Toad Crab

This photo of a toad crab that I pulled off of the Web doesn't really do credit to the size and grossness of the three that I extracted from my lobster traps this morning.   Big, muddy, dirty with long legs ending in a spike and long dangling claws.  They definitely looked like something from a bad science fiction movie.
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They were strong and grasped hard on the metal slats of the trap.  Had to really wrestle them to get them out and rebait the traps and I wasn't about to grab them with my hands... even with rubber gloves on.  So I poked them with my bait net and agitated them enough to get them to let go of their grasp which enabled me to flip them out of the trap and back in the ocean.
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I guess a real lobsterman would just crunch them up and toss them overboard.... and I would too if this was my livelihood... but I generally like to let the critters I run into live if possible, so it took a little time to deal with these crabs.
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It seems weird that the lobsters that I catch in the same traps have clean and shiny shells as well as do the rock crabs.   But these things are caked with mud and dirt.  I can't imagine eating one of these ugly dudes, but apparently there is a fishery for them, in Canada.

Finally... The Answer to the Riddle

Peeps....
I have something very exciting to announce to you today.
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I have finally solved the ancient Zen riddle...."What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping?"
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That's right... after millenniums of  metaphysical head scratching, I, JJ Nestor, your very own Mountain of a Man has found the answer to the ponderous question of antiquity.
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And... what is the answer... you ask????
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"What is the Sound of One Hand Clapping????"
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..... it is the sound that Liberals make when you ask them what effect a 17 Trillion Dollar Federal Deficit is going to have on the children and future generations of this country,
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Do you hear it?
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Absolute silence.
Not a Sound.
Crickets.

And what is the cost of a 17 Trillion Dollar Federal Deficit besides the destitution of our children?

Let's just say, if it took you one minute to read this pathetic post, then the Federal Debt increased by Seven Hundred and Fifty Three Thousand Dollars.... and your kids and Grandkids have to pay it back.

$         1,084,967,184.56	Per Day
$               45,206,966.02	Per Hour
$                     753,449.43	Per Minute
$                       12,557.49	Per Second

Kicking up Some Dust

Today was a good day at Nanepashemet Telecom.
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Looks like we can power to the end of the month with great numbers, both in customer services milestones and Billings.
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I mean... I feel good about things.... and I know that this can't necessarily last, but I'm going to enjoy the feeling while it does.
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What Happened?
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Knowing that some of you Peeps might actually be business competitors with the Mountain of a Man and his cool company, I can't really disclose this.... although if you are going head to head with us at the one of the major carriers, you are probably licking your wounds... and eating our dust.
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How does our backside look?   Get used to it.
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I might even pour a Lagavulin this evening.... it was that good.

Remarkable Day in Boston Sports

It was a tough day to work today after two jolts of emotion last night.  

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First, the Patriots' Tom Brady showed again why he is arguably the best quarterback in football with a last minute touchdown drive against thepreviously undefeated New Orleans Saints. He just finds a way to win.... it doesn't matter who surrounds him.

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Then, David Ortiz hit a Grand Slam in the 8th inning of the American League Championship Series with Detrroit. 

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I did feel a little weird jumping out of my chair and cheering wildly by myself at 11:00 PM on a Sunday night... and quite a bit drowsy as I hit the bricks on the job the next day.  I couldn't sleep after that, and ended up watching the latest episode of  "Broadwalk Empire" until 1:00 AM in the morning.

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It's cool to be a sports fan in Boston.

BLOCK ISLAND BOAT BEACHING by Victor Mays

Shut Down Expose

Cutting Through the Crap

UnDoing Due Diligence

Let me get this straight

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When we are doing our due diligence for a new Cell site, one of the requirements is to run a check on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website database to see if the proposed tower will impact any flight paths at nearby airports.
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Basically, you type in the latitude and longitude and the proposed height of the tower, and the data base spits back the impact in a format that you can print and package for the report to your client.
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But due to the Federal Government shut down, the site is not operating.
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Let me get this straight....
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A database that operates on its own, online, is down because someone purposely took the effort to take it down, because of the "Shutdown".   I wonder how much effort went into shutting the self operating site down?
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And it is not Congress that operates the goverment.... it is the Executive Branch.   So how could this be conceived in any obtuse way as the cause of the Republican House Members of Congress????
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This is our junior varsity Executive Branch in full array.
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Peeps.... President Obama is tipping the scales at a 37% approval rating.  That is 37%  of the people who buy into this Bull, and 63% who can't be fooled.

Blocked and De-Friended

I'm tired of acting politically correct and playing nice with crude Liberals who insist on taking the low road with personal insults every time they disagree with an independent or conservative position.  My observation is that I am rarely, if ever, insulted by a Conservative, but Liberals habitually leave with bad manners.

For now on, if any one of my Facebook Friends choose to insult the Mountain of a Man rather than engage in normal dissenting discourse, you will be dealt in the harshest possible manner.

That's right... not only will I de-friend you, but I will block your ass from reading any of my posts.

I know it sounds harsh, but I can't afford to spend any time on this Earth arguing with disengenuous mal-contents who can't debate on the merits and act in a dispicable Pelosi-like manner in calling people names.

I'm done with Liberals who call people who disagree with them "anarchists" and "terrorists".  It is a form of totalitarianism and intolerance  that our forefathers paid the ultimate sacrifice to guarantee that we should be free from such predudice and close mindedness.

A Weird Dream

Last night, I had a vivid dream about my friend, Doug O' Connell and stuff we did on the UMASS Track team together.  Naturally the dream had all kinds of incomprehensible stuff wrapped into it, with a lot of people that I knew from the past, and some that I didn't know, but Doug had a primary role.
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When I woke up, I didn't think much of it.   I haven't seem Doug for over 35 years, and had intermitten contact with him.
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But when I checked my email this morning, there was an email from Doug.
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Pretty freaking creepy.
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New Age Philosophy puts a lot of emphasis into the dictum that thought is physical and can be transmitted from us throughout the Universe.  It would be nice if you could manage this.   I obviously had a subconscious notion that Doug was thinking of me, and I dreamed about him... or maybe the dream about him stimulated his email response.
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This odds of this happening otherwise are too great to calculate.  There has to be something to this.

Mercedes-Benz S550 Sedan

Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes-Benz,
My Friends All have Porsches, I Must Make Amends....
- Janis Joplin

I took a test drive in a Mercedes Benz S550 sedan today.
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Man, I looked good in that car.
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With an 80 gig hard drive managing the electronics, it has incredible features regarding GPS, Bluetooth Cell Phone, Turn reactive seats that have built in massage, Sirius Radio, a CD player that handles 6 CD's at once, and other stuff that I can't remember.
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It seems like every feature has been creatively considered and addressed.  Plus it rides so solidly and smoothly that even stop and go Boston traffic is a joy to be stuck in.   The Germans really found out how to engineer luxury into this vehicle.
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One of these days, you will see the MOAM tooling down the road in a car like this.
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One of these days.

Government Shut Down

This one is in the "I must be missing something, because this is too stupid to believe", category.
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The Federal Government is being "Shut Down" because Congress will not raise the Debt Limit.
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Let me get this straight....
The Government is Trillions in Debt.... an incomprehensible amount.... and in order to operate the government, it has to borrow more????
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Peeps...... if you or I lived so far beyond our means that we had to continue to borrow daily to support our lifestyle, we would be bankrupt and forced to realigned our resources.
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If the Feds have to borrow to operate the national parks, then close them.  If they have to borrow to pay "non-essential" federal employees, then lay them off.  That's what we suckers in the private sector have to do..... what makes it different for the government???
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The Network News coverage is replete with stories about how the economy will suffer do to the shut down of services..... but what about the effects of massive amount of Federal Debt?

ObamaCare is just the tip of the iceberg.  This is the current ball that is being batted back and forth by politicians of both the right and the left who want to keep the gravy train going a while longer and blame the fallout on the other guy.
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The issue is not ObamaCare... it is simple living beyond our means.   Spending more that we bring in.
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And this time, the Libs  are right... those who will suffer are the children.... OURS.  Our kids and grandkids will be left to clean up the mess of a bankrupt nation that has irresponsibly mortgaged the future for current political largess.