Lobster Trap Larceny

It was a nice day out on the water, caught a few mackerel, and went to pull the traps.... only two of them were not there.
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In their place were a row of commercial traps.
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I was warned when I bought my traps a number of years ago that commercial lobstermen would steal them, but I really didn't believe it. Bet that if I pulled all of the commercial traps set in the area that I dropped mine, though,  I would find that the buoys had mysteriously been switched. 
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It's just too easy to cut a line and attach a different buoy.
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The argument is out there that the recreational lobstermen, with their 10 trap limits, are hurting the fishermen who make their living at lobstering.  That is pure Bull.   I paid for my license and have every right to drop my traps.   Plus, there are plenty of the critters to go around from my rudimentary experience.
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So if somebody stole my traps, they are guilty of larceny, pure and simple.
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Out of seven traps this year, only three are left.... with no storms or other reason to lose gear.
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I pulled the three traps and was going to bag it for the season, but then decided to  put them in a new location.  We'll keep an eye on the old location though.... because my traps are painted green and yellow,  and I just might see some larcenous inshore lobster boat hauling them one of these days. 

On Top of the Learning Curve

Business is good.
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We have a ton of work, and the resources in place to implement it.
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So why am I complaining?  Actually I'm not.   But it took a long sustained effort to get this train on the tracks and running smoothly from station to station. Building a business and reaching a point where service delivery is predictable, dependable and sustainable doesn't happen overnight.  There are a lot of mistakes, miscues, and screw ups that are part of the learning curve.
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But when you get to a point where you are professionally delivering for your customers every day... and they appreciate and value your work.... that is a major accomplishment.

 However,  I would really like to step off this smooth running train for a while and do something mindless and relaxing... like fish for fall Blues and Stripers and pull Lobster traps.
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But no rest for the weary.... I imagine that there are a lot of fish and crustaceans who are happy that the MOAM hasn't had the time to harvest them for the last two years. 
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I'll catch up with them next year though..... big time.

Stirring up the Libs

So I was guilty of a little shit stirring on Facebook this week.
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Seems like some of my old friends and high school classmates who went astray and turned out to be Liberals in their advanced middle age are all worked up about the Obamacare fiasco.  And Boy, do they hate Ted Cruz!!!
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All you have to do is say something bad about Obamacare, or mention that Ted Cruz is a Patriot from Texas, and they get all lathered up.... start calling people names and rant about Republicans.
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Peeps.... it's even more entertaining than watching "Dancing With the Stars".
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They really get ticked off at you if you suggest that you would prefer that government stay out of something as private as your health care.   And it seems like members of protected classes, like the Hispanic American Senator, Ted Cruz, or the woman Governor Sarah Palin, are particularly irksome to them.
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I'm going to send this post to Facebook.  How much you want to bet that I get insulted within the next few minutes?  Especially if I recommend a Cruz-Palin Republican ticket for President?
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Naturally, a Mountain of a Man like me has a thick skin, which helps if you like to shit stir with the Leftys.

Sail On, Sail On Sailor

Last night, I got the hang of the new Singer Sewing machine and combined all of the panels of the sprit sail for the Herreshoff Columbia Tender.  All that's left is to sew on clew patches and luff support strips, then install the grommets.
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Sewing is definitely a skill.   I had to focus my substantial Mountain of a Man concentration ability to figure out the basics.  There is a need for patience and attention to details to get the proper tension so that the stitches come out right. 
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Joanne was a little aggravated that I turned the kitchen and living room into a sail loft on a Sunday night, and the rattling of the stiff sail Dacron material as well as the din of the sewing machine was a bit obnoxious as the evening progressed, but the stress was a necessary part of dealing with the learning curve.
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Sewing the large panels together was awkward, and the zig zag stitches tend to zig and zag a little too much, but there is an excellent chance that the Tender will be catching some late autumn breezes under sail this season.
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All Sewn Up

Sorry for the hiatus from this Blog.

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 Right in the middle of a very busy Nanepashemet Telecom work period, Kate and Brady were wed which to me was a lifetime milestone event.  But then it was straight to making the magic happen at Nanepashemet Telecom, which is crucial to actually paying for this milestone.

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 Something had to give, and this Blog was it.

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 But I'm back now, and you can stop rocking and banging your head if you are one of those pathetically addicted Blog fans.

 In the middle of the frenzy last week, I bought a Singer Model 4411 Heavy Duty Sewing Machine on Amazon, thinking that I would finally get around to sewing the sails for the Columbia Herreshoff Tender, which I have had in kit form for the last five years at least.

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For some reason, I thought that sewing machines were user friendly, plug and play.... pull it out of the box, plug it in and start sewing.... Not even a little bit.   

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Learning how to use this thing will require a good investment of hours and development of a new skill set.  But what the hell.  The sails must get sewn.

Wedding Aftermath

Joanne and I are still basking in the afterglow of Katelyn and Brady's Wedding.
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We keep thinking of aspects of the occasion that was so heartening and so much fun.
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So many of you have been sending me emails and vm's asking for photos of the MOAM in his tuxedo walking the beautiful bride down the center aisle.
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Peeps.... this wedding was all about Katelyn and Brady.... and not about how fantastic I looked in my tuxedo and all of the super cool dance moves that I executed throughout the evening.
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So stop asking, for Crissakes.   Suffice it to say that I looked Fantastic and leave it at that.
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The important thing is that Katelyn and Brady had a sendoff that they will remember all the rest of their lives... and many of us will too.

Syrian Siren

Secretary of State John Kerry says the evidence is clear and irrefutable that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on its own people.
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So... let's see it.   Let's hear the details.  Just because Kerry says it.... doesn't make it true.   He's been known to bend the truth before if you look at his record, and before one more American kid is asked to go in harm's way over a civil war in Syria... show us the facts.  Because Kerry saying that he knows just doesn't cut it.

Putin of Russia says that Kerry is wrong.... that Assad has not used the weapons.
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This alone should tell us to stand down.
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Britain is not on board either.
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The Policing of human atrocities should be the purview of the United Nations.  It shouldn't be an excuse for a failing American administration to divert attention from its own shortcomings.   And that is exactly what this smells like.
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Obama says that he didn't state that Syria crossed the red line.... that the world said it.  So let the world take some action here.   Maybe the United Arab League should take the lead.

The Dems will say that Bush did the same thing in Iraq, but that is not even close.  Britain and a large consortium of nations were active in that decision.  Not here.

Obama and Kerry are sounding a siren here, and something stinks.  They couldn't get the facts straight about Benghazi, but here the facts are supposed to be crystal clear.

 So show us the evidence that you claim to have seen.

Conference Calls on the iPhone

I was wondering how you can make conference calls on the iPhone and found the following instructions on the WEB.

The iPhone lets you merge up to five calls at a time to turn them into a conference call. Making a conference call on your iPhone may be easier than getting those same five people in a room at the same time.
Start by making a call and then placing the caller on hold. Tap Add Call to make another call and then Merge Calls to bring everybody together. Repeat this exercise to add the other calls.
Here are some other conference call tidbits:

• iPhone is actually a two-line phone, and one of the available lines can be involved in a conference call.
• If you want to drop a call from a conference, tap Conference and then tap the red circle with the little picture of the phone in it that appears next to the call. Tap End Call to make that caller go bye-bye.
• You can speak privately (one-on-one) with one of the callers in a conference. Tap Conference, and then tap Private next to the caller you want to go hush-hush with. Tap Merge Calls to bring the caller back into the Conference so everyone can hear him or her.
• You can add a new incoming caller to an existing conference call by tapping Hold Call + Answer followed by Merge Calls.

Katelyn and Brady Got Married

Peeps....
Yesterday, my daughter, Katelyn Nestor, became Mrs. Brady Boyle.


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We partied hardy with a bunch of you up at the Crane Estate in Ipswich, and I have to admit that I've lost a couple of dance moves over the last ten years.
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But the whole event came off without a hitch.... a total success by all accounts. 
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From the ceremony in the Italianate Garden, to the Appetizers and Raw Bar, to the fantastic band, Beantown, to the meal catered by Vinwood....  just a happy and memorable occasion.
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Even the weather complied... a beautiful, dry, New England September day.
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The love shown by Katelyn and Brady powered the whole event.  A lifetime memory.

Back Home

Rock Stars

To cap off the end of the week last Friday, at Nanepashemet Telecom, our new mega customer called us "Rock Stars" and said that we had "surpassed all expectations".
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Granted, we are certain to screw up some stuff on this account, and piss people off, but I thought that I should memorialize these comments.
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You don't get them everyday, and you should savor the moments when they are received.
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.... so ..... I'm savoring.

Grateful

I'd be a liar if I didn't admit that I was stressed out by Katelyn's Wedding this summer. I really had no idea how it would be financed.   But God and the Universe kicked in with an answer and I'm grateful that, once again, I've been provided with the resources to pull this off.
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Like I said.... I'm grateful.
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But one of these times, I'd like to be  fully equipped to meet the financial challenges that get hurled my way, rather than relying on the mind over matter deals that I am usually dealt with.
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Chances are... I'll get drunk at the Wedding.... enjoying the open bar a little too much.

Streak Week

It's hard to believe that it was only 7 days ago when Jim Lundgren showed up in my driveway all winded on his bike while in the middle of a Beverly to Marblehead and back circuit. Jim's buffness and discipline was inspirational to say the least, and Monday late morning I decided to drag my sedentary, overweight, Irish-American advanced middle-aged carcass down the street in an attempted two mile jog.

The jog deteriorated into a waddle almost immediately. Seven days later, with the soreness and blisters to show for it, I have repeated this jog/waddle daily... to various grades of pain and humiliation.

I've had to endure the laughter of friends passing by, a bit of hooting and hollering, having firm hard body young females trot past wishing me a nice day, and a few other degrading and annoying incidents which I choose not to disclose here. But not once, have I flipped the Bird to any of these perpetrators. That should count for something....

Today, with my FB Friends as witnesses, I extend the Streak to 7 days in a row. There will be no mention of speed or Lbs. lost for the time being, because those things would probably get my ego in gear and cause me to step things up. Past track team glories can not be recalled at this crucial juncture as the need to take things slow and steady is paramount in an effort to avoid blowing out a knee, or pulling a calf muscle.

I appreciate all of the likes and comments I've received and I'm not even pissed at Lundgren. After all this is not my old college roommate, Robert Towne, running an off road ultra-marathon, or Grade and High School classmate, Christos Laganos, hiking the Appalachian Trail. This is a two mile Waddle/Jog, with a capital WAD.

Day 6 of the Streak

I feel like I've created a Monster. MOAM Style.
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Last Monday, maybe to take the pressure off of the Nanepashemet Telecom pace, and maybe because I was impressed by the biking of my old friend, Jim Lundgren, I went for a 2 mile jog, that was definitely more waddle than jog.   Naturally I noted the event in Facebook.
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And I repeated this for the next four days, creating a streak.
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The remarkable thing here is that I haven't hurt myself.   Normally over the years, I've been injured in these comeback attempts because I would tend to push or extend the mileage, then I would throw out my back or something.  
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But the great thing here is that I feel just like I did when I first started a cross country season in school... real sore and with blisters on my heals.   This is attributed to taking things nice and slow.... accepting the fact that I look like an out of shape blob waddling down the road and not trying to relive past glories.
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Posting the streak of workouts in Facebook has created a whole new dynamic.  It's a great incentive to continue and hopefully create a habit of getting out and sweating off 500 calories or so every day.  Putting yourself out there is a risk of greater embarrassment by breaking the Streak in front of my FB Friends.
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Today is Day 6 of the streak.... a little Saturday yardwork, then a run before getting ready for Kelsey O'Shea's graduation cookout.  If I can keep this up

Lobster Roll

To my friends who like to make fun of my fishing ability.... fair enough.

But Nobody can mock my prowness in pulling lobster traps, and then converting the catch to a grilled and buttered Lobster Roll roll.

Late Summer Work Week

It was a hectic week but we got everything filed by the close of business Friday.   So the weekend is open for a little kicking back, which I'm going to do.

Grandson Will wants to pull lobster traps and that will set the agenda for today ending with a cookout this afternoon.   

Once again, the summer is slipping by.   During a site survey in Hampton Falls Wednesday, I saw trees beginning to change.... always a depressing sight in August.

Reincarnation Rationalizing

Reincarnation.
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I've been thinking about it lately.
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For some reason, I keep thinking that the hostility with the Muslim world and Western Judeo-
Christians is routed in the Crusades and the atrocities perpetrated on both sides in this first global confrontation.
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Could it be that we are playing out issues that began in those ancient times by souls that faced each other in combative situations and are continuing the fray in our present incarnation?
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YouTube is replete with examples of past life evidence and I bet most people have circumstances in their lives that can best be explained by experiences in a past life with manifest itself in our present life.
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When I was in junior high school, I was a whiz at geography and history.   Suffice to say that I was easily the top student in the school at these disciplines and I had no idea why I knew some of the stuff that I did - especially in geography.   What was the capital of Australia?  Canberra.   What was the capital of the province of Newfoundland?   Why St. John of course.   How the hell did I know this stuff off the top of my head when  I never studied about these localities up to that time in the 8th grade?  I used to scratch my head when I would give these correct answers coming out of my mouth.
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Fast forward to a couple of years ago when I was at a psychic reading and the reader told me that I had been a merchant marine in my last incarnation and had extensively traveled all over the world.  Course this is no empirical proof but it gave me a little explanation as to my affinity to intuitively know stuff about geography and also gives me some insight about my love for the ocean and boats.
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Who are we?  Why are we here?  These are the unanswerable questions.  But the fact is that we are here, and the increasing evidence is that we have played out these lives many times before.