Island Of Misfits

[RosterMan]

Robert Shaw and one of the greatest monologues ever in the history of cinematography...

"Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We’d just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes.

Didn’t see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin’ from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’ by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and sometimes that shark he go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away.

Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’… ’til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those sharks come in and… they rip you to pieces.

You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin’, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist.

At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.

Anyway, we delivered the bomb."

 

[boo]

I certainly can’t argue the fact that they’re going for the jugular with the price of diesel nowadays, but the bottom line is, if you wanna pull any kind of weight, you gotta have a diesel or you’re gonna burn that gas motor up before it’s time… I feel extremely comfortable when I’m in a super duty. I’m not sure what the total weight is but I can pretty much say with confidence that it’s twice the weight of most cars. My knees are usually around where the drivers head is in the other vehicle.

 

[SubmarineGirl]

And he’s higher than them too

 

[pute]

Diesel or gas....I will never go electric!

 

[Hippie420]

I would seriously think about electric if they were cheaper. Remember, I only drive less than 20 miles a week. Should be able to go a month on one recharge!

 

[joeb631a]

I watched this 40 times and noticed no increase in energy

 

[user 60570]

have you read Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World?

that sailor is an inspiration

 

[SubmarineGirl]

have you read Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World?

that sailor is an inspiration


View attachment 339334

Sounds like an interesting journey but alone?

 

[joeb631a]

I watched this 40 times and noticed no increase in energy

Watched this 23 times and did noticed I needed a snack.

 

[joeb631a]

 

[SubmarineGirl]

I filled up on cookies first. Made me kinda sleepy. Guess I’ll go to bed like all the other good girls

 

[joeb631a]

I filled up on cookies first. Made me kinda sleepy. Guess I’ll go to bed like all the other good girls

Good night Dear

 

[joeb631a]

Good night Dear

Wild thing

 

[Hippie420]

Good night, Shipmates. Got a big day of doing nothing tomorrow.

 

[Unca Walt]

My internal clocks over multiple time zones usually took up to five days to acclimate going and a couple days returning

Good Lord! You know a feeling a lot of other folks will never have. BTDT

I wrote a note to myself in Taipei while at the Lai-Lai** Hotel:

"My watch says it is 3:00. I do not know if that is AM or PM!"

**"Lai-Lai" means, "Come Back" in Mandarin.

 

[Unca Walt]

It's ruined me for travel. My trips consist of my twice a week seven mile round trip to the watering hole. A tank of gas in the Ford will last me for a couple of months.

(*snerk*) I will never get in a commercial plane again. I flew so much that one time I was boarding a plane in Chicago to go home to Floriduh, and the pretty flight attendant greeting folks entering the plane looked at me, smiled wider and said:

"Hi, Walt! How are you doing?"

Without thinking I grumped back: "Today's my birthday, and First Class was full and I haveta ride all the way to Atlanta in the cattle car."

Twenty minutes into the flight, three pretty flight attendants came down with a plate of cupcakes and a bottle of wine wrapped in a white towel with "Happy Birthday From Your Crew Of Flight 802" written on it.

For the rest of the flight, folks around me were looking at me oddly. Made my whole day.

 

[NewbOldster]

I burned out on travel as well, including long car trips. Visiting exciting new places is overrated with airline travel so unpredictable these days and our highways rush hour lasts all day.

My hips can't like long road trips any longer. I'm not even sure where my cruise control switches are these days.
I used to take regular trips to Tampa. It's 18 hours, and used to be I could time my trips so's to miss rush hours in both Chattanooga and Atlanta. I think everyone else does the same thing nowadays...it's like it never ends.

 

[WeedHopper]

My interview is set up for Wednesday at 11:30.
Guess I will see how it goes. If it goes good and the money is right my traveling days are done.
Good thing is I have options.
I'm taking my vacation next week so nobody knows I'm going on this interview.
Figured I better take my vacation just in case . It's a use it or lose it thing. Didn't want to take a chance on losing my vaccination pay. Can't give my two weeks notice and say I want my vaccination to be one of those weeks.

 

[Tattered Old Graywolf]

Good morning Islanders!

A cloudy day here starting at 59F and predicted to reach 79F. Lots of rain yesterday, so humidity is 96% this morning...............

I relocated another squirrel and so far no more green tomatoes filched and half eaten.

My brother-in-law is in the hospital because he keeps falling down and has early dementia, plus my sister-in-law just injured her back so that she is the hospital in a brace, so we picked up their Yorkie/Sheltie mix and are taking care of him. A nice enough dog, but a lap dog who is allowed on the furniture and he kept waking me up last night walking on our bed.

Much to Miss Layla's consternation, as she isn't allowed on the furniture......... Melissa has gotten scarce but did come out this morning for scratches and reassurance.

Breakfast out this morning and Grayfox has some lab work for her annual, but otherwise an open calendar.

 

[WeedHopper]

Wife said she is making me Biscuits, sausage gravy and scrambled eggs this morning. I'm letting her sleep in a little because I don't have to be on the job site I'm checking out until 8am. I gotta go look at a problem at the VA hospital which is only 15 minutes from me.