LeviF Posted February 11, 2011 Posted February 11, 2011 Happy Asain Carp Day, EII Happy Asian Carp Day too, EII, you blithering babbler.
Fezmid Posted February 11, 2011 Posted February 11, 2011 Happy birthday Bob, Frank, Allen, or whatever your name is.
Bullpen Posted February 11, 2011 Posted February 11, 2011 Happy Birthday Exiled. Keep that water flowin up hill!
/dev/null Posted February 11, 2011 Posted February 11, 2011 HFBD Enjoy your birthday with a special Carp dinner. I'd recommend Asian Carp, but an hour later you'd be hungry again and complaining about it
ExiledInIllinois Posted February 12, 2011 Posted February 12, 2011 (edited) Yikes 43!! The next two months are the ones where both my wife and I are the same age... She is loving that! Anyway... THX! I need it... It is not a canal...It is a "Sh*t ditch." Somehow all that stuff is managing to freeze in recent years... I am staring at about 20" of gorged ice... Amazing that traffic is still plying through it... Things are getting harder to operate though and width is creeping down... Gates actually froze shut a couple of days ago. That is the worst thing... That is when the long ice pole/chopper has to be used. It is best to keep a good routine moving (every hour below 0, every 2 hours below 32) everything while keeping the water moving. Yet, there is a thaw on the way!! Everything is so incrediably slow... Were it under normal conditions, it would take minutes... Things are now being done in hours and days... Though still moving commodities. Happy Birthday Exiled. Keep that water flowin up hill! THX! Uphilll if MI, WI, OH, PA, & MN have its way. Strangely... No NYS in that lawsuit. What is up with that? Wow... It is a balmy 30.5 degree F. out... Looks like t=shirt weather! Edited February 12, 2011 by ExiledInIllinois
ExiledInIllinois Posted February 12, 2011 Posted February 12, 2011 BTW... I posted this on PPP... Thought it was apropo! National Don't Cry over spilled Milk Day! "...National Don't Cry over Spilled Milk Day is celebrated every February 11 in the United States. The origin of the holiday is unknown. It comes the day before Abraham Lincoln's birthday, which was a national holiday until it was combined with George Washington's to create President's Day. The day represents a moment to regroup after recent hardship and push forward with a positive attitude. The phrase points to the idea that getting upset over every little problem will lead to nothing beneficial. A number of theories have emerged on the origin of the proverb itself, from fairy lore to dairy farmers during the Great Depression. National Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day History The origin of the holiday is unknown, however there are a number of theories on the origin of the phrase. "Don't cry over spilled milk" is an age-old proverb that is speculated to come from a number of sources. One is European fairy lore. The fairies would drink the spilled milk, as it was one of their favorite foods, and therefore its loss would be negligible. The other theory is that the phrase originated in America during the Great Depression in the 1930s. With an overabundance of crops and food produced by animals, farmers ended up with too much supply and not enough demand. Therefore, dairy farmers may have created the phrase because they had too much milk.http://www.aboutenglishidioms.com/tag/cry/ The depression origin is unlikely, as the phrase can be traced as far back as 1659, where it was used by British historian and writer James Howell in his literary work, Paramiography.http://www.knowyourphrase.com/phrase-meanings/Cry-Over-Spilt-Milk.html..."
boyst Posted February 12, 2011 Posted February 12, 2011 Happy late birthday! Hope you're enjoying that frigid midwest and those old bones can keep up with it! 43...that...is...old, but surely, bestow upon us a few things you've learned...?
ExiledInIllinois Posted February 12, 2011 Posted February 12, 2011 (edited) Happy late birthday! Hope you're enjoying that frigid midwest and those old bones can keep up with it! 43...that...is...old, but surely, bestow upon us a few things you've learned...? Like why the heck am I gonna walk outside right now in just a sweatshirt @ 0235! There is a boat from down south coming in as we speak... I feel sorry for those poor boys... Man are they bundled up and not looking the least bit impressed! Edited February 12, 2011 by ExiledInIllinois
boyst Posted February 12, 2011 Posted February 12, 2011 (edited) Like why the heck am I gonna walk outside right now in just a sweatshirt @ 0235! There is a boat from down south coming in as we speak... I feel sorry for those poor boys... Man are they bundled up and not looking the least bit impressed! One of these days I'm going to have to learn about that canal, sounds kind of neat. For tonight, though, I think this cough syrup is finally starting to kick in and I will be able to rest now. PS: It is a chilly 25 here, but it will be in the 60's all weekend. Edited February 12, 2011 by jboyst62
ExiledInIllinois Posted February 12, 2011 Posted February 12, 2011 One of these days I'm going to have to learn about that canal, sounds kind of neat. For tonight, though, I think this cough syrup is finally starting to kick in and I will be able to rest now. PS: It is a chilly 25 here, but it will be in the 60's all weekend. Lucky you!! We need 60's to unclog this "drain!" There is a big bend in the river near Acme steel five miles down... It acts like a "trap" on a house drain. The ice field starts above the steel plant and that "Acme Steel Bend" up to the lock & dam... Above the lock, the ice stretches five miles above and sometimes the full 7 or miles to Lake Michigan. Everything below the steel plant is free of ice even in the hardest winters, they put out warm water. Back in the day when the mills were going full tilt above the lock... The river never froze... Also mix in more pollution that existed years ago... The water is 1,000 times cleaner than it was even 10 years ago... Clean water freezes and FREEZES BAD... Especially calmer water. With Lake Michigan being lower, there is less difference (head) between the upper pool and the lower pool. We actually have eagles roosting here in the winters now... Go figure, we are literally a few miles from some of the worst "Super Fund" sites in the nation. I don't know what is worse... We get the 60's and the fisherman/bass boats will be pestering us all night! Years past, when we had milder wiinters with hardly a hint of "skim" ice... It wasn't uncommon to get fisherman in February and duck hunters in December... Actually we get yachts that try and beat the ice before Christmas... They usually call looking to see if there are any tows (barges) going south so they can "tag-a-long" behind. That way they don't have to subject their fiberglass hulls to the newly forming ice. I know that "lose lips sink ships"... But I don't think it matters here... Seems we have been doing a lot of petrol lately... Specifically, heating oil moving towards the deep south from the refinery on the Indiana lakeshore... Same with asphalt. I never really thought about it... But just looking at a jumbo 300x54 tanker barge... That holds about 3200+ ton of product... The diesel tanks alone hold 12,000 gallons of fuel just to heat the product and keep it warm in transit (not just in the cold, but all year long)... Even conservatively at 3 bucks a gallon... That thing is holding about 36,000 bucks worth of fuel while filled... Now times that by 2 or 3 barges a tow unit... That is a serious chunk of change that they are towing/floating around "just to keep the product properly shipped." I guess it is better than one whole floating brick of ashpalt.
BuffaloBill Posted February 12, 2011 Posted February 12, 2011 Sorry I missed this yesterday. Happy Birthday - may your canals remain full and the carp scarce.
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