Smirak

To Glenn’s point, many products are made in the same factory(ies) but travel down a different “finishing” line. I know power tools (I’m a woodworker as well) are generally made in the same factory.

Dude - as I get older, I realize that the women had it right all this time. Sitting down on the toilet to pee let’s me browse a catalog from BPS for an extra min or two…

I have a 127 I’ll sell to you? Seriously.

I just started peeing my pants. All the cool kids are doing it these days… ”hey look everybody. Billy peed his pants!”

Mike - what color is that pictured? You make so many awesome colors, just want to know that one!! Also, what about bait finesse. Do you have anything that falls “specifically in that category” ? Reason I say it like that is I know some companies are basically rebranding say a 1/8 oz crankbait as now a bfs crank.

15% off Rapala.com, site wide. Use promo code FISH. Sportsman’s warehouse - spend $500, get a free $100 gift card. Some exclusions apply.

Was your way a couple hours ago. Wife works in Chatt some and we live in Huntsville. It was a pleasant-ish day today all things considered…

In Chattanooga with the wife. Hog Farmer Baits is just north. Went to get some more spunk shads. Forgot those. Grabbed a package of the pink lemonade bellows gills, a cue bomb finesse and a 3:16 rising son top hook swimbait. Couldn’t ever figure out what the cue bomb finesse was gonna be. Like, how do you finesse one of the most finesse baits there is? It’s the “hair”. It’s nowhere near the same thickness as a regular cue bomb. Ran over to BPS and grabbed these micro series baits for $2/ea I think I’m going to try and not buy anything in Q4 2025. So, I got one more day in Q3…

Goodbye Ryne. You were a class act and will be remembered. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/sports/baseball/ryne-sandberg-dead.html

Our temps are supposed be lower this weekend. We’re only supposed to be in the high 90s feels like…

I’ve fished a couple times in the past two weeks. Both times I got overheated. Caught some 3lbers to make up for it… 2 weeks ago, I was in the water at 6:30 and my kayak was strapped back down and I was headed south at 8. Just too miserable…

How many tabs did you do on the green pumpkin that looks full? Were they full tabs, or did you split them?

I got ya…I call them retention ponds.

Yeah, in the south, at least in my neck, drainage ditches are for water runoff basically. It’s always too hot and dry for them to hold water year round. Now they will get crawdads up out of the ground though…

Since I’m VA, we like to be experimented on. Not really, but that’s the joke anyway. That said, my last treatment for my tennis elbow was stim therapy that was also ultrasound medication delivery. It was very beneficial to me. I recommend it if you look into it. Probably a Physical Therapist's office will do it. It was a VA OT (occupational therapist) that did mine.

I tried contacts, but there isn’t a true progressive contact. One eye is near and the other distance. Eventually your eyes adjust is what I was told. I couldn’t do it. I usually pay out of pocket every 2 yrs for my actual glasses because they are critical to me beigg n able to function. I usually let the VA give me a pair that I use fishing. This year however, I think I’m going to get them to get me progressives. The frame choices aren’t great (no costas for example), but they do have ray ban and Oakley. I only have to pay the frame price for those, not lens price, so that might be an option I go…

@TnRiver46 it was probably Al’s if it was right outside Wrigley. If you’re standing at the front gate looking at Wrigley, there is an Al’s just down on the left. While I’m not a Chicagoan, the last time I was there, I probably ate 10-15 beef’s in 2 weeks time. Most of them were Portillo’s. To me Al’s just isn’t the same. I haven’t eaten a Mr Beef.

My costas are prescription, but it’s an old prescription. I’m in progressives, so bifocal/reader sunglasses don’t work great for me. I don’t work, and have no vision insurance (besides the VA), and it’s often times cheaper to buy a whole new pair, than just replacement lenses. However, I can’t get new lenses because I keep giving my money to the bait monkey. If you don’t have anything to fish with, no need for the glasses, right? So, I’m just making sure I still have something to fish with. Seeing is secondary to that.

I’ve had both of my shoulders repaired. Thanks a lot Army. My right was a complete cluster. I tore everything, pulled the labrum and had a tear and tore ligaments. My left was a little better. No ligament tear.

They are absolutely divine. Imagine if you Will a roll piled high with thin sliced beef, and peppers (sweet AND hot for me). Pretty tasty, right? Now, dunk that bad boy in “the juice” and it’s otherworldly. The bread gets all soggy and juicy. The flavors just blend. You hit a hot pepper that lights you on fire and then a pc of beef hits you and remedies it. I advise anyone that is anywhere near Chicago to go and try one. Heck, to me, it’s worth taking a trip just for a beef!

I saw this am on the today show that Ozzy was the first (and maybe only) recipient of some kind of chipotle something. He got a card from Chipotle for a free meal every day of the year.

I have a thing for a beef. Wet with sweet and hot peppers. I can eat my weight in them. Found a little place down here in Montgomery AL that has a decent one. My favorite is Portillos in Chicago. What do you all say?

When I was in Iraq the second time (contractor this time), I got into cigars pretty hard. There were quite a few of us that would go together and buy some. When we’d transit through Jordan, Kuwait or Dubai, we’d always get some Cohiba Cubans (the real cohibas) for like stupid prices. But hey, I was a government contractor making good money, so thanks to all the taxpayers, I was able to buy some cohibas. Haven’t put one to my lips in almost 15yrs now though…

Sawzaw is what I’ve seen then advertised here in Alabama (among other weird names)

I keep my “last prescription” glasses in my pfd. I wear my costas while fishing and grab the specs when I need to tie a knot.