I can't wait!!!

[Pufferpunk]

OMG, OMG, OMG... only you guys would get this...
I'm going to a dog trial in Maryland next week. Guess who lives 30 minutes away???

RTR & he's coming to meet me!!!

He's been my friend & mentor for 15 years! I can't believe I finally get to meet him!!!

[bertie 83]

Wicked, I would love the chance to meet mr rtr. Enjoy your day

[RTR]

LOL! I hope we can take PP over to our house - the tanks are embarrassing, but the bananas are in a peak year. The decks are not quite finished - supposed to be 6-week project, now in its 6th month...

But then, I do finally get to meet the famous Pufferpunk!

[sgtmyers88]

Thats awesome! Have fun!

[G S P Freak]

Haha nice, I bet you two will have a blast, you'll have so much to talk about

[RTR]

Today's the day! Rain and all!

Kalvin is coming along as well. We had a young Black Lab guest for a week recently, but Kalvin is just for the afternoon. I wonder if he drinks from fish tanks - our Bassets did (there are exposed overflow tanks at floor level).

There may not be much of a view today unfortunately. I don't think we will be sitting out on the decks, either. Rain, rain, fog & mist is the forecast.

[bertie 83]

Have fun. I hope the weather holds

[RTR]

Despite the rain, a nail in a tire, and at least one wrong turn in the boonies, we finally managed to meet Pufferpunk and Kalvin. Without much discussion of my pathetic tanks, we did have fun.

Pufferpunk has a number of shots of a few highlights, such as Kalvin in the jungle (inside the banana bed) and a gong duet by PP & RTR. She also got to play with a sansula and a tongue drum. There is more to life than fish... we just don't talk about such off-topic things here often. This year's bananas are better than last year's. The bed density is the best we have had, without any manual watering (rare in my climate, bananas are really hungry and thirsty plants).

We had a good time, but I was exhausted. Today I am strictly a couch potato. Even my wife had fun, despite the car problem in the morning. She and PP have similar tastes in food (not me).

[Flutter]

Awesome!

[Pufferpunk]

Me & RTR


Bananas


The Gong show!




Christmas tree

[bertie 83]

Great pics pp, did you get any of rtrs tank room? If he doesn't mind you sharing I would love to see,

[Pufferpunk]

He's getting quite up there in years & with the tanks being pretty much self-sufficient, there wasn't a lot of cleaning he's been able to do lately. I didn't want to embarrass him...
But there was my favorite fish: a fat, round white w/black spotted synodontis, with the wildest barbells!

[hadla]

Thanks for pics! Love the walls in the gong pics!

[RTR]

I didn't know Herself got a shot of the gong duet with Kalvin sitting in... Most dogs are not overly fond of gongs. The screens in the dining room are copied from a Japanese temple. There is storage behind them. We are packrats, so the house is full of shoji screens on closets and windows.

I also like the shot of PP & Kalvin within the wrap of the banana bed. We have had more rain than and more consistent rain than usual usual this year, so the bed is in the best season it has had. I have not used the soaker hoses at all this year, which is a first. There have been no hurricanes to date, so there is only minimum wind damage to the upper and outer leaves.

PP is being kind - my tanks are an excellent example of what tanks should not be. I have hand contractures which are under treatment by injection (they will not allow me the surgery right now) but It still would not be safe to have my hands in fish tanks. Some slow-healing skin tears are frequent with these proceedures, and I hope everybody here knows that you do not exposed cuts or tears to tank water. Water partials are done, but thorough vacuuming is not and has not been in ages. The lighting is cut way back, and will remain so for months to come, so only Anubias nana and nana petite are surviving. The tanks are reasonably healthy. but look awful. ATM I only have to wear the splints at night, but in a few weeks I'll be back to 24/7 splints w/one hand or the other. PITA. The only fish still around are the breeding stock of Dwarf Neon Rainbow (my strain is pure since the first importation via Canada years ago, so not as mixed as most seen in LFS. Plus one Lake Tanganyikan Cichlids I've been breeding for decades, and my old African inverting catfish (all in their 20s, and a few (not really) debaui cats in their dotage - my favorite diurnal catfish. Quite a few tanks are idle.

If and when my hands are out from under medical care (a.k.a. torture), the main fish room has to be shut down - the seamless floor is cracked and thus a potential water hazard. The fish have to move out to the alternate room while the floor (and possibly/likely the subfloor) is removed and replaced, then everybody will move back. But I will likely use different tanks, fewer but averaging a bit larger. I am too old and cranky and physically unable to operate two tank rooms anymore. My handicaps include advanced macular degeneration, severe peripheral neuropathy, and high blood pressure. The first and last of those are pretty well controlled, with my medical costs running over six figures for the last 11+ years. Getting old is a PITA, but the alternative is not very appealing either. Sooner or later it will likely do us in, but until then you manage what you can. Watching fish tanks reduces stress. Caring for them may or may not. I do what I can and try not to fret over the rest.

But it was great to finally meet PP (& Kalvin - the calmest JRT I've ever met), even if she had to wait a bit extra while we juggled cars. Too bad it was so overcast, the view from the West deck is great when it is clear. At least there was little rain.

[Pufferpunk]

Kalvin didn't seem to mind the gonging at all!
I'm sorry we didn't get any pics of your beautiful wife.