Reading your comment on geitner's hair i thought you were letting your mean streak come out on a rough rainy day but now i understand , you're a former sailor...

Awww, did I sound mean? Gruff maybe, but mean? Never!

I have a couple of very good budy who sailed at sea one of them still does actualy , after 30 years he got the ride of his life last fall in the north Atlantic when his bunk came unbolted from the floor on a ride to hell and as the boat shook like a leaf in the wind climbing up some moutain waves and seeming to dive to the bottom of the ocean on it's way down .

He was lucky. I got that ride my first year out in a winter gale off the coast of Newfoundland. Being new I took my cues from the old hands, many who were fishermen and not easily rattled. Well, they were rattled that day. At one point I went up on the flying bridge and just hung on tight, watching the waves roll over the bow and down the main deck. A tanker sits low in the water, so you can imagine how little deck I could actually see. Frankly, I thought my number was up and decided to meet my fate head on, not cowering in my bunk. Obviously we came through OK, but it definitely changed the way I look at life.

ebear