Light Falls on Marble Head

Last night was the first time I slept more than 6 hours in the past 3 months. I slept 6.5 Then I dozed for another 4.5 with Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife. Awesome.

 What followed was a lazy day. Made a light breakfast before meeting most of the entire Family B for lunch. Noted that I'm still dog tired. Still am.

 I'm being productive- point in fact, this is my first of only 3 full days at home in the past 3 months. I'm going back to work a week early to pay more bills to keep our post-move life more stress-free.

 In the meanwhile, I'm still a zombie, but I'm showered, beer'd and fed, and hoping for another 10-11 hours tonight.

Home!

I'm home. Got off the boat a few days ago, immediately went to FL for house hunting. Just got back. Total zombie.

Last day

Well, tomorrow I head home. 77 days is enough. I get 12 hours to sleep and shift my dunnage, then Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife and I fly out to go house hunting somewhere much warmer.

 Last day is always a marathon of cleaning, paperwork, updating logbooks, packing and mundane chores. Given that, I'll leave you with some nice things to look at. Here are April's Brazilian girls for you.

The End

My childhood is officially dead.


   The controversial adult video store that opened up in my old hometown when I was a teen mysteriously burnt down last night. Considering that no one has bought an adult DVD in the past 10 years, thanks to Al Gore's Internet, I'd say this qualifies as 'suspicious.'


 A whole generation of men in the region I grew up in will be sporting black armbands on our strangely muscular right arms.

not feeling it

After a solid month of working on logistics, and less than a week to go for our 1,500 mile house-hunting trip, I'm burnt out on the idea of moving. This coincides with a lovely and unexpected slowdown in our schedule here at the HQ , so I'm going to take the morning off, watch some 'justified' and eat a steak.

 I've had some great luck in seeing friends at work the past few weeks, btb- not everyone, but some good folks, some of whom I haven't seen in a while. A good reminder of why I'm here. My company has one of the highest good guy-to-dbag ratios in the maritime industry. Maybe like 50-to-1.

 In all reality, after spending so much time here when I was supposed to be home, I'm probably edging to the disfavorable side of that list. At this point, I can definitely brighten up a room by walking out of it.

A short but ugly thing

Illegal commercial fishing is a thing.

 You ever eat Orange Roughy? Patagonian Toothfish? Chilean Sea Bass? You've probably been eating illegally caught fish. Most of the fish marketed in the US of those species is landed illegally. No big deal; I mean, the entire EU fishes illegally. They set a quota in conference with the US to regulate the catch of expensive fish like sword and tuna. When the US catches their quota, these Highly Migratory fish are no longer fished by the US fleet under a treaty sharing that same name. Well, except where the EU member states fudge the books and drop zeros in their records wink wink nudge nudge. Funny thing. Pulling shit like that also is partially responsible for the piracy problem in the Horn of Africa. The Europeans sign treaties, but maintain the moral flexibility to ignore them when no one's looking. Take away a nation's livelihood by catching all their fish and then using their coast to dispose of your toxic waste, well then the entrepreneurs branch out.

 Asian and European distant water vessels have been supplying illegally caught fish for the world ever since fishing was regulated. Unfortunately, the big money items like Patagonian Toothfish are found in butt-ass cold places south of Tierra Del Fuego and in Antarctic waters.

 Well, apparently a few days ago a 250-footer's EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicting Radio Beacon) went off, indicating trouble. Nearest vessel was over 1000 miles away. No one is exactly sure who the owner is or what or where the boat is, because of 'confusion' over ownership.  Worst thing that could happen to the owner is that the boat and crew were found safe, but that's not bloody likely with the Antarctic winter approaching. They've already called off the search.  The poor pricks who signed on to fish, 3rd world nationals, chances are, are long dead.

 Eat up, folks.

Best name EVAH!

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