Good ideas pop out everywhere and they don't necessarily come from Einsteins.

While I was living in Kodiak I watched a college edumacated commercial fisherman working on his boat. 

You would be surprised at how many Alsakans have college degrees but do things for a living like fishing, logging and the like. One of my favorite fisherman was a Harvard grad but I digress.

Anyway, this fisherman with an engineering degree was installing an oil stove on his boat. He had a tank installed and was busy putting in a pump to pump oill to the stove and was damned near done when I happened by. I was accmpanied by a guy nicknames 'Cowboy'.

Now to put it mildly, Cowboy wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. He was pretty slow and actually owed his very survival to the people around him. He was borderline retarded to tell the truth. Still, he was a kind and gentle soul so he was respected for it and we kept an eye out for him to insure he was OK.

Anyway, the engineer turned fisherman was checking out his work and adjusting the pressure on the pump whan we happened by. It was a pretty impressive, somewhat complicated piece of work and the craftsmanship was incredible. The engineer had good hands.

I was impressed with the quality of the work and Cowboy was fascinated with it. He marveled at it.

The pump wasn't quite tuned up yet and I believe the engineer was tinkering with it to lower the pressure a bit.

THat's when Cowboy looked at the fisherman and said, "Wow! That sure required a lot of work and know how!"

The fisherman smiled and thanked Cowboy for the compliment.

"I don't know how to do that kind of thing," Cowboy continued. "If I had to install one I suppose I'd have to put the tank on the coachroof and let gravity feed my stove."

The fisherman looked like he had been hit with a bucket of ice water. I quietly kicked Cowboy in the leg and we took our leave. 

A couple days later we looked and saw friendly smoke coming from the stack of the fishboat in question. I moseyed over to take a look.

As I got closer I noticed the stainless steel stove fuel tank mounted on the coachroof. As I neared the boat I saw the same excellent craftsmanship in the piping. 

I didn't bother to board her or get the fisherman's attention. I simply smirked and left.

About a week or so later I ran into the fisherman in Sutliff's Hardware. He looked at me and gave me a sheepish grin.

"I took Cowboy's advice," he said. "A good idea is a good idea no matter where if comes from."



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