Pieces of string otherwise too short to keep
This is another quick random drive by post as I am now back onboard a seismic boat half the world away from home.
Birthday wishes
First off I want to wish
sgfansean a very happy birthday, may the day be your best birthday ever and the year to follow the best one you have ever experienced (yet)! As I am posting this from Chennai, India, it was getting into early evening, yet will be about the time for you to start your day, ahhhh the joys of time zone roulette! *grin*
Now for some random updates prior to my leaving home...
Family fun
Over the weekend I got to spend some fun time with my grandson and took him fishing. Once again the weather turned dreary for our outing but at least we had better luck on this trip than I had the week before. I caught a small crappy and a little later my 5 year old grandson caught one which he reeled in all by himself! Much excitement was shared by all. *smile* One the way to the lake for our fishing outing there was a bit of young idol worship cuteness that I want to share:
Connor: "Pawpaw, you know everything about the water and fishing don't you?"
Me: "Not everything."
Connor: "But you are on the boat so you know a lot."
Me: "Well I have spent a lot of time on or near the water, so I guess I do know quite a bit."
On the way home we had a serious "Ahhhhhh" moment it as well...
Connor: "Pawpaw if why didn't we keep and eat the fish we caught?"
Me: "The lake management would have liked us to keep them, but I wasn't going to kill them by taking them from the lake to somewhere else or to try and clean them and eat them. They were too small to make them worth cleaning and eating, we would have needed to catch about 10 fish that size just to make a sandwich."
Connor: "You have to kill them to eat them? That is mean!"
Me: "Connor, that is the way it works, fish have to kill smaller fish in order to eat them."
Connor: "But the fish just want to be with their families!"
Me: "Well we only caught mean fish, after all they came and ate the minnows we were using for bait."
Hopefully, he is not too traumatized by all of that, but the rest of the way home he was quiet. After not wanting to go home from the lake, after that conversation he was really quiet until we were about 2 miles from his house and all of a sudden he said he really wanted to be home. I told my daughter about the conversation and she and my son-in-law both explained again to him that it was how the world worked and that the fish have baby fish in order for the process to start all over again.
A taxing situation
The last random bit for this post is about the fact that I finally managed to get everything sorted out and my tax returns filed over the weekend. Since I will be offshore during the "Ides of April" and the tax deadline, I needed to get that done before I left. The good news out of that is that besides the $1200 we will be getting as a rebate from our rich Uncle Sam, he will be refunding me $1286.00 from the interest free loan I gave him over 2007. The bad news however, is that the state was under paid by $213.00, so I had to arrange that payment. At least overall, I had a winning balance on the taxes as opposed to 2006.
Well, since I should be working and things are a bit busy with getting ready to start the next project (assuming the bureaucracy here gets their act together) I should cut this post off here. Especially since the travel to get here was another one of those adventures in travel which could be scripted for the reality (?) show The Amazing Race
Birthday wishes
First off I want to wish
sgfansean a very happy birthday, may the day be your best birthday ever and the year to follow the best one you have ever experienced (yet)! As I am posting this from Chennai, India, it was getting into early evening, yet will be about the time for you to start your day, ahhhh the joys of time zone roulette! *grin*
Now for some random updates prior to my leaving home...
Family fun
Over the weekend I got to spend some fun time with my grandson and took him fishing. Once again the weather turned dreary for our outing but at least we had better luck on this trip than I had the week before. I caught a small crappy and a little later my 5 year old grandson caught one which he reeled in all by himself! Much excitement was shared by all. *smile* One the way to the lake for our fishing outing there was a bit of young idol worship cuteness that I want to share:
Connor: "Pawpaw, you know everything about the water and fishing don't you?"
Me: "Not everything."
Connor: "But you are on the boat so you know a lot."
Me: "Well I have spent a lot of time on or near the water, so I guess I do know quite a bit."
On the way home we had a serious "Ahhhhhh" moment it as well...
Connor: "Pawpaw if why didn't we keep and eat the fish we caught?"
Me: "The lake management would have liked us to keep them, but I wasn't going to kill them by taking them from the lake to somewhere else or to try and clean them and eat them. They were too small to make them worth cleaning and eating, we would have needed to catch about 10 fish that size just to make a sandwich."
Connor: "You have to kill them to eat them? That is mean!"
Me: "Connor, that is the way it works, fish have to kill smaller fish in order to eat them."
Connor: "But the fish just want to be with their families!"
Me: "Well we only caught mean fish, after all they came and ate the minnows we were using for bait."
Hopefully, he is not too traumatized by all of that, but the rest of the way home he was quiet. After not wanting to go home from the lake, after that conversation he was really quiet until we were about 2 miles from his house and all of a sudden he said he really wanted to be home. I told my daughter about the conversation and she and my son-in-law both explained again to him that it was how the world worked and that the fish have baby fish in order for the process to start all over again.
A taxing situation
The last random bit for this post is about the fact that I finally managed to get everything sorted out and my tax returns filed over the weekend. Since I will be offshore during the "Ides of April" and the tax deadline, I needed to get that done before I left. The good news out of that is that besides the $1200 we will be getting as a rebate from our rich Uncle Sam, he will be refunding me $1286.00 from the interest free loan I gave him over 2007. The bad news however, is that the state was under paid by $213.00, so I had to arrange that payment. At least overall, I had a winning balance on the taxes as opposed to 2006.
Well, since I should be working and things are a bit busy with getting ready to start the next project (assuming the bureaucracy here gets their act together) I should cut this post off here. Especially since the travel to get here was another one of those adventures in travel which could be scripted for the reality (?) show The Amazing Race