huey graphite

See! There are gentlemen amongst us. You must have been traumatized. Doesn't that just get the adrenaline going?

Lew, That's an incredible story and I'm sure only one of many from your time in the Navy. Last year my family and I traveled out east to visit family in Saint John, NB and spent 2 days in Nova Scotia. My wife has a childhood friend who is a P.O. with the Canadian Navy and he took us on a full tour of the HMCS St John's. It was a great experience. He is one of only a few Canadians decorated twice with the Medal of Bravery. The 1st time was in 1996. He was dispatched in a zodiac in 7 meter waves to rescue a family with a young child whose sailboat had capsized. The family were forced to abandon the sinking sailboat and escape in a dinghy. They rescued the young girl and while attempting to save the parents, a rope from the dinghy got caught in the zodiac's prop. One of the seamen jumped in the water and successfully cleared the prop. They then towed the dinghy back to the ship before transferring the last 2 occupants. One of many stories we heard during our short visit.

That's the subject line of an email I received from the president of our company. He's on a ship promoting our product. (That's a likely story) Below are the contents. Today around 2 PM the Captain came over the ship wide speaker announcing he was stopping the ship to pursue a small boat we had passed that appeared to be in distress. Keep in mind we are in the middle of Caribbean Sea well south of Cuba and west of all the main Caribbean Islands - the middle of nowhere. He backed up to the area (cruise ships don't exactly stop quickly) and a speed boat was dispatched from the ship to go over and check things out. The boat appeared to be a 16 foot fishing boat with a makeshift sail. As it turns out their engine had failed and they had been drifting for 7 days. The two people onboard were picked up and brought to our ship for medical care and attention. Needless to say they came with us and we left the boat behind. God knows if we hadn't seen them what their fate would have been.

When I first read this I was waiting for the wisecrack at the ens but it never came. I just dropped my lab off at the vet this evening for a scheduled surgery on her leg tomorrow morning. It was hard to walk out while hearing her whimper from the kennel in the basement. She does not like to be away from us....ever. There have been several members of this board who recently lost their beloved pet or have gone to great expense to relieve their pain. this story is therefore timely. A Dog's Purpose Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Linda, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying. I told the family we could not do anything for Belker and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home. As we made arrangements, Ron and Linda told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. Th ey felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience. The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker's family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away. The little boy seemed to accept Belker's transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker's death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, 'I know why.' Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I had never heard a more comforting explanation. He said, 'People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?' The six-year-old continued, 'Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.'

Curious to know as well as my yellow lab is going in for a similar surgery this Wednesday.

That's nothing....my brother got in 18 holes of golf while his wife was in labour.

I here ya. Had the vet recommended the TPLO I probably would have done it and find a way to pay for it later. The vet told us because our dog was no longer competing and had retired as a house pet, the extracapsular procedure would be the way to go. And yes the wealth of info on this board is unlimited.

My condolences to you. Dogs do become a part of the family and seeing one suffer can be painful. I have a yellow lab with a torn cruciate and is going in for surgery this Wednesday. The vet told us the less expensive ($600-$800) extracapsular procedure will be sufficient. The alternative would have been $2000-$2500 for the TPLO procedure.

Thank you for the advice. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge considering your experience as a career developer. The company in question made me an offer last summer but came in lower than what I currently am getting. I respectfully declined. Well, much to my surprise I was called again a few weeks ago and this time successfully negotiated what I was looking for including additional vacation time. I want to make a good impression from the get go and will decide later on whether or not to make a request for the spring fishing trip.

Thanks for your responses. I guess there is no harm in asking about the vacation time. Looks like long commutes are more the norm nowadays. The price of gas and the harm on the environment were starting to weigh on my mind.

Has someone had a drink or two?

Can't think of a better way to spend family day. Making memories that will last for years to come. Your daughter will not soon forget I'm sure.

Well....after 17 years of commuting 70kms into the GTA each day, I've finally found employment closer to home. At the beginning of March I start the next chapter in my career as the Production Manager for a PLC and servo motor repair company. Half the distance of what I'm used to. The fuel savings and reduced wear on my car alone will be great but more importantly...no more 5:00a.m. wakeups. On the downside, getting vacation time this early on in a new company will be unlikely and for that reason may have to miss the annual spring fishing trip with the boys. I've been fortunate enough to be able to go every year for the past 8 years.

All they needed was a spark, which is quite common with vacuum motors between the carbon brushes and the commutator. Most likely while conducting the experiment, this particular vacuum had carbon brushes that had absolutely no sace betwen the brushes and the commutator.

Are we stressing you out?

Hey Rick, Good luck with the surgery. It's difficult watching a best friend suffer in pain like that. I have a 9 year old female yellow lab who very recently suffered the same injury, a cruciate tear in her left hind leg. Our vet suggested we try an anti-inflammatory and although it's relieved her pain somewhat, I know the surgery is inevitable. To complicate things, her right hind leg has given her trouble since she was 6 when she had a partial tear of her Achilles tendon. I've got to say that your surgeons quote seems awfully high. Our vet quoted us at $800 for the surgery and an additional $800 for after care. I'm going to be contacting another vet in the Simcoe region that can do it for around $700 total from what I've been told. Seeing how today is the date of surgery and it's too late to get another quote, you may want to discuss these rates with the surgeon. Good Luck to Jack and please keep us all updated with the progress of his recovery.

That episode is absolutely classic. Right up there with Lucille Ball on the production line at the candy factory and when Archie Bunker thinks he's died in his basement. Gotta love the airing of the grievances. I believe the 23rd is the "official" day for Festivus.

Good for you PF. Setting goals is the best way to improve yourself and can be applied to your professional and personal life. I have been on the waiting list at my local library for a month or so now for this book. In the past few years I've read several books in the Rich Dad Poor Dad series by Robert Kiyosaki and it has made a difference in my finances. Very motivational. Good luck with your move.

Nice stories to read first thing Monday morning. Very kind gestures from both of you. Let's hope your neighbours take the advice and pay it forward as you said.

I saw Super Dave Osborne tell a slightly different version of that joke on Letterman many, many years ago.

That would be alcohol abuse and grounds for divorce!

How did you convince it to get on the scale HaHa That was histarical In that case, change your name to Pumala

Yeah that ought to do it. After about a dozen years of procrastination I decided I owed to myself to get back into weight training with a little cardio for good measure. I was paying for a gym membership that I never used all this time. Cancelling would have meant accepting defeat and if I ever decided to go back, my rates would have more than doubled. Finally, back in April I went back and am in better shape than when I was 20. Took a few weeks for the habit to form. The benefits are worth it. More energy, sleep better, less stress. The hard part is crawling out of bed at 4:45am and getting out the door If you can find someone to exercise with it makes it easier to succeed.

I remember last year seeing a pic of someone's christmas tree decorated with lures. If you have it, can you post it in this thread?

Hey Gerritt, The poll shows the majority of the votes were for Tuesday Dec 11th. Is it being postponed 'til January due to lack of people able to commit? (Bump)