done

LOL. I actually once got to hold a "valid" check for $2 Billion to myself. We were testing a check writing software install. Being how the last thing the client wanted to do was actually give us a test system, to do it safely, heck that would cost money, they had us using the production system with actual security keys in the printers. So the check was "valid" in terms of it had all the right account numbers on it, and such. I was a valid check with the right watermark as well. Course had I cashed it ,well I could be sure that at some point they would notice the money missing, and want it back, and I am just guessing Uncle Sam would have something to say about it as well. We shredded it, and had to note where check#XXXX went to...but it is the closest I will ever get to that money.

We had one here maybe 1-2 miles from my house about 3 years ago. There is never any answer to why. There won't be because there is no rational reason for it.

Do the several thousand dollars of interest feel awesome? Down payment on a boat=reserve the hull, have them proceed with the upgrades, pay in full once boat is complete. And no, several thousand dollars interest would be a drop in the bucket for doing what you love in the event i was not paying cash.... Have you ever bought a house or boat, or car????? :-? Some day soon man,...you will do the same. You pulled the trigger on her eh? You will have to post back when you get it and say what ya think. I love my 175

What dealers (brand wise) do you have within an hour of your house? Personally, i would try to stay with a brand that has local representation. Stuff breaks, and it helps to not have to drive a LONG way to get it fixed. This is assuming you are looking brand new with a warranty.

oooooo. I like that idea. Like your own personal sting operation. Course might backfire when you show up and he has sold you gun or something. Then you have to beat him bloody and get blood all over your shoes.

X2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!! X3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! X4 ...the police will send a deputy over there to chat with him and that is likely all it will take.

Yeah legally I know what is allowed and not, I did not want to get to that because it will inevitably lead to politics about whether the law is good or bad. I really think beyond the law there are moral/ethical considerations. IMO, nothing I own is worth a life. I hate thieves. I would have no problem locking them up for a LONG time, even caning, but to play judge, jury, and more importantly executioner, to me just ain't right. Now I am talking about thieving where you are not in immediate danger. This is something completely different from someone kicking your door at 2 am. Personally, that situation puts me in fear for the lives of my wife and kids and I am responding with lethal force not waiting to see what he wants to do. I am more looking at the case lets say, you look out your window and some dude is loading your lawnmower into a truck backed into your driveway, or you wake up, walk into you living room and you front door is open and you see a thief running down your driveway with your 50" flat screen or more inline with the site, you see some dude running down the driveway to a car carrying your Hummingbird 1197c SI. I would have no problem catching up to him, hitting him with some OC and breaking his legs, but shooting him in the head and killing him, I couldn't do it for that. I wonder, when push came to shove, while i doubt anyone here would have a problem doling out a can a whoop ***, killing that person, just seems wrong. And for this I am making another wild assumption that this person has no visible weapons and is not pulling one on me.

Oh my word, if you find a way to make this work, let me know. I fish Wylie at night at times and the anchor light alone is enough to get the motor (and anyone fishing in back) covered in bugs. At night I keep that on plus a LED solar light I keep on deck to really light up the boat. It is horrible with the insects. I would love to find a good way to keep them off.

So I am on a number of firearm related boards. I get a response from a lot of folks where they would be completely alright with blowing away a thief for stealing. When describing a situation where a thief is robbing without any threat to yourself, (say he is leaving/running away, or you come home and they rush out the door away from you carrying your TV), would folks here see any issue with killing someone for what amounts to stuff? IMO, if they are not presenting a threat of injury or death to you or those you love, you are doing nothing more than doling out punishment, which, IMO, is the job of the courts. Now each state has its own laws on when it is legal to use lethal force, and I am not looking for the legal debate but the moral/ethical debate. We have a pretty level headed bunch of folks on here from across the nation, what are your opinions on this?

Heck...if I only got 2-3 months of warm weather I might think of going out nude then too. LOL. Honestly I am torn on this. On one side, yeah you go out with kids, they see something you don't want them to. On the other side, we're all adults, if they want to walk around naked (provided they are not doing lewd things), I can deal with it, mind my business and catch some fish. Just so long as they are not anchored on a good fishing spot.

Tell that to the bank when you need a car loan, or you want to get your utilities hooked up after you move... I had to pay fee's on my gas and electric because I had almost no credit at all. Oh, AND I haven't finished school yet because I can't get school loans because, again, almost no credit score. It sucks, but the world revolves around your credit score now... Heck, it's better to have BAD credit than it is NO credit. I'm very anal about my bills and I have a pretty good score now (I think?), but guess what's keeping it from being real good? OH! All those school loans that aren't being paid (some of them they won't let me defer, and I cannot afford to pay them). Ok, I'm done venting... There are also jobs that will check your credit score and pass on you if you do not have a good one. it sucks...but it is a necessary evil. Using the credit card as suggested on here (not ever carrying a balance) is the lesser of the evils, IMO.

Ditto on the keep going shallow advice. I am in NC. The water temps in my lake are 90+ at the surface. Sunday, I was throwing plastics at the shore and was picking up 4-5 lbers 2-3 ft off shore. They we hanging offshore in 3-4 ft of water and coming shallow and hammering anything that dared to hit the bank. Apparently they did not get the news that they were supposed to be staying deep. LOL. Consider the fishing rules to be more like guidelines. If you can get them shallow then go with it.

What me and my wife did a while back. Find a card with points that you will actually use. Then route all your normal expense through it. We run nearly all our monthly bills through the card. This is money we would normally be spending and includes insurance, utilities, etc. We then pay the balance in full every month. So we earn a pile of points for it (I usually get $100 Home Depot gift cards every 2 months from it), we have a positive effect on our credit rating, and our card provides a layer of protection between our checking account and the retailer. if someone hijacks my CC I am limited in the scope of damage I am liable for (vs. if someone gets the keys to your bank account), because of that a lot of cards have extra protections for you to dispute charges. You need to be sure of your impulse control. If you have any reason to think you would abuse it, don't get it. I had a couple friends who got in serious trouble in college because they ran up retarded levels on their cards that they had no ability to pay off. You need to be disciplined with it, or you do not need to have it.

Before you decide, cause there is a LOT of variables. 1. What do you want out of the boat? What features/options do you want and prioritize them. Good examples, how many folks do you want to take, how much weight (yourself and those mostly likely to come along), what types of fishing (bass only? other?) 2. What budget (roughly) you got? 3. What type of water you going in? Salt water/Fresh, large lakes, small pond, river, heavy traffic, low, rocky, current, etc 4. Another thought, tow vehicle Every hull type, size, etc has its strengths and weaknesses. For my needs I went with a Tracker pt 175 txw. It was the right length for me. My trailblazer would easily tow it. It also came with a entry level TM, charger, and graph. The Motor (60 hp) can push it roughly 45 mph with just me in it, the price was right. The only huge downside for me, the light boat does not play well with winds. I can slowly upgrade the TM and electronics at my leisure. if you can throw out some answers to those 3 big questions, there guys here will give ya some GREAT choices.

yes! Whatever legal requirements are, if you plan to be out in navigable waters at night you need to have SOMETHING on your boat to allow others to see you. I have nearly run through pontoon boats (25 ft long) who decide to anchor in a channel overnight without lighting. Had they been Scanoes, i would have gone through them. I run max 1/4 throttle in the dark, many others I have seen WOT. Live longer, get some lights.

I fished my lake for 8 months in my first jon without electronics. Learned pretty good how to find the hot spots. 1. Watch other fisherman with electronics. Watch where they stop, let their investment pay you dividends. 2. Get a topo map. They are not always 100% accurate but they give ya a great idea of where to look. With a large lake this is key to minimizing the learning curve. 3. When you get to a spot throw a jig or a weighted weedless plastic for a bit. Keep the line tight and bounce your bait along the bottom, you will get a feel for the depth, terrain, structure, etc. This is assuming you are in a spot too deep to really see what is going on . 4. Watch the food source. In the fall especially in Wylie, you start to see HUGE schools of shad in specific spots in the lake. Bass love shad. So where I found these schools, I would frequently start pulling out nice bass with shad crank baits. Last night I saw a spot in a cove where the water was covered with small black flies. Bass were eating them up. Threw some of my dark colored smaller spinners and nailed some Bass. I LOVE having electronics now and seeing the structure on the bottom makes a big difference but I had some good success without them as well.

I am still learning myself but to throw my lot in, what I have come across on my lake. 1. Location - you cannot catch them if they are not there. You need to find good location, and there are so many variables (depth, structure, temp, light, etc) it takes a while. A chance in any of those variables with the seasons changes the game drastically and of course they change with time of day. 2. Bait type and presentation - I am a big time plastics man, so many types, so many presentations, so many different types of actions, just very versatile but I have days when only shallow running shad crankbaits (very common in fall) will get any serious level of action. 3. Color - Color is for me anyway, like the fine tuning. Yesterday, perfect example. I was out with a bud. Both throwing u-tail worms. Mine was light brown his was dark red. he got a few hits, I got more. he switched colors and started getting more hits. Like I said, I am by no means an expert, but I spent 10 months on my lake catching next to no bass until I learned these rules and now rarely get skunked no matter what season. My weakness is still deep water.

I am fully prepared for that. Once my kids get to that age, I'm going to hang up every single award, certificate, and other random stuff that I have from the Army right next to the front door. "Look, this is the piece of paper that says I can kill you 300 different ways with a canteen. Cool, isn't it? Oh, whats that, you need to go change your underwear? Sure thing little buddy." From my buds whose daughters are of dating age, I do not think you can be prepared for it. LOL. Yeah I am guessing gun cleaning night will coincide with date nights. Given I will have aperiod of time when I have 4 teen daughters in the house at once, I should have the cleanest guns in the state.

Have you ever done a site yourself? If not, you may be better off spending money on a local site designer? There is a lot of competition in the field so it is they type of market you can get a good deal in. I know of a few in my area (Charlotte, NC) they are really struggling and making lower priced deals than they have ever made. There are a lot of subtleties in getting a professional site right. Navigation, scrolling, color scheme, etc all play into it.

Of course you can. Just about every nasty Sci-Fi show starts with someone asking that same question. However, the guy who finds it is usually the one they use to show everyone just how nasty a death it will cause for us mere mortals. Definitely throw up pics when ya get them. Even when you get it cleared for radiation, I would recommend you not touch it directly. There are a lot of nasty chemicals they use on spacecraft and I would not take the chance unless I knew it was safe.

LOL, I am still able to just dread those days. But I am prepared. I took up collecting firearms for one, including a couple evil black rifles. I am very familiar with a number of remote out of the way trails in Pisgah national forest, and if that fails I have 30 ft of anchor line, with a lake that has a number of 60 ft holes, along with a walmart that sells anchors at a premium. LOL. All I ask is my daughters date decent guys, I swear if some of them shows up with his pants hanging off his rear I will definitely be saying things that make my daughters mad at me.

I got 4 you wanna borrow one?

First and foremost...take care of that woman of yours. She is gonna need you to step up and pamper her for the next year or so. She will be riding quite the emotional roller coaster, she will be irrational at times, uncomfortable, craving, etc. Just go with it. Been through it 4 times and my biggest regret with the first one was not giving my wife the attention she needed. I did not make that mistake again. Don't let up after the kids is born, she will be going through some serious sleep deprivation, especially with breastfeeding. Also, remember, contrary to popular myth/misconception, it is NOT about your happiness anymore. Congrats man and enjoy. My crew has brought me more happiness and fulfillment than I can express.

Other, first let me say, I was dating my wife when I was 18 and she was 15. So I fully understand the hypocrisy in this. However, when you are talking about your own flesh and blood, what seems rational to you in your position, you will see things differently. You say it is your job to "protect" her. Take that feeling and ramp it up about 5,000 times stronger and you will get an idea how being a father to that little girl is. Something happens to you when you hold that little baby in the pink blanket in your hands, and even though she is 5'10" you always see that little girl. Being in your position about 20 years ago, I can say this hugging and kissing leads to other things. It does, it is human nature, and for some it changes their lives forever. We got extremely lucky we did not get in trouble. Hormones trump otherwise sound decision making capabilities. When you are a teen, even more so.

"emotional tampon" LOL. That is a new one. Be a good name for a band.