Halfway day approaches

 The world is pretty nuts right now, huh?   I can't get a bead on what's going on. So much spin and bullshit. Photos from the past are presented as photos of things going on right now, etc, etc. I don't know who to believe. 

    You know what I do believe? I believe that shit's getting more and more expensive and other than that and the CONSTANT FRIGGING GALES not much else is changing for me day-to-day. 

 Seriously, gales twice a week. It's normal for February, but F me, it's getting old. I get up in the morning, and something on deck has relocated. I found the cap from one of my oil sample bottles wedged under a truck tire on the dock. I don't know what it was hiding under on board, but it sailed a good 200 feet or so from the deck to the parking area for the terminal where we're berthed. 

        I am somewhat used to powerlessly watching things happen ashore while I need to keep my eyes in the boat, not ashore. It helps. All's I can do is keep my family safe and warm, and be prepared for weirdness, be it fiscal, safety, or whatever kind. I'm doing and have done that, so from here I'm trying not to get emotionally invested in the fear porn and outrage porn that the media peddles. It feels subversive to tune the world out to the degree that I wish to. Ain't shit I can do about things on the world stage  beyond be prepared for unintended consequences. I mean, already there, dude, generally, so what else should I do? Be reactive? 

  You know it's a good time to have a job that includes sticking your head in the venting top of a large petroleum tank to have a look.  Aside from being able to see the smell of the number G afterwards, I have more important things to worry about that ARE in my direct control. Not fucking up in general being one of them. It's good to be able to focus on important things like not fucking up at work rather than staring impotently at a computer screen watching the news like a eunuch in a whorehouse while the world does its  thing. 

another regular day

 So I woke up to learn that Russia invaded Ukraine, as predicted. 

       While I keep up with world events, and have limited my consumption of social media to pictures of boats and boobs, and also mostly jokes, I saw that the many internet epidemiologists are also geopolitical experts, turns out. Amazing people. I feel so uneducated. 

    I am somewhat active on Instagram, which provides the best venue for jokes, boobs and boats while making avoiding politics and other issues of substance relatively easy.  There's a guy named  Amir Odom https://bio.site/amirxodom who I follow there, who dedicates a lot of time to helping people to discuss difficult topics rationally, and supports rational thinking and independent thought.  Despite an almost complete lack of boats, boobs and jokes, I enjoy reading his posts. The kid's a gay black conservative with a libertarian streak.  Not my usual source of material, but I find his presentation of opinions refreshing and his rational manner of communication innovative, nonconfrontational and logical. 

 So the point to all this was a post today. 

Some of y'all are concerned with international affairs more than the internal affairs in your own life and it shows. 

"Pray for Ukraine" how about pray for yourself? It baffles me how many people pick a side on foreign affairs as if they really understand what's going on. 

Y'all were so invested in Israel/Palestine and guess what? We still here. Your bills still due. Your traumas still need to be addressed. You're still behind on your goals. Take care of your life before you invest all your time on issues thousands of miles away for a country you can't even point to on a damn map. 

       Little dude's right of course. A nice, sincere, simple post, and it made me laugh a bit. After finishing my morning chores and some paperwork, I looked around at the freakout online, and put my phone in my pocket.  Some important stuff DID happen this morning though. 

      We're berthed in Brooklyn, adjacent to Brooklyn Bridge Park, in fact. And today I watched a young couple a couple piers over get married. It was just them, a JP and a couple of witnesses. Gorgeous backdrop of Manhattan as seen from across the river.  That affected me a lot more than the events in Ukraine. I didn't tear up, but it made me feel all sentimental and shit.  I wish them well. 

 

The watchman

 I was definitely wearing The Golden Horseshoe this past week. 

        I got to be watchman at our lay berth.  The crew shortage my employer is dealing with after a mass exodus in the past two months has left our managers scrambling to put the meats in the seats on board, and as a result my employer laid up two vessels so that the crews could be spread out to fill the gaps. One of the vessels in question is the HQ. Luckily we're hot stacked, so we're ready to work, not fully laid up, which is a blessing, though who knows what the future holds. 

 Anyhow, I've been able to keep up on our PM's, and while the weather has been shitty overall, I've been able to mostly stay dry. I've been watching over things at the berth, being Johnny-on-the-spot and generally trying to use my time wisely. The HQ, if she stays in service, is in fine form. 

Forced Quiet time Part 2: now with text!

 So my post yesterday got mostly deleted somewhere and I couldn't get it back. I maybe fatfingered something on the keyboard, I dunno. 

 As stated though, I had a (mostly) good time at home. I head back tomorrow to the Weed Palace, the hourly 1 star hotel in Brooklyn that my company stows traveling mariners in in preparation for crew change. 

      I guess I could stay at the Days Inn Fallujah, the zero-star hotel in a burned out neighborhood a few miles away, which is also an option. Again, it's a hotel that caters to whores and poors, and is a nicer facility in a much much worse place, so the Weed Palace it is. I actually like the neighborhood, being generally safe, as much as the clientele may leave something to be desired. 

 So the past two weeks went by so quickly. As always, Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife and I were welded at the hip for most of it and she was able to cut way back on her hours so we had time together, including a nice child-free weekend getaway on my first weekend home. The return trip left something to be desired, I suppose. I managed to fall and hit my head, hard, in my own garage, and got a concussion out of the deal. My first one as an adult I think. Oh, I'm ok, I was seeing stars, barfed up everything I've eaten in the past 18 months and had to get looked at of course,  and I was dizzy for a day or two and out of sorts for another few days after, but I'm ok now, back to 100%.  I have a head like a block of wood.  It forced me to do less, which is a good thing in the long run. Anyways, I don't recommend it.  I worried about losing much-needed brain cells, but 20+ years of sniffing vapors, I long ago killed off the weak ones. My brain is a thunderdome. 

   It seems so odd to have been more or less living in shorts and light shirts and frequently barefoot for the past few weeks, knowing that winter has in no way finished fucking the northeast where I'll be tomorrow. This is such a lovely time of year to be in Florida, although the tourists, my God, they're like fruit flies. Just everywhere, and constantly in the way. 

 Funny thing, they're all running away from the bad weather, but also from the horrible living conditions that they're voted and supported into place.   I try to stay out of politics, now, but I am very concerned about my Florida being New Yorked if the wrong type of folks get the idea to take root here and bring the awful ideas and policies they're currently running away from.  

 Most of all, it's been so nice to be out and about every day, and not a mask or a vaccine card kabuki show in sight. No leftist virtue signal  mouth hijabs here. Just a bunch of lepers and suntanned deplorables... except that the tourists, strangely, don't wear masks either, and I'm pretty sure not all are MAGA men and libertarians, so.... hmmmm.  Strange. 

   Anyway, enough bullshit and back to boats and hose. Time to get my vapor fumes and frozen pipes on. 

Forced quiet time

Down to the last few days at home before heading back to work. As always, had an amazing time home. 

last day

 I'll be calling for a taxi to bring me to the airport in about 2 hours. Time to go home. We got the running water back the other day, so I no longer smell like the floor of a hamster cage, but  the black water (toilet drain) piping is still frozen shut. I am grateful not to have to be in on the roto-rootering of the presumably frozen 30-foot long pipe run from the quarters to the underdeck holding tank.  

 Yeah, I don't give a shit (pun intended),  I'm not getting involved with drilling out The World's Most Awful Freezer Pop before spending the day trying to fly home.