesting stories and interesting people.

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the difference between sunrise and sunset is now 11 hours and 59 minutes

where I live today.

it's time to start watching the deer a little more carefully to see what kind of winter we are in for. If I see a lot of white in their coats it's a better than average chance we're going to have a snowy winter.

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Jumping through my a$$ today.

Helping out at a club gun bash today. 

I'll be busy most of the day.

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Scars and all...

This is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life. 

Oh yeah. I caught hell from someone when I suggested they take their brat kid to the Lindsay Clancy Day Care.

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Another sea story about my understanding of sailboats.

Early on during my Ordinary Seaman years I was given the opportunity of being a helmsman for a tug and barge that was as big a a ship. It was a HUGE barge and held 400K+ barrels of oil.

While we were coming up the Delaware River with a load of crude a sailboat crossed the bow and I sat the skipper look pretty concerned.

Most tug skippers hate sailboats and in many cases with good reason. Weekenders are often a royal PITA. However most serious cruisers know their $hit. Unfortunately the weekenders outnumber the cruisers.

Anyway I said to the skipper "He's going to cross our bow cleanly and then if he thinks he has enough water he'll leave the channel and either keep going or just luff until he can time crossing our stern."

He told me to watch my helm because he was calling the shots. I noticed I was about a degree off course and corrected. The AB who was actually supposed to be on the helm smirked.

Sure enough the sailboat left the channel a bit pointer her bow into the wind and luffed until he figured when to continue his tack. When he started his tack the skipper expressed concern.  He then filled his sails and continued his tack and crossed our stern as pretty as you please with about 100 feet to spare. The sailor was pretty good.

Later the skipper asked me how I knew what the sailboat was going to do. I told him that I've done the same thing any number of times. It later surprised me when I discovered most tug skippers and ship masters don't know much about sailboats. One would think otherwise and I was pretty surprised when I figured it out.

One tug skipper that did know owned her own sailboat. She was one of the few female tug skippers I sailed with and when she was a mate she saved my bacon by storming into the office and telling the fleet manager that the captain that reported my shipmate and I for talking trash to a dock man was FOS. She pointed out that we had been working with those guys for years.

I told the skipper about the time I had to deal with 4 ships on the Fraiser River in British Colombia. When I saw the first ship coming up on me I simply got on channel 13 and told him my plan. He said he was good with it and commented I was the first small sailboat to use channel 13 to call him. He wished everyone did.

He later called the next ship coming and said I knew what I was doing and to give a shout which the other three did as they came upon me. The third ship asked me if I had sailed my boat all the way from Kodiak. I had and told him I did because Canadian parcel post rates were too high and I couldn't afford them. He laughed.

The skipper was pretty impressed with my experience under sail but I cautioned him that there was a big difference between a competent cruiser and a weekender idiot and that it was hard to tell the difference until things got interesting. I also pointed out that most sail boaters don't monitor the VHF as often as they should.

Later the skipper gave me glowing report which helped me with a promotions further down the line..

 

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One of the things I love listening to are

stories about young people that joined the service instead of going to college because sometimes you hear a pretty good story.

I've heard about youngsters getting out of the Navy and starting at six figures after a six year hitch as a nuclear type. Others after a hitch or two go into medical fields and do well. 

My all time favorite military success story was an MD that fixed my foot that had been a high school dropout that had gotten drafted during the Vietnam war that lucked out and became a medic and stayed in the service and took advantage of every program he could and became an MD. He retired as an LTC and stayed in the reserves after he retired. He was promoted to colonel in the reserves.

I have said that college is not really needed to be successful and that in many cases puts a young person behind the 8-ball if they don't enter college with a solid plan. There are too many apprenticeships and programs out there to say college is the only route to success.

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Sea story time!

I was looking at my career trophies and came across my U-boat skipper's hat. Yup a genuine (reproduction) German U-boat skipper's cap.

I suppose now you are expecting that I singlehandedly boarded a U-boat and captured. I will admit that I have been a swashbuckler at times but not in this case.

I was in New York Harbor on a 368 foot oil barge I was running at the time. We were being pushed by a company tug headed off with a load of (most likely) jet headed for Boston to full the tanks feeding Logan. 

A foreign flagged ship was coming our way and the usual bridge to bridge passing arrangements were being made between the tug and the ship. The tug had suggested a basic, simple 1 whistle (port to port) pass. 

The ship skipper must have not been taking the advice of the pilot they had on board because he arrogantly demanded a 2 whistle  (starboard to starboard) pass. while we could safely do this it simply made no sense. The officer was simply being difficult.

It's also a risky proposition. Scratch so much as a chip of paint if you ignore advice from a pilot and it's completely on you. While pilots are not God, the captain is. The pilot is the captain's consigliere. Ignore him at your peril.

The passing arrangements were being made on Channel 13, the bridge to bridge channel.

I had been listening and I had heard it and chimed in. The conversation sounded like this

"Tug Sally Ann, Calypso Runner."

"Calypso Runner."

"How about one whistle?"

"Two vistles, Sally Ann."

"Ohhhh kayyy. Two whistles." The tug sounded annoyed but too tired to argue. The whole thing smelled. I knew the pilot would have advised the skipper of Calypso Runner that a one whistle pass was the most convenient for both parties. The captain was just being obstinate or something. This is where I jumped in. I was sitting next to the radio.

"Tug Sally Ann, Untersee 235." I threw out to the tug.

Of course he recognized my voice and in a mildly curious tone answered "Untersee 235, Sally Ann."

"Outer doors open, tubes flooded." I said.

"Copy" he replied. 

A second later the Calypso Runner was heard from again. "Sally Ann, Calypso Runner. We can pass on one whistle."

"Sally Ann, one whistle. Thank you."

This wasn't the end of it. Coast Guard Traffic in the Battery monitors the channel.

"Coast Guard Traffic, Untersee 235."

"Untersee 235, I answered.

Untersee 235 you are not showing up on radar. where are you?" Traffic asked.

'Traffic, vee Untersee boot," I replied.

There was a pause. Traffic came back and in a mildly amused tone of voice replied, "Untersee 235, be advised we are passing responsibility for you to the United States Navy. Out."

Another company tug had heard the exchange and recognized my voice because inside of fifteen seconds I got a call asking me what the conversation was all about. I asked the caller if he had pictures.

He said he didn't. So my reply was simply "To quote Richard Nixon, deny it even if they have pictures."  

Several minutes later after we had gotten past Calypso Runner the tug called and the mate thanked me for helping him out.

It must have tickled the tug crew's funnybone because they scraped up a few bucks and bought me the hat. I was called Kapitan Piccolo for a few months after.

The hat fit pretty good and later on I finally figured out why my (rarely worn) baseball cap disappeared. They wanted my hat size.

Incidentally I don't think for a minute the officer on the ship thought he was likely to be torpedoed and sunk in new York Harbor. I think he was thinking that the tug crew was likely to do something with paint or something along those lines. Of course we couldn't be bothered but it very well have might planted a seed.

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Hash for breakfast again.

I had it yesterday and used a half-can. I might as well finish it up this morning.

Lately I've had a hankering to wake up to cold pizza so I might order a pie later on. 

I think that because it is raining it might be a pretty good day to go people watching at the mall later this afternoon. I have not been there in quite a while since the last winter storm.

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