Fishing Rhino

The acid in your stomach is far more potent than Coke. According to the Mayo clinic, drinking Coke is the recommended regime for treating rusty stomachs.

Six ounces. Pepsi bottles were 12 ounces. One of their jingles was "Twice the drink for the same price". How 'bout Royal Crown Cola and Nehi? What amazes me is that Moxie has survived. Ever taste that stuff? It will make your eyeballs pucker.

I have one request. It pertains to the Road Trip. Please, please, please, if you lose a nice fish, don't wrap your fishing rod around my neck.

Two cents. Back in the day eyeglasses that had really thick lenses were referred to as coke bottle bottoms, or something like that.

I don't know about it catching on here. I've been hearing that since my high school days and I graduated in '59. There was a flurry of interest when Pele came to the states. There was another flurry when the women's soccer team won the Olympic gold. The latest surge in pulicity was when Beckham, (or is it Beckman? shows how much I know) and his wife came here from England, I think. As a nation, we grew up on baseball (the national pasttime), football and basketball. Who knows,? Maybe lacrosse and rugby will catch on over here too.

That's simple. My father was a pack rat. He never threw anything away. He had jars and cans of nuts, bolts, screws, nails, you name it cluttering every square inch of shelf, tabletop, etc. I was the same way. If it was something I might remotely, improbably need in the future, I'd keep it. No matter that it would take an hour or two to find the right size fastener that I could get for a few cents at the hardware store a couple of miles away, and sometimes eventually surrendering and pick up the piece at the hardware store, I had stashes of stuff. Took a while but every once in a while I look at my eternal rat nests of stuff, and if I haven't needed any of it, it gets tossed in the dumpster. I no longer have an attachement to the rubble. Clearing it out made room for the damaged plastic baits I intend to restore with super glue, spools of line with only a few coils that I might want to use for leader material, nearly empty bottles of fish scent. I've even managed to toss some of that stuff in the trash. Guess you can chalk me up as a recovering collectaholic.

Coke was at its best decades ago when it came in the refillable, thick, glass, deposit bottles. A soda that had been kept in the fridge was kept cold by the thick glass. On the bottom of the bottle was the city and state where the bottle was first filled. Eventually Coke bottles got distributed around the country. My buddies and I had a standing deal. The person with the city on the bottom that was furthest away got his Coke paid for by the other(s). Cokes were a nickel back then.

For your first boat, I'd recommend a used aluminum boat. They are cheaper than fiberglass and the small, or maybe larger, dings and diggers you are likely to experience as a first time boater won't do as much damage to aluminum. It will take a while for you to get used to handling the boat in the wind, currents and waves, especially when docking or beaching the boat. Aluminum is much more forgiving when you contact rocks or exposed metal hardware on some docks. No need to beat up a new or fiberglass boat while you hone your boat handling skills.

I'd say you're good to go. The only thing that would hurt the tires with them off the ground would be sunlight. If they get a lot of sun, look them over carefully for checking and cracking on the areas that are exposed to the sun. For the engine, the only possible problem I see is the spark plugs could be oil fouled, and make it hard starting. Check them. If they are coated with oil, clean and reinstall them. Before reinstalling, spin the engine over a few times to get rid of some of the remaining oil. Get out and start having fun on the water again.

Now that's what I'm talking about. The voice of experience.

Let's talk about the right way to put soda/pop/tonic and ice together in a glass. Most folks do it wrong. They put ice in the glass and pour the soda over it. This creates way too much foam and causes the drink to lose some of its snap. You should always put the liquid in the glass first, leaving enough room to add the amount of ice you'd like. It will foam less, is way less likely to cause the foam to overrun the top of the glass/tumbler. And the beverage retains more of its carbonation. I expect to be mocked by the beer, adult beverage consumers. But that's all right. I can handle it.

They are like pretzel breadsticks.

Congratulations. Want to save some big dollars on your total interest payments and pay the loan off sooner? Get an amortization schedule for your loan. If the bank won't provide it, you can get one on the net at no cost. Here's an example of how it works. The following amortization schedule is for a hundred fifty thousand dollar mortgage for twenty-five years at four and a half percent interest. It breaks down each payment showing how much is for interest, and how much is applied to the principal. Whenever you can, include the next month's principal payment along with your regular payment. That saves you the interest that would be part of your next payment. You will still have to make a monthly payment, but you have wiped one payment off the books. At some point, it does not become feasible because most of your monthly payment will go to the principal. The following shows the breakdown at the start and at the end. Notice, the repayment of the mortgage is "front loaded". That means the bank gets their interest first and foremost. Prepaying the next month's principal and eliminating that interest is why you can save a ton on interest. When you make your March payment, if possible add 272.27 to it. That will save you 561.48 dollars in interest. You will still have to make a payment in April, but that becomes the May payment of the schedule above. If possible do the same including an additional 274.31 (the principal of the June payment), and save 559.44 of interest. Each time you do this, you will have your home paid off one month earlier. In two months, you will have wiped out over 1100 dollars in interest payments. But at some point as the amount applied to the principal increases the payment may become too much, and the savings not worth it. See the breakdown at the end of the loan below. Be sure to let the lender know if you decide to do this. Some will want you to make the principal payment in the exact amount, so they don't have to recalculate the amortization schedule. Check to see if early payment of the mortgage carries any penalty.

A seagull turd. But I doubt there is any legislation that could have prevented it.

That is truly something to be proud of.

That being the case, I'd get something that gets better mileage without a load, with adequate brakes. Even if it burns a bit more gas when towing, it will be more economical over the course of a year because you do not do a lot of towing.

It's going to take the same amount of energy to pull any load. While manufacturers like to boast about their fuel mileage being the best in class or whatever, when you look at the EPA mileage sticker, they are all very close. My '07 GMC has the 5.1 engine with "active fuel management". It switches from 8 to 4 cylinders, when it doesn't need the power of all 8. Whoop de do. It gets only slightly better fuel mileage than I did with my 01 GMC with the 5.1 engine. The problem with any engine is this, the more work you make them do, the less efficient they become. You may find a smaller engine which gives better mileage when not loaded or towing, may get worse mileage than a truck with a bigger engine when you hook a boat behind it. I'm afraid there is no economical way to haul a boat behind a tow vehicle with fuel prices as they are let alone getting higher. It depends on how much your truck will be used as a tow vehicle or just a daily runner. Whatever you choose, make sure the truck and brakes can handle your rig. A tranny cooler is a must on any tow vehicle.

Regarding speed. I have an Eagle Cuda, portable, powered by 8 AA batteries on my canoe. It runs all the time when I am in the canoe, powered by a 55 pound thrust MinnKota trolling motor. Not very fast. I have found patches of bottom I would have zipped right over in my Z-7 and never noticed. To keep it simple, let's compare 60 mph to 5 mph. 60 mph is 88 feet per second. Let's say there is a patch of bottom 44 feet in diameter that holds fish, and is different in structure, composition or cover. At 60 mph it takes a half second to buzz over that fish producing piece of bottom. It takes 6 second for my canoe to pass over that spot. Which speed is going to produce a better image of that bottom, or the history of it? If the units are scrolling at the same speed, and for the sake of discussion the image produced on the Z-7 is 1/12 of an inch, the image on the canoe's sounder will be one inch of history on the screen. On the side imaging, optimum speed for producing the best images is about five mph. One of my favorite ponds I learned fishing from my canoe before I had the Z-7. I cannot tell you how many productive small patches of bottom I found just because the boat was moving slowly. Now, I catch more fish from that pond in my Z-7 than I would in my canoe simply because I have all those spots stored in the Z-7's Humminbird. I spend 1/12th time travelling from spot to spot. But, that's because I "built the foundation" for fishing that pond from my canoe.

Hockey is faster. It's also on a smaller arena. Hockey players use sticks, soccer players use their feet. In both you have defensive and offensive lines. In both you have goalies. Both games are a combination of skill and strategy to move the puck/ball into scoring position. One big difference, hockey players don't deliberately "head" the puck.

Soccer and hockey are very similar. Our high school was small and did not have a football team. We did have a very good soccer team, and once you got to understand the game it was exciting to watch. You can't play hockey unless you're in great shape. I'm not sure about going to the top tier games, particularly overseas. They definitely have the most rowdy, violent fans of any sport in the world. It's the only sport in the world where the number of injured, maimed and killed fans exceeds the harm that befalls the participants.

I dunno. Looking at today's cars, limber and flexible wouldn't be sufficient. You'd need to be a double jointed contortionist. Even my full size, half ton pickup doesn't look like it has much potential in the front with bucket seats. The center console serves as an armrest as well as having storage space. It extends forward under the dash, with cup holders and containers for holding small items. On the other hand, it does have reclining seats and a steering wheel that can be swung upward. And, there's always the passenger side with no steering wheel obstructing extracurricular activities.

Headlights? Don't tell me you put headlights on that beauty you brought to KY last year. We've got to do it together at least one day. How's Kyle doing? The last post I saw from him was about some ailment that was plaguing him.

I'll echo the others. GPS, not even a question. It may not help you find fish as well, but when you find productive bottom, you can always get back to it. There are a few small bumps and ridges in the middle of some ponds I fish that are very productive. There are no nearby shore or points to reference that can accurately get me back to those spots. Store it in the GPS, and it gets me back to it time after time. Before I got my Z-7 if fished from my canoe with a 90 dollar Eagle Cuda. I could find bottom that I'd never see in the Z-7, simply because small patches of bottom show up better when you're moving slowly. Once I got the Z-7 and got these hot spots stored, the GPS takes me right to them.

What's a razor? A cell phone? A scooter?

A partition down the middle of the passenger compartment would have been a better "deterrent" than taking out the back seat. Then again, I'm harking back to the days of my youth when most cars had bench seats in the front as well as the back. Only a handful of cars had bucket seats with a shifter on the center console. I s'pose the front seat in most cars today is out of "play".